The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

[FrankLapidus]

Staggs was head of Strategic Planning. I do not see what he has done to be forgiven for that. If Strategic Planning as a group has rightly deserved ire for their role in hurting the company during Eisner's later years, I do not think the man who spent time at the helm of this very group should get a pass because people now know his name, he took some good promotional photos in the parks and pushed a good story about he "rescued" New Fantasyland.

Yeah you're right. Like I said I hope they go outside the company to appoint the next CEO, I'm just intrigued by what kind of executive Staggs could be had he not come from a background in strategic planning but maybe I've just been too easily led by the PR over his role in the re-planning of the FLE and he really is just another bean counter.

 

[doctornick]

But why? What personal interest does he have? or is it just an ego move?

Well, Eisner still owns a ton of Disney stock, no?

 

[Rodan75]

Well, Eisner still owns a ton of Disney stock, no?

I would assume that. And I wouldn't be surprised if he wants 1. A board seat or 2. Disney history to remember him fondly...maybe a statue in the future.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Well, Eisner still owns a ton of Disney stock, no?

Yes, I want to say he owns 1.7 percent of the company or something along those lines.
EDIT: Does anyone know how much of DIS Marvel's Ike Perlmutter, who apparently hates Iger's guts, owns?

 

[FigmentJedi]

Unless the political reason behind the comment was Eisner's attempt at trying to get back in good graces with the company's leaders to regain some power and influence by weaving lies they like to hear (his ego still seems quite strong so i'm not sure if he's one to try to suck up to the people that helped kick him out).

Makes sense to me. I mean it's not like people gave a damn about his talk show or that lousy stop motion show of his.

 

[ford91exploder]

I'll bear that in mind the next time I'm in Boston…

Best beer in town is a block away at John Harvard's Brewpub, Or you can go to the Queen's Head pub at Harvard if you want to have a drink in Harvard Yard itself. http://cqh.harvard.edu/

 

[Ignohippo]

Then who is it at the exec level that was in favor of the expansions and was able to get it to happen despite both TDO and jr being against it?

I'm confused about the structure because the standard narrative being repeated doesn't match up to the structure.

The way Flynn has it laid out is correct however, at the time, Rasulo was head of Parks & Resorts - not CFO yet. Iger had just acquired Pixar and Lasseter and Catmul had Iger's ear.

Capacity was wanted in MK and Lasseter, as I understand it, became very involved due to his new role as Chief Creative Officer and Principal Creative Advisor to Imagineering. His plans for MK were much more grandios than anything Rasulo had in mind.

Rasulo, didn't want a billion dollar (or even $500 million) expenditure for MK to show on his ledger sheet as a result of his tenure as head of P&R. DCA was broken and needed to be fixed, MK on the other hand was profitable. Adding a billion dollar expansion, in his mind, would help for his successor but not for him during his time. it would only show the WDW Resort as being in the red at a time when he was in charge of the parks.

 

[Rodan75]

Yes, I want to say he owns 1.7 percent of the company or something along those lines.
EDIT: Does anyone know how much of DIS Marvel's Ike Perlmutter, who apparently hates Iger's guts, owns?

I would assume Ike has slightly less influence with all of the racist/sexist allegations he has had, but he is still the 2nd/3rd largest shareholder. (Not sure how Jobs and Lucas shares count now)

 

[ford91exploder]

Is Star Tours considered an E though? That may be the better comparator (or at least I'd like to hope so). Those three other attractions all have show issues that hold them back from actually being E-ticket's.

I also realize the bike coaster was cut, but that was a long time ago. What potentially did they change in the interim to make James Cameron happy? I'm half asking and half trying to add a little optimism.

Cameron is NOT happy, However he is shutting up so I think Disney may be financing the sequels and told him if he squeaked no money for sequel.

 

[ford91exploder]

and on these abbreviations:
TWDC = The Walt Disney Company
TDA/TDO/DCL = ???
WDI = Walt Disney Imagineering

TDA - Team Disney Anaheim
TDO - Team Disney Orlando
DCL - Disney Cruise Line

 

[lazyboy97o]

I would assume that. And I wouldn't be surprised if he wants 1. A board seat or 2. Disney history to remember him fondly...maybe a statue in the future.

The Team Disney Burbank building (this one) is now Team Disney - The Michael D. Eisner Building. He'd probably like a Disney Legend award and given the sometimes low criteria he is definitely deserving.

Yes, I want to say he owns 1.7 percent of the company or something along those lines.
EDIT: Does anyone know how much of DIS Marvel's Ike Perlmutter, who apparently hates Iger's guts, owns?

I think Ike's power comes from his willingness to speak compounded by Marvel's success at the box office.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I would assume Ike has slightly less influence with all of the racist/sexist allegations he has had, but he is still the 2nd/3rd largest shareholder. (Not sure how Jobs and Lucas shares count now)

Don't forget institutional investors/pension funds like Vanguard, CalSTRS and BlackRock.

 

[stlphil]

It's not so much personal preference as the definition of an e-ticket. The visuals of what you see on a ride are largely what makes it E or not. At least to me, everest can only be considered E in the scale department - from an experience perspective the visuals are ho-hum outside the queue and the ride experience itself is a fairly uninspired coaster.

The themed environment is indeed what would make the boat ride an E-Ticket, even if it has no thrills. And there are several who have suggested, I among them, that the boat ride will be something on the scale of Pirates in Shanghai, which by all accounts is supposed to be pretty impressive.

The A-E (originally A-C) ticket designations at different price points were mainly designed to recoup the capital investment used to create the specific ride. Most expensive to build = E ticket. This had nothing to do with thrill, or even directly scope, although of course there is a strong correlation between cost and scope. Today of course, with no more ticket books, the A-E designation is totally subjective, and everyone has a different "gut instinct" for defining it. For example, I think Soarin' is an E, but I understand why some don't.

As an aside, and I mentioned this in another thread a while back, the unfortunate result of ditching the tickets is that now there is no direct revenue stream from a new ride that can be demonstrated to the bean counters as justification for building new rides. I think this is a major reason for the current stagnation, and seemingly anti-new-attraction attitude in the top executive ranks at TWDC, where they don't see that rides produce revenue.

Imagineering has known that this was a problem for a long time time now. Tony Baxter told me (no I'm not an insider, this was at a meet and greet at the Disney Gallery at DL) around 15 years ago that imagineering was looking at some sort of new high tech and paperless way of reinstating tickets, presumably in order to connect revenue to rides.

 

[jlsHouston]

Imagineering has known that this was a problem for a long time time now. Tony Baxter told me (no I'm not an insider, this was at a meet and greet at the Disney Gallery at DL) around 15 years ago that imagineering was looking at some sort of new high tech and paperless way of reinstating tickets, presumably in order to connect revenue to rides.

FP+?

 

[stlphil]

FP+?

I've wondered that as well. I hope not, but I think it is possible the current FP+ is the ultimate mutated result of those concepts from 15 years ago to directly tie revenue to specific rides.

 

[Cesar R M]

Easy... In the Wall Street mindset, it is all about results, not how you got there... And let's face it, WDW delivers the results... Wall Street cares not that WDW is getting there by jacking prices double the rate of inflation, cutting cast, cutting entertainment, cutting quality... As long as the people come (and they still are) and profits skyrocket, all else be damned...

Disney is not the only company like this...

The castle of cards thing still resonates in my mind everytime I read these types of "wall street is king" fans.
numbers and levels can be manipulated, but you cant "manipulate" your core. If you dont invest and renovate your core, whatever "magical" number in wall street will vanish overnight into a big cascading fall.

So, apropos of nothing really, this seems as good a place as any to throw this out there. Today is kind of an important date. No, not related to April Fool's Day (though some might argue it's connected). Today is officially the beginning of Q3 FY '14, so we have a full half year under our belts. In that regard the following exchange (heavily edited by me, but the gist is still there) occasionally rattles around in my head.

Nov 17, 2013 Conference Call.

Alexia Quadrani - Analyst, JP Morgan

"I guess is there something incremental we should look out for in fiscal 2014? I guess, where are you on the spending around Magic+? And then on Magic+ when we might see, I guess, some signs or data points of how it's impacting the business?"

Jay Rasulo - Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company

"Relative to the front - end of your question on spending, continued spending and ramp - up of new initiatives in Florida -- and that 's not only MyMagic+, which, you know, the operating portion, of course, the costs are kicking in...
And this year, we're looking at about a $300 million expense item, and more or less the same amount on the revenue side. So, you know, we'll continue to see accretion into 2014 and ramping upward beyond that.?"

So - $300M in new revenue in FY '14 - $820K per day.

With the year half over, does anyone think that TWDC is on track to generate $300M in new revenue due to these new initiatives in Florida?

And the other side of that same coin, do you think TWDC will hold costs on these initiatives to only $300M.

Color me skeptical on both counts, especially the first.

The next conference call, in five weeks, could be very entertaining.

Did they explained from where that "300M" revenue came from? the price increase of both parks and parking?
the new tenants from disney springs?
the DVC flood?

I blame it on Disney building three full theme parks in a single destination and their escalation of pricing. That created the sense of urgency to want to see it all without extending your stay longer... which is what the additional entertainment was really built for.

That could be a CLEAR REASON of why they added FP+, limiting the FP to prevent commando.. and thus leech as much they can.
Making people wait long lines is the best way to ensure they are staying in the park.. dont do much,.. consume products all day and then have the clients to return next day.

 

[The_Mesh_Hatter]

Imagineering has known that this was a problem for a long time time now. Tony Baxter told me (no I'm not an insider, this was at a meet and greet at the Disney Gallery at DL) around 15 years ago that imagineering was looking at some sort of new high tech and paperless way of reinstating tickets, presumably in order to connect revenue to rides.

I remember reading somewhere that Baxter suggested that new attractions have an up-charge to them so they could prove profitable.

 

[PeterAlt]

Re: The before-mentioned E-ticket planned cancelled for DHS...

What was it being planned for? Star Wars?

I'm talking about the cancelled E-ticket coaster that was planned for Avatar but got cut because one was in the process of being planned cancelled for DHS.

Second, how do we know this? Rumor? Or insider's scoop?

 

[PeterAlt]

I remember reading somewhere that Baxter suggested that new attractions have an up-charge to them so they could prove profitable.

Now, we know the true motivation behind MM+! I wouldn't be surprised if this is used to pay for a new tier of super E-tickets!

How do I feel about it? Mixed feelings. But if it pays for the construction of E-tickets that would have been otherwise cut, it can't be all that bad...

 

[FrankLapidus]

Now, we know the true motivation behind MM+! I wouldn't be surprised if this is used to pay for a new tier of super E-tickets!

How do I feel about it? Mixed feelings. But if it pays for the construction of E-tickets that would have been otherwise cut, it can't be all that bad...

Are you being serious or sarcastic here? You really think the motivation behind MM+ is to finance more E-tickets?