Why is it always Disney when people discuss the expansion of the theme park sector in this country, It's exhausting to constantly see new articles about some empty new land that could house a Disney Park. Why is it never just a theme park in general. A well built theme park with good attractions will attract people across the country or even abroad anyhow, I don't see why these "proposed entertainment lands" have to only house a Disney park. 

36 minutes ago, Prequel said:

Why is it always Disney when people discuss the expansion of the theme park sector in this country

Power of the brand and low journalistic standards. Disney operates 12 of the 25 most popular theme parks in the world as well people just don't resonate as much with the likes of Lego and Universal. The likes of News.com.au and DailyMail know that if somebody even remotely prominent mentions 'Disney' and 'theme park' in Australia that they've got the perfect article which will shared around social media and forums giving them glorious clicks to feed their family for another week. 

Well, local news is getting people excited. Headline - "Australian Disneyland becoming a reality after city chosen". Article - Melbourne mayor says it should have it, guy who owns Avalon says there is an entertainment precinct planned, saying “There’s an entertainment precinct that we’ve defined. I wouldn’t say (for a) Disneyland at this moment in time, but anything is possible”.

In other words, absolutely nothing.

"Entertainment precinct" sounds like code for cinemas and some restaurants, maybe a bowling alley. More Downtown Disney than Disneyland.

Embarrassing. This comes up every couple of years... Nothing eventuates.....

On 10/08/2023 at 12:14 PM, mattcrombie said:

Embarrassing. This comes up every couple of years... Nothing eventuates.....

Surely a new click bait article for dieing media eventuates each time.

It's back!

 

Yawn 

must be that time of the year again 

The only important or relevant quote in the article is this:

 

But any hopes that Disney will build a park in Victoria in the near future have now been dashed after Wyndham City Council told the Herald Sun that it has not been approached by any organisation in relation to plans for a “Disney-style” park.

Everytime a company buys a big plot of land in Victoria for development or Disney announces anything money related:

"DiSnEyLaNd CoUlD bE cOmInG tO aUsTrAlIa SoOn"

 

Edited May 16, 20241 yr by TBoy

On 10/08/2023 at 12:14 PM, mattcrombie said:

Embarrassing. This comes up every couple of years... Nothing eventuates.....

Didn't even make a year and the rumors started again. 
It wont happen..... These news outlets just love to make a story.

It's always Werribee 😍😍😍

4 minutes ago, mattcrombie said:

Didn't even make a year and the rumors started again. 
It wont happen..... These news outlets just love to make a story.

Correct! It's an evergreen "rumour news story" with guaranteed engagement for when there's a slow news week. Just on Herald Sun's FB alone this is the stats on engagement:

1 minute ago, WalleyWorld said:

Correct! It's an evergreen "rumour news story" with guaranteed engagement for when there's a slow news week. Just on Herald Sun's FB alone this is the stats on engagement:

100%! 
I still think about the time Lord Mayor Sally Cap said last year:
" I'd love to see a splash mountain coming down from the Bolte bridge into the docklands Yarra river" lol 
So delusional of her.... 

I do hope Disney get some kind of park presence here or experience... But I don't see it happening anytime soon.... Also not in the state of Victoria.... 

Definitely not supported by the Victoria government, they are broke! 

13 hours ago, Ashley Jeffery said:

It's back!

 

I read this article the other day it’s complete dribble from whatever hack journo at the herald sun that wrote this.

Basically if you boil it down it’s essentially “Disney are spending tens of billions on parks” and “There’s lots of land in Werribee for a park”. Just flat out nonsense. A castle park is never going to happen here.

You also gotta remember that Shanghai is getting a stage 2, Disneyland is getting that massive expansion, Studios Paris is getting the frozen expansion (with potentially Star Wars being back on the table), Dinoland USA at animal kingdom is getting a retheme, Epcot is getting massive renovations, among many other projects across the existing parks.

Edited May 17, 20241 yr by Baconjack

Slow news day - trot out some speculative nonsense about Disney coming to Australia lol.

Maybe we'll start seeing this at Australian parks:

6 hours ago, Gazza said:

It's always Werribee 😍😍😍

Can we have African Safari World while we are at it?

I feel like Disney will never happen here in Australia. But what do we think about universal ?

16 minutes ago, REGIE said:

I feel like Disney will never happen here in Australia. But what do we think about universal ?

Ground-up, no. The only way we could see one is if Village lost the WB license and signed a deal with Universal to use their properties, and that would be unlikely because Universal would demand certain quality standards that Village wouldn't be able to afford to meet.

9 minutes ago, TBoy said:

Ground-up, no. The only way we could see one is if Village lost the WB license and signed a deal with Universal to use their properties, and that would be unlikely because Universal would demand certain quality standards that Village wouldn't be able to afford to meet.

I feel like the chance of Universal making a ground-up park/experience here is leagues more likely than Disney doing it. Uni could make something as small as their Las Vegas horror experience, a mid-sized park like their family-oriented ones, or a larger-scale, all-encompassing ‘resort’ (if the tourism market is large enough). Also, with Movie World maybe going up for sale/undergoing ‘management changes’ relatively soon, Universal could swoop in like they did PortAventura, spruce the park up a bit & replace the DC IP with their own.

Edited May 17, 20241 yr by Tricoart

I didn't want to comment here at all because this post is stupid, the Australian theme park industry is stupid, and Australian's are stupid. The fact we've gone, 20 fucking years since the Australian theme park heyday and we have LESS theme parks and less iconic roller coasters on the whole means theme parks will NEVER be an influential thing in this country. I don't know why; I don't know why America and even Europe and some Asian countries (specifically Japan and China) have great theme park offerings from both the big companies and the small ones while Australia just shrugs them off is the norm. For whatever reason theme parks mean less to Australians on the whole and I stand by this because if they DID mean anything we'd have the populous clamoring for parks in the states where thrill parks have no presence despite millions of population like NSW. I'm a Melbourne guy since 2011, but I grew up in Queensland and I've yet to care for any theme park addition since moving to VIC. Wonderland was genuinely great but does anyone in that state care that all they have is a dinky amusement park by the bay? Doesn't seem like it. I don't know what point I'm ultimately trying to make because I'm drunk right now but whatever all I know is we'll never get a Disney, we'll never get a Universal park, we'll never get a Six Flags park, honestly we'll be lucky if we ever get another theme park that ever even cares to push a boundary beyond a roller coaster that's the first, biggest, roller coaster within the footprint of a another roller coaster that's painted a specific colour.

I wonder how Melbourne's Legoland Discovery Centre operates, because I have always felt a small Legoland park could do really well.

I think a Legoland could happen someday, as they seem to be popping up everywhere. Merlin does indeed have a presence down under already with a few attractions.

Universal has more of a chance than Disney for sure

3 hours ago, Ogre said:

I think a Legoland could happen someday, as they seem to be popping up everywhere. Merlin does indeed have a presence down under already with a few attractions.

I think some people have suggested Merlin buy Dreamworld and do an Elitch Gardens style conversion into "Legoland Australia"? Only problem is Legoland parks aren't very thrill-heavy unlike Dreamworld, but I'm sure they could somehow do it.  

I feel like a themed shopping experience with a couple rides could happen maybe as a new park. Have like a Venice area and a few other areas. All open (very popular in malls atm) and a small vekoma thrill coaster and a small family coaster. A flat or two. as it's mostly a shopping venue with a few rides too. Could also host shows and have room to expand the rides in the future.  Not sure where it could go. Sydney's land is probably too expensive now. Maybe Brisbane could pull it off. 

15 hours ago, REGIE said:

I feel like a themed shopping experience with a couple rides could happen maybe as a new park

The only viable area with enough land close to the city would be Hamilton, and you could build it as a destination alongside the athletes village for the Olympics.  It could tie-in with Eat Street. It would only ever be small because it is landlocked, and directly under the flight path.

But honestly, Brisbane is saturated for shopping centres.  That area is an easy drive to DFO, Chermside and Carindale across the gateway, and there just isn't much of an appetite for 'small' parks in Brisbane when the major theme parks are so close.  The Gold Coast can barely even get smaller attractions like mini-golf and a slingshot to survive with it's booming population. 

 

18 hours ago, Ogre said:

Universal has more of a chance than Disney for sure

Australia just doesn't have the population to sustain a Universal or Disney park.  Our current parks are dead on most weekdays outside of school holidays.  The US has much larger international tourist numbers, and a local population of over 300 Million.  China has 1.5 Billion, Japan has 125 Million with another 50M in Korea a short flight away, Singapore is central to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Phillippines, with a combined population of over 400 Million, Europe has over 400 Million. 

A tiny country with barely 26 Million people is just not going to sustain a Disney/Universal park.  They're bigger and better themed, but with much higher operating and maintenance costs - which would be made worse by Australia's high minimum wage/super costs and highly volatile currency exchange rates. They'd be bankrupt within a few years. Plus, Australians love traveling overseas and have proven that they will go to Singapore/Japan/US/China to visit a Disney/Universal park.

Disney also don't own their international parks outright.  They're co-owned with local governments, usually with Disney holding a minority stake (which is why Disney can't tear down Splash Mountain in Tokyo like they did in America).  If the Australian Govt decided to pay the construction costs, Disney would look at an Australian park, but there is exactly 0% chance of that happening. 

Even the joint-venture Universal Studios Dubai couldn't get off the ground and they have more money than God.

The best you could hope for is a Disney-themed cruise terminal if they choose to significantly expand their cruise operations here.