It looks like Houston will finally get something to replace AstroWorld; Earth Quest Adventures is expected to open in 2012 and it sounds/looks pretty awesome, so far. What initially started out as a 50 acre dinosaur themed museum/exhibit, has grown into a huge theme park. At 250 acres, it'll also be the biggest theme park in Texas and one of the largest in the country. It's expected to rival the current largest attraction in Texas http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2009/02/13/kingwood_observer/news/08realtor.txt http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2007/07/09/daily57.html?jst=b_ln_hl Some early pics
That Disney buying land, and variations have been around forever, even before AstroWorld closed. Now with this opening up, I doubt Disney is planning to build anything near here. I think this park will be the perfect place to spend time on 12/21/12. Might as well have some fun before the world ends.
When Walt Disney bought a chunk of land in Orlando, it was also in the middle of nowhere and far away from everything. People also said that no one would travel that far to go to his theme park.
And Walt is dead, and this ain't his company. BTW- The Disney Corp. has land all over the country, basically for investment purposes, not to develop.
The Disney parks have a built-in audience of several million international fans of Disney TV shows and movies. That's 24/7 promotion. The park just doesn't have the power without aan Earth Quest Adventure tv channels, and Earth Quest movies coming out all the time.
Although Earth History and land, sky, water... are all universally part of our human experience. I just think it's a bit of a stretch to expect it to be a hit... unless it has awesome rides and attractions.
Nobody is saying this is going to rival Disney in popularity, but it doesn't have to to be a success. It's going to be the biggest theme park in Texas, and be located near one of the largest cities in the US, which also happens to have no competing theme park. I think there it has a great chance at succeeding.
I doubt this actually gets built. TheGM, I agree with you if this comes to fruition. Being located close to Houston and within driving distance of the Metroplex is huge. I don't know the economics on theme parks, but I'm gonna guess local/regional support is every bit as important as "tourist" traffic.