Walt Disney World and ESPN will team up to develop studios
at a new sports-themed resort where Disney guests can watch
sports shows being broadcast, the two companies announced
yesterday. ESPN's sports club will highlight Disney's BoardWalk,
a new 45-acre sports-themed resort to be located between EPCOT
and Disney-MGM studios near Orlando. The BoardWalk is scheduled
to open in July 1996. BoardWalk broadens Disney's emphasis on
sports-related themes. ESPN will periodically broadcast its
regular shows, like SportsCenter, from the new studios. In
addition, ESPN plans to use the studios to do nightly reports
during spring training. ESPN spokesperson Rob Tobias: "We're
expanding ESPN's brand name" (Lisa Backman, TAMPA TRIBUNE, 9/30).
BATTLE OF SPORTS BARS: The N.Y. POST reports this morning
that Ken Griffey Jr., Andre Agassi, Joe Montana, Shaquille O'Neal
and Wayne Gretzky are all partners with Planet Hollywood founder
Robert Earl in the upcoming opening of the sports bar: Official
All Star Cafe in New York. The five athletes also plan to open
their cafe in Orlando in March, 1995, more than a year before
ESPN opens its studios in Disney (Paul Tharp, N.Y. POST, 9/30).
