A Spirited Perfect Ten

[Cesar R M]

Dear Bob, PLEASE name the stadium Dagobah, its within your power! and I will forgive you for MM+! If we get a Frozen themed football stadium, well, I wouldnt be surprised.

with a giant ELSA statue in NFL gear!

 

[wdwfan100]

so.. a company is also guilty of the stupidity of their guests?
wow.
At this rate there will be CMS with leashes for guests.

My personal belief is no. No one is responsible for another's actions. Sadly courts rule differently every day.

 

[truecoat]

Considering its hit the front page of Drudge and a few other with exactly the same quote as a headline I don't believe I'm the only one thinking about this. Why is story not the headline instead or why is young Luke MIA instead Toys ... You decide

I read the interview. It was one sentence in a much larger piece. If someone takes that quote out of context to drive up clicks then so be it. For you to make the connection that you have made is quite a jump.

 

[OneDNP]

Yes that is the general idea - keep competing ownership groups out of the territory you want, Although in the past more ethical people would have passed on that chairmanship because of the massive conflict of interest.

At least we can look forward to the creative ways "Disney" will be incorporated into the headlines when the inevitable story on player intoxication, domestic violence, gambling, and/or cheating occurs.

 

[ford91exploder]

I read the interview. It was one sentence in a much larger piece. If someone takes that quote out of context to drive up clicks then so be it. For you to make the connection that you have made is quite a jump.

That being said why did he mention it AT ALL if it's an item so minor to be lost in the noise

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Well it's not Broadway, but it's something:

http://www.theatermania.com/utah-th...notre-dame-cast-outdoor-production_74623.html

 

[rael ramone]

I feel like banned for life is a bit extreme. I think banned for the day should be a fine punishment for the first time. If I'm drunk I don't want to be punished forever because if it. If you do it again, however, life would be okay.

They had this in the Yahoo news feed (so it's not just among the fan community). If they caught this person his days frolicking in the swamps are done for good - and rightly so. I don't think 'Lou' could even get away with that...

 

[brb1006]

Here's new photos of Shanghai Disney Resort which shows the inside of the hotel lobby and more photos of the construction.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

There has been a development on the Shanghai Disneyland graft/corruption front buried in a report published by Reuters earlier today.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/11/china-corruption-idUSL3N1352YD20151111#EVuyHhyEhvB8cO5U.97
UPDATE 3-China probes senior city officials for suspected graft

* Deputy party boss in Beijing being probed

* Most senior official from Shanghai to be targeted in graft drive

* Head of panel that runs free trade zone in Shanghai

* Former professor who became general manager of Baosteel Group (Recasts, adds details of Beijing official, previous SHANGHAI)

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - A deputy Communist Party boss in Beijing and the vice mayor of Shanghai in charge of its experimental free trade zone are being investigated for suspected "serious breaches of discipline", the party said, using its usual euphemism for corruption.

In a brief announcement on Wednesday, the party's anti-graft watchdog the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection gave no further details of the investigation into Beijing deputy party chief Lu Xiwen.

Lu is also head of the city's party school, which trains rising officials.

The previous day, the commission said it was probing Shanghai Vice Mayor Ai Baojun, the most senior official from China's finance hub to be swept up in an anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping after taking power some three years ago.

It was not possible to reach either Lu or Ai for comment and unclear if they have a lawyer.

Ai, a native of the northeastern province of Liaoning, became a vice mayor of Shanghai in December 2007, according to an official online biography.

Ai has headed the committee that runs the Shanghai Free Trade Zone since its launch in September 2013, as part of a government effort to test a more open and streamlined environment for foreign firms to do business, along with the relaxation of policies for several service sectors.

He was also a director of the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone, where a new Disney theme park is being developed, the Shanghai Daily said.

Shanghai's party boss Han Zheng called the news "heartbreaking" but said he supported the investigation and a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, the newspaper reported.

"Every Party member and leader should reflect deeply on and learn from the case and take it as a grave warning. Government officials must be role models and regulate themselves, their relatives and staff," the newspaper quoted Han as telling a meeting of the city's party committee on the issue.

Before entering politics, Ai was a university professor and then worked his way up to the position of general manager of China's second-largest steel producer, Baosteel Group.

He is the most senior Shanghai official to be investigated for corruption since the city's then-Communist Party chief Chen Liangyu was jailed for 18 years for graft in 2008.

Dai Haibo, a deputy secretary of the Shanghai government and former deputy head of the free trade zone, was stripped of his post this year, following an investigation by the anti-corruption watchdog. (Reporting by John Ruwitch in Shanghai and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Richard Pullin and Michael Perry)

Now to unpack this development, it needs to be placed in the context of the last major SDL related corruption story. If you recall this past March, it was reported by Reuters and in the Chinese press that Dai Haibo, the former leader of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and member of the Chinese leadership overseeing Shanghai Disney Resort, was probed by central government authorities for graft which occurred at Shanghai FTZ. [1] While today's piece by Reuters leads with the probe of Mr. Liu from Beijing, Ai Baojun's probe is much more important to us. Mr. Ai is part of the organization which oversees Shanghai Disneyland, among other FTZ projects, and sat on the board of the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone; the Chinese Government side of the joint venture. It's very likely the Western press will continue to give this story short shrift, but it's becoming clearer something rotten is going on in the bean fields soon to become Shanghai Disneyland.
[1]http://app.scmp.com/scmp/mobile/index.html#/article/1740610/desktop

 

[ford91exploder]

There has been a development on the Shanghai Disneyland graft/corruption front buried in a report published by Reuters earlier today.

Now to unpack this development, it needs to be placed in the context of the last major SDL related corruption story. If you recall this past March, it was reported by Reuters and in the Chinese press that Dai Haibo, the former leader of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and member of the Chinese leadership overseeing Shanghai Disney Resort, was probed by central government authorities for graft which occurred at Shanghai FTZ. [1] While today's piece by Reuters leads with the probe of Mr. Liu from Beijing, Ai Baojun's probe is much more important to us. Mr. Ai is part of the organization which oversees Shanghai Disneyland, among other FTZ projects, and sat on the board of the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone; the Chinese Government side of the joint venture. It's very likely the Western press will continue to give this story short shrift, but it's becoming clearer something rotten is going on in the bean fields soon to become Shanghai Disneyland.
[1]http://app.scmp.com/scmp/mobile/index.html#/article/1740610/desktop

Corruption in China film at 11, Is ANYONE really surprised by this development (If they have done business in China the answer is absolutely not).

Once again where did the additional $800 Million that Iger refuses to discuss GO ????

 

[Nemo14]

There has been a development on the Shanghai Disneyland graft/corruption front buried in a report published by Reuters earlier today.

Now to unpack this development, it needs to be placed in the context of the last major SDL related corruption story. If you recall this past March, it was reported by Reuters and in the Chinese press that Dai Haibo, the former leader of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and member of the Chinese leadership overseeing Shanghai Disney Resort, was probed by central government authorities for graft which occurred at Shanghai FTZ. [1] While today's piece by Reuters leads with the probe of Mr. Liu from Beijing, Ai Baojun's probe is much more important to us. Mr. Ai is part of the organization which oversees Shanghai Disneyland, among other FTZ projects, and sat on the board of the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone; the Chinese Government side of the joint venture. It's very likely the Western press will continue to give this story short shrift, but it's becoming clearer something rotten is going on in the bean fields soon to become Shanghai Disneyland.
[1]http://app.scmp.com/scmp/mobile/index.html#/article/1740610/desktop

Finally this thread is back on track?

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

Well it's not Broadway, but it's something:

http://www.theatermania.com/utah-th...notre-dame-cast-outdoor-production_74623.html

The show is available for licensing now, so we should be seeing lots of regional theaters picking it up for their upcoming seasons.

 

[Cesar R M]

Here's new photos of Shanghai Disney Resort which shows the inside of the hotel lobby and more photos of the construction.

interesting to see that the area, features elevated zones (with stairs).

 

[PhotoDave219]

There has been a development on the Shanghai Disneyland graft/corruption front buried in a report published by Reuters earlier today.

Now to unpack this development, it needs to be placed in the context of the last major SDL related corruption story. If you recall this past March, it was reported by Reuters and in the Chinese press that Dai Haibo, the former leader of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and member of the Chinese leadership overseeing Shanghai Disney Resort, was probed by central government authorities for graft which occurred at Shanghai FTZ. [1] While today's piece by Reuters leads with the probe of Mr. Liu from Beijing, Ai Baojun's probe is much more important to us. Mr. Ai is part of the organization which oversees Shanghai Disneyland, among other FTZ projects, and sat on the board of the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone; the Chinese Government side of the joint venture. It's very likely the Western press will continue to give this story short shrift, but it's becoming clearer something rotten is going on in the bean fields soon to become Shanghai Disneyland.
[1]http://app.scmp.com/scmp/mobile/index.html#/article/1740610/desktop

So what youre telling me is the trolls around here owe 74 an apology? (Tho I'll never see it as theyre filtered out through ignore)

 

[Lee]

Another link.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-11-12/china-probes-shanghai-official-ai-baojun

This guy's family, so I'm told, supplied much of the steel/materials for the park. Stuff that has had to be ripped out and replaced, sometimes more than once, due to shoddy quality.

And some doubt that Iger didn't want that sort of thing on Huffington Post...

 

[ford91exploder]

Another link.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-11-12/china-probes-shanghai-official-ai-baojun

This guy's family, so I'm told, supplied much of the steel/materials for the park. Stuff that has had to be ripped out and replaced, sometimes more than once, due to shoddy quality.

And some doubt that Iger didn't want that sort of thing on Huffington Post...

Thing is NOW it's all going to come roaring back, People in high places NEVER learn the coverup is ALWAYS worse than the crime itself. If Iger had left the HuffPo alone the story would have run for awhile and eventually petered out.

Now it will grow legs which will get stronger every day. And the assumption that Bob had Willow spike the story will morph into a truism regardless of the actual facts.

It's interesting that Iger is now on the BoD of the 'new stadium group' - Did he know that this was coming down and it;'s likely to take him with it.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Some more coverage on the latest Shanghai Disney corruption story from the Wall Street Journal. They even had the chutzpah to call Disney for comment!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-anticorruption-body-investigating-shanghai-vice-mayor-1447156660
Shanghai Vice Mayor Under Investigation by China Antigraft Agency

Ai Baojun, pictured here in 2009, is suspected of serious violations of discipline, according to a statement on Tuesday by China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Photo: Bloomberg News

By
Te-Ping Chen
Nov. 10, 2015 6:57 a.m. ET
BEIJING—China’s antigraft agency is investigating a vice mayor of Shanghai who has been involved in key international projects for the country’s financial capital, including its free-trade zone and an area that will soon be home to a Walt Disney Co. theme park.

Ai Baojun is suspected of serious violations of discipline, according to a statement on Tuesday by the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The antigraft agency typically uses such language as a euphemism for corruption. It didn’t elaborate.

Mr. Ai couldn’t be reached for comment, and it wasn’t clear whether he was represented by a lawyer.

With a portfolio as vice mayor that spans tourism, industry, trade and security, Mr. Ai had a high profile role as the director of the Shanghai free-trade zone’s regulatory commission. China’s government has promoted the zone as a landmark effort to remake China’s economy and spur market-oriented and financial-sector reforms. Launched in 2013, it was hoped that the zone would repeat the 1980s success of Shenzhen’s special economic zone—in which the backwater fishing village was transformed into an export powerhouse—but executives say the zone has been slow to gain traction.

Mr. Ai also heads the regulatory commission for the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone, of which Disney’s Shanghai park is a prominent centerpiece. Before this career, Mr. Ai had worked at Shanghai’s Baosteel, among China’s largest steelmakers, where he held roles including general manager before assuming his post as city vice mayor at the end of 2007.

A spokesman for Disney didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. The phone at the free-trade zone’s news office rang unanswered on Tuesday.

Shanghai’s news office referred reporters to a statement posted to its microblog, which cited the city’s Communist Party secretary, Han Zheng, as saying that the case reflected Chinese President Xi Jinping’s determination to fight corruption. Mr. Ai’s case should make cadres deeply reflect, Mr. Han was quoted as saying, adding that individuals must hold themselves, their relatives and surrounding work personnel to a stricter standard.

The move was the second notable blow to the free-trade zone from the corruption crackdown. Earlier this year authorities said that the project’s former deputy director, Dai Haibo, was placed under investigation for “serious violations” of party discipline and law. Mr. Ai had previously told reporters Mr. Dai’s removal from his post, which had occurred late last year, was a “normal personnel shift.”

While the CCDI didn’t offer details on Mr. Ai’s alleged misdeeds, a deadly stampede at Shanghai’s waterfront on New Year’s Eve fell under two of his responsibilities: tourism and social stability. The tragedy that left at least 36 dead and scores injured prompted the government to promise an overhaul of how crowd control is handled at high-profile tourism events. Among those punished were government leaders in the district where the tragedy happened.

Mr. Ai was seen in public as recently as June, when he inspected construction progress for Shanghai Disneyland, according to material posted to the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone’s website that vanished late Tuesday.

He also made an appearance at the end of last month at an official event discussing the 13th five-year plan, according to a news item posted to the Shanghai government’s site.

—Yang Jie in Beijing and James T. Areddy in Shanghai contributed to this article.

 

[JoeCamel]

Some more coverage on the latest Shanghai Disney corruption story from the Wall Street Journal. They even had the chutzpah to call Disney for comment!

Sorry paywall

 

[lazyboy97o]

This still isn't a Shanghai Disney Resort corruption story. None of these articles are saying that Disney was involved.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

According to Bloomberg, Chinese authorities are investigating Shanghai Disney for bribery and graft in light of the probe against Ai Baojun. Or should I say Shanghai Igerland?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...0-million-tourists-to-feed-its-shanghai-beast
Disney Counts On 300 Million Tourists to Feed Its Shanghai Beast
You speed along an empty highway, past a little town of rice paddies and vegetable stands, and watch the famous castle rise up as you approach. Black-clad guards in flak jackets clear you ahead of a red steel archway. Next stop: the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone.

The Disney Shanghai Resort, which takes up about a fifth of the zone, is less than half an hour by car from the financial district of China’s wealthiest and most populous city, but it feels like a kingdom all its own. Six square miles of the zone are vacant, set aside by Chinese authorities as part of a decades-long plan to draw tourists here.

Whether it will be a magic kingdom depends on how shrewdly Shanghai and the Walt Disney Co. build and sell this 5,000-acre playground. China’s economic growth is slowing, and Beijing’s national crackdown on corruption has warned people off of the conspicuous consumption and overbuilding that flourished in the boom years. (It may also depend on the outcome of an investigation China’s anti-corruption agency is making into the activities of Shanghai’s vice mayor, Ai Baojun.)

Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger has called it the greatest opportunity the company has had since Walt Disney himself bought land in Central Florida in the 1960s.

“This is a really big deal, a bona fide effort by Shanghai to turn itself into a world-class tourism destination,” said Dennis Speigel, a theme-park consultant from Cincinnati who has traveled extensively in the region, fresh from a trip here. “They’re counting on Disney to be the driver of that.”

You can tell. Ahead of the park’s opening, the Chinese government just declared a renewed campaign against ripping off branded merchandise -- specifically, Disney’s.

The Burbank, California, company, which posted strong financial results last week damped by its international parks -- including the Shanghai park, delayed by many months and now slated to open in the spring -- has been stung by criticism that it built Disneyland Paris too big and Hong Kong Disneyland too small. The $5.5 billion Shanghai park will open with two hotels, compared with seven in France.

At the same time, Disney could fit one and half more theme parks in the land it has been allocated in the resorts zone, according to Bob Weis, the executive in charge of designing the resort. The contemporary Toy Story Hotel and the more classically themed Shanghai Disneyland Hotel, both along an artificial lake, may be just the start of the resort’s offerings, Weis said in an interview at the company’s August convention for Disney fans.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you see hotels all along that lake some day,” he said.

Disney’s local partner -- the state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group, which will own 57 percent of the resort and contribute about $2.1 billion of the equity -- is under pressure to get it right, too, after China’s long orgy of real estate speculation. The only other significant tourism project now under construction in the zone is a luxury shopping mall being built by Value Retail Plc, a U.K.-based developer. It will open next to the Disney resort and be similar to one the company operates near Disneyland Paris. Land for residential construction near the park hasn’t been auctioned since last year, according to Centaline, China’s largest real estate agency. Meanwhile, home prices in Chuansha, Zhoupu and Kangqiao, neighborhoods near the Disney resort, have jumped more than 26 percent this year.

If Disney and Shanghai can strike the right balance, they could transform the place into the Orlando of Asia, said Speigel. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he noted, recently created the country’s first theme park studies curriculum.

About 70 percent of China’s theme parks lose money, 20 percent break even and 10 percent are profitable, according to Paul Fang, a professor at Jiao Tong who teaches theme park studies.

“Disney Resorts will raise the standards high up for every other theme park and attraction within China,” Fang said. “A significant number of park owners are nervously awaiting, many parks are already undergoing upgrade or re-positioning, and some will not survive, and make way for new and better theme parks down the road.”

Another way to look at it: Disney, betting on China’s rising middle class with its largest foreign investment ever, has a lot of competition.

On the other side of the Huangpu River from Disney’s resort, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and its local partners are building the $2.4 billion Shanghai Dream Center. Scheduled to open in late 2017, it will feature an animation studio, live performance venues and an attraction tentatively called the Kung Fu Panda Experience. Other projects outside the resorts zone include a marine animal park from Chinese developer Haiching Holding Ltd. and a Legoland from U.K.-based Merlin Entertainments, which operates a Madame Tussauds wax museum and an aquarium in the city.

By clustering its attractions with those of Disney and other park operators, “we can offer different promotions with different partners,” boosting attendance, said John Jakobsen, who heads Merlin’s new-openings group. “We all have our own brands and intellectual property.”

Disney says 330 million people with enough disposable income to visit the park, which features the tallest Disney castle in the world and a focus on Chinese culture, live less than three hours from its gates. It notes that the number of upper-middle-class and affluent households in China is expected to grow 18 percent annually between 2012 and 2022, according to McKinsey & Co. estimates. The theme park could be the largest in Asia, topping Tokyo Disneyland’s 17.3 million visitors a year, said Chris Yoshii, vice president for economics in the Asia-Pacific region for the consultancy Aecom. Disney CEO Iger said on a conference call that he had been to Shanghai twice in the past month and was confident in the project and the Chinese economy.

And Disney did get it right in Orlando, the theme-park capital of the world, where it operates four parks and 27 hotels alongside Comcast Corp.’s Universal Studios, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. and Merlin’s Orlando Eye, among others.

Even if it succeeds, the Shanghai park itself wouldn’t move the needle much on the company’s financials. It could produce $300 million in revenue in fiscal 2016 and break even by 2017, after which it will contribute an increasing but small amount to Disney’s earnings, said Tim Nollen, a Macquarie Capital analyst who rates the stock a buy. But a hit could lead to other opportunities for Disney to expand -- into, say, TV production in China, Nollen said.

Building theme parks today is a far more elaborate process than when Walt Disney put up the first Disneyland, in Anaheim, California, in 1955. Disney, who had to sell his second home to help finance the project, regretted not acquiring more property around the park.

“If we could’ve bought more land we would’ve bought it, then we would have control of it and it wouldn’t look like a second-rate Las Vegas around here,” he told employees at Disneyland’s 10th anniversary, according to “Walt and the Promise of Progress City,” a 2011 book about the company.

He didn’t make that mistake again. When he sought to build a second theme park, in Florida, Disney quietly bought up thousands of acres of swampland near Orlando before going public with his plans.

Shanghai, a shipping and trade hub since the 1600s, reinvented itself as China’s financial center in the 1990s, in part by developing reclaimed swampland of its own into a phalanx of modern skyscrapers. Now it has the International Tourism and Resorts Zone and a mandate to bring the tourists to fill it.

“In China they very much like zones,” Brock Larsen, a theme-park designer based in Burbank, observed. “This is the work zone. This is the apartment zone. And this is the play zone.”