Universal Great Britain

[rob@rar]

Page Thompson told the FT:

Talking for the first time in detail about the plans, Thompson said the company had long viewed Europe as an opportunity to build “one of the greatest theme parks in the world”, adding: “After searching for many years, we think we have found the right site in Bedford.”

This is what I want Mr Thompson to say at every possible opportunity

Might be worth noting that in that FT article Page Thompson said Comcast hoped to take a decision on whether to proceed with the project “by the end of the year”. Obviously June is ‘by the end of the year’, but so is December. If I remember correctly the only reference we’ve had to a June decision is a report made to one of the Parish councils by a council officer. Presumably this was mentioned to that officer by Universal themselves, but I don’t think there has been a definitive statement direct from Universal that the decision would be taken in June?

 

[xtpower]

Here's confirmation of those Premier Inn expansion plans.

 

[yepthatguy]

There appears to be a new Financial Times article

Good find. Its weird, every time it goes a bit quiet, something happens either at the site, or in the news, or online.

 

[MangoDance]

Page Thompson told the FT:


This is what I want Mr Thompson to say at every possible opportunity

One of the greatest themeparks in the world would be awesome, especially given the bar for greatest theme park in the UK alone is already so low. A working toilet with a potted plant next to it would be enough to give Merlin sleepless nights.

 

[LikeMike]

I wonder if Universal would look at approaching this in a different way when it comes to marketing?

We all know they like to hold off on major announcements when it comes to their current parks so they don’t impact their attendance which makes perfect sense. But with no theme park to worry about, I wonder if they’ll approach it differently.

It’ll be interesting to see and from a purely selfish point of view I’d love to hear more information sooner than usual if they announce they’re going ahead.

 

[rob@rar]

I wonder if Universal would look at approaching this in a different way when it comes to marketing?

We all know they like to hold off on major announcements when it comes to their current parks so they don’t impact their attendance which makes perfect sense. But with no theme park to worry about, I wonder if they’ll approach it differently.

It’ll be interesting to see and from a purely selfish point of view I’d love to hear more information sooner than usual if they announce they’re going ahead.

Although it would be a significantly different situation to Orlando, where a new theme park is being built essentially alongside existing parks, I’m sure the Universal marketing department will be aware than more than a million Brits visit Orlando every year. If they push awareness and excitement levels for the new Universal Great Britain park to high levels very early in the process there might well be some families who decide not to visit Orlando as those type of theme parks are coming here to the UK pretty soon. For typical theme park visitors, rather than us slightly obsessives, I’d guess it’s also sensible marketing to create enthusiasm and demand at a time when your potential customers can actually purchase your services, by booking a trip to your shiny new theme park?

So I’m not expecting any more info from Universal than they normally provide during the development process. For those of us ravenous for details I suspect we’ll have to rely as usual on insider hints and metaphorically poking around in the corners of dusty public record offices.

 

[bedfordmassive]

Not sure what to make of this random Twitter exchange I found:

 

[xtpower]

Not sure what to make of this random Twitter exchange I found:

I went down the rabbit-hole of his account a little and he's not shy about him working in Universal Creative. I guess we could assume that Universal wants Creative personnel on the site to do whatever they need to do etc etc. That and his moving over here comment implies that right now Universal fully consider things a go still.

*edit* Or not .

 

[Alicia]

Sounds like he’s visiting for unrelated reasons. Uses the words “thinking of moving there” and not definitely, so doesn’t sound like that means he knows whether a decision was made yet or not at this time.

 

[Dinosaurus]

just passed the site, lots of activity there today with vans and trucks.

 

[xtpower]

just passed the site, lots of activity there today with vans and trucks.

Our good friend @ProjectUniversalUK is going to release a video about it at 6pm. Sounds exciting.

Also, if anyone local is free, go forth and bring us those pictures .

 

[BBPH]

Certainly not the tweet I was expecting to link.

No idea if this person actually works for UC.

 

[havaska]

Certainly not the tweet I was expecting to link.

No idea if this person actually works for UC.

It’s already been posted further up the thread.

 

[Steeb]

I binned Twitter off a few years ago so I can't read the replies, but I wonder what this is about

 

[Doug88]

Certainly not the tweet I was expecting to link.

No idea if this person actually works for UC.

Certainly not the tweet I was expecting to link.

No idea if this person actually works for UC.

He works on Halloween Horror Nights merchandising and costumes for universal

 

[xtpower]

I binned Twitter off a few years ago so I can't read the replies, but I wonder what this is about

That's to do with the vans and trucks dinosaurus said were at the site.

 

[Steeb]

That's to do with the vans and trucks dinosaurus said were at the site.

Universal will be trolling everyone by sending a Butterbeer truck down there.

 

[Alicia]

Love the optimism in this title UK to soon become new home of 'one of greatest Universal theme parks in world'

 

[Steeb]

Love the optimism in this title UK to soon become new home of 'one of greatest Universal theme parks in world'

I think the most surprising part is they actually mentioned Universal in the headline and didn't just go for the usual "UK Disneyland" guff they normally run with.

 

[xtpower]

Here's the latest video from @ProjectUniversalUK



Here's a link to the website for the company that PUU said were on the site - Home
They certainly don't look like they'd be there for a few trenches or whatnot, but I have no idea the reason they are there...