(Background: All U.S. companies whose stock is traded through public exchanges must file quarterly statements with the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing how much money they've spent and earned, plus any plans they have which could affect their stock price.)
Universal's announcement lends support to rumors that the park is planning a major retheming of one of the IOA lands, possibly to a Harry Potter theme. Keep in mind that $100-$120 million is just what Universal's planning to spend this year. A newly rethemed land would not open until 2008, at the earliest, so additional funds for the project, presumably, would come from the 2008 budget, as well.
As I noted earlier this week, Universal's attendance has not kept up with rival Walt Disney World's, and has declined at IOA. Attendance remains down, 3 percent for the year, according to the SEC report. So Universal needs to do something to boost attendance. And the Blue Man Group, tweaked admission deals and another Orange County ad campaign won't cut it.
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I really want IOA to improve because it keeps Disney from getting lazy and sloppy!
Retheming? I wonder what area?
If its Harry Potter, it looks like the Lost Continent is on the chopping block which is a shame. Its my favorite land and that stupid water tunnel gets me every time!
However, I would imagine very little would change and Voldemort could make an appearence in the Battle for Atlantis or whatever they are calling it!
Can't wait to seee, people so blatently want to go to USF, but they need something to take them there for the high entrance fee.
Anyone noticed the latest push for customers with their new commercials, advertising 7 days of entrance to both parks for less than the cost of a 1 day park HOPPER (Note hopper price) over at Disney...
Now, we should also ask if the Blue Man Group is counted as part of that investment???
Naturally the removal of the Back To The Future attraction probably places a new ride in that area, but what about IOA? They are long overdue for a new ride or two. The Harry Potter rumors still have legs, but would that be the draw they want? I have doubts about that. Banking the future and a portion of the park on a single franchise near the end of it's popular life is a risk. Maybe it's me, because I never liked the series in the first place, but perhaps other options should be explored.
In any event, it's nice to see Universal finally get back in the ring with their gloves on. Seems they've been sitting out for a while.
And let's keep in mind that $100 is *this year's* spending. Since there's no way that a major attraction is debuting in 2007, that means additional money will be spent on this project in 2008, bringing the total budget for whatever-this-is to more than $100 million.
When we arrived at the Universal parks this year we descided not to spend $55.00 extra per person for the express pass, figuring if we really needed them we could buy them later.
Our first ride was the Hulk and we spent 60 minutes in line. When we got to the front of the line, we discovered the operator was boarding everyone from the express line before anyone from the non-express line could get on the ride.
The other rides were not as bad but having a non-express ticket we were forced to wait 40 or more minutes extra for each ride. By 1 PM we had given up and descided to pay $55.00 extra per person for the express pass. To add insult to injury they had sold out of express passes so there was nothing we could do.
We will not be going back to Universal parks for the next several years. They may say they are a bargin but if you have to buy a $55.00 addon ticket to actually get on the rides, sounds to me like they are much more expensive than Disney.
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