On layoffs, very bad attendance, and Iger's legacy being one of disgrace

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Hot zone or not is pretty immaterial. We're talking about people being unwilling to travel but the South East seems willing to travel -- as long as they can drive.

Take a look at the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota. If you went to that you were driving by definition to bring your bike, and they pulled in what? 250k people from all over the US. Granted these may or may not be the same demographic as would go to Disney (although the income is likely there, the kids may not be).

It seems that some people are willing to travel but they don't want to fly and they don't want restrictions.

Others just aren't willing to travel.

And we’re right back where we started. Nice chatting.

 

[UNCgolf]

“Elite status” is relative with billions in annual costs. They also tend to be relative to the school who feels that way about themselves.

But changes at minimum are coming from them too.

The ghosts of dean smith and Bo Schembechler aren’t donating their legacy funds.

When I say elite, I mean generally recognized as elite by the public as a whole. In rankings (which you could argue are meaningless) but more importantly in hiring status. Companies look more favorably upon degrees from UNC, UCLA, Michigan, UVA, and the other so-called "Public Ivies" than they do from other public universities.

But who knows what will happen.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

While I’m sure established students aren’t bailing out in masses, a lot of large colleges are seeing deferred enrollment for freshman year and kids opting to go to a community college or less expensive school for the first year since most everything is online anyway. My son was enrolled to begin at a Big 10 school this fall however, everything is online. There’s no point of paying those rates for him to be home. Instead, he deferred his enrollment and is approved to attend the first semester, at a minimum, at a local community college on an approved transfer plan.

I will say both schools have put forth amazing efforts to help incoming freshmen with the unconventional transition.

This is definitely a concern for us, too. There has been very close monitoring of enrolment numbers and no-one is entirely sure how many will show up. That concern is rolled into the preoccupation with the experience of freshmen/first years such that they can be convinced to still enrol. Another wrinkle is the travel involved, which for us means students from other parts of the EU but in the US means students from other parts of the country having to relocate, pay for accommodation, etc. It's hard to convince them or us it's necessary for them to do this when everything is likely to be online anyway. We're also not supposed to be doing long-distance learning, however, and ideally in-person learning will be phased in as possible. In the US, I think that whole ecosystem is a big part of the push to start on-campus teaching this coming semester.

As a lecturer, this makes me kind of happy as it provides some recognition that it is worthwhile keeping us employed rather than just recording lectures or reducing higher education to a handful of elite on-campus institutions and a slightly lower tier marketing online courses to the world. It is not great for students or universities, though.

Honestly, if a student could defer the upcoming semester I would find it hard to advise them not to.

How in the world are future engineers, doctors, and scientists going to do lab work with an online education?

For some fields, it's simply impossible not to have some on-campus education. However, even that is being curtailed. I've heard stories from colleagues about labs shutting due to COVID outbreaks in several countries now.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

When I say elite, I mean generally recognized as elite by the public as a whole. In rankings (which you could argue are meaningless) but more importantly in hiring status. Companies look more favorably upon degrees from UNC, UCLA, Michigan, UVA, and the other so-called "Public Ivies" than they do from other public universities.

But who knows what will happen.

I went down the rabbit hole and looked at the rankings (haven’t in decades - thankfully)...and I noticed how heavily those rankings are weighted private now. Not so in the past. Way more “football schools” back when.

You forgot Georgia Tech and Wake Forest and BC in your list

I’m proud to say I got in to 3 of the top 30...and didn’t go to any of them

Shout out to Pomona College! Frank wells and Roy E Disney.

 

[robhedin]

This is where we fundamentally disagree. Having a limited number of locals, APs and “damn the torpedoes” regional travelers is not gonna make them money. It’s not a 1:1 scenario. They don’t make money off selling a Mickey plush...they make it Off selling 1,000. You have to first outrun the overhead costs.

That’s the model. That’s the framework. Can’t flip a switch now.

If you consider that...limiting cms and APs makes complete sense. They’d just be increasing their overhead to accommodate them and never get over the top.

This is gonna take awhile even if things go better than they have. And that’s assuming this ridiculous “v-shaped recovery” nonsense goes (it won’t)...

The canary in the coal mine to me is the recall of college program...things won’t be close to normal till that happens.

Generally I agree here, except for the comment on the "they'd just be increasing their overhead to accommodate them" part.

If the part has open but non-AP holder capacity, and they're contributing positively (not turning a profit, but covering their operating costs plus a bit) which they must be since this is the basis of being open, then allowing additional AP holders in on that day would increase what they make, not decrease it (their operational costs are covered, remember?). So while some AP holders may come in and spend nothing, others are going to eat or get a drink or a snack at a minimum. If the AP holder gets a room, that's also room revenue.

Does that make a huge difference to the bottom line? Nope. But it should help the bottom line, plus build good will with the AP holders.

Now, the real question here is: does Disney even want the current AP program or not?

 

[Brer Panther]

Has this article gotten any buzz on here?

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Some gold quotes:

Besides scrapping the networks, he shut down a musical version of the animated film “Frozen” that opened with much fanfare on Broadway two years ago, closed a chain of English-language schools in China, and scaled back a $1 billion resort-technology project that has largely been replaced by a simple mobile-phone app.

“He’s going to be looking in every corner where they can save money,” said Dave Heger, an analyst who follows the company at Edward Jones and recommends buying Disney stock. “Considering what Disney is dealing with, he’s the right guy to have at the wheel.”

And my favorite:

“But Chapek is beginning to get out from beneath Iger’s shadow. The ex-CEO wasn’t even on Disney’s last earnings call with analysts -- a surprise to some who expected Iger to keep a tight hold on the company.”

Hopefully cancelling the Splash Mountain rethemes is one of the ways that they try to save money.

Also, "ex-CEO"? Isn't Iger still the CEO? He made Chapek CEO back in February, then came back a month or two after that?

 

[UNCgolf]

Hopefully cancelling the Splash Mountain rethemes is one of the ways that they try to save money.

Also, "ex-CEO"? Isn't Iger still the CEO? He made Chapek CEO back in February, then came back a month or two after that?

Chapek is still CEO. Iger is Executive Chairman of the Board. I think he just decided to take a more hands-on approach.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Hopefully cancelling the Splash Mountain rethemes is one of the ways that they try to save money.

Also, "ex-CEO"? Isn't Iger still the CEO? He made Chapek CEO back in February, then came back a month or two after that?

Absolutely no way they cancel the splash move. None.

Chapek is still CEO. Iger is Executive Chairman of the Board. I think he just decided to take a more hands-on approach.

Iger is in charge. He “fake quit” to not be the guy on the door when or if Disney suffered a huge collapse under the weight of covid and/or the economics...
I will never not believe that the billionaires didn’t think it was gonna be much worse in February/March. They shut down everything over a week without a peep.

You know how much fear it took to overpower the normal greed?

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Absolutely no way they cancel the splash move. None.

Iger is in charge. He “fake quit” to not be the guy on the door when or if Disney suffered a huge collapse under the weight of covid and/or the economics...
I will never not believe that the billionaires didn’t think it was gonna be much worse in February/March. They shut down everything over a week without a peep.

You know how much fear it took to overpower the normal greed?

It didn't though. They aren't losing anything but a rounding error. It's the rest of us that are losing.

 

[Brer Panther]

Absolutely no way they cancel the splash move. None.

Well, then when Disney is in debt because they spent so much money on the rethemes, I hope they learn a valuable lesson about giving in to the Twitter mob.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It didn't though. They aren't losing anything but a rounding error. It's the rest of us that are losing.

Ahhh...patience.

I’ll admit...I didn’t think the Federal Reserve would completely rig the stock market so it would stay the same as the entire world economy shutdown...shame on me for not thinking of that.

But Disney is still going to lose massive amounts of free money for some time that Bob Does backstrokes in a la Ducktales....that’s when he’ll slither away.

 

[wdwmagic]

Moved about 60 off topic posts to https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads...rs-legacy-being-one-of-disgrace.967644/unread

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Moved about 60 off topic posts to https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads...rs-legacy-being-one-of-disgrace.967644/unread

@wdwmagic IRL

 

[_caleb]

Any word on how many were affected by those secret layoffs we heard so much about?

 

[Lilofan]

Any word on how many were affected by those secret layoffs we heard so much about?

If and when , they don't seem to be members.

 

[brb1006]

So about that new thread...

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

If and when , they don't seem to be members.

Cast members who abuse the system

 

[Parker in NYC]

Well, then when Disney is in debt because they spent so much money on the rethemes, I hope they learn a valuable lesson about giving in to the Twitter mob.

I think they're already in debt. But hey, if you're already deeply in the red, what's wrong with more? A former college friend of mine took expensive trips to the Cape after filing for bankruptcy. Tra la la.

 

[Piebald]

I think this thread may have jumped the gun on the timing, but I hope people dont think that because they havent heard of any layoffs during the earnings call that things are OK. Orlando right now is like when Cassian and Jyn are on Jedha in Rogue One and he says, "this town, its ready to blow"

Lots of desolate spots around town and lots of people who were "furloughed" starting to get letters telling them their job is going *poof*

 

[doctornick]

I think this thread may have jumped the gun on the timing, but I hope people dont think that because they havent heard of any layoffs during the earnings call that things are OK. Orlando right now is like when Cassian and Jyn are on Jedha in Rogue One and he says, "this town, its ready to blow"

Lots of desolate spots around town and lots of people who were "furloughed" starting to get letters telling them their job is going *poof*

Layoffs are coming, if they haven’t already occurred. As the OP suggested, there’s enough bloat that some cuts will be “good” for the company by adding efficiency and decreasing redundancy or extraneous work (of course those are still real people losing their jobs so it’s not rosey for everyone). The layoffs will affect the park staff though attrition from the College Program and International CMs will help lessen the impact on total number of “regular” CMs in Orlando.

I think where the OP’s message seems to have gone astray is in terms of the “precarious” financial situation of the company and/or the impact on Iger’s status and his legacy. At least based on the quarterly report, the company seems to be managing fine and will be able to weather the storm of the pandemic for a while. I see little indication that the company is viewed as mismanaged or “in trouble”