ESPN Zone
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| Division | |
| Industry | restaurant and entertainment |
| Founded | July 11, 1998 |
| Founder | Art Levitt |
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Key people
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| Website | Official website |
ESPN Zone is a themed restaurant and entertainment center located at Downtown Disney in the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, United States that included arcades, TV studios, and radio studios. Original, this was a restaurant chain in the United States operated by Disney Regional Entertainment subsidiary of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts using the Disney-owned ESPN brand. Similar, still-operating restaurants include the ESPN Club at Disney's BoardWalk Inn and the ESPN Grill at ESPN Wide World of Sports, both located within the Walt Disney World complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
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 increase Disney's Pleasure Island's attractions. Levitt's concept was "to put an ESPN experience in Disney World". Despite discussions with ESPN, the project did not immediately given the green light. Levitt exited Disney for the CEO post at Hard Rock Cafe International. The ESPN Club sports bar, at Walt Disney World with 13,000 square feet of TV screens, was a modest attempt that came from those discussion plus drew enough as a proof of concept. The restaurant opened on July 1, 1996 at the Boardwalk entertainment complex.
A similar project, Sports Center USA, led by Lynda O'Dea attempted to get started for four years in the early 1990s with its selected first location was Baltimore's Power Plant. A lack of financing ended this project that was done in conjunction with Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.
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