Disney and Shendi to Invest $800 Million More in Shanghai Disneyland for Additional Attractions and Shows at Opening Day !

Major news today about Shanghaî Disneyland as Disney announced that they have reached an agreement with Shanghai Shendi Group, its joint venture partner in China, to accelerate the expansion of Shanghai Disney Resort and they will invest the equivalent of 800 millions additional dollars! Even better,  this $800M will be used primarily for additional attractions, entertainment and other offerings to increase capacity at the theme park, with the majority targeted to be completed for opening day.

According to a N.Y Times article, "the additional $800 million – with Disney contributing about 43 percent and Shanghai Shendi shouldering the balance – will be used to increase the number of rides operating on opening day. Disney did not specify what rides and entertainment offerings the additional funds would allow it to add. A spokeswoman said the $800 million would flow entirely toward new offerings and that the deal in no way reflected budget overruns".

May be for the first time in Disney theme parks history they announce the expansion of a park which is not yet open and not even finished to be built, but it's a smart decision as they probably realize that there won't be enough rides for opening day and want to avoid poor capacity, long waiting time at each ride and at the end potentially devastative mouth-to-ear reports from the first guests, something that a park always takes a long time to recover. As the old quote say "if you build it right, they will come".

Now, what will be these new rides or shows that will be added thanks to these $800M, we don't know yet. They can do pretty lot of things with this huge amount, from building a Star Wars or Marvel or Avatar lands or a mix of E, D, C and B - Ticket rides in different lands. So far, from the list of rides and shows that we know, SDL was supposed to have on opening day around 21 attractions and 8 shows - instead, for instance, to 31 rides and shows for Disneyland Paris on its opening day in 1992 - so any addition will be welcome.  It'll be interesting to learn what they have in their plans and if they can use a part of these $800M to cancel some wrong decisions that seems to have been done like the cancellation of a lot of the Audio-Animatronics dinosaurs in the Roaring Rapids ride at Aventure Isle, this would be even better!

Editing: Shanghaî Daily is saying in an article about the new investment that "it is expected to bring 30 percent more visitors than originally planned to the first Disneyland on the Chinese mainland", of course for added park capacity.

Below, more about all this with the press release. The N.Y Times article is HERE.



BURBANK, Calif. The Walt Disney Company today announced that it has reached an agreement with Shanghai Shendi Group, its joint venture partner in China, to accelerate the expansion of Shanghai Disney Resort. The increased investment of approximately 5 billion yuan (US$0.8 billion) will be used primarily for additional attractions, entertainment and other offerings to increase capacity at the theme park, with the majority targeted to be completed for opening day.

“Since we first broke ground in Shanghai we’ve been very impressed with the growth of China’s economy, especially the rapid expansion of the middle class and the significant increase in travel and tourism,” said Robert A. Iger, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company. “Our accelerated expansion, including additional attractions and entertainment, will allow us to welcome more guests for a spectacular Disney experience on opening day.”

“Like all of our parks, Shanghai Disney Resort was designed to expand over time, and this investment allows us to bring some of those additions online earlier,” said Thomas O. Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “The expansion underscores the tremendous opportunity we see in Shanghai and demonstrates our long-term commitment to and confidence in China.”

The announcement of this accelerated expansion comes during a boom in China’s travel and tourism market, which is expected to continue its rapid growth. An income qualified population of 330 million people are within a three-hour travel radius of Shanghai Disney Resort. From 2012 to 2015, the Chinese travel market is projected to grow 34 percent, according to PhoCusWright. The number of upper-middle class and affluent households in China is expected to grow 18 percent annually between 2012 and 2022, according to McKinsey.

Shanghai Shendi Group will continue to hold 57 percent of the shares of the owner companies while Disney will hold the remaining 43 percent. Financing of the additional investment will be proportionate to ownership and, as with the original shareholder investment, it is not anticipated that third-party debt will be incurred to finance the expansion. In addition, Disney is the majority shareholder in the management company responsible for creating, developing and operating the Resort.

Picture: copyright Disney


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