Posted on 10/28/2020 4:45:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
When California public health officials announced guidelines for reopening theme parks that essentially guarantee that parks in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties won’t be able to open until perhaps mid-2021, heads of the respective theme parks rightfully blasted Gavin Newsom, citing their successes in reopening in other states and countries and alleging that his guidelines have no scientific basis.
The next day, the Executive Director of the California Attractions and Parks Association, of which Disney is a member, said “that a lawsuit was under consideration and ‘all options are open at this point.'”
By Thursday, sources within the industry and within Disney, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that one option Disney was looking into was was moving as many jobs as possible out of California. Obviously the company can’t pick Disneyland up and move, but the company has a massive footprint in California, both in Los Angeles and Orange counties. WDW Pro alluded to that potential in a Thursday evening blog post.
Before getting to WDW Pro’s listing of actions Disney could take, a pause to appreciate their intro to the story. It’s a work of art – partly because it’s an uncomfortable truth – so I’m citing all of it:
Imagine for a moment that you’re Disney. In January of 2020, everything was going exceedingly well. The company had never been bigger, stronger, or more prosperous. Bob Iger was still the CEO, selling a book about how great he had been, and declaring that Shanghai Disney was the most important piece of real estate since the company purchased Walt Disney World in Florida. Literally everything about the company except for Lucasfilm and ESPN were red hot incredible.
Then the pandemic hits, a virus that escaped communist China. Suddenly the film industry is annihilated. Theme parks all over the world are shut down. Disney’s revenue stream is completely dry except for Disney+, which cost such a fortune to start that it will take years before it recoups its investment. America and China enter into a soft cold war, risking your multi-billion dollar investment in Asian theme parks should you say one wrong thing. One wrong word and the Chinese government can take away billions of assets in a second.
Iger was tasked with getting the NBA to Walt Disney World in order to keep WDW profitable. The deal was made, but the NBA’s public approval tanked due to their own connections with the Chinese Communist Party and divisive social justice causes. Disney needed to get films out, but one of the only films they could move to either theaters or streaming was a movie literally created within miles of concentration camps. Meanwhile, the company clamped down on attendance at WDW far longer than was economically wise, just so California would be more likely to open up Disneyland. That didn’t happen. So, things have not been going swimmingly.
Yep, that pretty much sets the stage for where Disney was as the execs awaited Newsom’s theme park reopening guidelines. So, what next?
First, Disney could legitimately begin moving large parts of their operations out of state. They can’t move Disneyland proper, but they can move parts of their studios to states such as Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and other locales. Second, Disney has ABC News and they know how to wield its power for political purposes. There’s nothing stopping them from moving towards negative coverage of California and the governor in order to move public opinion. Additionally, and although extremely unlikely, Disney could actually move their headquarters to Florida or New York. Behind the table, Disney can start funneling their political influence to opponents of Newsom, and they almost certainly have channels to let him know that’s their intent.
That second option ended up being prophetic, as the local ABC affiliate posted a story the next day listing the economic damage already done to the local economy and staggering potential job losses attributable to the ongoing shutdown:
Cal State Fullerton economists say the loss could total $5 billion dollars.
According to the Orange County Register, the Southland’s economy has already lost $3 billion dollars.
Another $2 billion dollars could be lost if Disneyland remains shut down through next March.The economists based their estimates on numbers from last year.
The economists also believe there will be a total loss of 46,000 jobs. Orange County could potentially take the biggest hit, with 33,000 of those jobs lost.
Still, Gavin Newsom stuck to his guns during Tuesday’s press conference, saying he’d continue to “follow the science” and shaming those who want the parks to reopening, characterizing them as putting more importance on their childrens’ entertainment than keeping people safe and alive. What a crock.
Boeing just left Washington SSR for SC recently.
More to come on that front..
You KNOW something stinks when Disney threatens to pull out!
Disneyworld has operated at reduced capacity for 3 months now. No cases of COVID among staff, and nothing reported as a spread event from guests.
I was just there last week for 3 days. A lot of people, mostly keeping our distance, wearing masks. The lines are well-marked for 6-foot distancing, but with walking back and forth, and being inside buildings, you are getting exposed, if you happen to get unlucky and be near the one person in 2000 that might currently have COVID.
Virginia, our governor destroyed our theme parks as well, even though mostly we’ve been opened up. Problem — he limited theme parks to 1000 guests.
Our Busch Gardens park got creative. They didn’t open, instead they held “private events”, 2 a day, each 1000 people, opened a small part of their park. Did enough to make money, keep the passholders happy. They even did a halloween event set.
Meanwhile, private companies ran halloween mazes, and nobody had a problem with them. A lot of the guys I worked with at Kings Dominion ended up working at one local haunt attraction, which definitely upped THEIR game as a result (you do this stuff for 10 years, you get good at it).
Other states opened up parks, and have had no problems. Dollywood is operating without incident, Cedar Point and Kings Island in Ohio, Dorney Park in Pennsylvania — all without any real issues.
Newsom is being obstinate. I think Knott’s berry farm opened their park JUST for their restaurants, and that kept a few people employed.
It should read as: Then the pandemic hits, a virus that communist China Released To Infect The World
The massive ATX West Tech show scheduled for the Anaheim Convention Center in February of 2021 was just postponed.
This trade show brought 1000’s of exhibitors and attendees to Anaheim - every hotel room in the Anaheim area was booked solid. The restaurants were packed.
How does Kammy Harris’ ex-boyfriend expect to make up this lost revenue?
NE OK...
Yep a very good move.
They limited passholders (and also, passholders are a major source of revenue, so when you open your park you can charge your passholders, if you don’t, you have to refund them or give them a free year next year, like Cedar Point is doing).
I imagine Disney is making money in florida. They finally furloughed most of their california staff.
Relocate to Portland. Go on, do it
I really wonder at this point if democrats aren’t trying to just finish destroying the economy, making everyone dependent upon government in the process, so that they can rule over the crushed populace just like the pigs in Animal Farm.
There’s a huge disconnect though. ABC News is actively involved in a criminal conspiracy to promote voter suppression of Trump supporters between fake news and fake polls. Trump is the one saying open the hell up. So the CEO of Disney Mr. Bob Chapek needs to get control of this tiny ABC “News” division that is dragging the whole company down.
One of my very conservative DNA/younger relatives and I discussed this issue this week.
As conservatives, we are confused that our uber liberal Governor Gruesome is doing this to Disney, an uber liberal company.
If the Disney CEO called ABC and said do this, you really think they would refuse?
Gov.
Newsom is cooking the
Golden Goose!
.
Burn Baby,
BURN!
How many Disney dollars have been provided to liberals up and down California?
It’s gotta be a crap-load.
Now Dems are showing House of Mouse who’s boss, and it ain’t Jimminy Cricket!
California is full TDS until election day.
Lock em down, lock em up, shut it all down, until they steal the election.
Hypocrites!!
I’m sure they donated to his campaign and voted for him.
A disease for sure. If only they awoke instead of just moved.
Glad to hear. Know that situation intimately. They should have fully left years ago.
All I can say is that if they indeed go through with their threat, they’d better make sure to leave their liberal views behind. What’s the point of leaving California if they won’t even leave the very policies that resulted in that mess behind.
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