B of A Leaving Disneyland, Setting Up Shop at Knott’s : Marketing: While Anaheim park appears to shed sponsors, its competitor courts them.

The Disneyland branch of the Bank of America, a fixture on the theme park’s Main Street since it opened, is scheduled to close Wednesday just as the state’s largest bank begins a major new marketing alliance with Knott’s Berry Farm.

Bank of America and officials of the theme parks insist there is no connection between the two events. The Disneyland branch is being shuttered so that the Walt Disney Co. can open its own banking center, said a bank spokesman.

Unlike at the Magic Kingdom, the bank’s deal with Knott’s will produce only a make-believe bank for kids, not a real working branch for adults. B of A’s sponsorship arrangement at Knott’s, the value of which was not disclosed when it was announced Monday, is designed to build goodwill with potential Latino customers.

B of A will sponsor a series of three Latino music concerts at the Buena Park attraction and post its name prominently in the park’s Fiesta Village, a Mexican theme area that includes the roller coaster, Montezooma’s Revenge, games and shops.

The 38-year-old Disneyland B of A branch, decorated in a Victorian motif with antique-style iron teller windows, was essentially an elaborate check-cashing center. Tellers dressed in period costumes answered customer’s questions, converted foreign currencies into dollars and cashed travelers’ checks, but other services were limited.

Deposits there were paltry compared to nearby B of A branches. Total deposits, many of them from loyal park employees, were $583,000 in June, 1992, the latest figures available, up from $530,000 the year before, according to Findley Reports, a banking industry reporting service in Brea. But at the Bank of America branch at 2260 S. Harbor Blvd., about a mile south of the park, deposits totaled $49.8 million in June, 1992.

What little business was conducted at the branch will be moved to another nearby full-service branch on Harbor Boulevard, and the 12 employees will be placed in new positions elsewhere in the system. Disneyland, along with Knott’s, will retain B of A automatic teller machine kiosks outside their main gates.

The departure of Bank of America from Disneyland is not without significance. This is the latest in a long list of farewells to corporations whose sponsorship dollars helped build the world’s most famous theme park.

Walt Disney, strapped for cash as he scrounged to build his dream in the orange groves of Anaheim in 1955, turned to corporations that lent their names and their dollars to sponsor attractions in the park.

Soon after the opening, there was the Richfield Autopia, the TWA Rocket to the Moon, Monsanto Hall of Chemistry--even a Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow. Bank of America, along with a Coca-Cola soda fountain and the Carnation Gardens, was among the few original sponsors to have stayed on.

Disney denies it, but sponsors past and present say they believe that the theme park has been deliberately trying to reduce the presence of outsiders.

“Over time, it was more profitable to take on these operations themselves” rather than have them operated independently, said C. M. Bishop Jr., president of Pendleton Woolen Mills in Portland, Ore. The Pendleton shop operated in Frontierland from opening day until three years ago, when it ceased operation at the end of its lease because of Disney’s “determination that they could make better use out of the space we were using.” It was replaced by a Disney-operated Western-wear store, Bonanza Outfitters.

The parting was amicable, Bishop said. The store created a lot of good feeling toward the Pendleton brand of outdoors sportswear.

Despite the park’s phenomenal success, Walt Disney kept a lid on rents until his death in 1966, Bishop said. Then, they shot up.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad sponsored the trains and, briefly, the monorail ride at Disneyland before ending its partnership agreement in 1974. The locomotives, however, are still named for former Santa Fe presidents.

After contributing an initial lump sum, the railroad paid about $50,000 a year to be a sponsor. When the annual fee had risen to several hundred thousand dollars by the early 1970s, it became too expensive for a company that had evolved from a passenger to freight hauler and no longer needed a high public profile. “It was hard to justify,” said Santa Fe spokesman Michael Martin.

Just how much B of A was paying at Disneyland, or will pay at Knott’s Berry Farm, for sponsorship is difficult to determine. Sponsorship deals “are really all over the map,” said Jim Harmon, a former Disney executive who is now part of the Management Resources theme park consulting outfit in Tustin. Sometimes sponsors make large cash payments. Other times they simply offer a trade of goods and services or agree to feature the theme park prominently in their ads, he added.

Toy maker Mattel Inc. recently took over Bank of America’s sponsorship of the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland. But instead of just getting its name placed on a sign, park-goers can now wander through a Mattel toy store built at the end of the ride. Mattel makes several toys based on Disney characters.

While Disney has been reducing its outside corporate presence, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park has been aggressive in lining up major companies. “It’s an important source of revenue,” said Knott’s spokesman Bob Ochsner. B of A will join other Knott’s sponsors such as the Chevrolet/Geo division of General Motors and consumer products like Gatorade sports drinks and Lifesavers candies.

Bank of America’s kids exhibit opened over the weekend. The bank is sponsoring a miniature bank where youngsters can push the buttons of an automatic teller machine, which dispenses no cash, and write on large erasable checks and deposit slips. Ochsner said the initial reception has been good.