When the ESPN Zone opens its doors in Baltimore's Power Plant next weekend, the Walt Disney Co. puts its future as a dominant player in the regional entertainment market on the line.
"What's at stake is the whole concept of taking Disney brands and affiliated brands like ESPN and launching entertainment centers in regional markets, particularly urban markets, outside our theme parks," said Scott P. Dickey, director of marketing and sales for Disney Regional Entertainment Inc. "What's at risk is whether we deliver the same level of guest experience. There's a strong belief that we can."
Few are betting against Disney, the parent company of ESPN.
But there will be challenges, even for the entertainment wizards.
"They are about to find out just how much equity they have in [the ESPN] brand," said Pat Esgate, an industry consultant and president of Esgate and Associates Inc., in Nyack, N.Y. "Is it enough to get people up out of their chairs and in their cars to go there?"
It is unclear how many people even realize the relationship between ESPN and Disney -- a fact that is not clarified by a visit to the Zone, because nowhere does the Disney brand name appear.
"I don't know if it's going to have the impact it would have if people knew it was Disney," Esgate said.
The estimated $15 million ESPN Zone is scheduled to open one week from today, with an all-day outside sports festival the day before that planners hope will become an annual tradition. There is talk of a "soft" opening this weekend that will invite random guests to test the latest Inner Harbor attraction. It is even possible that the doors may be unlocked to the generalpublic for limited hours prior to the official opening.
For Baltimore, Disney's latest sports entertainment concept -- coupled with the Hard Rock Cafe and Barnes & Noble, slated to open next month -- offers the chance for the long-beleaguered Power Plant to finally succeed and draw tourists eastward toward the future Port Discovery and other attractions.
"It very clearly extends the harbor," said David Cordish, president and chairman of the Cordish Co., which is revitalizing the Power Plant. "If you're a conventioneer or a tourist, there's more to do now than just eat dinner."
Parking problems have been addressed up front with valet parking available for Power Plant customers on weeknights and throughout the weekends, at $3 for the first two hours.
The ESPN Zone is a 35,000-square-foot sports entertainment complex with two levels designed to feel like a stadium, where 200 customers can play actual and virtual games on the upper level at the same time. It features three new, proprietary games: hockey, baseball and a football toss game.
In classic ESPN style, there are healthy doses of irreverence throughout: the Vince Lombardi bust that looks like it's carved of Cheddar cheese; a painting that depicts a mock signing of the Declaration of Independence, renamed "The Game of Football" featuring several sports greats from Baltimore teams; a replica of Wrigley Field made entirely of assorted Wrigley's chewing gum wrappers; hot dog buns positioned around the doorway, filled with hot dog-like tubes containing soil from 30 major league baseball fields around the country.
While waiting in line to reach the hostess stand, patrons can play on touch screens that instantly replay favorite sports moments. And, of course, a trip to the restroom doesn't have to mean an instant away from sports -- they are equipped with television screens, too.
A screening room offers 10 guests at a time the chance to sit in faux leather easy chairs with speakers in the headrests that can be adjusted for channel and volume, in front of a 16-by-13-foot curved screen, flanked by a dozen smaller screens. The Zone has more than 220 screens in all.
With 80 percent of Americans self-defined as sports fans, Disney isn't too worried about the 20 percent who say they aren't.
"You don't have to be a hard-core sports fan to enjoy the facility," Dickey said. "We're not going to promote it to people who aren't sports fans. But if they're here, we're going to make sure they have a good time."
He expects that the screening room will appeal to locals, while tourists and families will probably gravitate toward the studio grill dining area. The groups will converge upstairs in the game area, he said.
The plan is to get the concept 98 percent right in Baltimore and perfect the other 2 percent in the nine months before rolling out the next ESPN Zone in Chicago next summer. Dickey said he expects that Disney will announce two more locations within a few months.
The Zone's creators are forecasting more than a half million visitors a year -- 50,000 a month. Neighboring Hard Rock received more than a million visits its first year.
Location-based entertainment is an area that Disney has studied for about eight years.
It's a wide-open market with no clear leader, but plenty of powerful contenders, including such names as Sony and Universal, according to an industry expert.
"No one has captured the location-based entertainment business," said Michael Rubin, president of MRA International, a Philadelphia consulting and development company for the industry. "No one has even penetrated the market." Such locations would allow Disney to provide entertainment destinations that people can visit regularly, more conveniently located than traveling great distances to reach a theme park, he said.
In addition to watching the recent opening of Disney Quest -- a high-tech video and virtual reality arcade -- in Orlando, Fla., industry watchers will follow closely as ESPN Zone comes to life in Baltimore, Rubin said.
"There's a general recognition that sports appropriately presented has broad appeal to men and women, young and old," Rubin said. "The challenge is how to do it in an engaging way that's female-friendly and family-friendly. I would have high expectations that Disney will do well with this new concept."
Fading luster
Although Baltimore has been regarded as a model of urban revitalization, recent years have brought concern in the broader development community that the shine was wearing off, Rubin said.
"This second infusion of inventiveness is going to take Baltimore to a whole different level as a center point destination," Rubin said. "Everything that is going on in Baltimore will enhance the daytime itinerary. And it makes the night feel safe and engaging and vibrant."
Locally, Ioanna Morfessis, president and CEO of Greater Baltimore Alliance, a regional marketing and economic development group, believes that Disney's choice of Baltimore can only make it easier to market the city.
"That helps to build our identity as an innovative and progressive community," she said. "Companies who are thinking about new ideas are going to think about Baltimore."
Baltimore endorsement
Larry Haverty, an entertainment analyst with State Street Research and Management Co. in Boston agrees that Disney's decision to open its first Zone in Baltimore is evidence that the company believes the venture will do well here.
"It's an endorsement that Baltimore did it right with Camden Yards, and we're going to help these guys push the envelope further," he said. "What they're saying is that this is a great sports complex in an urban center, and this is a way to make a good thing even better."
He predicts that within five or 10 years, ESPN Zones will constitute business of $100 million a year.
Haverty does not view the nearby Inner Harbor locations of Hard Rock and the newly opened Planet Hollywood as much competition.
Nor does he think that women will be deterred by the sports-oriented ESPN Zone. "I think women will go because men are there," he said.
However, consultant Esgate predicts that because sports fans are such a loyal breed, it will require some innovation to get those with established sports bar habits to change. "Pulling a sports fan out of a sports bar they've been hanging in all their life is hard to do," she said.
Esgate said the ESPN Zone should get excellent novelty business at first that may carry it through a year rather than the usual six months of a new concept.
"But after a year, they're going to have to be on their toes to get more than tourist business," she said.
Pub Date: 7/05/98