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Real Madrid World | Hala Madrid | GCI Wooden Hybrid Coaster | 2024

This is really surprising. When I was at Riverland two weeks ago, the park was closed because of Ramadan and the homepage really sounded like they were just planning improvements in the park. But that the parks have a poor performance is not a secret. My guess is that they picked the Bollywood theme because of the cultural proximity and hoping that Indian Expats working in tech companies or elsewhere would visit the park.

My feeling is, that bigger names (Warner Brothers and Ferrariland) are working better. Actually this could mean that the Real Madrid park could be something that we could see, although I totally hate this idea as someone who doesn't find anything interesting in football.
 
The Indian population in UAE is almost 40% of the whole population of the country.
Bollywood as a theme should have worked brilliantly but i feel they priced it way too high for the majoirty of Indians in the country who are low paid workers in jobs like construction and retail. When your paid around 1000AED a month a ticket of 200 to 300AED is a lot of money.
Another issue i imagine is that a lot of Indian workers (At least in my experience) are single men sending money home to India. Not families (although there are those too) which would be the parks ideal demographic in terms of spending.
 
I am too really surprised, that they close the park that late. I thought they would close it right after the Expo. But than again, all the other parks are still open, which half of them should have closed a long time ago.
 
I only just heard this a couple of days ago. I’m stunned. As has been mentioned, I hope it’s going to be a re-theme and re-opening.

I am glad I got to visit. I thought the park was a lot of fun. The food was good, the many shows were what you’d expect from a Bollywood park, and some rides were fun — especially the Lagaan ride.
 
Is there any sort of construction activity to be seen or is it looking all the same from outside? The said the Real Madrid park would open late 2023 and I guess we're bound to see some sort of construction and retheming going forward, no?
 
bratcurry said:
Is there any sort of construction activity to be seen or is it looking all the same from outside? The said the Real Madrid park would open late 2023 and I guess we're bound to see some sort of construction and retheming going forward, no?
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Didn't notice anything but I don't know what it normally looks like. The whole area is dead, there's like 6 restaurants still open in the shopping area that joins the parks, and dozens of closed shop fronts. We maybe saw 20 other people in all of Motiongate and the hotel we're at here is almost empty.

No cranes or workers about that I noticed
 
Geeky Pastimes said:
Didn't notice anything but I don't know what it normally looks like. The whole area is dead, there's like 6 restaurants still open in the shopping area that joins the parks, and dozens of closed shop fronts. We maybe saw 20 other people in all of Motiongate and the hotel we're at here is almost empty.

No cranes or workers about that I noticed
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June is well outside the tourist season, though.
 
MestnyiGeroi said:
June is well outside the tourist season, though.
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This is true, but we visited Ferrari World, Warner Bros World, Sea World and then Motiongate in the same week and none of the other parks were anywhere near as quiet. There was a huge difference between Yas Island (still short queues for any thrill coasters but busy in the family areas and lots of restaurants open and doing well) and Dubai Parks and Resorts (absolute ghost town, nearly every food and retail outlet completely closed/abandoned with signage taken down)
 
Well its actually happening, a theme park themed to football: https://rcdb.com/18310.htm /
https://twitter.com/x/status/1725061141187920092

I'd laugh or barf if it wasn't for the curiosity of the Bombay Express getting another chance to actually open after all these years. Also the slightly silly hope that the masses who love the game translate to visitors that turn around the trajectory of the Dubai Parks and Resorts.
 
emoo said:
Well its actually happening, a theme park themed to football: https://rcdb.com/18310.htm /
https://twitter.com/x/status/1725061141187920092

I'd laugh or barf if it wasn't for the curiosity of the Bombay Express getting another chance to actually open after all these years. Also the slightly silly hope that the masses who love the game translate to visitors that turn around the trajectory of the Dubai Parks and Resorts.
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*ahem* ;)


Whatever keeps the park operational I guess - definitely an interesting flex, but no moreso than having a park themed to Dreamworks IP... which is also is located in Dubai. 😅
 
Yea I think Dubai parks and resorts was in big trouble the moment Universal pulled out and another big park didn’t replace them.

Probably hasn’t helped with the Palm Jebel Ali being pretty much abandoned up until now either.

Dubai parks needed that big crowd puller to get people to visit the resort, the current parks just don’t have that draw.

I know plenty of people who have made the effort to travel to Abu Dhabi from Dubai just to visit Ferrari World & Warner Brothers yet have never considered Bollywood, Motiongate or Legoland.

I guess Real Madrid park is their effort of getting a big name park in but I can’t see that working either. They should have got the new Sea World rather than Abu Dhabi.

I think if these parks were anywhere other than Dubai they would have been bulldozed a while ago.
 
Also, the Steelers coaster is located a measly 100 miles away from their arena whereas the Real Madrid Park is more than 3500 miles away from their home turf. And the NFL is a way bigger market than La Liga. 😂
 
I'm really not sure about Football being a cohesive theme for a theme park.

Ferrari - I get it, Dreamworks - 100%, but Football - what really could they theme stuff around?

It would be a hard push for a land, let alone a whole park!
 
If it doesn't have one of these, I'll be livid:


In all seriousness, though. It is a slightly odd mix... but it's just going to work. I think a lot of people saying 'I don't see how it can work', doesn't really have the mindset of a storyteller. There's a lot of strands of narrative within the world of football that you can weave into a theme park setting. If anything, this park is completely geared up for that - it's predominantly a show and dark-ride led park.

Football skills, freestyling, individual player narratives, speed, agility, Madrid (as a city), fast cars (synonymous with players) - when you start to break down what you think of football, and footballers and don't just rely on FOOTBALL as a game, it opens itself up to a lot more fun.

A good example of the creative freedom you can have is looking at Ferrari World. At the heart of it, it's fast cars. But, they've managed to create some great storylines by picking individual strands of narrative from the theme and run with it. Look at Mission Ferrari for example.

Another way to do this is by creating a character, or using a mascot character (let's say a bear). They could save the day from 'baddies' utilising football as their defence weapon of choice. It's really easy to create narratives with that mindset.

Not to mention that Real Madrid's sponsors are more than likely going to be inputting into this, of which you have: adidas, BMW and EA Sports to name a few.
 
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