BREAKING NEWS:According to WDW News Today TRON Lightcycles Power Run Rollercoaster to Replace Tomorrowland Speedway at WDW Magic Kingdom, and they post it as "confirmed". The attraction will be announced on Saturday, July 15th at D23 Expo and will open at WDW Magic Kingdom "before WDW MK 50th anniversary (probably 2020/21), replacing the Tomorrowland Speedway attraction which opened in 1971 as the Grand Prix Raceway. The Speedway will likely close sometime in 2018 to make way for this construction."
On this Google Maps satellite view i've circled in orange the Tomorrowland Speedway which would be replaced by the TRON Lightcycles Power Run coaster. They sure have the room to build it, but i'm curious to see how they will avoid visual intrusion of the giant lighted dome of TRON with the Dumbo ride nearby or the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and how such a big structure will fit with the just as big Space Mountain dome next door...Editing 7/11: A D&M reader just told me that he is "hearing that Speedway is NOT going away but rather switching to electric and being rerouted with Tron BEHIND it", which would look more logical to me.
Editing 7/12: Exclusive D&M: Interesting info which was just sent to me: apparently, the TRON coaster would be built at WDW without the canopy / outdoor section that exist at Shanghai Disneyland Tomorrowland, due to the cost of the canopy and size restrictions. If true, fans might be a bit disappointed as the TRON canopy is such a beautiful element of the TRON Lightcycles Power Run attraction. The TRON canopy was needed at SDL precisely because they needed an iconic building for the land that they didn't had without Space Mountain, which is not the case at WDW MK.
Answer normally this Saturday at D23 Expo Theme Parks presentation!
Visual intrusion – that was my immediate thought, too.
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