News Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

[JohnD]

Confirmed by the Florida Senate today.

Executive Business Confirmations

Vote Count (as a group)

 

[mkt]

Disney capitulated. DeSantis absolutely won.

Nope.

On paper, it was spun like DeSantis won - but Disney actually walked away with everything that mattered. They kept effective control by making peace with the Florida GOP, and today, the CFTOD board mostly follows Disney's lead, even if Disney isn't the one directly picking them anymore.

Also, the federal lawsuit isn't dead - it's paused without prejudice. Disney can bring it right back if CFTOD or the state tries to start anything.

It turns out Disney wasn't actually fighting for free speech - all they wanted was control.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Nope.

On paper, it was spun like DeSantis won - but Disney actually walked away with everything that mattered. They kept effective control by making peace with the Florida GOP, and today, the CFTOD board mostly follows Disney's lead, even if Disney isn't the one directly picking them anymore.

Also, the federal lawsuit isn't dead - it's paused without prejudice. Disney can bring it right back if CFTOD or the state tries to start anything.

It turns out Disney wasn't actually fighting for free speech - all they wanted was control.

You haven’t won against a blackmailer if they’ve decided to hold off for the time being. The threat is still there. Disney has conceded to an illusion of control knowing they cannot step out of line.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Wow! my post was rapidly deleted. it doesn't matter, it is what it is, and the real losers are the WDW vacationers going forward.

 

[MR.Dis]

Nope.

On paper, it was spun like DeSantis won - but Disney actually walked away with everything that mattered. They kept effective control by making peace with the Florida GOP, and today, the CFTOD board mostly follows Disney's lead, even if Disney isn't the one directly picking them anymore.

Also, the federal lawsuit isn't dead - it's paused without prejudice. Disney can bring it right back if CFTOD or the state tries to start anything.

It turns out Disney wasn't actually fighting for free speech - all they wanted was control.

What an inaccurate take. Read the 1200 some pages of this post. Disney lost control, period. While new board members are less confrontational, they have no input on who goes on the board. The Federal lawsuit is dead, the "pause" is only for Disney to try and save a little face. I totally enjoy going to Disney and have enjoyed years of entertainment- even own DVC. It did not take a political expert to realize that the Govenor's office, Legislature, and Court judges were all aligned against Disney. Disney was going to lose this fight and they cut their losses. In the end, they have been hurt much less than some predicted, but they still lost this fight.

 

[flynnibus]

Disney doesn't have control - just a truce. The state has disney by the balls and can muck with them at will. It's just at this point the boss man is saying let them be...

 

[Stripes]

What an inaccurate take. Read the 1200 some pages of this post. Disney lost control, period. While new board members are less confrontational, they have no input on who goes on the board. The Federal lawsuit is dead, the "pause" is only for Disney to try and save a little face. I totally enjoy going to Disney and have enjoyed years of entertainment- even own DVC. It did not take a political expert to realize that the Govenor's office, Legislature, and Court judges were all aligned against Disney. Disney was going to lose this fight and they cut their losses. In the end, they have been hurt much less than some predicted, but they still lost this fight.

Just because Disney no longer controls the district directly, it doesn’t mean they don’t maintain de facto control. All property owners in the district have separate restrictive covenants with Disney that make sure Disney has control over development of their properties.

I have an email from a top Disney executive sharing how much Disney loves the district administrator. They think she’s amazing.

The state always had the power to make changes to the district and that’s what they decided to do. Disney never had total control because the legislature always had the power to take the control away. In the end, Disney has all the development rights they could possibly want and maintains absolute control over the ability of other property owners in the district to develop their land.

 

[Stripes]

Disney doesn't have control - just a truce. The state has disney by the balls and can muck with them at will. It's just at this point the boss man is saying let them be...

Disney got a very solid development agreement with the district that was more favorable to them than the one they signed when RCID was in charge.

 

[flynnibus]

Disney got a very solid development agreement with the district that was more favorable to them than the one they signed when RCID was in charge.

been down this road already... the DA is only one part of the story... same reason the prior arrangement didn't make Disney impervious to the state's meddling before.

 

[Stripes]

been down this road already... the DA is only one part of the story... same reason the prior arrangement didn't make Disney impervious to the state's meddling before.

Disney was absolutely on board to go with the state’s plan for CFTOD until they went after the development agreement.

Since the development agreement is now back in place, Disney is perfectly happy with how things stand regardless of whatever future actions the board might take.

Disney continues to have strong legal recourse if the district tries to pull any crap.

 

[Stripes]

You haven’t won against a blackmailer if they’ve decided to hold off for the time being. The threat is still there. Disney has conceded to an illusion of control knowing they cannot step out of line.

You do understand that, for business reasons, Disney couldn’t wait for their appeal to play out in federal court, yes?

What did you expect them to do?

 

[flynnibus]

Disney was absolutely on board to go with the state’s plan for CFTOD until they went after the development agreement.

on board? You confuse lack of direct public action with 'buy in'. They couldn't stop what DeSantis was doing with his minions and they knew it.. so they instead smiled and instead built a legal structure to hold their ground.

Since the development agreement is now back in place, Disney is perfectly happy with how things stand regardless of whatever future actions the board might take.

Oh yeah, let's see Iger say "we are perfectly happy with the state" in front of his employees. This is all revisionist BS. Disney retreated to protect their business, and publicly is sitting on their hands when it comes to their formal ideals as they try to avoid rocking the boat.

 

[Stripes]

Disney retreated to protect their business, and publicly is sitting on their hands when it comes to their formal ideals as they try to avoid rocking the boat.

Disney sued to protect their business interests. Disney’s constitutional rights were nothing more than a means to an end.

What are Disney’s formal ideals, BTW? And how is the district interfering with Disney’s expression of those ideals?

 

[lazyboy97o]

You do understand that, for business reasons, Disney couldn’t wait for their appeal to play out in federal court, yes?

What did you expect them to do?

I expected them to capitulate like they did because they’re cowards.

It was only a business decision in the sense that paying protection is a business decision. It was about currying favor. The federal case wasn’t impeding development. What imminent, irreparable harm would Disney have potentially caused the District to back any sort of injunction preventing development? Disney has had no interest in new or inconsistent uses. Nothing they’ve announced in any way injures the bad faith blustering of affordable housing or impact fees or giving money away to governments and in fact need continued development to provide revenue.

 

[Stripes]

I expected them to capitulate like they did because they’re cowards.

It was only a business decision in the sense that paying protection is a business decision. It was about currying favor. The federal case wasn’t impeding development. What imminent, irreparable harm would Disney have potentially caused the District to back any sort of injunction preventing development? Disney has had no interest in new or inconsistent uses. Nothing they’ve announced in any way injures the bad faith blustering of affordable housing or impact fees or giving money away to governments and in fact need continued development to provide revenue.

Without a development agreement in place (there was no injunction in place requiring the district to follow the RCID DA), there was a great number of ways the district could have interfered with Disney’s ongoing development plans. For instance, a sudden change to the land development regulations that prevented the construction of a new project.

 

[mkt]

You haven’t won against a blackmailer if they’ve decided to hold off for the time being. The threat is still there. Disney has conceded to an illusion of control knowing they cannot step out of line.

They will refile in federal court if the board steps out of line and put the fear of God into the governor

 

[mkt]

What an inaccurate take. Read the 1200 some pages of this post. Disney lost control, period. While new board members are less confrontational, they have no input on who goes on the board. The Federal lawsuit is dead, the "pause" is only for Disney to try and save a little face. I totally enjoy going to Disney and have enjoyed years of entertainment- even own DVC. It did not take a political expert to realize that the Govenor's office, Legislature, and Court judges were all aligned against Disney. Disney was going to lose this fight and they cut their losses. In the end, they have been hurt much less than some predicted, but they still lost this fight.

Saying Disney “lost control” works if you’re only looking at the press release. Sure, they no longer choose who sits on the board. But in practice, they still control what matters. Permits. Construction. Capital plans. The board hasn’t pushed back on anything because they were never meant to. This was a political stunt to get Disney back in line.

And it worked. The second Disney resumed donations to the Florida GOP, the noise stopped. No more press conferences. No more fire and brimstone. The lawsuits quietly went away. The board suddenly became cooperative. It was never about governance. It was about compliance.

And no, the federal case is not dead. It was dismissed without prejudice. That means Disney can bring it back if the state or the board gets aggressive again. The message is clear. Keep things friendly or we go right back to court.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Without a development agreement in place (there was no injunction in place requiring the district to follow the RCID DA), there was a great number of ways the district could have interfered with Disney’s ongoing development plans.

They can still do all of that!

It’s also an incorrect description of the situation. You keep treating the development agreements as these incredibly necessary documents which they are not. You don’t need a development agreement to engage in development, especially near term development in line with existing zoning.

Development agreements lock in existing regulations. The District never repealed those underlying regulations. Nor did they even start the long process of changing them by developing an entirely new comprehensive plan. At most they had claimed to change a few minor details like the total number of hotel rooms permitted in the District (a number Disney is still not close to hitting) by trying to terminate the 2031 Plan. The District would have had to follow the original regulations, not the photocopy of the development agreement.

 

[lazyboy97o]

They will refile in federal court if the board steps out of line and put the fear of God into the governor

Right now, they will not. This was never an isolated situation and Iger decided to comply in advance.

 

[mkt]

Right now, they will not. This was never an isolated situation and Iger decided to comply in advance.

That is not how compliance works. Disney did not cave. They paused. The federal lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice. That is not the same as surrendering. It means they reserved the right to come back if the board or state oversteps again.

And let’s not pretend this was ever about governance. This was a shakedown. The moment Disney resumed contributions to the Florida GOP, the tone changed. The board stopped posturing. The conflict vanished from the headlines.

Iger did not comply. He defused the bomb, handed the state a few PR points, and went right back to building hotels and attractions without disruption. The court option is still on the table. It always has been.