- Feb 15, 2012
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This will likely not affect many of us beyond the additional high school kids and families at the parks and resorts during the week this occurs.
Pop Warner National Championship Moving to UOR
- Thread starter Parkscope Joe
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This will likely not affect many of us beyond the additional high school kids and families at the parks and resorts during the week this occurs.
This is actually big since they normally play at WWoS. I'm betting that the organization is having money problems and couldn't afford WWoS and sub-par rooms at Disney anymore. I'm assuming they'll be playing over at Dr. Phillips?
EDIT: Never mind, looks like they're doing just fine if they're renting out Camping World Stadium. That's a huge upgrade over WWoS.
Here's what Pop Warner said about the move from Disney to Universal:
"We continue to have a great relationship with Disney and are sure families will visit the parks that week. While Disney has played host to our Pop Warner Super Bowl and National Cheer & Dance Championships for years, our partnership regarding championship week came to a pause when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.
We were putting final touches on a new agreement when Disney was suddenly tasked with hosting and creating a bubble for professional leagues like the MLS and NBA at their ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. With so much uncertainty it was difficult for Disney to commit to the future and because our first priority is our Pop Warner members, we decided to start searching for a new location to ensure our teams had a first-class Championship home.
Luckily, we did not have to look far and found a highly experienced and well-respected partner in Florida Citrus Sports and an exciting new location at Universal Orlando Resorts and Camping World Stadium, both of which we think will offer some amazing, new experiences for our athletes and their families."
"We continue to have a great relationship with Disney and are sure families will visit the parks that week. While Disney has played host to our Pop Warner Super Bowl and National Cheer & Dance Championships for years, our partnership regarding championship week came to a pause when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.
We were putting final touches on a new agreement when Disney was suddenly tasked with hosting and creating a bubble for professional leagues like the MLS and NBA at their ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. With so much uncertainty it was difficult for Disney to commit to the future and because our first priority is our Pop Warner members, we decided to start searching for a new location to ensure our teams had a first-class Championship home.
Luckily, we did not have to look far and found a highly experienced and well-respected partner in Florida Citrus Sports and an exciting new location at Universal Orlando Resorts and Camping World Stadium, both of which we think will offer some amazing, new experiences for our athletes and their families."
- Feb 15, 2012
- 17,123
- 47,005
Taking a guess: Universal saw blood years ago and undercut them in price and this has been a year+ of work.
Well of course Universal was able to undercut them, they don’t have to operate any of this. They are basically just boarding the teams in their hotels while Camping World does the heavy lifting of running the operations.
- Apr 19, 2019
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Disney has gone out of its way to avoid committing to WWOS events atm. I assume this is a victims of Pop Warner being ready to commit but not Disney.
- Feb 15, 2012
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- Sep 10, 2020
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This a big financial success for UOR. On top of the hotel rooms, think about the park tickets, $ spent on food and merchandise (even IF discounted) this will definitely help the resort rebound. Idk I feel like universal is in a much better position than WDW to bounce back financially than WDW.
Disney is a currently hosting the NBA G-League "bubble" season and playoffs and they may also be (potentially) expecting to get a phone call for use again during the NBA playoffs again. The NBA (even G-League) and MLS, have brought in WAYYYY more money for WWOS than Pop Warner ever could, too. If you were in this situation, there's no way you're choosing the youth kids championships over professional leagues like the NBA and MLS, who paid Disney hundreds of millions of dollars for using the facilities. The G-League isn't as lucrative for them as NBA was, but it's around a $25M bubble for about a month's worth of use, so that's nothing to sneeze at.
Also, there's simply the question of when will these sports be able to even safely play again at the facility without a bubble? No one knows and Disney doesn't want to get sued for someone getting COVID, i'm sure.
- Sep 10, 2020
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here’s the thing ... didn’t Disney learn the last time the did the bubble with the nba it didn’t necessarily work to their benefit? The players constantly posted about how “shitty” the rooms were comparing their moderate resorts to a motel 6.
- Jul 27, 2015
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The amount of money the NBA is paying for these bubbles is worth way more than the short-term headache of a bad PR blip.
They posted that stuff on move in day. Sure, not the best PR, but they were there for 3.5 months and youtubing became a very real thing with many of the players showing their every day activities or what they did on day offs like going bowling, fishing, pool day, etc. And more importantly, not a single player, coach, etc. got COVID after the initial quarantine. Plus, the current bubble is a developmental league, so they aren't used to nice hotels anyway.
Plus, as @Legacy said, the big money far outweighs the short-term bad PR.
- Sep 10, 2020
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i guess so I was with the understanding nba was getting a hefty discount for the bubble bc of the partnership Disney had with them. I thought I’d see more tie ins to nba experience.
regardless I see this as a lot of money going towards universal and helping them recover and hopefully one step closer to EU *fingers crossed
- Jul 27, 2015
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It is a lot of money going to Universal. But there’s likely more money going to Disney with the bubbles still.
Universal is providing hotels. That’s basically it, though. The attendees still have the freedom to eat wherever they want. Conversely, the NBA is paying for hotels, all meals, facility rentals at WWoS, conference spaces for training, etc. A 50% discount on a $10 million dollar expense is still way more than 100% of a $1 million.
The NBA bubble cost $180M.
This is definitely a boon to Universal to have, but imo, only for booking purposes (I assume they'll be staying at the Endless Summer hotels or CBBR). The competitions normally happen early in the year for Cheerleading (around February) and the first week of December for Pop Warner Football. However, Universal doesn't have a sports facility, so they won't be making any money off of that end of things. The best they could do is host the Cheer Championships in a soundstage or something, but that may even be staged somewhere else (Like the OCCC).
The key here is "multiyear." Come 2024, when I think most agree we'll be in the "new normal," UOR will still have 10,000 families coming to fill hotel rooms, with off days and siblings requiring park visits. Especially when most kids that age would rather visit Uni than Disney anyway. Will all the money flow to UOR? No, this is probably also a boon to mid I-Drive, basically anyplace within strolling distance of Endless Summer. But they are outside the Disney bubble now, and once you teach families that's an option, they may never go back.
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