Disney's Sneaky Theme-Park Play to Help ESPN

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is turning to big hoops to breathe new life to its Disney Springs shopping complex in Florida. The media giant unveiled concept art for The NBA Experience, a multi-level building that will house interactive games, immersive experiences, a restaurant, and an NBA store.

Disney announced that it would be adding an NBA-themed venue to its rapidly evolving Disney World shopping and entertainment hub in the summer of 2015. It wasn't until this summer that Disney shuttered DisneyQuest, the five-story arcade where The NBA Experience will open in the summer of 2019. It began demolishing DisneyQuest this week, so updated concept art is one way to ease the pain over the latest constructive eyesore at the House of Mouse.

Disney doesn't own the NBA. It also doesn't own a team, or have licensing rights to an arena. However, it airs plenty of pro basketball games on its ESPN and ABC subsidiaries. With ESPN and, to a lesser extent, ABC coming under fire for their shrinking audiences, you can't blame Disney for building out an arena-like venue that will hopefully drum up demand for basketball and live sports, in general.

Source: Fool.com