Have these people been in Disneyworld at all? This is not the Pulaski state fair with a carnival run by three ex-convicts and the bearded lady who cooks meth and potato chips. This is not a disassemble overnight pack and move to the next town. This is several hundred thousand acres of construction firmly set into the ground. Pack up what? a few animatrons, the costumes and the computers that runs everything? How much would it cost to transport it all just across state lines? And start from zero? They are never going to get a sweet deal as they had.
The sad part is that the Liberals are trying to re-start COVID restrictions, and you and I know that California will follow the mandates from the White House and shut down everything, including Disneyland. The only park income Disney got was from Disneyworld and that was because Florida flipped the bird early and hard allowing the House of Mouse to accept visitors who gladly spent monies that went to the California coffers.
If i were an investor, I’d be royally pissed between Pedo Joe’s economy and Disney wokeness fucking with my money.
I haven’t seen too much of this thought myself, but I admit I’m not trawling the deep ends of the idiot pool.
But you’re right. I have visited WDW in Orlando, many years ago. I was actually quite impressed with the amount of logistics involved in the illusions (and I commented as much — quietly — to several staffers. No need to screw up the kiddies’ entertainment).
There is simply no way for Disney to pull up stakes and move. Especially not after purchasing Lucasfilms. And like you said, if I was a Disney stockholder I would be absolutely livid at this point.
They have their own water and sewer systems, their own power systems, natural gas supplies, a sizable set of ammunition bunkers (when you stage multiple BIG fireworks shows a night, you need to safely store a lot of explosives), and multiple mass transit systems.
The entire property is a wonder of the modern world — I read a book by an archeologist trying to identify the actual Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The author’s definition — an administrative building topped with gardens intended to impress and amuse visitors — fits the Magic Kingdom.
I used to love the place as a sign of a society and culture rich enough to pour that much of our wealth into just escapism. But the company decided they’d rather chase one-time visitors and BIG spenders, then started cost-cutting to the point they can barely operate the parks. The executives deciding to wade into politics was the last straw; I’m through with them.
I visited EPCOT about ten years ago. I swear I stepped into a time warp back to the 1970’s. Everything had that “We have not spent a dime upgrading anything in 40 years” look and feel.
I have to admit, they do keep it clean. You could see where they cleaned the fiberglass right through the gel-coat down to the substrate on some edges and corners. Other places had sections of textured aluminum metal worn smooth.
Sadly, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center was designed under the direction of someone who pointed to Epcot and said “I want that”. Same style, colors, the background music sounds the same… the only distinguishing feature is the rocket garden.
Disney is never leaving Orlando, Delta is never leaving Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, and Microsoft is never leaving Redmond. The sooner the politicians realize that, the faster these companies start playing by the same rules as the rest of the world. The municipalities that these companies are in need to realize this, and stop cowtowing to their every demand.
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Even if Disney wanted to pull out of FL, where are they going to go? Where is this place where they will find the land to replicate 1/10th of what they have in Orlando? Granted, they could probably move to Wyoming, plenty of space there, but none of the other things that are needed for a WDW level park. (Hotels, roads, airports, water, sewer, food, etc… etc… etc…)
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Occupy Democrats is demonstrating a trait that is endemic among leftists. They seem to think that you can change one part of a system, without altering the rest, or in this case, one part of the system is not dependent on the rest of the system. There is no difference between “raising minimum wage will not affect prices” and “Disney can just move to wherever they want to” Same childish mental mind set.
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Walt Disney World is stuck there for all eternity. And, I think DeSantis knows that, and is playing accordingly.
Being covered with a foot of snow, and -10° three months a year would cut into visits a wee bit too.
Disney is more likely to become the Boy Scouts if they don’t heed the shot across the bow.
Moving isn’t even an option.
Yes, yes. By all means, please relocate 45 square miles of theme parks, zoos, hotels, and the myriad infrastructure facilities that support them (worth an estimated $3,000,000,000) to another state… By early November. That way DeSantis’ bid for re-election will fail.
Obviously, you can’t move to Georgia or Virginia (icky voter ID laws) nor Alabama or Mississippi (icky pro-life laws). Can’t move it to Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, or the Carolinas (those are just made up locations for filming Oscar Bait civil war period dramas, no one actually lives there). Texas is right out (icky everything).
Maybe New York City? It’s got all the woke liberal progressive politics you could ever want! And for $3 billion dollars, you could probably get an entire acre or two… and I’m sure tourists will still flock to southern New England in the winter months just like they did to sunny Florida. Right?
I’ve seen comments saying WDW should move to California. said seriously. They didn’t even know Disneyland is there.
First, they can’t go above a certain longitude or they can’t be open year round. That severely limits where they can go and most places below that line are no-go for various reasons. You don’t even need to bring up politics.
Second, except for that one-day rally, the trend line for that stock has been down for a long time. If I were a shareholder I would have been demanding some answers a while before they pissed in everyone’s cornflakes up in Tallahassee.
Third, they don’t recognize that the political geography has moved under them. I hear tell their lobbyists were up in Tallahassee being demanding and making threats. I’m sure a couple of votes were just “fuck you’s” because of how ham handed the lobbying has been.
^That.
You showed the five-day trend for Disney stock. Post the 52-week trend.
Their high was 189. they’re now at 121. Their stock has lost 50% over peak, this past year alone.
And Disney’s never had to do politics in Florida until now. That was the whole point of WDW.
Watch the West Wing episode from S1E16, “20 Hours in L.A.”.
It’s eerily prescient, because Hollywood is trying to tell the White House what they’ll do (over gays!), and in the end, the president spanks the living sh*t out of the Hollywood mogul in the episode one-on-one, because Hollywood is nothing but a bunch of childish political amateurs pretending to be grown-ups.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc77OgcrSW8
That’s from 22 years ago.
Sorkin knows whereof he speaks.
And some things in this town never change.