In news that we somehow missed, the Anaheim City Council fired the City Manager about a week and a half ago. Obviously there could be any number of things at play in that decision, but it seems like it could be related to Disney's agreements with the city:
Earlier this year, the council cut Emery's authority to approve city contracts up to $100,000 to $50,000. Tait previously criticized Emery for not informing him about Anaheim's deal with Disneyland to extend a moratorium on a gate tax in exchange for Disney to spend up to $1.5 billion in upgrades.
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/11/anaheim-city-manager-asked-by-council-to-resign/
To me, it seems like it's the mayor's fault for not getting himself involved in a deal like that, but politics is politics and I obviously don't know the whole story. But aren't those sort of deals in the mayor's job description?
In other potentially-related news, two runDisney events scheduled to take place in early 2018 have gone on hold, with radio silence from Disney. Registration for next January's Star Wars weekend opened briefly for APs on March 7 (with general registration the following week), but was quickly closed and postponed that same day; 4+ months later, and they've given no indication when/if registration will open. Similarly, next May's Tinkerbell race weekend was supposed to go on sale in mid-June, but registration never opened. Both events remain on the runDisney website, lacking information about when registration will open
- Rumors among runners are that vague permitting issues have held up the approval process, stopping Disney from opening registration, which certainly plays into the rumors of bad blood between Disney and the City at the moment. The races require closures of several city streets, and heavy support from the Anaheim Police Department to redirect traffic (the Star Wars races also require help from Garden Grove).
- There are also rumors that construction of the 4th hotel will impact the pre-/post-race staging area in the Lilo Lot, immediately west of the DTD parking; that said, the Tinkerbell races finished in the Simba Lot (south of the Paradise Pier Hotel) for its first 4 years, so it's hardly a problem without a solution.
- Additionally, a new California rule went into effect recently, essentially barring use of volunteers at for-profit events. This year's Tinkerbell races were the first time that Disney had to hire temps to man the water stations and expo, and was widely reported to be a significant downgrade in runner experience from prior years
Half marathon training plans tend to last 3-4 months, so most runners tend to prefer registering for events long before they take place, unlike other special events at the parks that go on sale just a few weeks prior. Many runners plan races a year in advance, blocking off various times of year for specific events they want to participate in. This is even more true for destination races where travel is involved; runDisney races pull from a much broader audience than DLR's typical local AP fanbase. We're less than 6 months out from the Star Wars races, and if registration doesn't open soon, it seems unlikely that it will happen in January 2018
runDisney races typically sell out very quickly, often filling up within hours of registration opening; for several years, all races at the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend over Labor Day sold out in under an hour. However, in the last year or so registration has slowed down considerably, echoing nationwide running trends. Races now fill up several weeks or months after going on sale; this year's Tinkerbell Half Marathon never sold out and had about 15% fewer finishers than in the past. In light of these changes in popularity and DLR's operating reality, it wouldn't surprise me if they're reconsidering runDisney's strategy in Anaheim, and whether they really want 4 annual race weekends moving forward
It's unclear how exactly these two items are related to Disney's trouble with getting approval for the new parking garage, but it shows that there's a lot going on between Disney and the City, and how the various chain reactions are all related. It will be interesting to see how this plays out