So, today on the podcast, we start our monthly news stories.

We have one long article today that covers a number of projects and concepts, and next week

we'll have a handful of shorter articles about a range of issues, but as for today, let's set

it up like this.

Over the last few weeks, we have looked at Disney's history with mini parks and

regional installations proposed for the US and elsewhere. Most of these weren't built and

those that were built largely didn't lead to long-term ongoing success. But now in

2025 in the themed entertainment business we're about to see a wave of experimental

new theme parks from large entertainment companies that fall under the same category, smaller

regional parks with top shelf IP.

This week we'll take a look at what Universal is doing with a couple of

small parks that they're about to open, though there are some interesting movements from

other companies that will touch on next week. The big questions that we have for today are,

how do Universal's new regional offerings

change the theme park landscape in the US?

How will they affect Disney's plans moving forward?

What exactly are they offering?

What are the likely barriers to these new Universal Park success?

And with certain and soft political notes mixed into their development

plans, how might these modest Universal Parks remake the battleground between Universal and

Disney? But before I get to all of that, I need to thank another round of Bandcamp subscribers. If you're a regular listener

here, you already know that we're an ad-free listener-supported podcast. I'm grateful to all of our

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