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Sorry for taking it off topic, thought I was replying in pointless discussions thread.

But anyways how this effects that original Disney America plan is that if they went out there, it was always going to push a "catch up" from infrastructure to keep up with the pressures of traffic.

Also the irony to me isn't lost that part of the complaint of Manassas National Battlefield proximity and now it's almost completely surrounded by urban sprawl.
 
I agree, this thread has gone off the rails and had been off topic for 20 posts.

IMO, I don't think Disney would ever want to come back to Virginia after the way they were treated back in 1993.
About 10 years ago they were looking at build a resort of some sort just over the river in National Harbor. Not sure of to many details since it was a small site and they never really announced it but they purchased land for it and the sold it again.
 
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I would’ve loved to have seen this park been built. My favorite kind of theme park is a Park with an overall theme. The original all Carolina themed. Carowinds was my favorite park when I was young because of that.

I personally thought the original California Adventure was a great overall concept that was poorly. implemented. Now it’s just an IP cartoon park. I will admit that Cars land is amazing, but Pixar pier and Avengers Campus are as tacky as it gets.


One thing is for certain. If Disney’s America park had been built, the theming wound have been corrupted with IP by now just like California adventure. That’s the only thing Disney installs now since Expedition Everest.
 
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One thing is for certain. If Disney’s America park had been built, the theming wound have been corrupted with IP by now just like California adventure. That’s the only thing Disney installs now since Expedition Everest.
I think the way a lot of people are about the politics (and history) in things would have caused it to be completely re-themed like DCA by now with the only trace being the main street area with the Hall of Presidents.
 
Who knows what would have happened tbh.

A huge what-if is if the influential historians opposed to building the park because it 'cheapened history' were able to compromise and not push for cancelling it's construction, perhaps they would have influenced legislation that prevents Disney from bringing in IPs not related to the historical theme - you could have classic characters portraying historical figures such as Donald Duck portraying Teddy Roosevelt, etc, as well as Pocahontas being right in the sweet spot (though tbh, I don't remember there being any large cliffs on the Jamestown side of the river, only some bluffs on the Surry side, but I digress).

Another is if there was no opposition and the park was built as planned - as evidenced by California Adventure and Hong Kong, there's no really good way to build an immersive themed Disney park for the kind of budget Eisner was thinking would be spent on this park - it's doubtful that they'd have been able to build everything as planned and have them be of a 'Disney' caliber.

Then there's local competition in other parks - it's a really huge gamble to come in decades after KD and BGW were established in Virginia and after the PA parks were established (don't know then SFA came about) and expect to take significant chunks of their market share when they're all relatively less expensive at the time and are either en route for those driving to the DC area using some of the major North-South or East-West corridors that connect huge population centers (looking at a map, I-66 really serves to connect DC to I-81, but the only population centers it serves could be considered Virginia suburbs of DC (yes, I know, not everywhere in NOVA is affiliated to DC, but the highway is well-known for people commuting for work in and around the nation's capitol.)), unlike Haymarket which isn't particularly easy to get to in comparison. And those flying in would have the added hassle and expense of renting a car to leave the city either way unless Disney offered a cheap shuttle service.

So, again, who really knows?
 
I think the biggest who knows-

What the hell happens to BGW/KD/SFA/Hershey? Do they pack it in and stay small because they can’t compete? Do they go in even harder? Does someone else (coughUnicough) buy one of them to compete?
 
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I think the biggest who knows-

What the hell happens to BGW/KD/SFA/Hershey? Do they pack it in and stay small because they can’t compete? Do they go in even harder? Does someone else (coughUnicough) buy one of them to compete?

Who knows is right. I think it's more a question of local markets vs. national park brands - with Disney in the mix but without a Magic Kingdom or Epcot in the Mid-Atlantic region, it's really hard to say if the tourist market they were hoping for would have sustained it. It's also hard to say if locals would care enough to visit regularly when they have other less expensive (and depending on their preferences, potentially more thrilling rides) parks relatively closer to home (except those living around Haymarket and may have a longer trip to KD).
 
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