Port Disney winning city. Formal negotiations for financial responsibility between Disney and Long Beach were scheduled to begin on September 12, 1990, after the city reviewed Disney's plans. Several independent analysts gave the edge to Port Disney, citing the uniqueness of the project and the lack of a similar nautical/ocean theme park in Los Angeles County since the 1987 closure of Marineland. In February 1991, Disney disclosed that it had been buying large tracts of land near Disneyland in Anaheim, although Disney vice-president of development David Malmuth said the land acquisition would not affect the decision between Anaheim and Long Beach, which
AutoWorld (theme park) AutoWorld (theme park) AutoWorld was an indoor theme park in Flint, Michigan, USA, built to make the town attractive to tourists. It opened as Six Flags AutoWorld on July 4, 1984, and closed for the first time just six months later, shutting down for good in 1994 and being demolished a few years later. On the grand opening of AutoWorld, then-Governor James J. Blanchard predicted it would trigger "the rebirth of the great city of Flint." The idea for AutoWorld originated as early as 1969, when Joseph Anderson, retired manager of AC Spark Plug, "recalled that Harding Mott, president of