No New Gates?
There is not going to be a 5th gate at Walt Disney World and there is not going to be a 3rd park for Disneyland Resort, at least not for the foreseeable future as mentioned during the Merrill Lynch Media Fall Conference by Thomas Staggs (CFO of the Walt Disney Company). Sad news of course, although not really surprising, but us Disney Theme Park fans would just love to get into the “new gate” mood. It’s so much fun talking about a new gate or park, but I guess we will not be talking about it very soon.
We’ve already talked about the fifth gate on several occasions here on the blog. In the past I was always convinced that we will get a fifth gate, only not knowing when to expect it. Now it really looks like another gate is very far away… way in the future. Obviously for the fans it is a shame but from Disney’s point of view very understandable.
Just think about the massive cost to build another gate and the massive cost to operate a park. Would a 5th gate keep people even longer on property? Would guest spend even more on tickets? Would a fifth gate bring extra profit or would people try to divide their time over 5 instead of the 4 gates there are now? I am sure these and many other questions have gone through the heads of the many suits and given them the answer that this is not the time to add a new park at either WDW or the Disneyland Resort.
Adding on to the existing parks is cheaper (although I guess it is wrong to call a new attraction cheap in this time and age) and has proven to be successful. We can all see what Expedition Everest did for Animal Kingdom.
Let’s see in a couple of months ore years if plans have changed and if we can expect another park (and clutter the web with our geeky excitement). I really hope to get to see another gate build somewhere in the future. I only hope that future isn’t to far away! (He, I am not getting any younger myself, so Disney, please, don’t wait to long)