tjkraz
11-03-2005, 04:33 PM
Ah, yes. The age-old rumor. :)
Kevin Yee's most recent post at MiceAge.com has an interesting take on the situation.
http://www.miceage.com/kevinyee/ky110105a.htm
To summarize, Florida is building a new toll road that will run near WDW, and apparently Disney has committed to spending $50 MILLION (of their own money) to link to the toll road. According to Kevin, Disney will also donate part of their land (not to mention the land used to link to the toll road) to the project.
Kevin uses this as a platform for alleging that Disney's primary motivation may be the eventual construction of a new theme park right in the area of their link to the new toll road.
I've read this article three times now, and really wish I could buy into it. Unfortunately, I think Kevin's argument falls apart very early when he says:
"Why would Disney donate such valuable land? Why would they spend such large amounts of their own money to build a road connecting to the new highway? The answer provided by conventional wisdom seems a bit weak: namely, that Disney wants to "capture" anyone traveling on that road, offer them a direct way to enter the Disney property, and thus keep them away from the inevitable restaurants and hotels that promise to spring up in the surrounding territory. I can see such a motivation being reason enough to donate the land so that the 429 could be built. But to spend an additional $50 million building a link to it seems excessive. They won't really make their money back on that any time soon, will they?"
I think this is less about making money back and more about forced adaptation to the environment. Even if Disney didn't make their own investment in the 429 project, most Disney guests would find their way to WDW eventually. But doesn't Disney have a vested interest in making certain that its guests can arrive in the quickest, easiest manner possible?
Perhaps ONE of the justifications used for investing in this project is the eventual development of surrounding land, but I'm hard-pressed to think that the fifth theme park is way up at the top of that list.
Kevin Yee's most recent post at MiceAge.com has an interesting take on the situation.
http://www.miceage.com/kevinyee/ky110105a.htm
To summarize, Florida is building a new toll road that will run near WDW, and apparently Disney has committed to spending $50 MILLION (of their own money) to link to the toll road. According to Kevin, Disney will also donate part of their land (not to mention the land used to link to the toll road) to the project.
Kevin uses this as a platform for alleging that Disney's primary motivation may be the eventual construction of a new theme park right in the area of their link to the new toll road.
I've read this article three times now, and really wish I could buy into it. Unfortunately, I think Kevin's argument falls apart very early when he says:
"Why would Disney donate such valuable land? Why would they spend such large amounts of their own money to build a road connecting to the new highway? The answer provided by conventional wisdom seems a bit weak: namely, that Disney wants to "capture" anyone traveling on that road, offer them a direct way to enter the Disney property, and thus keep them away from the inevitable restaurants and hotels that promise to spring up in the surrounding territory. I can see such a motivation being reason enough to donate the land so that the 429 could be built. But to spend an additional $50 million building a link to it seems excessive. They won't really make their money back on that any time soon, will they?"
I think this is less about making money back and more about forced adaptation to the environment. Even if Disney didn't make their own investment in the 429 project, most Disney guests would find their way to WDW eventually. But doesn't Disney have a vested interest in making certain that its guests can arrive in the quickest, easiest manner possible?
Perhaps ONE of the justifications used for investing in this project is the eventual development of surrounding land, but I'm hard-pressed to think that the fifth theme park is way up at the top of that list.