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London Entertainment Resort: All Discussion

I'm still holding out hope! Come on guys! Don't lose hope! This will eventually open! Even if it opens in the year 2104, it will eventually open! You can see the devotion in the whole team! They would have pulled the plug a long time ago if it wasn't going to open.
 
£10 million spent so far, all we have seen is a handful of slide show images. Images that are no longer useable for any development.

Not gonna happen now if ever.
 
Without Paramount it's clear it's a moot project that doesn't know the direction that it's going. Universal would seem to be the only real hope the project has left to match the concept design. It's quite tragic how the British GP seem to only value IP at the moment. It's so unoriginal and lacks the creative flair needed to create the best theme parks. Pirates of the Caribbean is such a fantastic dark ride, it took a historical, energetic and exciting theme and delivered everything that it wanted to. It was that good that it inspired them to make the films, when usually you expect it to be the other way around. That's what every theme park project should be aiming to do. And what a pity it was Walt Disney's last project as well.
 
Even with the Paramount name attached it was still a moot project that didn't know what direction was forward, it's easy to forget every IP attached to the project (Paramount included) was simply bought in by the bored oil rich Prince to make the project look better than it was, and any year 10 business studies student could have told them it was never going to make a profit (assuming it was intended to make one and wasn't some elaborate tax write off). I think I once worked out based on their own projected profits it would take 115 years to repay the original capital used to build the place, and that didn't take into account any compound interest or refinancing.

We may bemoan Merlin for their sometimes crazy ideas, but this lot were in a completely different universe when it came to self delusion.
 
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IanSR said:
Even with the Paramount name attached it was still a moot project that didn't know what direction was forward, it's easy to forget every IP attached to the project (Paramount included) was simply bought in by the bored oil rich Prince to make the project look better than it was, and any year 10 business studies student could have told them it was never going to make a profit (assuming it was intended to make one and wasn't some elaborate tax write off). I think I once worked out based on their own projected profits it would take 115 years to repay the original capital used to build the place, and that didn't take into account any compound interest or refinancing.

We may bemoan Merlin for their sometimes crazy ideas, but this lot were in a completely different universe when it came to self delusion.
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I actually think the Paramount involvement in the project was... pretty paramount for it going ahead. Sadly for the family target market, it's proven time and time again that it's the damn IP that's bringing in the profits (as much as it's unfortunate and we want something more original it's true) and it does make all the difference. Without it, you may as well be certain it's a failed investment.
I don't think they could project their profits on that kind of time scale either. Was this on the basis that the amount of attractions, food outlets, entrance fees, car parking fees and other sources of revenue would be static over a lengthy period of time? In saying that, it's good that you have financial data about this (I sadly don't), I'd be interested to know how liquid the assets are in this project. Is the consortium/shareholders able to pay off the debts incurred from the original investment in to the project easily? This would make all the difference on it being worthwhile IMO, as some of those rich folks involved with all the investment banks would surely have no issue paying that cash regardless of future dividends because of how filthy rich they are, so long as they are easily able to pay it. Any source of data would be great. :)
 
The data is probably long gone, all I did was took the profit figures quoted in one of their press releases and worked out how many times that divided into the claimed cost to build the resort, it's not very technical or scientific, I've seen this kind of pipe dream before, StefanGP is one name that immediately springs to mind.
 
I've been following this from a football point of view as my local team are a divisional rival to Ebbsfleet. I've been wondering if this similar to what forest green were doing with ecotricity and whether they would declare the losses of the club against the park. (if it was profitable of course).

Anyway as below £35m has been spent so far for nothing. I would love someone to swoop in and save this but unless the Mack family or Universal find some spare change down the sofa this isn't happening.

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent-bu...clusive-paramount-park-deal-collapses-127581/

The theme park plans have been financially backed by Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi, the Kuwaiti chairman and owner of Ebbsfleet United Football Club, since 2013.

Accounts at Companies House show his company KEH has ploughed £35 million into the resort plans so far.
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Towerslover said:
Anybody know where they managed to get £10 million pounds from? The whole thing just doesn't make sense!
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Lets get a bit of perspective here. If it is £10m, or £35m - that's not a lot of money as far as the scope of the project goes. £35m is about 1% of the project's total budget - I am not sure why anyone is surprised that there have been no shovels in the ground after such measly expenditure. If you are having an extension built on your house, you'll pay an architect and the planners a not insignificant percentage of your total budget for seemingly nothing, but its part of the pre-requisites for what you're doing.

The work that is occurring at the moment is part of an extensive exercise to determine if the project is feasible and will be profitable. For that, you need a staff base and a wealth of consultancy services - that isn't cheap, particularly when you don't have synergies with a company that is able to do a lot of these things in house. (Merlin can borrow from existing internal resources when they open a new LEGOLAND park, for example).

This is not RCT or Planet Coaster.
 
Also, all material/letters they have posted out thus far have been on very high quality paper/card; that doesn't come cheap! :p
 
On a random but still-on-topic note, when did optimism start to plunge for this project? Because back in 2014, you all seemed so certain it was going to happen.
 
I'm still optimistic that this will eventually happen. The people building it seem like a devoted bunch, and I think that if they were going to pull the plug, they would have pulled the plug when Paramount left. They've worked too hard and through too much adversity to give up now! I will genuinely be gutted if this gets cancelled. This park is an opportunity for a major leap forward in the British amusement industry that Merlin can't give us. It could push the UK into the big leagues of Europe, and possibly even... the world. Well, Alton Towers is a well-known park by enthusiasts worldwide, but it's more of a high-end regional park, in my opinion.

One thing I do worry about if this project happens, though, is the impact on visitation to Orlando theme parks. British people make up a large segment of the visitors to Orlando theme parks, and if London Resort opens, they might think that because they've got a Disney/Universal scale park in Britain, they don't need to visit Orlando. It's already being branded as "the British Disneyland" by the press!
 
I want to feel optimisistic about this, and the amount of money already been invested makes me feel this way. But I can't help but think it won't happen due to all the setbacks and external factors :(
 
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