Universal Orlando has a highly anticipated new park coming to Orlando, Florida, called Epic Universe. It would have a central hub that branched off into various themed lands like Nintendo, Universal Monsters, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and How to Train Your Dragon.
The company has just paused construction on the project to help offset the potential cost of $500 million if they have to remain closed the entire second quarter of the year.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, those plans could push the current 2023 opening back, but it’s not clear by how much. But Orange County mayor Jerry Demings has indicated it could be delayed by a year.
“What they said to me was that their overall construction project is going to be delayed by a year, however, they’re going to continue with $300 plus million in construction that is really underway at this time. In terms of the impact on our economy, there still would be a robust construction activity centered around that development itself.”
During the first quarter investor call today the company indicated that their revenue had dropped 32% from the same time period in 2019. Going from almost $1.3 billion to $869 million.
Currently, Universal Orlando is still paying their full-time employees 80% wages but that was only to last until early May.
Comcast does have the advantage to not being as dependant on crowds like Disney does for both it’s parks and films. They can likely bounce back quicker and were continuing construction up until recently.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts echoed this by “assuring investors the company is in a good position to navigate the coronavirus as it has more than $15 billion in liquidity. Like many companies, Comcast has raised money through debt offerings to have more cash on hand.”
We will see what happens in the next few months. Epic Universe is something many are looking forward too. Hopefully it doesn’t face a long delay or cutbacks.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
Source: Orlando Sentinel
Pirates & Princesses (PNP) is an independent, opinionated fan-powered news blog that covers Disney and Universal Theme Parks, Themed Entertainment and related Pop Culture from a consumer's point of view. Opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of PNP, its editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. PNP is an unofficial news source and has no connection to The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal or any other company that we may cover.