Subject:
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Re: A 'possible' LEGOLAND Park in Illinois
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.legoland
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Date:
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Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:49:19 GMT
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Viewed:
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12998 times
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In lugnet.legoland, Ted Godwin wrote:
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The reason it is ridiculous is the same reason there is a Disney park in
California and Florida and none in New England or the Midwestern US: to
maximize revenue. It makes little business sense to build a destination theme
park in a climate that would force it to close for up to six months of the
year. A destination theme park makes more money when it is open and
attracting paying visitors than when it is closed.
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See, and the ironic thing is that the California LEGOLAND park is about the most
poorly located major LEGOLAND park in the world. ABS doesn’t like sunlight.
It’s not going to break down in a matter of days, but unless it’s black, it’ll
fade over time. California gets a bunch more sunlight each year than either the
Windsor or Billund (another location that’s not toasty warm year-round), and the
bricks pay a hefty price. I went the February before they opened the Las Vegas
portion of Miniland, and by the time I got back a couple years later there were
already sections of it that looked pretty beat up, even with the protective
lacquer coat they put on everything specifically to prevent fading. Winter is
actually a good thing for LEGOLAND parks, if they’re not built indoors. And if
they are built indoors, winter is a non-factor.
The other issue that LLCA has is that if they put it too close to Anaheim,
Disney would kill it outright. If they put it too far away from any of the
major population centers (LA, San Diego, San Francisco), it won’t see as much
traffic year-round as it would if it were a local attraction for more people.
Carlsbad manages to be far enough away from Anaheim that Disney isn’t much of a
factor, but far enough away that anyone who has a free day on their LA vacation
isn’t likely to spend it driving down to LLCA. And anyone who lives in San
Diego probably isn’t going to visit it more than once (anyone who lives north of
LA is just going to stop at Disneyland).
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LEGOLAND parks could indeed open in places where winter closures are required
(ie: Windsor which I believe closes for five months) but it makes more sense
to find more lucrative locations first. LEGOLAND Windsor draws on a
population that is many millions more than would be drawn upon by one in
Illinois. The number of people within a one-hour drive of LEGOLAND Windsor is
far larger than would live within the same distance of a park in Illinois.
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Don’t forget Billund, where the original LEGOLAND park was opened. And I’m
guessing they don’t have a bigger population to draw on than California.
Besides, Chicago surely ranks in the top five US cities in terms of tourism, so
there would be a lot of people from all over the US traveling there
year-round. Oh, and there is no major theme-park located right in the Chicago
area. Major population center, plus major tourism draw, minus any nearby
competition, equals pretty good idea in my book. Besides, do you realize how
awesome it would be if they had a LEGOLAND park next door to BrickWorld in June?
I’m pretty sure if you ran all the equations on that you’d come up with “42”.
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Heck I’d love to see a LEGOLAND park in Vancouver but, for many reasons, it
is not going to happen. I’d be happy if you got one near you but it still
seems a pretty dubious business proposition and I would hate to see TLC lose
any more money to questionable expansion.
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Huh? TLC sold the LEGOLAND parks off a while back. I believe they still hold a
partial interest in the park business, but not a controlling one.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: A 'possible' LEGOLAND Park in Illinois
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| (...) Except that there are fewer tourists in winter. Not a problem if the local area is densely populated enough but still seems a risky proposition. (...) Really? So that is why all Disney vacation packages I have ever seen offer a day-trip bus (...) (15 years ago, 29-Oct-09, to lugnet.legoland, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: A 'possible' LEGOLAND Park in Illinois
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| (...) I live in Canada so your assumptions and comments are off the mark. We don't even get LEGO Brand stores in Canada and we pay a 25-30% premium on LEGO products (BEFORE taxes) just for the privilege of living north of the border. I understand (...) (15 years ago, 28-Oct-09, to lugnet.legoland, FTX)
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