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| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Restaurant and entertainment |
| Founded | July 11, 1998; 27 years ago (1998-07-11) |
| Founder | Art Levitt |
| Defunct | June 2, 2018 (2018-06-02) |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Key people |
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ESPN Zone was atheme restaurant and entertainment centerchain in the United States that includedarcades,TV studios, andradio studios, operated by theDisney Regional Entertainment subsidiary ofWalt Disney Parks and Resorts using theDisney-ownedESPN brand. ESPN Zone was founded by Art Levitt on July 11, 1998 and became defunct on June 2, 2018. While the ESPN Zone name is no longer used, the similarESPN Grill atESPN Wide World of Sports is located within theWalt Disney World complex inBay Lake, Florida with counter service and light theming.ESPN Club atDisney's BoardWalk Resort closed in 2022.[2]
In 1992, Art Levitt conceived of an ESPN/Disney project, while he was Disney Parks and Resorts vice president of resorts and special projects, to increaseDisney's Pleasure Island's attractions. Levitt's concept was "to put an ESPN experience in Disney World". Despite discussions with ESPN, the project was not immediately given the green light. Levitt exited Disney for the CEO post atHard Rock Cafe International. The ESPN Club sports bar, atWalt Disney World with 13,000 square feet of TV screens, was a modest attempt that came from those discussions, and drew enough attendance as a proof of concept.[1] The restaurant opened on July 1, 1996, at theBoardWalk entertainment complex.[3]
A similar project, Sports Center USA, led by Lynda O'Dea working withABC Sports, attempted to get started in the early 1990s with its selected first location at Baltimore'sPower Plant. A lack of financing ended this project that was done in conjunction withCapital Cities/ABC, Inc.[1]
With Disney's purchase ofCapital Cities/ABC in 1996, ESPN was a key part of the purchase, which Disney chair/CEOMichael Eisner then moved into additional brand extensions from biweekly sports magazine, ESPN-themed restaurants, video games toretail stores.[4] With Levitt having the original idea in 1992, Eisner turned to him to head upDisney Regional Entertainment, the subsidiary that would start up and run the chain.[1]
The concept was originally called ESPN Grill when announced in October 1997, with a slate of major city locations scheduled to start withBaltimore, Maryland, in mid-1998 and Chicago in spring 1999.[5] ESPN Grill was renamed on December 29, 1997, to ESPN Zone to connote that there was more to the venue.[6] The first ESPN Zone opened inBaltimore, Maryland, on July 11, 1998, in thePower Plant on theInner Harbor.[7]
The Chicago location opened on July 10, 1999, in the North Bridge development whereDisneyQuest, a fellow Disney Regional chain, opened a month earlier.[8] After the Chicago location opening, there was to be a new location every three months.[1]
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In 2009, Disney Regional Entertainment closed two ESPN Zone locations. A restaurant inDenver closed in June,[9] and another inAtlanta closed in October of that year.[10] The Atlanta location had opened in 2000,[10] while the Denver location opened in 2001.[9] In both cases, Disney Regional Entertainment cited the "economic environment" as the reason for the closures.[9][10]
In June 2010, all but two locations were shuttered, with the remaining restaurants located inSouthern California. As part of the decision by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, through theirDisney Regional Entertainment division, to no longer operate the restaurants in 2010, they sold the rights to operate the location in Anaheim to Zone Enterprises of Anaheim, another Disney subsidiary, and theL.A. Live location toAnschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the L.A. Live complex.
Employees at the Baltimore ESPN Zone filed aclass action lawsuit against Disney and its local subsidiary after the 2010 closing, claiming that Disney had violated theWorker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988. U.S. federal district judgeCatherine C. Blake, in a January 2013 decision, found that Disney and its local subsidiary violated the Act by failing to notify workers of the closing and underpaying them. Disney and the employees settled the lawsuit in November 2013; Disney paid approximately 70 percent of the employees' back pay.[11]
The Los Angeles location, housed in the ESPN West Coast headquarters building, closed in July 2013.
In October 2017, Disney announced plans to replace ESPN Zone and other Downtown Disney vendors at theDisneyland Resort with aresort hotel (which has since been canceled), in conjunction with the opening ofStar Wars: Galaxy's Edge in 2019. The restaurant closed on June 2, 2018.[12][13]
The prototype ESPN Zone was a two-level, 35,000 square foot complex with astadium-like design which could hold 550 customers. People could dine at the bar or restaurant area. 200 TV screens were hung from the walls and ceilings. There were two special rooms, a screening room and a 10,000 square foot arena for actual and virtual game play.[1]
ESPN Zone incorporatedsports news into daily operations. Each shift, all staff were to receive daily sports news briefings.Placemats would be generated daily as a mini-sports page of a newspaper. The chain was to change its exclusive program, games, andmemorabilia regularly.[1]
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All of the ESPN Zone restaurants were equipped to beremote ESPN broadcast locations,[1] though only two were used to house regular series. The Anaheim ESPN Zone was the home ofUnscripted with Chris Connelly, from 2001 to 2002. The ESPN Zone in New York City'sTimes Square was used as the location of theMonday Night Football halftime show for several years. The weekly seriesThe Sports Reporters was broadcast from the Times Square location every Sunday morning from its opening until its closing, at which point the show moved to ESPN's home base inBristol, Connecticut.
Several of the locations also had radio studios, used by the localESPN Radio affiliate and leased to other stations on occasion.
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ESPN Zone hosted the Ultimate Couch Potato Competition, a competitivesitting competition. In 2009, competitions were held in New York, Chicago and Baltimore. The Baltimore winner, Jessica Mosley, unofficially broke theGuinness World Record by sitting and watching consecutive sports for an unprecedented 70 hours, and 45 seconds. She repeated as Baltimore champion in 2010.[14] The 2009 event received attention nationally, as well as from international outlets like the popular Australian television showSunrise. Jeff Miller, the 2010 winner in Chicago, broke an ESPN Zone record and also unofficially broke theGuinness World Record by watching 72 hours of non-stop sports and his third win in the competition.[15]
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Owners:Walt Disney Company (80%);Hearst Communications (20%) | |||||||||||||||||||
