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Most of the ESPN Zone Restaurants will soon be closing. A tough economy is being cited as the cause for these closures.
ESPN Zone is a small chain of very large sports-themed restaurants that include arcades, TV studios, and radio studios. The first ESPN Zone opened in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 11, 1998 in the Power Plant on the Inner Harbor. It transformed what was once a massive brick building that housed coal-fired generators for the city trolley system into what is now an all-encompassing sports dining and entertainment mecca. It proved to be a cornerstone in the development of the city's waterfront, and more specifically the Inner Harbor.
One of the better known ESPN Zone properties could be found in Time Square, New York.
Since its inception, ESPN Zone has closed two locations. A restaurant in Denver, Colorado closed in June 2009,[6] and another in Atlanta, Georgia closed in October 2009.
The chain, which pioneered the idea of putting TV screens in bathrooms and often hosted live ESPN shows, will close by June 16 the Zone outlets in New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.
The restaurant in Anaheim, Calif., next to Disneyland, and the one in Los Angeles, next to ESPN's West Coast studios, will remain open but will not be operated by the current owner, Disney.
Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
