Walt Disney board extends Iger's contract as Chairman and CEO through June 2018

[WildcatDen]

Nah it's more to do that he has a mighty big ego,

Pot, it is my pleasure to introduce you to kettle. . .

 

[wdwfan4ver]

I agree with all of this.

If you work for this company in the theme parks and resorts division, you would understand how bleak and disappointed the outlook is on behalf of the Cast. All of us recognize how money hungry WDW is and how little of substance is actually put here.

The Cast are sick of My Magic+ and are always quick to curse it. So much has been lost or done cheaply around here that it has become a joke when we compare ourselves to all the other Disney parks. Literally, we openly admit how cheap things are around here. All too often you hear the gripes about why the cost of MM+ was not spent on making things better.

Moral is low and the way things are run around here is very clear to the Cast. Even those who LOVE everything that's done here and defend it all, will tell you behind the scenes that they realise how poor things are at WDW.

You may not see why things are worse and you may not see why the future of WDW is a joke, but WE DO. Take it from those who operate this place from the front lines or from behind the curtain, we know more than you and hear more than you ever will.

I know what you are taking about very well in terms of the cast members attitudes towards my magic Plus as a guest from late August to the day after Labor Day. The cast members acknowledged they hate it as much as a lot of the guests do.

When I was there, the cast members weren't afraid to speak freely about their dislike of My Magic +. My party ran across a lot of cast members at WDW that talked to us and spoke their mind about the experience about My Magic Plus from the guests experiences to their own in a negative light.

 

[BadTigger]

I'm so glad we have folks like you that come into set us ignorant rubes straight by quoting stock prices.

Did you forget to remind us all that Disney is a business? Cause you know it wasn't a business in 1928, 1956, 1976, 1987, 1998 etc.

You're welcome.

I did forget to mention disney is a business and if we look back over those years Iger has also done much more financially for the company then any other CEO.

 

[devoy1701]

good grief!

 

[Goofnut1980]

From over here in the back corner.. May I throw my name in the hat to be the CEO? I have ideas.

 

[xdan0920]

From over here in the back corner.. May I throw my name in the hat to be the CEO? I have ideas.

Me too. And they are better then yours. In fact, your ideas smell like snapper poo.

 

[devoy1701]

Thats total baloney. Just about every acquisition Iger has made will pan out long term and grow the company dramatically. The man is building theme parks while the late to the party competition is building themed areas. Disney films are getting to the point of being constant hits almost every time out. The brand has never been stronger, even when Walt was around he was never this successful.

Short term? Ha, ha. Did I mention the company under his watch has grown in value from just under 50 billion to 150 billion? You guys can hate the man all you want, its pointless and without merit, but hes the best CEO in America for a reason. He deserves his success.

The company Walt ran was nothing like it is today. No foreign parks, no retail chain, no cable networks, no internet-related items, no WDW (yet), one park in Califonria, no Pixar etc. Comparing the two from a "success" standpoint would be ridiculous.

And Eisner more than Iger was responsible for all of that.

I'm only surprised at this because I thought Iger wanted to step down. For the owners of the company, Iger has been a very successful CEO. The stock price is up about 350% since he took over, I think. Not a bad return for 9 years.

The Pixar and Marvel acquisitions already look like steals, and the LucasFilm acquisition may well look like one soon.
ESPN was a juggernaut in the sports world when Iger came on as CEO -- now it's basically an all-powerful dictator with a license to print money.
Feature animation (non-Pixar) has it's biggest hit in 2 decades.
The Cruise Line is the envy of the industry and new ships Iger greenlit tripled capacity (guest count, not number of ships, obviously)
DCA is now a huge success after previously looking like a failure.
The Shanghai park will cement Disney's brand in China even more than it already is.
While the movie side had historic busts in John Carter and Lone Ranger, those losses are more than covered by the surprise success of Guardians of the Galaxy (heck, just the profits from the sale of dancing Groot toys might cover it).

There are plenty of more examples of what has gone right under Iger that more than outweigh (for the company's owners) what has gone wrong. Is Iger good for WDW? Certainly not in the way I wish he was. But is good for the Company? He certainly has been up until now.

Iger has done very well in terms of how a CEO should be judged. He has grown TWDC tremendously and has made very strategic acquisitions that have expanded the company's intellectual portfolio to the point where you have to ask "what doesn't Disney own"? I do think comparing Iger and Eisner is not an Apples to Apples comparison either. Eisner was chief in launching Disney into the media conglomerate that is it today, but he did so with a profound appreciation and respect for the company's (and Walt's) history. He wanted to be the next "Walt Disney" and was doing a pretty good job at it for awhile there. I think that Eisner's plan was to make sure he could grow the recognition of the Walt Disney Brand itself. Iger seems to be operating completely differently in that he doesn't care if he blurs the overall company brand if he's able to achieve growth. That's why Marvel, Pixar, Lucas Arts, etc will never be fully absorbed into TWCD umbrella....it's not important to Iger's plan. WE all know that this is all owned by Disney, but you'd be surprised how many people still don't know that Marvel and Star Wars are owned by TWDC. And frankly, Wall Street doesn't care either.

 

[Goofnut1980]

Me too. And they are better then yours. In fact, your ideas smell like snapper poo.

baaaahahahahahahahahaha

Nuh-uh

 

[BrerJon]

WE all know that this is all owned by Disney, but you'd be surprised how many people still don't know that Marvel and Star Wars are owned by TWDC. And frankly, Wall Street doesn't care either.

This is true. I was speaking to someone the other day who was insistent that the Marvel park in Dubai was getting Disney really spooked. I tried to explain that Disney owned Marvel, but he didn't get it all all.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Anyone else ever find Gadget attractive?

No?

Okay...I'll see myself out...

Not since I was eight years old…

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Jay Rasulo via Nick 'Already the NGE Fall Guy'' Franklin and egged on by Jim 'I Really Want to Keep Working For Disney' MacPhee.

I wouldn't be surprised if MacPhee's over/under on time remaining with Disney could be measured in weeks now.

I wouldn't be shocked either, but how long Georgie will stay with Disney after MacPhee is gone?

I am asking this since George Kalogridis was brought over to WDW to be one of the "NGE Fall guys".

 

[BrerJon]

What annoys me is ever since the first rumours of NextGen on these boards, it was clearly going to be a clusterf***. How did the project get so far along that they even needed fall guys? If the fans here could see immediately that it wouldn't work, why did it take the suits so long to realise the same thing?

 

[xdan0920]

baaaahahahahahahahahaha

Nuh-uh

Crap, out maneuvered again Dan. Back to the drawing board.

 

[BrerJon]

What annoys me is ever since the first rumours of NextGen on these boards, it was clearly going to be a clusterf***. How did the project get so far along that they even needed fall guys? If the fans here could see immediately that it wouldn't work, why did it take the suits so long to realise the same thing?

I found these two examples from *four years ago* of people here figuring out that NextGen was a dud.

yes a lot of money is being dumped into this, but knowing how some of this money has been spent... sigh... is all i can say.

My take - while it all sounds good (seamless) in theory, as we've already seen with Pooh's queue, there is a lot of room for failure. I don't think a lot of this will ever come to fruition, and if it does, I wonder if Disney can execute it in a manner that doesn't cause unnecessary headaches. I don't want to sound resistant to change, because I'm not, but I just wonder if this will be as "seamless" as Staggs makes it sound.

So if people here figured it out, why did it take Disney so long to realise the same thing?

 

[Captain Neo]

Hahaha. OK pal ... what has Iger done that was meaningful? Overbuilding DVC and the stupidity of MT+ ... hardly meaningful unless you mean kneecapping which he has done to great effect.

I'd say freshining up Fantasyland, expanding MGM and Animal Kingdom into real full day parks, and rebuilding downtown dump disney into something new and fresh is meaningful. It's not Iger's fault that fools keep buying into DVC it would be fiscally irresponsible for him to stop a program that is raking in huge money and probably get him thrown out. My Magic + has its pros and cons and I think a lot of the complaints are just people resistant to change and don't feel comfortable with Disney tracking more information. Also didn't that program just roll out in the past year? I think it's going to be a few years before we realize the full vision especially now that we know it will tie into having all your travel documents on your smart phone and/or apple watch.

 

[danlb_2000]

I'd say freshining up Fantasyland, expanding MGM and Animal Kingdom into real full day parks, and rebuilding downtown dump disney into something new and fresh is meaningful. It's not Iger's fault that fools keep buying into DVC it would be fiscally irresponsible for him to stop a program that is raking in huge money and probably get him thrown out. My Magic + has its pros and cons and I think a lot of the complaints are just people resistant to change and don't feel comfortable with Disney tracking more information. Also didn't that program just roll out in the past year? I think it's going to be a few years before we realize the full vision especially now that we know it will tie into having all your travel documents on your smart phone and/or apple watch.

I'll give him credit for expanding AK and DHS into full day parks when it actually happens.

 

[xdan0920]

I'll give him credit for expanding AK and DHS into full day parks when it actually happens.

Word.

 

[SirLink]

I'd say freshining up Fantasyland, expanding MGM and Animal Kingdom into real full day parks, and rebuilding downtown dump disney into something new and fresh is meaningful. It's not Iger's fault that fools keep buying into DVC it would be fiscally irresponsible for him to stop a program that is raking in huge money and probably get him thrown out. My Magic + has its pros and cons and I think a lot of the complaints are just people resistant to change and don't feel comfortable with Disney tracking more information. Also didn't that program just roll out in the past year? I think it's going to be a few years before we realize the full vision especially now that we know it will tie into having all your travel documents on your smart phone and/or apple watch.

1) Fantasyland he agreed funding for the equivalent of pretty band aid for MK.
2) DAK won't be full day park when Avatar is fully opened in 2018
3) DHS there has been no expansion yet.
4) Yes it would for the long term health of resort.
5) MyTragic+ is bad just bad...there is no real value for guest.
6)He is building a shopping mall need it be repeated.
7)So what? "OoOoO I can have all my travel documents on my phone like when I go to reception and they ask for my name and iD and a credit card without having to show my phone to the receptionist!" Oh...

Plus I can see why you picked the name Anticitizen One for the rest of the interwebs - it suits your character perfectly... and banned in some of those venues ...

 

[Californian Elitist]

Nor did I say "original history". But technically, even the new mess in New Orleans Square is part of Disneyland's history now. I know some teenagers that were upset at the Epcot wand dying because "It's part of Epcot's history" -- they didn't know any different. My point (which I did not explain explicitly) was simply that what one considers part of history worth saving is often influenced by what was there when one first became aware of the place. Heck, I still don't even think Star Tours "fits" in Disneyland. I love the ride and always have, but "Adventure Through Innerspace" is the ride I associate with Disneyland in that spot. That it isn't there still feels wrong to me.

I was originally referring to Disneyland's original history, which is why I brought up original history in my previous reply. I'm not talking about DL's history in general, I'm talking about its original concept, as well as other aspects of the park that were "attached" when Walt was still alive.

 

[CDavid]

expanding MGM and Animal Kingdom into real full day parks

As already stated, that hasn't happened yet, who can guess how much will even be open by 2018, and of course there are very real problems with the expansion choices (blue aliens) in Animal Kingdom. We don't even know what the plans are for the Studios; How do you know it'll be a full day park?

rebuilding downtown dump disney into something new and fresh

In what way was the Marketplace a "dump"? There was always more to Downtown Disney than just the "abandoned warehouse district" of Pleasure Island; Calling the place a dump is like calling the whole of Walt Disney World a dump just because of River Country.

It's not Iger's fault that fools keep buying into DVC it would be fiscally irresponsible for him to stop a program that is raking in huge money and probably get him thrown out.

Do you seriously believe that the lack of DVC revenue in just one division of the company - Parks & Resorts - would get Iger kicked out of office? Really? If so, what is going to happen when a few "tentpole' movies bomb at the box office?

My Magic + has its pros and cons

So, what are those pros which justify the (reported and/or speculated) $2-$2.8 billion dollar cost?

I think a lot of the complaints are just people resistant to change

What you call "resistant to change" the rest of us refer to as fundamentally and permanently altering the nature of a Walt Disney World vacation, changing it from a relaxing experience into something more resembling planning a work schedule or doing your taxes.

I think it's going to be a few years before we realize the full vision

What do you think is going to be fundamentally different about NGE/MM+ in a few years? Are guests going to eventually decide they like planning meals months in advance and suddenly start spending more money because they can just wave their arm to buy something?

especially now that we know it will tie into having all your travel documents on your smart phone and/or apple watch.

As stated many times, apparently Disney is working under the false assumptions that both everyone has a smart phone, and secondly, that everyone wants to carry them around the parks and stay connected all day. Seriously, its not like Walt Disney World is supposed to be a vacation from anything...