Government meeting with theme park company

[Theme Park]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/gold-coast-spit-casino-axed-disneyland-could-fill-jobs-void/news-story/7222b36089ac6368a7cf5c01f63f32d2

The state government is meeting with an unnamed theme park developer. The courier mail is currently speculating that the developer is the Disney company. Although I personally don't have much hope that the theme park company they are meeting with is disneyland.

 

Edited August 2, 2017 by Theme Park

[DJKostya]

Unfortunately I can't read the article as it is behind a paywall

[Naazon]

Quote

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk may have a Mickey Mouse solution to the economic void created by her Government’s decision to scrap a $3 billion resort casino development and its 13,000 jobs.

The Premier yesterday insisted a meeting tomorrow with an unnamed theme park developer was proof her Government hadn’t spooked investors and left the Gold Coast in the lurch.

The concept for another theme park – potentially with a Disneyland theme – has been muted for years, although developers are yet to buy a site, draw up plans or make a proposal.

Ms Palaszczuk’s comments came amid widespread condemnation of the scrapping of Chinese-backed ASF Consortium’s casino proposal, which Labor hopes will be a vote-winner to reclaim a seat on the Gold Coast.

The Opposition has vowed to review the decision if it wins the next state election.

LNP Member for Surfers Paradise John-Paul Langbroek refused to rule out overturning the ASF decision and three-storey height restrictions on The Spit should the LNP win.

“You wouldn’t blame them (ASF) for saying they want nothing to do with the state,” he said.

A Disneyland theme park has long been mooted for the Gold Coast.

“(But) our master plan for The Spit does not have a predetermined conclusion.

“We don’t want to rule anything in or out on purely a shortsighted whim to cling on to power.”

Mr Langbroek said Labor had sacrificed jobs and future investment on the Gold Coast to try and save Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Jackie Trad’s seat of South Brisbane.

“The development prospects of the Gold Coast have been sacrificed on the alter of Jackie Trad and inner-city Greens preferences,” he said.

Mr Langbroek said he was confident the Palaszczuk Government had got it wrong on the ASF project by caving into interest groups such as Save Our Spit.

“I do believe that they have that the broader majority of the Gold Coast public would like to have seen this development carried through appropriately with all checks and balances,” he said.

The Premier said the meeting between her director-general Dave Stewart and a “key investor” about theme park opportunities may spawn a development worth more than $1 billion.

“There is still keen interest in working with my Government,” she said.

“And indeed my Government is very open to working with business to get jobs in Queensland.”

If you Google "Courier Mail" and the article name (in this case, "gold coast spit casino axed disneyland could fill jobs void") the article usually becomes unblocked, or you will find another site that has re-hosted the article.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Naazon

[djmcbell]

"The concept... has been muted for years"

No, I think plenty of people have talked about it for years.

[New display name]

It's a government save face article and it’s a load of poo.  13,000 jobs gone begging.

[rappa]

Disney WILL NOT build here!

[Locke]

Disney please! If they can get Disney I will consider it a massive coup.

It could be Wanda though or anyone, but well, here's hoping something cool!

[pin142]

If that isn't a click bait story I have no idea what is!

[djmcbell]

4 hours ago, djrappa said:

Disney WILL NOT build here!

I wouldn't say never, but it's not likely. If the stories are to be believed though they nearly did a while back (I think before they chose Shanghai). They'll have done their research back then and, for them to have nearly gone through with it, proved that the venture may well have been more viable than people believe.

I still think it's enormously unlikely, as let's face it - the only people it would be serving really would be people already in Australia/NZ. They're practically the only people without a Disney park closer already (especially if it's put in the Gold Coast, right on the eastern edge of the country).

[Theme Park]

A disneyland in Australia as improbable as it is would serve more places than just Aus and NZ places like Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Timor, Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and New Caledonia to name a few.

[cymonster]

If it was disney it would be a vacation club hotel. No way they build a disneyland park here. Most like was a Wanda group though

[Rollercoaster_Lover]

I think it'll be six flags

[flipst3r]

I hear it is going to be this new Chinese-Euro-American consortium: Disneyversal Flagpark 

 

Edited August 3, 2017 by flipst3r

[Tim Dasco]

Nah it's disneyVERSALflagFAIRpark. Don't forget cedar fair. 

[Brad2912]

1 hour ago, cymonster said:

If it was disney it would be a vacation club hotel. No way they build a disneyland park here. Most like was a Wanda group though

Wanda is selling the majority of their theme park interests, I don't think that's an area they are looking to expand on anymore 

[Locke]

Wanda is selling a fair few of its existing parks in China, but not the new ones it has planned and is trying to adjust their books a fair bit to be asset light so they don't seem super likely as a candidate, but you never know, they're a hard one to read.

Songcheng have their cultural park in Nerang that has a DA in, but they are also in due diligence to buy the land at Norwell, which is a mega-deal and that was mooted to include a big theme park, but they don't really have experience in big parks. It could just be a meeting to discuss the park in Nerang and if so then that's a disappointing bit of political theatre by the premier to deflect from what happened at the Spit (or didn't happen to be more precise).

I mean Chinese parks overall suffer from an IP issue so unless they partner with a US partner I think they will struggle, China just doesn't not have a great history of home grown IP. Wanda hasn't really taken down Disneyland in China at all, quite the opposite.

Still, their Jewel project on the coast is pretty nice.

Disney are a long shot but never say never, that would blow everyone's mind if it happened. Everyone knows the reasons why it's not likely but then lots of things aren't likely till they happen.

A different studio like Paramount or someone? Uber-longshot but nice.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Locke

[ads086]

What's to say it's not Village Theme Parks?? They already have SeaWorld out on the spit, and the article didn't say anything about a NEW opportunity. Perhaps Village are angling to get some changes to the master plan so they can make investments in the park.

 

I'd be pleasantly surprised if it is Disney, but if they're only going to spend $1b here then I fear early failure. Tokyo DisneySea cost $4b and isn't a whole day park. Tokyo DisneyLand is closer to a full day park but needs about the same amount spent on it to bring back the Disney magic - it was very lacklustre after having been to LA and Paris.

[bladex]

i'd rather it be six flags than disney.

Edited August 3, 2017 by bladex

[Rollercoaster_Lover]

We need a Themepark with HUGE rollercoasters, like MovieWorld is pretty decent But,  imagine if we got Six Flags? We could get a RMC, B&M And all the other companies we have never got before! 

Id Rather Six Flags to Disney, because Disney is like a kids park, that's why we have SeaWorld for the little kids, Disney might use a lot of money but that Dosent mean there the best.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

*sigh*

[Theme Park Girl]

On 03/08/2017 at 5:19 PM, Rollercoaster_Lover said:

I think it'll be six flags

Is Six Flags even in a financial position to continue opening new theme parks globally? Last I heard they had been struggling with bankruptcy over numerous years. Their Wikipedia page certainly doesn't show much growth over the past few years, and not much planned for the future. More park sales than anything 😮

[Slick]

1 hour ago, Theme Park Girl said:

Is Six Flags even in a financial position to continue opening new theme parks globally? Last I heard they had been struggling with bankruptcy over numerous years. Their Wikipedia page certainly doesn't show much growth over the past few years, and not much planned for the future. More park sales than anything 😮

They're doing fine now. Bankruptcy is almost a completely different thing in the states. Filing for chapter 11 over there gives businesses an opportunity to restructure various facets of the business to maintain operation, where-as here going bankrupt basically means closing the doors ala Wow Sight & Sound.

With all that said, most people who have been here longer than six months knows that the "OMGZ DISNEY IZ COMINGS" thing comes and goes all too often, and I think all the mods, myself included, have banged our collective heads against the wall in trying to explain why again and again, that a "Magic Kingdom" style Disney park is not coming here for a long, long time.

It's not the most profitable industry unless you're Disney or Universal and have crazy-good vertical integration of your core product. However, in the next few years with upturn in tourism, exposure from the games and the dollar settling in to a routine, I think we'll definitely continue to see more investment in the area. I don't think it's unreasonable to see someone like Merlin build a Legoland here in the next decade.

Ultimately there's a reason why we really only have two major theme parks on the Gold Coast. Anyone, like that mob who wanted to build in Nerang, who say they'll throw around hundreds of millions of dollars to build a theme park here, are either misinformed or lying to get the land.

To put it real simply, even the smallest Disney park (Hong Kong) peaks at about 35,000 guests per day, meaning we'd have to basically triple our current theme park tourism throughput on the Gold Coast to support what Disney would describe as their biggest failure in the chain. Looking at the most successful Disney parks (Magic Kingdom / DisneySea), we're talking somewhere around a tenfold increase in tourism to support a park that big, and that's without considering the neighbouring parks, resorts etc. etc. etc.

[Theme Park]

7 hours ago, Slick said:

To put it real simply, even the smallest Disney park (Hong Kong) peaks at about 35,000 guests per day, meaning we'd have to basically triple our current theme park tourism throughput on the Gold Coast to support what Disney would describe as their biggest failure in the chain. Looking at the most successful Disney parks (Magic Kingdom / DisneySea), we're talking somewhere around a tenfold increase in tourism to support a park that big, and that's without considering the neighbouring parks, resorts etc. etc. etc.

Hey I wonder how many we would need for a  Universal Studios Park. 

[Rollercoaster_Lover]

21 hours ago, Theme Park Girl said:

Is Six Flags even in a financial position to continue opening new theme parks globally? Last I heard they had been struggling with bankruptcy over numerous years. Their Wikipedia page certainly doesn't show much growth over the past few years, and not much planned for the future. More park sales than anything 😮

There already opening 2 new parks! And the bankruptcy stopped a while ago from what I heard

[Flynn_Smith]

50 minutes ago, Rollercoaster_Lover said:

There already opening 2 new parks! And the bankruptcy stopped a while ago from what I heard

And where did you hear this? Last I heard they don't have enough money, so they just give everyone a Free-Fly and a couple of Dark Rides