Disney to close 5 ESPN Zone restaurants
Jun 9, 2010

Five ESPN Zone restaurants will be closed across the country. The Walt Disney Co. is planning to close restaurants in Baltimore, Chicago, New York, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. As of Tuesday, ESPN Zone restaurants will be open only in Los Angeles and Anaheim, California.

The Los Angeles location is at the studio where ESPN's show "SportsCenter" is taped. The Anaheim location is at Downtown Disney near Disneyland.

ESPN Zone, which features arcade games as well as food, beer, and big screen TVs, is known for being the "ultimate sports bar". The chain has been slowly declining since the problems with the economy started a few years ago. Two of the restaurants in Atlanta and Denver were closed last year.

"We didn't see the business turning (around) quickly," said ESPN senior vice president Rick Alessandri in an interview. "It was a call, unfortunately, we had to make."

Alessandri says the company will still grow, it's just going to invest in other opportunities instead of the restaurant business.