Disneyland has preliminary plans to add up to four themed areas on 30 undeveloped acres inside the Magic Kingdom, setting the stage for what could become the most aggressive expansion drive in the park's 31-year history.
Walt Disney Co. is also studying plans to build a second separate admission park on a 40-acre site that the company owns north of the Anaheim park, top Disney officials said in interviews.
Disney's senior managers differ over the best use for the empty--yet very valuable--parcel. But senior executives have made it clear that the property will not sit idle for another 31 years. "The land cries out for something to be there," said Frank Wells, president of Burbank-based Walt Disney Co.
Although Wells was reluctant to discuss specifics, industry sources familiar with the plans said the additions could cost more than $1 billion and take two decades to complete.
Among the many options being considered is a smaller-scale facility molded after the popular Epcot theme park in Orlando, Fla., said Richard Nunis, president of Walt Disney Attractions, the operating arm of all Disney theme parks. The proposed expansion at Disneyland comes on the heels of key corporate changes at a company that, at middle age, appears to have found a new, youthful vigor.
Just two years ago, Disneyland was a theme park that seemed prepared to live off its past. Now, however, officials are talking about vastly increasing the park's size and spinning the innovation wheels into overdrive.
When new leadership stepped into Disney's top spots in September, 1984, the theme parks received plenty of attention.
This, despite the fact that the experience of both new leaders--Chairman Michael D. Eisner, former Paramount Pictures Corp. president, and Wells, a former Warner Bros. vice chairman--was in studio lots. Wells has shouldered the primary task of overseeing theme park development. "There is no greater centerpiece to our company than our theme parks," said Wells. "They are, in many respects--along with the animated classics--what Disney means."
While Disneyland, at 70 acres, at first appears to be built to capacity, that is hardly the case. There is empty acreage inside and outside the park, and executives eventually plan to move much of the so-called backstage area--including storage and maintenance facilities--outside the park gates.
