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

[Andrew C]

These two groups really REALLY don’t like each other. To the point where CNN was running a headline today asking if the midterms will cause a civil war.

Kinda separate from your point. But personally I like everyone (or at least try to) and don’t automatically judge someone due to politics. I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum of all of my closest friends and only seem to be divided here and by the media and social media.

With that being said, I get your point. It seems disney has been the chosen one to step into this. For whatever reason. They risk alienating a lot of customers as well as a good chunk of CMs. That is their choice I guess. Whether it was the direction Bob actually wanted to go…

 

[Lilofan]

It’s a mutual relationship. Disney World would not be nearly as profitable of it where located in Indiana.

It’s in Disneys best interest to start acting like a business and not a political party.

WDW would never in their wildest dreams build a park in Indiana.

 

[mkt]

Please tell me why it’s a good business decision to step into the middle of that minefield?

Facts:
1- WDW is one of TWDC's largest economic engines, as well as one of the largest economic engines in the state of Florida. It is also one of the largest employers and taxpayers in the state.

2- The entire service industry, including WDW, is short staffed. They cannot afford to lose staff.

3- Disney is well known to be a HUGE LGBTQ+ employer.

4- There have already been walkouts from LGBTQ+ CMs and their allies.

With that in mind. If Disney loses those CM's, either through walkouts or resignations, they are in a bad position.

Without those CM's, they cannot operate at the same level they're at now. They will have to start shutting things down. One attraction here, one attraction there, rent fewer rooms at the resorts. This leads to reduced capacity.

That in turn leads to fewer bookings, as cancellations increase and fewer people book.

That hurts Disney's bottom line as well.

So in order for Disney to appease that segment of the cast, they had to take a stand.

 

[TheGuyThatMakesSwords]

There is a very old saying, which I will paraphrase, to keep it clean....

"Mess with the Bull? You get the Horn".

 

[lazyboy97o]

Corporations are people and have certain rights .
This should get interesting should it go to court

Does anyone know if Chad Emerson is involved in the Disney fan community anywhere? For those who don’t know, Chad is a lawyer who wrote the book Project Future, which is all about the creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District from a legal perspective. It’s been years since I’ve read it so I’m not sure if he discusses if there is any required process for dissolving the District.

I bring it up because it would be nice to read an actual legal analysis of what it would take to end the District’s existence. This isn’t the first time this has been proposed but in the past it has been because of things like EPCOT having not been built or it giving Disney an unfair advantage, all of which could easily be used for the written pretext. If the legislature is free to end the District whenever they decide with a simple majority in both houses I’m curious how much intent could hold up to stop the legislation. I’m also curious if corporate free speech even applies since it’s not actually Disney that is being dissolved but the legally separate District.

 

[drew81]

It’s a mutual relationship. Disney World would not be nearly as profitable of it where located in Indiana.

It’s in Disneys best interest to start acting like a business and not a political party.

I would be there every day and cover it for @wdwmagic.

 

[el_super]

We may use language such as radical left or fringe right to disparage the party we don’t align with but the reality is this country is mostly split down the middle. We have two almost equal sized groups.

Agree?

No. Not at all.

Please tell me why it’s a good business decision to step into the middle of that minefield?

Probably for the same reason it's been good business for Disney, going on decades now. Social mores are a moving target, and Disney, as a business, needs to listen to the majority today, but also what the majority of the youth have to say today. The people on Twitter and TikTok today, will be running the country in 20 or 30 years.

So yeah, they ruffle some feathers now, but it's no different from when they allowed women to skipper on the Jungle Cruise, or changed the Disney Look to accommodate people of color, or allowed the organizers of gay-day to meet at the parks. Disney got called out for all this leftist behavior throughout time, but if any of those boycotts ever actually worked, we wouldn't be here to chat about the next apocalypse.

This! a family entertainment business I might add. But its execs at the top are acting otherwise. I feel its not so much the local Disney World management as it is the ones out of California. The big C just needs to be shown the door. Hes done more harm than good already.

It's not like Chapek's boss would really have a different opinion.

 

[mkt]

I would be there every day and cover it for @wdwmagic.

Hello old friend.

 

[Trauma]

Facts:
1- WDW is one of TWDC's largest economic engines, as well as one of the largest economic engines in the state of Florida. It is also one of the largest employers and taxpayers in the state.

2- The entire service industry, including WDW, is short staffed. They cannot afford to lose staff.

3- Disney is well known to be a HUGE LGBTQ+ employer.

4- There have already been walkouts from LGBTQ+ CMs and their allies.

With that in mind. If Disney loses those CM's, either through walkouts or resignations, they are in a bad position.

Without those CM's, they cannot operate at the same level they're at now. They will have to start shutting things down. One attraction here, one attraction there, rent fewer rooms at the resorts. This leads to reduced capacity.

That in turn leads to fewer bookings, as cancellations increase and fewer people book.

That hurts Disney's bottom line as well.

So in order for Disney to appease that segment of the cast, they had to take a stand.

That’s funny I don’t remember reading about all the Universal employees walking out.

What rides are closed there because of staffing issues?

 

[GimpYancIent]

WDW would never in their wildest dreams build a park in Indiana.

I agree with that, however, I see establishment of say a Disney Atlantic or East Coast park in South Carolina much more reasonable and practicable. Lot's of coast line that can be developed there, kind of half way on the east coast, the weather can be hot, it can be humid like Florida and there can be a touch winter too. For the West Coast I suggest Arizona not in California but close enough. Just thought.

 

[Tom P.]

I think the disconnect here is that this is being framed as Disney acting the way the masses want them to act and only a tiny, tiny fringe kook minority have any disagreement with anything they are saying or doing. I simply do not believe that is true. I think Disney's PR machine is playing to a very narrow constituency right now. So it's not that I think they don't have the right to have, or express, an opinion. It's that I think they are making a bad business decision not only in the opinion they are choosing to express but how they are choosing to express it. I think they are on the verge of alienating a serious chunk of their customer base. Sure, they have the right to. But I think it's bad business.

 

[el_super]

I think they are on the verge of alienating a serious chunk of their customer base. Sure, they have the right to. But I think it's bad business.

But what if they aren't? What if their actions are actually a sound business decision?

 

[Lilofan]

I agree with that, however, I see establishment of say a Disney Atlantic or East Coast park in South Carolina much more reasonable and practicable. Lot's of coast line that can be developed there, kind of half way on the east coast, the weather can be hot, it can be humid like Florida and there can be a touch winter too. For the West Coast I suggest Arizona not in California but close enough. Just thought.

I thought Disney America was to be built outside Washington DC in the 1980s under the Eisner regime but the Northern Virginia locals put up a stand and won.

 

[mkt]

I thought Disney America was to be built outside Washington DC in the 1980s under the Eisner regime but the Northern Virginia locals put up a stand and won.

This is exactly what happened. It was supposed to open in the early 90s in Northern Virginia.

The NIMBYs were worried about traffic. Fast forward to today, DC traffic is a nightmare without the park.

 

[lazyboy97o]

This is exactly what happened. It was supposed to open in the early 90s in Northern Virginia.

The NIMBYs were worried about traffic. Fast forward to today, DC traffic is a nightmare without the park.

But at least the sanctity of the nearby Civil War battlefield has been preserved by the Walmart built on the site.

 

[Figgy1]

This is exactly what happened. It was supposed to open in the early 90s in Northern Virginia.

The NIMBYs were worried about traffic. Fast forward to today, DC traffic is a nightmare without the park.

Traffic in DC has been a nightmare since I was a kid same goes for the whole NE corridor

 

[mkt]

But at least the sanctity of the nearby Civil War battlefield has been preserved by the Walmart built on the site.

These people died, so that we may watch out for falling prices.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Over the years The Disney Co. management has been conscious of the broad spectrum of customers / patron's fan's (pick your own descriptor) not just Nationally but Internationally careful to appeal to all without offensive to any. A delicate balance requiring tact and diplomacy with a touch of imagination. Resulting in a money-making entertainment conglomerate that money grubbing, grunting, low brows have taken a club to. Need a small army of fixers and a new PR department now to get out of this quagmire.

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

But what if they aren't? What if their actions are actually a sound business decision?

There’s no way it’s possible it could be considered a sound business decision when they whiplashed on this issue from a neutral stance to an aggressive oppose in less than a week.

Even if the argument is that they eventually arrived at the right place on the bill cognizant of the changing demographics of the country and their workforce, the fact that they seemingly overcompensated in their PR response to the backlash by taking a hyperbolic approach to their messaging appears to have left no one happy.

As someone who works in the government affairs world the fact that they showed no visible moral outrage during legislative session aside from a recorded lukewarm “oppose unless amended” position then flipped on a dime after the bill passed is likely to create short term abrasion by making them seem like an untrustworthy business partner.

 

[GimpYancIent]

I thought Disney America was to be built outside Washington DC in the 1980s under the Eisner regime but the Northern Virginia locals put up a stand and won.

Disney America was never built. The land was procured and agreements made with the Virginia State government to develop a park in Haymarket but local groups protested (locals did not want urban / suburban sprawl to over take the area) creating a hostile environment for Disney. Disney chose to not pursue the project any further. The irony is the area that Disney would have occupied is now urban / suburban sprawl.