When Disney’s feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis started, several states vied for the jobs and investment the Walt Disney Company provided to Florida. North and South Carolina made pitches to Disney, hoping to attract them to their state, but Texas was the loudest. But that was mainly from a man who claimed that Disney was coming, only to steal money from his investors.
But the idea of Walt Disney World just picking up and moving from Central Florida was naive. It’s not like Disney World is a traveling circus that can pull up its tents and move to the next city. But now, one Texan wants to create a Theme Park that won’t just rival Disney World; it will beat it.
Lizzy McGee is a sixth-generation Texan. She grew up in Houston and received her MBA from Stanford Business School. But McGee started working for the Walt Disney Company, doing market analysis for its Theme Parks, Cruises, and hotels. During Covid, McGee returned to Texas and worked from her childhood bedroom, and that’s when the idea hit her.
McGee told Texas Monthly:
I realized that Texas broadly, and Houston specifically, has all the metrics that my team looked for: a massive and burgeoning population, a business-friendly environment, and, from the content side of things, a unique identity. That was a light bulb moment when I realized you don’t even need Disney or Universal. Texas itself is its own brand.
McGee has decided to create TexasLand Theme Park. The Park will be more like EPCOT than a Six Flags Park, which focuses more on rides. McGee wants her Park to tell the state’s history and make Guests feel like they are a part of the story like Disney does with its Theme Parks.
She has already started designing parts of the Park, including a Towns of Texas Pavilion that will take Guests across the state and share the individual stories of each city. And there will, of course, be food, including Texas’ famous BBQ.
McGee continued:
I saw how people in L.A. and Southern California treated Disneyland, like it was in their backyard. They go on a random Tuesday afternoon, or they have their high school grad night there. Houston’s the fourth-largest city in the U.S. We should have something like this in our backyard.
The team behind TexasLand has already raised $80,000 for site studies and market analysis. But using her MBA and knowledge gained from working for Disney, McGee already knows there is a demand for a Park like this in Houston. McGee and her team hope to have the Park’s grand opening in Summer 2026.
It’s a highly ambitious plan, but so is taking on the Magic Kingdom and Universal Orlando. But McGee’s plan is to draw visitors to Houston as they flock to a Central Florida amusement park. It remains to be seen if TexasLand will become the attraction that Disney World and Universal Studios are.
