NBA Experience opens at Disney Springs August 12th

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I watched a vloggers video of the press event (Tim Tracker) and it was a good glimpse inside of all the activities and layout of the place.

I have seen similar "experiences" when you go to other pro sporting events, like All-Star games or such (but those are temporary).

Feels like an experience that would be more at home at the NBA Hall of Fame, or at a team's stadium or a traveling experience that goes with the NBA all-star game ... not a giant building at a Disney vacation destination. *shrug*.

Seems like if they just wanted to promote the NBA they should just let people in and try these experiences for free. They look fun .. but for a short period of time. (I would think even at free this place would not get a lot of visitors).

It just seems it has a VERY limited demographic at the current price point. But hey .. people spend more money on Disney dessert parties, so what do I know?

I enjoyed Tim Tracker's vlog.

I think this will be a cool experience for boys (also girls, but more boys) ;)

The price, however...... kind of high in my opinion.
 
We were at DS this past weekend and stepped into the store portion of the NBA Experience just to check it out. TBF I am no basketball fan. But the store was nice and had a variety of merchandise.

What impressed me most was the lack of any real marketing/draw for the "experience" itself. There were no exciting posters/videos or any other marketing material that I noticed that would draw me into wanting to know more about what was beyond the tapstyles. And no CMs chatting us up trying to engage us to find out more. Only a rather bland entranceway beyond the check-in desk, and a few kiosks of unknown purpose. I was left wondering what the heck the place was about (until I watched a video after I left), and how Disney did not work with the NBA to put a little more oompf into the presentation for this thing?
 


We were at DS this past weekend and stepped into the store portion of the NBA Experience just to check it out. TBF I am no basketball fan. But the store was nice and had a variety of merchandise.

What impressed me most was the lack of any real marketing/draw for the "experience" itself. There were no exciting posters/videos or any other marketing material that I noticed that would draw me into wanting to know more about what was beyond the tapstyles. And no CMs chatting us up trying to engage us to find out more. Only a rather bland entranceway beyond the check-in desk, and a few kiosks of unknown purpose. I was left wondering what the heck the place was about (until I watched a video after I left), and how Disney did not work with the NBA to put a little more oompf into the presentation for this thing?

Ironically IMO that's part of what killed DisneyQuest, nothing outside that really drew people in
 
I can say with 100% certainty that my 2 ds would rather spend each day of our vacation here.
It would totally work for me, I'd save a bundle not having to buy them park tickets for a week. :scratchin
 
I think this will flop a lot more than Disney Quest ever did
I don't see the draw here ??
I actually liked Disney Quest, it was our Rainy-Day destination, along with the movies.
I doubt I will be paying to enter this but I hope Disney can make it work for them.
 


My family went to the NBA Experience Friday the 16th - rainy day in Clearwater Beach so we decided to go up to Disney Springs solely because of the place. While up there we ended up getting tickets for the Halloween Party after hearing it wasn’t sold out yet.

We have a 12 year old daughter and 9 year old son, they had a blast as my wife and I did as well. We were all able to participate in the activities (albeit the dunk section was more of a layup section for the three of them) and had a ton of fun doing so. The five shots in 15 seconds will get your competitive juices flowing, and you’ll probably want to go through multiple times. Spent probably 90 minutes there but could’ve easily spent another hour or so there if we hadn’t purchased the Halloween party tix.

Surprisingly, the photos are free to download as you wish, we were expecting them to be add on cost, that was a nice thing even though we took our own photos as well.

This will most likely be an every trip destination for us.
 
Anyone know how this is doing? There was a lot of buzz then it got quiet. I read where attendance was low a while back but cant remember if it was from a rumor site or actual data.
 
I wish it had opened when we were there in July/Aug! My son is NBA 24/7 and would have loved it. He did get a 76ers hat.
 
Attendance is not good. AP discounts have started and there are some tickets now that include it.
I just wonder what they expected the attendance to be? You would think a marketer somewhere would have had some data on the demand for such an experience? We here dont have the data, but it doesnt seem like a surprise that no one is going (especially after seeing the price and what is in it) >>>

Or does attendance not really matter? Is the giant building enough of a promotional advertisement for the NBA and Disney(ESPN)? Shrug.

Or maybe it is still just too new?

I am sure it will exist for a long time no matter the attendance.
 
I just wonder what they expected the attendance to be? You would think a marketer somewhere would have had some data on the demand for such an experience? We here dont have the data, but it doesnt seem like a surprise that no one is going (especially after seeing the price and what is in it) >>>

Or does attendance not really matter? Is the giant building enough of a promotional advertisement for the NBA and Disney(ESPN)? Shrug.

Or maybe it is still just too new?

I am sure it will exist for a long time no matter the attendance.
I'm amazed they went ahead with this project given the abject failure of a very similar NFL project in Times Square. Both are tourist destinations, both went with massive structures, both tried combinations of in-house games and HOF type exhibits. Both had stupid pricing policies. The difference is the NFL is vastly more popular, Times Square has a much larger non-tourist population to draw from, and the NFL version could have been a day trip for the whole tri-state region with mass transit options. Disney's version is inferior in every way, and the NFL version croaked in about 6 months.

Why anyone thought this would work is completely beyond me. I get they paid a fortune for the NBA on ESPN. I get the NBA is incredibly popular and growing in the U.S. and even more globally. But this idea was way out on a limb and they had a perfectly good example that it wasn't a good limb to be on.
 
I wonder why they decided to go exclusively with NBA, is there some kind of deal going on between Disney and the NBA. I would think a multiple sport experience would adhere to a much larger audience. Why not offer NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB?
 
I'm amazed they went ahead with this project given the abject failure of a very similar NFL project in Times Square. Both are tourist destinations, both went with massive structures, both tried combinations of in-house games and HOF type exhibits. Both had stupid pricing policies. The difference is the NFL is vastly more popular, Times Square has a much larger non-tourist population to draw from, and the NFL version could have been a day trip for the whole tri-state region with mass transit options. Disney's version is inferior in every way, and the NFL version croaked in about 6 months.

Why anyone thought this would work is completely beyond me. I get they paid a fortune for the NBA on ESPN. I get the NBA is incredibly popular and growing in the U.S. and even more globally. But this idea was way out on a limb and they had a perfectly good example that it wasn't a good limb to be on.

Yeah, it seems like it might have worked as a smaller experience with a smaller footprint and smaller admission price, but it seems overblown for what it really is. It's like, I wanted it to be exciting, but it just isn't. I like the store. Maybe they can re-purpose part of the building and slim down the offerings a little?
 
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