Disney's hidden basketball court in the top of the Matterhorn was brought up in class so I thought I'd share with everyone the reason for this.
Originally, I had read from several different sources online that the basketball court was put in the Matterhorn as a way to bypass height regulations for the city of Anaheim. Allegedly, the city had banned buildings to exceed a certain height unless they were housing sports.
However, according to snopes.com, this is completely false. What is called a "basketball court" is actually a tiny area with a hoop that is smaller than a half-court. They state that there used to be climbers who went up the side of the Matterhorn, for entertainment purposes, and this was their "backstage" area. One of the climbers installed the hoop and backboard to pass the time in between hikes.
I'm sure if there were strict height regulations during the construction of the Matterhorn, Walt Disney would have come up with something far more clever than an "almost half-court" to outwit the city's regulators. Or, he would have just paid them off.
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