From: cmr@world.std.com (Charles M Richmond)
Subject: Oh oh more Disney!
Organization: Integrated International Systems Corp. One Longfellow Place, Suite 3309, Boston, Ma.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 02:54:27 GMT



	LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. plans to
build an ocean-oriented theme park, dubbed ``Disney Sea,'' next to Tokyo
Disneyland, its top executive chairman has disclosed.
	Disney Chairman Michael Eisner made the announcement in a speech
Wednesday night to about 750 people at the Disneyland Hotel, but gave no
further details.
	Disney had been planning a $3 billion ``Disney Sea'' project in the
harbor area of Long Beach, Calif., next to the Queen Mary, but withdrew
last December. The Long Beach project was in competition with a 
``Wescot'' theme park adjacent to its flagship Disneyland park in
Anaheim as Disney's new California theme park, due to open by the next
decade.
	Disney met negative public reaction to the Long Beach project, which
would have included hotels, water-themed rides and the world's largest
aquarium. Part of the opposition stemmed from Disney's plans to create
another 250 acres of land in the harbor.
	Eisner complained about the problems in his speech Wednesday as a
prelude to the disclosure about the Japanese project. ``We hoped to
transform an unattractive, under-utilized industrial shoreline into an
enchanting seaside resort with a new ocean-oriented theme park, pleasant
hotels and a vibrant waterfront walkway,'' he said.
	``But from the reaction we received in some quarters, you might have
imagined we were proposing a toxic dump in the middle of Big Sur,''
Eisner said.
	``Luckily, the plans for 'Disney Sea' have been revived...and will
become a reality...not on the California side of the Pacific Ocean, but
next to Tokyo Disneyland,'' he said.
	Disney does not own Tokyo Disneyland, which opened 10 years ago. The
park is owned by Oriental Land Co. Ltd. and topped 16 million in
attendance last year.
	Disney said in its most recent annual report it is continuing to
discuss with Oriental Land the possibility of a second park adjacent to
Tokyo Disneyland ``to encourage longer guest visits.''
	Analyst Craig Silvers of Crowell Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles said the
earnings potential for a second Japanese theme park is uncertain. ``It
depends largely on what kind of deal Disney can arrange,'' he said.
	Most of Eisner's speech dealt with the difficulties faced by Disney
in securing approval for the new Anaheim park, which calls for the
world's fair-type project to be built in Disneyland's 110-acre parking
lot. Plans call for the park to open with two parking garages for 34,000
cars on either side of the complex and three new hotels.
	Disneyland, the nation's second most popular theme park after Disney
World in Florida, has an estimated annual attendance of 13 million.
	Eisner noted that the French government extended train lines,
expanded roads and made other significant improvements to accomodate
Euro Disney, which opened in April. He said foreign visitors to the
French park will spend nearly $1.5 billion -- more than half of that
outside the park -- in its first year of operation.
	The Anaheim project has received a cool reception from some. The
expansion will require improving the Santa Ana Freeway and surrounding
streets, burying power lines, expanding water and sewage capacity and
other improvements with a price tag of $1 billion.
	Eisner said Disney cannot pay for the improvements by itself, but
stressed the company's ``fervent'' desire to build the project.
	``Euro Disney is a textbook example of how the common good can be
advanced when the government and the private sector join forces for
their mutual benefit,'' he said. ``It seems somewhat ironic to me that
my company has forged such mutually beneficial partnerships beyond our
shores...but hasn't been able to put the pieces together here at home.''
	Disney, of Burbank, reported Thursday earnings of $223.7 million, or
42 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, up 29 percent
from earnings of $174.1 million, or 33 cents a share, for the year-ago
quarter. Fourth-quarter revenues were $2.08 billion, a 21 percent
increase over $1.72 billion for the comparable prior-year period.

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*  Charles Richmond 	Integrated International Systems Corporation        *
*  cmr@world.std.com	(Temporary) cmr@koneko.shr.dec.com		    *
*  Specializing in UNIX, X, Image Processing, and Communications.           *