Disney Resort Still Too Risky, Despite Government Help : Entertainment: Company officials praise cooperation they’ve received. They continue to seek ways to make $3-billion plan work.
ANAHEIM — Top Walt Disney Co. officials on Sunday praised the cooperation they have received from the city, state and federal governments in helping to finance a planned $3-billion theme park resort, but said the project is still too financially risky to build.
“They have done the best they can do,†said Roy Disney, vice chairman of the board of directors in lauding the government help. “We’re still looking for a way of getting it done. It’s a very big project.â€
Disney, nephew of the founder, joined a host of Hollywood celebrities at a sun-baked Disneyland to trot out the new “Lion King†parade down Main Street USA to coincide with the opening of new animated movie.
Disney and the company’s theme park chief, Judson C. Green, said the so-called Disneyland Resort project is still bedeviled by fears that its grand scale--a theme park surrounded by hotels with more than 5,000 rooms--would not generate profits large enough to justify the massive outlay it would take to build it.
The company has called on government to supply parking, road, landscaping and other improvements around the park. The public outlay would total about $1 billion of the total $3-billion tab.
The city has now reached tentative agreement on its share, the state has promised $50 million in improvements and the federal government has started allocating funds for one of the parking garages, which would double as a local transit center.
Still, that’s apparently not enough at present to convince the Disney company it should go forward. Disney has put off a decision on the project until at least next year.
“We are still working on the economic feasibility,†Green said.
Roy Disney said the company does not want to repeat errors made in the planning of Euro Disneyland, the resort outside Paris that has been a financial failure since it opened two years ago. “We spent too much building it,†he said, even though it has been a popular success based on the large number of visitors who go there.
Neither Green nor Disney said they know what it will take to build the resort, although they added they are trying to find an answer. “If it is looking like it really doesn’t work, then you have to find ways to make it work,†Green said.
A decision will not be based on lack of demand. Green said the Disney name still works magic in the Southland. “We clearly believe in Southern California,†he added.
That was evident Sunday as celebrities like actress Whoopi Goldberg and actor Cheech Marin turned out to see a private screening of “The Lion King†at Disneyland, then review the African-themed parade featuring dancers, conga players and people dressed up as animals--from waifish girls in gazelle outfits to lumbering hippos.
Thousands of guests at the park who endured 100-degree heat also had a chance to preview the parade, which will officially start July 1 and continue daily throughout the summer.
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