UPDATE: This thread has been moved back to the top because of breaking news! See the entry in red at the bottom!
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2009
OK gang, here's the latest PI rumors I picked up on yesterday from a reliable source. And while I say reliable, please be cautioned that these are just rumors and have no more credibility than all the other ones we've had on here about PI:
1. Disney management is very upset about what has become of PI. There is little doubt that there were indeed plans for the island but they have mostly fallen through because of the economy situation. OK, here we go:
Within one year:
2. The building that formerly housed Motion will reopen as an 8TRAX type of club playing 70's, 80's & 90's music.
3. The building that formerly housed the BET Soundstage will reopen as a Mannequins style club. (I guess this refers to the music because the revolving floor won't fit in here.)
4. Adventurers Club will reopen in its current location. However, the cost of labor here remains an issue since it is labor-intensive with limited bar income.
5. No word on the building that currently houses Mannequins and 8TRAX plus the Curl and Harley Davidson stores. No mention of the RRBC or CW buildings either.
6. And we already know that the building that housed the former Missing Link Sausage Company fast food restaurant and is currently under extensive renovations again will open this Spring as a South/Central American restaurant. In addition to a sit-down restaurant, this new venue will feature the Streetfoods of the Americans food court, a tequila bar and a late-evening dance venue, all overlooking Village Lake.
Again I must emphasize that except for #6 above, the rumors are unsubstantiated. For instance, if they are unhappy with the condition out there, why take a up to a year to reopen things? But this is what I've heard so I'm reporting it direct to you SAVE PI readers.
The website Screamscape is reporting the following today: Downtown Disney & Pleasure Island News - (2/2/09) I’ve heard a rumor this weekend that Disney may have reopened bookings for some of the old Pleasure Island nightclub locations as well as the Adventure’s Club. If the rumor is true, staff were informed that they may be taking new bookings for special events through to October 1st, 2009 now, the end of Disney’s fiscal year. There are whispers starting to work their way up about possibly doing something to breathe new lift into the area sooner than later, perhaps reopening the Adventure Club and a Club or two for the spring break crowds. Anyone know more?
I have a previously booked phone conference scheduled for this coming Thursday with my Disney catering rep. Based on Friday's rumors I was going to try to book Motion again. Now I'll have a LOT more to ask about. Stay tuned to this blog this Thursday night for an update! WOW!
And yet another update from Screamscape today (Tuesday):
Downtown Disney & Pleasure Island News - (2/3/09) We’ve heard from a couple of people today confirming that Disney has reopened private bookings for the Adventure’s Club and maybe other venues through to the end of the fiscal year. One source was walking through PI the other evening when they spotted a few suits getting a tour of the site, standing outside one of the clubs for a time talking when suddenly the outside lights of the club all came back on. It certainly looks like Disney is looking over their options to bring the area back to life in some form.
This looks promising! If they're going to take private bookings then I smell a Reunion coming. I will be finding out what venues are available for booking; I suspect just Soundstage and Motion but who knows! It just has to be affordable so that I can sell tickets to cover the cost of renting it. One good thing is that when I rented 8TRAX for an event a few years ago we had to do it from 6pm to 9pm so that they could open on time. But if they aren't opening to the public anyway, later time slots should be bookable. We shall see! Stay tuned!
6 comments:
This is a good development! When God closes a door, he opens a window. Every bad thing (this economy) has a silver lining. This may be one of them. As a long time fan of PI, and someone who was devastated to see it close, even I can admit it needed some upgrading. This may be just what it needs to keep it going strong forever.
Fingers crossed...
Fingers are indeed crossed. Thanks for writing and do stay tuned.
No problem!
Furthermore, I have learned a few things from my business classes (I'm currently in an MBA program). In Economics (and Finance, and Accounting, for that matter) there is this concept called "Opportunity Cost"
What this means is: what the owners give up to use a resource.
And it was the OC that most likely made Disney close PI in the first place. They realized that although they might even be making profit with PI as it was, they realized that the amount of money they could make from renting the space out was much more. Hence, from a certain point of view (called economic profit) they were at a loss.
And now, if this is true, for the exact same reason, Disney is realizing that there is NO money in the new plans, and therefore, can make more money in this economy by keeping PI open in some capacity.
Like I said before, sometimes in life, there are silver linings...
There is also quite a bit of bad will being generated on Pleasure Island right now. They took into account all the people who would be upset at the PI closure but now there are a lot of patrons who cut through the island and are thorougly unimpressed and dissatisfied. I've personally overheard people standing at the PI sign looking at the map and after seeing nothing, exclaim, "This is it?"
One of the problems that may be remedied by this (possible) new plan is that there were simply too many clubs. It makes more financial sense to jam pack four clubs instead of having 6 sparsely populated. Disney is a genius when it comes to market research, but they may have dropped the ball on this one.
I don't think you can have too many clubs. That was the whole selling point of the expensive PI ticket. As long as each catered to its own clientele, I think PI worked just fine. I do agree it needed some upgrading.
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