Universal Parks Regional Expansion Thread | Inside Universal Forums

Universal Parks Regional Expansion Thread

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Jerroddragon

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Jun 27, 2017
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I know, its jumping the shark but the news today really excites me because of how Rare new Theme parks open now of days.

But could we see parks like California's Great America which is closing in a few years and Six Flags parks that have closed being converted into new Universal Theme parks? Just a thought and wanted to see what other people thought of this idea
 
I think its possible but its not good practice. Hyperfocused regional and mini parks are really good but these mini parks will require exclusive attractions in my opinion. Why? Unlike the big parks, why would any who lives in these small regional parks travel to the bigger locations if they have everything is cloned elsewhere. Making high quality exclusive and unique attractions is essential and key for this to work.
 
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Honestly, it might even be easier at a point to build from the ground up then to try to retheme a park with 12 busted coasters and a couple decaying flats into a heavily themed resort park.

Fun idea, I just don't think it's too likely.
 
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MOD NOTE: Updated the thread title and made this the official future regional expansion speculation thread. Talking about mini-parks, indoor experiences, restaurants, and more.

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At this point the sky really feels like the limit. I could see Universal doing tons of different things. I think they know the value of finding an expanding market and putting themselves there. I don't think we're going to get many, if any, of the Frisco-style parks. Instead I think it'll be more HNLV in scope.
 
I think its possible but its not good practice. Hyperfocused regional and mini parks are really good but these mini parks will require exclusive attractions in my opinion. Why? Unlike the big parks, why would any who lives in these small regional parks travel to the bigger locations if they have everything is cloned elsewhere. Making high quality exclusive and unique attractions is essential and key for this to work.
I agree but Universal really has unlimited things they can do with the IP's they own.

They have classic's like Jaws/Back to the future where I think people would go to little min lands if they just had photo ops/themed restaurants.
Also I know zero clue how the deal with Harry Potter works but even just bringing more Harry Potter locations where people can be dressed up would draw people in. People travel to london just for the Harry Potter studio tour
 
I know, its jumping the shark but the news today really excites me because of how Rare new Theme parks open now of days.

But could we see parks like California's Great America which is closing in a few years and Six Flags parks that have closed being converted into new Universal Theme parks? Just a thought and wanted to see what other people thought of this idea
The thing is, it's not so often a park closes and when they do, it is usually because the land is worth more as something else or the park has always struggled and no matter who the owner is, will keep struggling. Although, I would have love to see what Universal could have done if they acquired hardrock park (as it was literally a version of IOA).
 
If this kid friendly park in Texas is popular, I wonder what other states it will expand to. Maybe AZ, VA, NC, MD? In VA Kings Dominion is now open year round. Don't see it happening in CA and FL since Uni would not want to eat into USH and UOR attendance.
 
If this kid friendly park in Texas is popular, I wonder what other states it will expand to. Maybe AZ, VA, NC, MD? In VA Kings Dominion is now open year round. Don't see it happening in CA and FL since Uni would not want to eat into USH and UOR attendance.
I think if they are going up in the northern US where they will have to be closed for a decent part of the year, they'll either build somewhere in the Rustbelt or in New England. They could really sort of split the difference and go with Philly as @quinnmac000 mentioned and that would take care of part of the Northeast and part of the rustbelt. I don't think they really should be building too many of these though as you don't want to stretch yourself too think in terms of focus and you also don't want to cause too much brand confusion. I think anything beyond the Texas park right now is really getting ahead of ourselves big time in terms of actual parks.
 
If this kid friendly park in Texas is popular, I wonder what other states it will expand to. Maybe AZ, VA, NC, MD? In VA Kings Dominion is now open year round. Don't see it happening in CA and FL since Uni would not want to eat into USH and UOR attendance.
Phoenix makes a lot of sense to me its a growing city and has a few really cool little attractions around the area. OdySea Aquarium is my highest recommendation if people find themselves in that area.
 
Aside from Port Aventura I don't see Universal buying parks. These regional parks will be ground up projects.

And yes, I think the headliners for these kids parks will be exclusive to the Universal Kids Brand. Meaning you won't see the Shrek's Swamp Dark Ride at any of the major Universal parks, but you will find it at Universal Kids Frisco (UKF) and Universal Kids Philadelphia (UKP).
 
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~100 acre parks/resorts combos seem perfect for the Western US (Denver?), since USH is limited in where it can expand.

If they want to try an indoor park concepts (like a Nickelodeon Universe-style park), Boston and Seattle are prime locations without as much true theme park competition, and would be unique to the market. Just my .02 cents!
 
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I think if they are going up in the northern US where they will have to be closed for a decent part of the year, they'll either build somewhere in the Rustbelt or in New England. They could really sort of split the difference and go with Philly as @quinnmac000 mentioned and that would take care of part of the Northeast and part of the rustbelt. I don't think they really should be building too many of these though as you don't want to stretch yourself too think in terms of focus and you also don't want to cause too much brand confusion. I think anything beyond the Texas park right now is really getting ahead of ourselves big time in terms of actual parks.

I've had this conversation before with a few friends. I really do believe whichever company (Disney/Uni) figures out how to have a presence near NYC first, will cash in big time. Legoland recently opened a Resort in New York. A few hours Northeast of NYC. New York has A LOT of open land that is prime to be developed. The climate would require them to either close the outdoor portions during the winter months or develop something more indoor based but either way I do think the market is there. I live in Northern NY and we travel to Orlando at minimum once a year to vist Uni and/or Disney. If we had something closer to home we'd absolutely add a second trip every year for that. Not to mention the proximity to so many huge markets. (NYC, Boston, Philly, D.C. etc). I think the Northeast in general makes the most sense if they're going to develop anything in the Northern US.
 
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I'm not sure how many regional parks we'll get in the US, but this is HUGE for the international market. This paves the way for smaller parks in the UK, France, Mexico, Brazil, and maybe even second parks in Japan and China. The sky is the limit here. I wouldn't be surprised to see Comcast attempt to open separate Harry Potter and Nintendo parks in countries that have no Universal presence.
 
The tiny regional ground up offerings are actually quite genius

The two resorts they currently have are the "major" parks still with "Universal Parks" experiences littered throughout the USA

I see them going beyond a 'themed park' model and doing things like Toothsoms, Great Wolf Lodge, etc
 
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I don't know if anyone knows Plopsaland and Plopsa Indoor. It are small reginal parks who where started by a Belgium tv producer of children's television. They are highly successful, cheap to build and often take over a failing park and re-imagine it. Their pull are the know characters and the shows.
I see Universal going the same route. They are not building Universal Studios parks, they are building a different kind of experience for a different group of visitors. I'm sure non of these park are interesting for me but that is because they aren't made for me and that is fine. It will give Comcast an even greater footprint in the themed entertainment world than ever before and we all benefit.
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I don't know if anyone knows Plopsaland and Plopsa Indoor. It are small reginal parks who where started by a Belgium tv producer of children's television. They are highly successful, cheap to build and often take over a failing park and re-imagine it. Their pull are the know characters and the shows.
I see Universal going the same route. They are not building Universal Studios parks, they are building a different kind of experience for a different group of visitors. I'm sure non of these park are interesting for me but that is because they aren't made for me and that is fine. It will give Comcast an even greater footprint in the themed entertainment world than ever before and we all benefit.
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That looks very cool

Honestly Disney should be embarrassed Pixar Pier feels cheaper then this little park.
 
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Thanks. Jeff again. Sorry about the delay here. So let me -- this is Jeff. So let me start with parks. So parks we are always looking to invest in our parks, given how well we've done. And during the pandemic, we took share. We've had pretty solid growth. And we -- it's a business that we want to deploy capital to, as Brian said, we're really excited about Epic. It's coming out of the ground. It looks great and our timing couldn't be better for that. But we always want to have things that we're investing in, both domestically and internationally.

The concept that we're going to build in Dallas, which is a design for a younger audience, less investment, if it's successful, which we're pretty confident it will be, it's a concept that will work in a lot of places around the world that may not support a full-scale theme park like we have in Orlando or Beijing, but it could support something else. So that -- we're excited about that concept.
And then the Halloween horror nights experience in Vegas, which I'm really excited about, could also be expanded to a number of different places around the world. So we're definitely having our eye towards places expanding internationally not just domestically with a number of markets kind of on the docket. And they won't all be places for a big giant primary theme park that we might look at different concepts for different markets.

Many more coming