Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company could build seven new full lands at its theme parks

Mar 05, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Bob Iger

Posted: Tuesday March 5, 2024 1:51pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

At today's Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Disney's CEO Bob Iger spoke at length about the company's reorganization and positioning for future growth.

Bob Iger at Walt Disney World

Much of the conversation was dominated by Disney+ and ESPN, but Iger spoke enthusiastically about the parks. "Parks and resorts is a wonderful story," Iger said. Trends for this quarter show that domestic and international parks and experiences business will probably deliver in the neighborhood of low to mid-teens in terms of operating income."

Continuing with the parks, Iger said the company has "entered into a phase where we can start building." He continued, "We have 1000s of acres of lands to develop, we could actually build seven new full lands if we wanted to around the world, including the ability to increase the size of Disneyland in California, which everybody thinks is kind of landlocked by 50%."

Disney has already presented concepts for new lands at Disney's Animal Kingdom

"You can look at every single location that we've got and there's land, opportunity, but most importantly, we have so much IP to mine that there's opportunity there to create experiences that we know people will love to have in our parks. So you look at our IP, you look at the land that we have, you look at the math, the demand that exists in the marketplace, and you look at the return on invested capital. It's a no-brainer to invest that way."

Beyond Big Thunder Mountain Blue Sky concept art

Disney has already presented "blue sky" concepts for new lands at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom, and we expect to hear more about those projects soon.

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MisterPenguin3 hours ago

You're conflating two things. 1. "whatever amount people would like to believe is going to be spent" shows a skepticism that money won't be spent either in part or in whole. Insiders have told us that in some cases they know of, in which it seems money was cut, the fact is that the money was spent in full, only that some of the things had cost overruns leaving not enough money to do all the things they had hoped to do. All the money was spent, but we got less than than we hoped for from it. Which leads to your second point... 2. "...is going to be spent wisely" goes to your point that there are indeed cost overruns. Was the scope of the build too big? Were the estimates the result of gross incompetence? Was the supervision of the construction grossly incompetent? I certainly don't know what the cause of the systemic cost overruns are. But I acknowledge they exist. So, when people moan that they doubt the full $60B will be spent -- despite showing up in a plenitude of SEC filings and mentioned by many execs over and over doubling down on it really happening -- by implying that Disney will secretly not spend that much... that's just uncalled for. It's point-scoring against Disney for whatever reason they have for point-scoring. Billions have been spent over the past decade, and so that kind of skepticism rings hollow. Very, very, very hollow. However, if they want to make the point that the $60B isn't going to buy us all the stuff they say (which, by the way, is very little so far... we have a bunch of insiders relaying a lot of wishes and hopes, but that's not official Disney); then that is indeed borne out by history of cost overruns. Which is a worthy critique to lobby at Disney.

Disstevefan13 hours ago

This will be interesting to watch. Disney can talk about investment in the parks but will just have to see what happens in reality. In my opinion, the investment talk was mostly for the proxy fight which Iger easily won anyway, never a doubt. I am selfish so I want everything for my favorite, WDW. As many have said, there are a lot of variables, a lot of external factors that may change the course Disney will go. We have seen Disney change/modify, even completely stop things they where well into or completed, like then Play pavilion and the Galactic Starcruiser. Who knows what and who knows how long we will be waiting for whatever we get. On the bright side, I am loving to watch the break neck speed Universal is working on EPIC. At least I will have a great park to go to and have fun while I am waiting for Disney to do whatever they are planning to do after the cut/change/eliminate things.

LSLS3 hours ago

I will point to the words "Can Be"

imagineer973 hours ago

Some on these boards haven't gotten wise to it, or maybe they've just got blinders on.

fgmnt3 hours ago

There is something to be said for the prices of Disney products increasing and apparently zero efficiencies being successfully wrung out in developing the products. Every $150 million movie or D2C project needs $50 million of reshoots to still be a dud. Every ride needs to cost $100 million even if it’s built inside of an existing building and a painted warehouse. Really stunning lack of improved inputs on the upper management end over the last decade. Luckily the board has gotten wise to this and turned over a lot of the upper management staff 😉

HauntedPirate4 hours ago

If anyone can point out the posts where people have stated, "Disney hasn't spent money on the parks", I'm all eyes. If you want to discuss how the money has been spent in the parks, that's been done ad naseum and no one is changing anyone's mind. I'm of the opinion that the spending has been grossly mismanaged and misguided. As such, I have little-to-no faith that whatever amount people would like to believe is going to be spent over the next decade (knowing plans can and do change, not to mention economic climates and financial situations) is going to be spent wisely.

flyerjab4 hours ago

Agreed. Prior to Covid, we watched major additions happen at all 4 parks - NFL, Pandora plus park wide enhancements at DAK, DTD evolve into DS, TSL and SW:GE, new DVC, Gran Destino, Skyliner, Rat and the France Pavilion expansion with both Guardians, Moana and Tron having started before the world shut down for a bit. FoF parade, HEA fireworks, Frozen fireworks, Star Wars night time show, Disney Enchantment, Harmonious (a definite miss) and Luminous, as well as the Festival the Arts all started during this time as well. People can argue regarding fonts, how dirty or not dirty Tiana’s car should be (honestly, I can’t even believe I typed that) and whatever other minutia is tied into theming. That is everyone’s right. But please, to say that we are doomed is silly. This company does spend money on parks. The last decade proved that. And the fact that they admitted that this part of the company makes money and that they want to inject more money into it this decade is a good thing. And with Bruce Vaughn leading Imagineering and Rohde helping a bit, I am confident that he will push back in a good way to allow for some thematic cohesion with some of these projects in the next ten years.

MisterPenguin5 hours ago

Yeah definitely. Considering how WDW never got around to adding any new rides or attractions in any of the WDW parks for over a decade, we can conclude that nothing else will get done. Good point you make!!

Disstevefan15 hours ago

Translation - WDW is screwed.

JoeCamel6 hours ago

Fast?

LSLS6 hours ago

Honestly I think a lot of the haters on this board have been screaming the same thing. Feels like a win/win. It can be done pretty cheap and fast, but will absolutely help with the crowds all over the park while giving people other things to do.

mikejs7818 hours ago

I don't disagree with that, although I'm kind of glad that the expansion pad still exists between seas and land.

Sirwalterraleigh18 hours ago

They absolutely do…the location is what I have a problem with…this should be on the pad between the seas and the land…not right in the core

mikejs7818 hours ago

I was there last week - it was pretty busy all of the times I walked by it. We walked through it twice, thought it was a lot of fun. An E ticket it is not. It's a really nice B ticket that draws people in. Never overly crowded but still busy. The parks need more of those experiences.