The Spirit of EPCOT Center

As difficult as it is to comprehend, try your best to imagine the current Walt Disney Company spending 37 Billion Dollars on a single project. Yes,... THIRTY-SEVEN BILLION Dollars! What could possibly be worth such a staggering amount of investment? How on Earth could one begin to justify such a financially risky endeavor!? And what bank would even entertain such a proposal longer than a single millisecond?

By now, you should be getting (at least) a small idea about the gravitas EPCOT Center held for Walt Disney Productions in 1982. For the “theme park” cost was roughly 50% of the net worth of the Company in 1982. By comparison, the (very conservatively estimated) $6.5M Shanghai Disneyland, is less than 9% of the company today.

So why did, Card Walker approve of such an ambitious project?  Although not explicitly stated, the following video does give some sense as to the enormously altruistic aspirations everyone involved with EPCOT Center was striving for. 

Featuring (in order of appearance) 
Donn Tatum, Tony Baxter, Ken Anderson, Marty Sklar, 
John Hench, Randy Bright, Dr. Alan Yarnell, Ray Bradbury, 
Dr. Carl Hodges, Bob McCarthy, Ward Kimball, Card Walker & Walt Disney