Disneyland races on hiatus beginning in 2018

Ariel484

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
https://www.rundisney.com/blog/articles/run-disney/

We have heard from many of you over the past few months regarding registration for runDisney race weekends at Disneyland Resort. We greatly appreciate your loyalty and dedication to our runDisney race events and want to share the following update with you.

Given the level of construction to support the ongoing Disneyland Resort expansion, we have been working hard to determine how we can continue providing our West Coast participants with the best possible runDisney experience, which is designed around the ability to run throughout our resorts while enjoying entertainment offerings and characters.

After careful consideration and weighing all possibilities, we have made the very difficult decision to place all runDisney race weekends at Disneyland Resort on hiatus beginning in 2018. This includes the associated Coast to Coast Race Challenges.

Anyone who has registered for one of these races will be contacted directly by runDisney today by email and will receive a full refund for registration fees and for any commemorative items they may have purchased.

While news of this hiatus is sad to share, we are so thankful for the magic and memories you have helped create at our race weekends through the years. We look forward to hosting the upcoming Super Heroes Half Marathon Weekend at Disneyland Resort November 9-12, and we hope to see many of you there.

We encourage runners to continue to visit runDisney.com for other race opportunities. A full schedule of races at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Paris are currently still being offered, in addition to our virtual race series. Guests with questions can contact rundisney@disneysports.com.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
Announcement should be front and center on rD home page, not in their blog which crashes half the time....
 
RunningKoen

RunningKoen

Well-Known Member
As with everything, the communication is terrible. The blog post is a bad way to do so; just updating the races is the poor and usual way of them handling it: avoiding the subject.

No post on social media, so people are just complaining at their new cover photo. Be prepared for the terrible weeks online.

So sad for people who booked into the Superheroes or Wine & DIne weekend. Lots of money for a weekend thats completely outshadowed.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
RunningKoen said:
As with everything, the communication is terrible. The blog post is a bad way to do so; just updating the races is the poor and usual way of them handling it: avoiding the subject.

No post on social media, so people are just complaining at their new cover photo. Be prepared for the terrible weeks online.

So sad for people who booked into the Superheroes or Wine & DIne weekend. Lots of money for a weekend thats completely outshadowed.
Click to expand...

Well, I just put the blog link on Twitter.
 
RunningKoen

RunningKoen

Well-Known Member
LAKid53 said:
Well, I just put the blog link on Twitter.
Click to expand...
They should have used their own social media; all of them; to release the statement at the same time as the emails and blogpost, as a strategy to inform everyone at the same time.

Right now, there's no activity at neither their Facebook or Twitter while it's most needed at this moment.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
RunningKoen said:
They should have used their own social media; all of them; to release the statement at the same time as the emails and blogpost, as a strategy to inform everyone at the same time.

Right now, there's no activity at neither their Facebook or Twitter while it's most needed at this moment.
Click to expand...

Agree
 
RunningKoen

RunningKoen

Well-Known Member
Not to pat myself on the back, but what we've discussed is happening right now.

Most complaints only aren't about cancelling, but their communication about the entire situation. People are raging and, seeing how they handled this blog thing, I cannot blaim them.

Even two races weekends in a row can't bring enough material to counter the enormous PR disaster that is happening at the moment.
 
ford91exploder

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
Wonder how much of this cancellation is being driven by Disney unable to get permits since the Anaheim City council and Mayor flipped to majority 'Anti-Disney' councilmembers.

And yes the communications on this are beyond awful.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
RunningKoen said:
Is it confirmed that Disney is unable to get permits, or is it one of the rumors linked to the LA time article (Which is slightly biased imbo)?
Click to expand...

According to the article on the rD blog, it's construction. But Anaheim locals think it's a combination of both that and local politics. Apparently a percentage of the City council are anti-Disney. And when most of the race course is run on City streets, you need good relations with local officials. According to the article I read in the Orange County Register, rD staff hadn't even applied for the necessary permits from City officials...and normally that's done about 4 months before race dates.

As I commented previously, those of us who run WDW races are spoiled. We run on Disney property and the local "government" is Disney - Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista are towns created by Disney, along with Reedy Creek, which includes a fire department. Even the construction company is Disney controlled, from what I've been told.
 
RunningKoen

RunningKoen

Well-Known Member
I know, @LAKid53 . I'm just curious cause @ford91exploder is trying to fuel that discussion in both topics.

Lots of speculation about the real reason for cancelling. There are other places to discuss whether Disney is really paying its share or how anti-Disney the politics in Anaheim really are.

It's okay to mention other reason that might influence the choice for this hiatus; however, discussing in detail on just speculations is not needed in the running section, imbo.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
RunningKoen said:
I know, @LAKid53 . I'm just curious cause @ford91exploder is trying to fuel that discussion in both topics.

Lots of speculation about the real reason for cancelling. There are other places to discuss whether Disney is really paying its share or how anti-Disney the politics in Anaheim really are.

It's okay to mention other reason that might influence the choice for this hiatus; however, discussing in detail on just speculations is not needed in the running section, imbo.
Click to expand...


Ah, I understand. I have that person on ignore for that very reason, so I don't see those comments.
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
I'm not too surprised, just really disappointed in how long they waited to do this and how poorly it was communicated.

RE Permits, I don't think the city council directly would issue permits. I may be wrong on that, but I'd be shocked if they spent time at every meeting discussing if this 5k or that half marathon can close some streets. Obviously even if it's other departments IE Traffic/Roads/Police the council would still have some sway in terms of sweeping things under the rugs, but it's usually an apply approve/deny process, not a hold hostage for months process.

At the same time though, I don't know if the actual benefit from the runDisney events is enough to be used as a negotiating chip to get the council to approve other bigger things that Disney wants related to expansion and such like some of the reports are saying. Yeah, $20 million (reportedly) impact from an event is nothing to sneeze at, but it's still a relatively small drop in the bucket compared to the overall tourist trade in the area. Especially when Disney itself is one of the big benefactors of that spending.

I can totally buy runDisney events being caught up in a silly cat fight between the two, but with attendance slowdowns and them seemingly having hit a price ceiling, I don't think runDisney was complaining TOO much to keep the DLR events.
 
ford91exploder

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
dreamfinder said:
I'm not too surprised, just really disappointed in how long they waited to do this and how poorly it was communicated.

RE Permits, I don't think the city council directly would issue permits. I may be wrong on that, but I'd be shocked if they spent time at every meeting discussing if this 5k or that half marathon can close some streets. Obviously even if it's other departments IE Traffic/Roads/Police the council would still have some sway in terms of sweeping things under the rugs, but it's usually an apply approve/deny process, not a hold hostage for months process.

At the same time though, I don't know if the actual benefit from the runDisney events is enough to be used as a negotiating chip to get the council to approve other bigger things that Disney wants related to expansion and such like some of the reports are saying. Yeah, $20 million (reportedly) impact from an event is nothing to sneeze at, but it's still a relatively small drop in the bucket compared to the overall tourist trade in the area. Especially when Disney itself is one of the big benefactors of that spending.

I can totally buy runDisney events being caught up in a silly cat fight between the two, but with attendance slowdowns and them seemingly having hit a price ceiling, I don't think runDisney was complaining TOO much to keep the DLR events.
Click to expand...

No City council directly approves permits,

Department heads do. They also listen to the City Councillors who approve the budget and when 'city hall' says no permits for X, you can be damn sure that the department responsible for said permits will find a way to deny them.

As for permits not being applied for well just because the majority of the city council hates Disney does not mean rank and file feel the same.

Usually what happens in cases like these is the 'dont even bother applying' message goes out over a back channel to allow the applicant to save face and come up with a 'reasonable' excuse for not holding the event.

Just speculation on my part of course, but I don't buy the construction story, Because Disney was well aware of their own construction schedule and races were announced as usual, but registration stopped cold as soon as city council flipped.

Coincidence I think not.
 
Last edited:

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom