Originally Posted By dennis-in-ct I heard the land was a total of 230 million. Wow ... That's like 2-1/2 Tower Of Terrors, no? It seems like Universal got a lot of bang for their buck. Money smartly spent it seems. I expect the new Fantasyland expansion to be as spectacular.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy ^^ If you read the Universal Orlando financial disclosures, it appears it cost something more in the neighborhood of $500M. At least that's how much debt they've added in the past 2 years since building HP land.
Originally Posted By dshyates The number being tossed around is 265 million for Harry Potter. The 500 Milion includes Hollywood, Rip, Ride Rocket, Harry Potter, all the refurbs that have taken place in both parks, and the renegotiated contract with Steven Spielberg.
Originally Posted By Hista98 "I expect the new Fantasyland expansion to be as spectacular." Sorry to disapoint you but it won't be. It is going to be nowhere near that much.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Leemac has stated the cost of RSR at DCA is now well upwards of $300 million, which would make it the most expensive attraction ever built in a theme park. It really needs to give me a happy ending for that price ...
Originally Posted By DlandDug Bear in mind that much of WWoHP is repurposed existing attractions. The major bucks were spent on decor and that signature attraction.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper An amusement park ride that offered a happy ending? I know some guys who avoid amusement parks like the plague. That might actually get them to stand in a line.
Originally Posted By fkurucz I wonder if they will be adding WWoHP to other Universal Parks around the globe?
Originally Posted By leemac <<I wonder if they will be adding WWoHP to other Universal Parks around the globe?>> They can't at the moment - they don't have the licensing rights outside of Florida.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ which is another reason why Disney were so reticent about signing up for Potter. Spending all that money on R&D and not being able to roll it out at the other resorts was a big gamble for the company.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<I thought the Tower of Terror in TDS was $300 million.>> If it was, then it must have been $200+ million for the window dressing.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ Boy do I know that number so well. ToT at TDS was budgeted at 21b yen - that was c.$200m back in '06. It was marginally over budget in the end.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I thought a large part of that was either for quake safety or something to do with the ground there needing massive reinforcement for it's heavy footprint.
Originally Posted By Indigo I think it might be important to remember that Disney and Universal do their accounting a bit differently. Disney's total includes the amount WDI bills the theme park for their efforts which includes a portion of WDI overhead. Universal uses more outsourcing in their design division and therefore is able to keep that cost out of the total price of their design.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ Hi Indigo That isn't technically correct. WDI can capitalize all costs directly incurred in the construction of a specific asset - all R&D and general overheads get expensed. Same for Uni Creative - irrespective of whether it is in-house costs or external costs. Now there is a difference between the "cost" of an attraction (if either company actually disclosed it - it would be a non-GAAP measure) and what is shown in the financial statements (as you can usually only see the capex number - the rest is hidden in SG&A costs in the income statement). The benefits of being a CPA, eh?
Originally Posted By leemac <<I thought a large part of that was either for quake safety or something to do with the ground there needing massive reinforcement for it's heavy footprint. >> Partly for sure. However construction is very expensive in Japan, period. Especially labor costs. The flipside is that debt is so cheap (virtually interest-free on long term corporate loans) that most corporation don't care.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Disney's total includes the amount WDI bills the theme park for their efforts which includes a portion of WDI overhead. Universal uses more outsourcing in their design division and therefore is able to keep that cost out of the total price of their design. >>> Looking at it another way, whether R&D costs or outsourced or not, the overhead cost would be included in the total cost. If the outsourced design companies that Universal uses didn't pass on their overhead costs as part of what they charge their customers, who else would pay for them?
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ They would be included in a mark-up from outside contractors so it would probably be a wash (they won't be looking to make a loss on a project). In fact the outsiders would also most likely add a profit element too which would make it more costly overall. The only true benefit to being lean like Uni Creative is that you don't have to pay the salary and associated costs when you don't have any projects on the go.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< They would be included in a mark-up from outside contractors so it would probably be a wash (they won't be looking to make a loss on a project). >>> That was exactly my point. <<< The only true benefit to being lean like Uni Creative is that you don't have to pay the salary and associated costs when you don't have any projects on the go. >>> But that also means you can't keep the industry's best and brightest on your own payroll and away from the competitors. But that's a soft advantage that's hard to quantify. This brings up another point. Why has WDI never done more in the way of providing its services to those outside the company? We know there have been several cases where they've done design work (the remake of the Theme Building at LAX), and actually provided technology (my home airport quite literally has a TTA in an underground tunnel to connect the terminals), but they seem few and far between. Aside from situations that would clearly compete directly with Disney (such as other theme parks), why has this not been done more frequently? Especially since they've dabbled, I'm sure there must be a reason it's not been more widespread.
