In a recent meeting and subsequent media event that took place at the Walt Disney Imagineering facility in California, plans for a massive expansion to Disney’s Magic Kingdom park in Florida were revealed. The expansion is set to take place beyond where Big Thunder Mountain currently sits at the park. This announcement doesn’t mark the end of the iconic ride at the Florida park, but its continuity is a bit up in the air. Disney is hoping to develop about 14 acres of land in that area of the Magic Kingdom in the next ten years. This would make the area about the size of the current Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge area. In the reveal, the Imagineers did not go into detail about the plans that they had for the new land. The promise, though, is that the new area will feature more than a ride re-theming or even a new land.
This expansion is being labeled as likely the biggest expansion the company has ever undertaken at the Magic Kingdom park. Before guests flock to buy tickets to get first dibs on the new attractions, they should know that this expansion won’t likely be complete in the near future. The new area added to the Magic Kingdom will be part of a $60 Billion investment spaced out in 10 years. These funds won’t go exclusively to the different Disney parks. The parks are instead going to have to share this money with the Disney Cruise Line and other branches of the company.
Speaking of sharing the funds, the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, gave a telling answer when pressed to talk about where exactly that money was going to go.
Iger mentioned, “As I looked at the returns on the invested capital that we made in this business over the 15 years prior to my coming back, it was extraordinarily compelling. We should allocate in a direction where we had great returns.”
He was also pressed about why the Mouse House has seemingly been quiet precisely regarding new additions to the parks. This question was made in reference to the new lands that were coming to the competing Universal resort in Florida. Iger’s answer may cool down some of the Disney fans who were eager to see new attractions at Disney. He mentioned that one of the reasons why there are no set plans for the aforementioned expansion is that the company doesn’t know what its next “Frozen” is going to be!
He would go on to say that assigning the 60 billion dollar budget completely at this point wouldn’t make much sense. His previous statement about re-investing money into the biggest cash cows clearly indicates that a large portion of the budget will go towards content generation. The biggest earner in the Disney company is the branch that provides streaming services and still popular TV channels.
In the same meeting, Iger showed a sketch of a possible new Avatar-themed full park in California. While many promises were made in the meeting, things are still rather stagnant at Disney. This may have to do with the uncertainty within the company when it comes to life post-Iger.
