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Potential New Universal UK Park

havaska said:
According to the forums at Inside Universal, both the domains UniversalStudiosGreatBritain and UniversalStudiosBritain have been registered by NBC. Other variants ie UniversalStudiosFrance are available.
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By that, do you mean that Universal has only registered Britain? Or that they've also registered France?
 
It looks like they might also own 'UniversalStudiosUK.co.uk' but not 'UniversalStudiosLondon.co.uk' so might be a hint that they're looking at a site outside London?

If you want to check for yourself you can do so here: https://www.whois.com/whois/universalstudiosuk.co.uk Check under 'Name servers' and you'll see the domains currently point to name servers hosted at 'nbcuni.com' which directs to NBCUniversal's corporate site. The domains are registered with a company called MarkMonitor which handles domain registrations for large corporations. 'universalorlando.com' and 'universalstudioshollywood.com' are also registered with MarkMonitor so Universal do use them, however those domains point to different nameservers (imo this is probably just because the UK domains aren't actually in use yet and the nbcuni.com nameservers are just placeholders)

That said, its also possible that someone else has registered the domains and set those nameservers, if you own a domain you can point it towards any nameserver address you want. Additionally, the registrant contact details are redacted, this is quite common these days so I wouldn't read into it too much but if you search for the Orlando or Hollywood domains you'll see that they do return contact details for Universal. This could be because Universal want to hide their ownership of these domains for now, or it could be because they're owned by someone else.

So, while this is certainly intriguing (and potentially very exciting!), its entirely possible that these domains have nothing to do with Universal.

Edit to add: After posting I realised I'd only been looking at the .co.uk variants *facepalm* but it looks like the .com variants for universalstudiosbritain.com and universalstudiosgreatbritain.com do actually return Universal's contact details. So it appears those ones are legit!
 
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For what it’s worth, the “domain administrator” is also listed as NBCUniversal and points to their actual address…

The domains were also registered in September, back before this rumour was even public…
 
The perfect site would be outside of the greater London area but with good transport links into it. The Futher you go from the capital the cheaper the land would be. It's pure speculation but an old industrial site such as a power station, Quarry or chemical works would be a good shout as it would be transforming old industrial land and would swerve some of the environmental issues that plagued London resort.
 
The best site would be outside of the UK entirely. This is hardly a smoking gun. Owing to how absurd the very idea of all this is, only when JCB's start digging things up flanked by Universal executives wearing hard hats with blueprints in their hands will I believe it. Is it not quite normal, and indeed good business practice, for large organisations to purchase as many domains relating to the names of their brands as possible? Otherwise they end up with situations like B&Q now being stuck with the domain 'DIY.com'?
 
Matt.GC said:
The best site would be outside of the UK entirely. This is hardly a smoking gun. Owing to how absurd the very idea of all this is, only when JCB's start digging things up flanked by Universal executives wearing hard hats with blueprints in their hands will I believe it. Is it not quite normal, and indeed good business practice, for large organisations to purchase as many domains relating to the names of their brands as possible? Otherwise they end up with situations like B&Q now being stuck with the domain 'DIY.com'?
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Why is it absurd? Why can't we get a brand new theme park in the UK? Germany, Poland Belgium all have top theme parks with similar climates. Spain, France and Italy to a lesser extent are all well catered for. I don't get this concept we can't have anything new in the UK we just have to make do with what we have and be grateful for it.
 
Matt.GC said:
Is it not quite normal, and indeed good business practice, for large organisations to purchase as many domains relating to the names of their brands as possible? Otherwise they end up with situations like B&Q now being stuck with the domain 'DIY.com'?
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Possibly, but I’d argue that the fact that they’ve only purchased a domain name for the UK, and not for other European countries like France or Germany, might make this possibility less likely. Surely if they were doing as you suggest, we’d have seen domain name purchases for other European countries too? Particularly if, as you and others commonly infer, these countries have far more going for them on paper than the UK?

Personally, I’m cautiously optimistic about this rumour. Yes, we’ve been burned before by similar rumours and even similar officially announced projects. Yes, the UK has quite a bit working against it on paper.

However, some of the insiders over on Inside Universal who are spreading the rumour are very trustworthy for stuff like this. There’s also other potential evidence in favour of a project, such as the holding company, Universal’s $271m land purchase and these domain names. I’d also argue that there is also plenty going for the UK as a country, and there may be other variables such as government initiatives that we may not know about.

I’m not saying that it’s a given by any stretch (history would suggest that this would be very rash at this stage…), but I’m certainly feeling optimistic!
 
Matt N said:
Possibly, but I’d argue that the fact that they’ve only purchased a domain name for the UK, and not for other European countries like France or Germany, might make this possibility less likely.
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Waiting till 2023 to purchase said domains to protect their brand seems quite random too.
 
Relife said:
Why is it absurd? Why can't we get a brand new theme park in the UK? Germany, Poland Belgium all have top theme parks with similar climates. Spain, France and Italy to a lesser extent are all well catered for. I don't get this concept we can't have anything new in the UK we just have to make do with what we have and be grateful for it.
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For everyone's sanity, not wanting to post repetitive things that bore everyone (and will likely get ignored anyway because that's how excitable closed season speculative chat generally works, I say this slightly affectionately) and to keep the thread moving, there's a very exhaustive list of factors as to why this is an absurd suggestion, that I won't keep spamming wholesale. Feel free to have a look back and pick out any particular points for debate if you wish. But to summarise, there's various reasons as to why DLP wasn't built here, why London Resort was never ever going to happen, and many more factors that weren't present then, but are present now which make this even more unlikely.

That said, there could be a rational explanation for all of this, and that's what I'm trying to look for. I don't for one minute believe that some geezer spouting something on the internet is a "reliable source", neither do I think it's worthy of 6 pages of discussion. But hey, closed season and all that so it's all good fun and a clock is right twice a day. Maybe, if there is a morsel of truth, how about the possibility of a small, midway style studios like attraction is planned? I could see that being plausible. Some big, super duper new world class park with 300ft tall B&M's kissing the clouds built on land only costing less than 250m quid I think is impossible. But I wouldn't rule out something far smaller being planned, if anything is at all as we still have very little to go by.
 
Matt.GC said:
Maybe, if there is a morsel of truth, how about the possibility of a small, midway style studios like attraction is planned? I could see that being plausible.
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If we're fantasy building (which we probably are), i'd love this and it does still make a lot of sense. A mostly (or even all) indoor park with some of the big Universal attractions as the selling point and tie it in to the Harry Potter UK aspect.

Building an indoor park also presumably bypasses a lot of the planning issues as it's essentially the same as building a shopping centre and you don't need an attractive location.

Warner Movie World is basically Westfield/Ikea/Amazon and has some fantastic rides.

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To counteract some of the cynicism, I’d argue that there are some reasons why Universal might choose the UK over other European countries:
  • Cultural ties to the USA: This might seem like an odd point to raise, but I’d argue that the UK has closer cultural ties to the USA than other European countries. This might be important to an American behemoth like Universal. You cannot successfully force an American export upon a country that doesn’t want it, and I think Disneyland Paris is perfect proof of this. It’s safe to say that DLP went down like a lead balloon in France. From complaints from French media about it being a “cultural Chernobyl” to eggings and “Mickey go home” signs at official events, the French made it very well known that they were not on board with DLP. This is widely considered to have been a significant factor in DLP’s initial failure and financial woes. As such, I’d wager that Universal would view DLP as a cautionary tale and go for a country that may be more accepting of American culture. With our close cultural ties to America in many regards, I’d argue that Britain would be a good fit compared to other European countries.
  • Lack of competition in terms of large-scale international resorts: Unlike other large countries in Europe, the UK does not have any large-scale international resort that would potentially pose a threat to Universal. If Universal were to build in France, they’d be muscling in on Disney’s turf, which would be a definite threat. If Universal were to build in Germany, they’d have Europa Park to contend with, and while EP does not have quite the same brand recognition, it is still a large-scale resort getting 6 million guests per year and attracting significant international visitation. If Universal were to build in the Benelux, they’d be competing with Efteling, a large-scale resort getting over 5 million guests per year and attracting notable international visitation. If Universal were to build in Spain, they’d be fighting with PortAventura, a large-scale resort getting 4 million guests per year and attracting significant international visitation. Whereas in the UK, you don’t really have any parks of a similar ilk. Yes, there’s Alton Towers, but the park is not on the same scale as any of the above in terms of visitor numbers and does not attract significant international visitation. None of the other parks in the UK can lay substantial claim to being a “resort”, particularly one that attracts significant international visitation. That’s not a criticism of the Merlin parks; they simply aren’t on the same scale and don’t target the international pound in quite the same way as the parks above. As such, I think Universal could view there as being more of a gap in the market in the UK.
  • Britain is the home of Harry Potter: This is admittedly a slightly more spurious argument, particularly seeing as Universal may not even use Potter. However, Harry Potter is arguably Universal’s golden goose in terms of IPs. With Britain being the home of Harry Potter, surely a Potter attraction in the home of Potter is a no brainer in terms of money making?
I’m not saying that a Universal park in Britain is a given or that they’d necessarily build a massive park in Britain. The insiders are saying that “the UK park is to be a full-size park”, but that could equally mean a Studios park more on the smaller scale of Hollywood or Singapore.

However, I do feel that there are good reasons why Universal might choose Britain for a ground-up European park over other European countries.
 
Matt N said:
Britain is the home of Harry Potter: This is admittedly a slightly more spurious argument, particularly seeing as Universal may not even use Potter. However, Harry Potter is arguably Universal’s golden goose in terms of IPs. With Britain being the home of Harry Potter, surely a Potter attraction in the home of Potter is a no brainer in terms of money making?
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Assuming Warner Bros allow it. Not sure on the terms of the licensing between WB and Uni but its possible they won't permit it in the UK due to the studio tour already existing.
 
jon81uk said:
Assuming Warner Bros allow it. Not sure on the terms of the licensing between WB and Uni but its possible they won't permit it in the UK due to the studio tour already existing.
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That’s very possible, and precisely why I said that the Potter argument was a more spurious one. I was also thinking that Universal may not use Potter in order to prevent the cannibalisation of visitors to the Orlando resort.
 
Matt.GC said:
But hey, closed season and all that so it's all good fun and a clock is right twice a day. Maybe, if there is a morsel of truth, how about the possibility of a small, midway style studios like attraction is planned? I could see that being plausible. Some big, super duper new world class park with 300ft tall B&M's kissing the clouds built on land only costing less than 250m quid I think is impossible. But I wouldn't rule out something far smaller being planned, if anything is at all Maybe, if there is a morsel of truth, how about the possibility of a small, midway style studios like attraction is planned? I could see that being plausible. Some big, super duper new world class park with 300ft tall B&M's kissing the clouds built on land only costing less than 250m quid I think is impossible. But I wouldn't rule out something far smaller being planned, if anything is at all as we still have very little to go by.
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That’s what I exposed in my previous post.

I think Universal is looking to expand aggressively in the theme park industry (that's no rumor) with maybe smaller, strategic and more “realistic” ventures like the Texas and Las Vegas parks. Or buying parks that already exists and are profitable like PA.

Also by judging the most recent events I think they are in fact interested in considering the possibility by any chance of maybe building one of those parks in UK. Whether or not it comes to fruition we’ll see as we’re far from that but it’s good news.
 
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