Frisco, Texas residents express concerns over mini Universal theme park

It's worth noting that Frisco is the epicenter of suburban sprawl in Dallas/Fort Worth. The city's population went from 33,000 in 2000 to around 210,000 last year. It is surrounded by cities with similar growth and the proposed Universal site is at the northern fringe of Frisco development with cities farther out starting to blow up. The area is already completely engulfed with entertainment options: a massive PGA golf resort, an MLS stadium, the Cowboys headquarters. The Cowboys own in a ton of land in Frisco and the assumption is that they will get inevitably tired of their Arlington stadium and build there with a massive financial handout. The horses are way out of the barn when it comes to development in Frisco and the time to shut the door has long passed. And a lot of people in this area are far overestimating the proposal. This looks more like a big outdoor stay and play along the lines of Great Wolf or Kalihari, not a full blown FL style resort with parks.

DFW seems like an odd place to build anything outdoors. It's certainly not the worst place, but it's oppressively hot 4 months of the year and "pretty cold" 2 months of the year. I guess Orlando isn't always perfect, weather-wise, but I assume both locales will only continue to get warmer.

It's the unpredictability of the weather in the area from November to March that makes it so dicey outdoors. We had a low of 10 degrees 2 days before Christmas and the high was 72 degrees 3 days after Christmas. We can have weather like that on back to back days. Several years ago, we had 88 degree temperatures the Saturday after the new year. We've had snow on Easter when it was the last Sunday in March. That's why I never questioned why SFOT didn't go year round for so long. Yes, they could be leaving money on the table if weather is good, but there's always a risk in trying to open in the 2 months of off season that they use to have. At least from May through September, you can almost guarantee it's going to be Satan's asshole and govern your expectations accordingly.

Tokyo Disneyland (and others) operate year round. No reason why this can't work if it's good enough.

bigboy:

least from May through September, you can almost guarantee it's going to be Satan's asshole and govern your expectations accordingly.

It's worked for WDW for 51 years now

I don't think it's a fair comparison. Frisco's July and August temperatures average 95, and routinely exceed 100, with only three days of rain each month. We get rain every day and triple digits are pretty rare because of the ocean and gulf.

Carowinds went to year-round starting the 1st.
And as with all outdoor attractions, it’s weather permitting.

Texas is nothing but strip malls and gentlemen’s clubs.

I don’t know what that has to do with the price of eggs, but I can say that Texas is home to at least 10 full or medium sized amusement or water parks, around 35 smaller or secondary ones, a kick-ass state fair, and hundreds of other fairs and rodeos.
That sounds to me like a lot of things to do (besides strippers) that would interest us.

West Virginia is just like Texas, minus the amusement parks.

...and the size, population density, oppressive late summer heat, and brown, barren landscape.

I lived in Dallas for a job assignment for the past two summers, recently relocating back to the Northeast.

I can’t stress enough how hot it gets there from June-Sept. It’s a different kind of heat. You literally cannot walk around outside for more than a few minutes before overheating. It’s literally oppressive.

And Jeff is right. We would go weeks without any rain during the summer. There’s no cooldown. It’s just as hot as the sun from sun up to sun down. I’ve never felt heat like that in my entire life.

And to Vader’s point, everything in Texas is brown and barren, at least in N. Texas. There’s no green. When you think of Florida, or much of the east coast, you think of lush, green landscape. I missed that in Dallas where everything was brown. Everyone from Texas thinks it’s the greatest place in the world; I never got that for whatever reason. I thought it was ugly, foreign and the people weren’t as nice beneath the surface as everyone thinks. Just because you say y’all every three words doesn’t make you friendly….

Yes, Frisco is booming. Real cool suburb of Dallas. Tons to do and the area has a great vibe. Just wish it didn’t cost $5 in tolls every time I wanted to visit the area.

Admittedly, my only visit to Texas was to the DFW area for a friend’s wedding in early September 2002. My wife (then fiancée) and I hit Six Flags the day after our friends’ respective bachelor and bachelorette parties. Somehow I was able to enjoy the park through the heat and hangover.

It’s a decent area for what it is, there’s certainly no shortage of stuff to do. But I was happy to get back to mountains and greenery. In fact, our friend (the groom) who, like me, is from Virginia, goes nuts over the green landscape every time he comes back here.

I have nothing against the state other than the heat and brown flatness (and the Cowboys); I’d love to check out Austin sometime as I’ve heard it’s a much different vibe.

RCMAC:

Austin is...a blue dot in a red state

Well, no place is perfect.

It would be cool if we could discuss a subject about a US state without crapping all over its residents because of their political beliefs. Somehow my state inexplicably entered the chat earlier.

Florida's the exception, though. Because Florida man.

When those with certain political beliefs can stop discriminating on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation and identity, etc., we can stop calling out political beliefs.

Ok, I'll look forward to more divisive commentary that has nothing to do with the subject at hand then.

I'm not sure why not wanting people to be discriminated against is divisive.

RCMAC:

a blue dot in a red state

Texas really is like many other states. Big cities go blue, the further you get from town they go red. Texas just has a LOT of area away from town. Austin is often cited as the blue dot, but look at the last presidential election. Dallas, Houston, El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth... they are all blue. They're just outnumbered.

Jeff:

I'm not sure why not wanting people to be discriminated against is divisive.

It isn't. Talking **** about an entire state's population is.