The Future of Springfield/Simpsons Ride (Hollywood)

[Jerroddragon]

If USH plays it smart, I'd say you close the attraction and lets the food stay open for as long as it can then finish the new area when the attraction there is starting to go vertical

 

[Viator]

If USH plays it smart, I'd say you close the attraction and lets the food stay open for as long as it can then finish the new area when the attraction there is starting to go vertical

I'd imagine--there are clauses in the contract that specify; that when The Simpsons Ride goes, that the entire land has to shutter any and everything related to the media. With this being a Disney External IP, and with how fast they were in the dismantling of Spider-Man in USJ; I have to think once it closes, Disney wants it gone ASAP.

 

[Clive]

I'd imagine--there are clauses in the contract that specify; that when The Simpsons Ride goes, that the entire land has to shutter any and everything related to the media. With this being a Disney External IP, and with how fast they were in the dismantling of Spider-Man in USJ; I have to think once it closes, Disney wants it gone ASAP.

I think that's a pretty big assumption. The Simpsons Ride existed well before any of the rest of Springfield was added.

I think the rest of your concerns are well worth thinking about, though. My understanding is that the Springfood offerings make up something like a third or more of the park's food and beverage throughput on any given day (though that number was pre-Toadstool). Losing it for any extended period will undoubtedly stress ops.

 

[highdefrex]

My understanding is that the Springfood offerings make up something like a third or more of the park's food and beverage throughput on any given day (though that number was pre-Toadstool). Losing it for any extended period will undoubtedly stress ops.

I wonder if they'd close and retheme/revamp the food locations in phases rather than all at once in the months (or years?) leading up to the actual ride closure, just shrinking Springfield's presence chunk by chunk until the end comes. Tackle, say, the ice cream to Duff Gardens stretch first (into F&F or something). Then once that's done, tackle the donut shop. Leave the bar and Krusty Burger and/or Cletus' for last since I'm sure whatever happens to those will be more relevant to what the post-Simpsons plan is. Like you said, it would be such a huge hit to close it all at once that I imagine that there's some sort of way they want to go about it to avoid that.

 

[Viator]

From @ethanuniversal--two notes from him to me (and now to you):

• Ontop of the video represented, from what Ethan can see; nearly all of the trees on the hillside from the beginning of the video, to the Point C marker, have all been taped with either blue or orange marking tape.
• There are now markings on the side of The Simpsons Ride. These markings are blue in nature.

 

[Viator]

Trees are now being marked around the trees over by the Studio Tour Bridge and Simpsons Ride now.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Trees are now being marked around the trees over by the Studio Tour Bridge and Simpsons Ride now.

USH Sweep?

 

[Viator]

 

[bdubsCEO]

So… is there a chance?

 

[Wild Atlantis]

In my opinion, this wouldn't be a bad spot to retheme into the Emerald City with a new wicked ride replacing the Simpsons ride

 

[Freak]

I think we're forgetting a key component for Springfield's potential replacement: Yes, of course we're looking to see what would be the most marketable franchise to replace Fast Food Blvd...but more importantly will sell the most in food sales.

Yes, Wicked would be a potential candidate, and you could argue it would sell well with merch, but I'm sure how you can really push the food with Wicked. The whole reason Springfield came to be in the first place was because the fictional food was a big part of the franchise. Yeah, I understand they already had the rights to it in the first place with the ride already there, which was a huge driving factor, but while I'm not privy to the exact numbers from the food sales of SF, I imagine they make good money from the food. A big selling point of Springfield was "Oh, I get to eat at Krusty Burger, drink a beer at Moe's, and get a donut at Lard Lad's!" If I were a bean counter at Universal, I would be looking to see which IP is known for its fictional food to at least match those food sales Springfield has. The food at Springfield is an even bigger draw than the ride is, and I imagine they would prefer an IP that could have the same draw.

Think of some IPs that would have you go "Oh yeah I would pay serious money to eat there!" Spongebob is absolutely one of them. Maaaaaybe Shrek with Friar Bob's and Donkey's (Chicken and) Waffles.

EDIT: I posted this thinking this was the Florida thread, so I'll post this over there as well. The same line of thinking should still apply for Hollywood though.

 

[Jerroddragon]

I mean, Fallout is not know for its food and the restaurant always has a line

I assume the next land will have new things to make money

I'm still pushing for Monsters at this point...it fits the themeing to HP next door, will work for HHN well and maybe even get us a scarezone there and is also a pure Universal IP

They can easily make some new drinks and food and some of the food from Epic can come here

But if this land is getting replaced on how much money the land can make then Pokemon wins because no other land can come close to what Pokemon can sell, Game Bands, Plushes, Cards and digital goods and im sure snacks and food will sell like wild fire

Also Hello Kitty was not known for Food until she opened her cafes....so any IP can become a food IP with the right menu

 

[Viator]

See the reason why I actually think SpongeBob is a non-starter for food, is the fact that Universal Kids had to systematically remove any notion of the Krusty Krab from the layout plans for Kids Texas.

I think if you can't get Krusty Krab, then things might be a bit complicated for SpongeBob.

TBH, I wonder if the solution is more carpet than I think people are realizing. Especially considering, USH is hiring right now for a show director.

If I was thinking logistically, and perhaps in consideration to things the park *needs*, the last major thing the park needs before it can seriously consider growing further, is that of a second live stage show. Replacing The Simpsons Ride with a live theater show on the scale of Untrainable, while reducing it from a consistent throughput to a pulsated "showtime by showtime", would be a really good call for this area. And it'd allow you to potentially genericify Springfield into a Hollywood extension.

 

[bdubsCEO]

I mean, Fallout is not know for its food and the restaurant always has a line

I’d argue Fallout is known for its food, more than a lot of properties at least. Nuka Cola, Rad-Away, Sunset Sarsaparilla, and the various food you get from killing mutant animals are core gameplay elements and major pieces of iconography for the series.

I'm still pushing for Monsters at this point...it fits the themeing to HP next door, will work for HHN well and maybe even get us a scarezone there and is also a pure Universal IP

We need Monsters. I’ve said this a bunch of times, but yeah, I agree. No other IP belongs at USH more than Monsters. I’d almost argue that it’s an emergency that they get it into their park as fast as they can and give it a massive budget.

I don’t actually think it’s coming though. It’s too similar to HP to fit in Simpsons and there isn’t enough space for the type of ride it deserves unless they level a lot of the infrastructure and redesign the entire plot. If it happens, it’ll be on the lower lot in like… 15 years or something ridiculous.

 

[chris.g]

Have any of you considered this is the opposite of what yall are hoping for and they are reinforcing the ground that TSR stands on? Fix that and boom, a license renewal to keep the IP around instead of the R&D for development/ removal is a much better cost/ benefit analysis.

 

[Viator]

Have any of you considered this is the opposite of what yall are hoping for and they are reinforcing the ground that TSR stands on? Fix that and boom, a license renewal to keep the IP around instead of the R&D for development/ removal is a much better cost/ benefit analysis.

What does soil testing and white excavation markers have to do with keeping it around? I had also previously heard USH has actively tried to limit how much spending they wish to give for The Simpsons Ride as a result of them (atleast at the time) not having the intent to keep it past the expiration date.

Perhaps things may of changed as a result, but I have my doubts.

 

[Freak]

Have any of you considered this is the opposite of what yall are hoping for and they are reinforcing the ground that TSR stands on? Fix that and boom, a license renewal to keep the IP around instead of the R&D for development/ removal is a much better cost/ benefit analysis.

Plus, it would buy them more time for a better replacement in the longrun. No inside info here, but I would imagine an expansion would take a bigger priority than replacing Springfield, if Disney does extend the contract.

But if you are correct here, then I think Simpsons/Springfield ranks in more cash than we realize. The food must make them a lot of money if they're willing to keep an aging simulator ride a lot longer for the food to stay.

 

[GA-MBIT]

See the reason why I actually think SpongeBob is a non-starter for food, is the fact that Universal Kids had to systematically remove any notion of the Krusty Krab from the layout plans for Kids Texas.

I think if you can't get Krusty Krab, then things might be a bit complicated for SpongeBob.

That is curious. I hadn't even noticed it before, but across all of the Nickelodeon-themed entertainment venues out there, they've never sold a proper noun Krabby Patty burger before. They never did it at Nick Hotel, Nickelodeon Universe, old-school USF, Comic-Con, anywhere like that.

It seems like a request from the late Stephen Hillenburg himself. He was okay with fast food toys and the gummy candies, but actually serving real burgers was a line he didn't want to cross. It seems like Paramount is less picky, given the Wendy's promotion early this year that included the first official Krabby Patty (a fairly regular wendy's beef burger from what I can tell).

If the rights to sell a Krabby Patty, or to use the name Krusty Krab are somehow really difficult to obtain or a red-line with Paramount, then unfortunately that's a lot of value lost in building out that IP for use in a theme park like Universal. It's a pretty major part of the brand.

As much as I appreciate Hillenburg and his virtue of not directly peddling crappy food to kids, I do think the ship has sailed a bit on that sadly; and as a fan, I can't deny how cool it'd be to have such an iconic food make it to the parks. Best case scenario would be if the heavy emphasis on theming that modern theme parks seems to be striving for could create a proper, high-quality Veggie burger recipe that could hold up to scrutiny. As opposed to what we got with Wendy's, which seemed to get some decent pushback.

While UniKids ditching the Krusty Krab isn't ideal, hopefully stuff like the Wendy's promotion is a sign of new perspectives at Paramount. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but could they have scrapped building the world's first Krusty Krab at a small local-focused kids park because that "World's First"-title could be solid marketing towards a visit to one of their headline parks?



Yeah, probably not.

 

[chris.g]

What does soil testing and white excavation markers have to do with keeping it around? I had also previously heard USH has actively tried to limit how much spending they wish to give for The Simpsons Ride as a result of them (atleast at the time) not having the intent to keep it past the expiration date.

Perhaps things may of changed as a result, but I have my doubts.

Literally everything. The ground the building stands on is eroding, and if anything replaces Simpsons it would be a built from scratch attraction in accordance with modern building codes. The current building is likely grandfathered in, so as long as they can prevent the building from further sinking, its cheaper to reinforce the ground it stands on while keeping the Simpsons contract over terraforming that section of the park.