That's what Orlando Sentinel's Theme Park Ranger Matt Palm is asking in today's edition of TPR. Read the article at:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/
Arguably the most popular club on Pleasure Island, AC was probably doomed by the high cost of labor (actors) and relatively low drink sales. But the rumored reopening as a dinner show seemed to be a viable idea that would have had guests purchase some sort of dinner (buffet perhaps?) packaged with an Adventurers show. Apparently they're not even going to try.
Let me get this straight... My Disney Vacation Club Membership, yearly out-of-state Premium Annual Pass, DTD Resort Area Dining, & $1,200+ of yearly purchases at the DTD Art of Disney store & drinks at the AC weren't paying for the AC actors?
ReplyDeleteWith the crowds at the AC just before the closing, you'd think that even a Disney MBA would be able to figure out a business plan to make the AC be profitable enough to the company, even if the AC was being run at a loss to bring in additional revenue elsewhere.
All those other purchases made those "other" venues profitable.
ReplyDeleteBut one problem with PI was that there was no way to track individual club profits since the place was packaged together with one price. In the old days you used your ticket at the bridge but then they had no way of knowing what clubs you went in. In the latter years you used your ticket at the first club you went to but again, no individual tracking after that.
So PI was one single profit center and it either made or lost money as a whole but the individual clubs did not. They did guage success by drink sales though. That's how 2 country music clubs and a jazz club got replaced. I am assuming, but drink sales at AC were comparatively small yet it was obvious the staffing costs were higher.
But in the end did it really matter....because they closed every damn club profit or not!
I should add that CityWalk does track profits on an individual club basis, or so it seems. Even when you purchase an All-Club pass, each club scans your ticket during your first visit to that club that night. (Subsequent visits to the same club qualify for the re-entry line.) So they know which clubs you visited and I assume each club gets a portion of the ticket price as revenue. And continuing to guess here, but if you use your ticket at just 2 clubs each is going to make more revenue off it than if you use your ticket at 5 clubs.
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