Disney cancels $1 billion Florida development plan amid feud with DeSantis

Yep, SSDD.

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Not “just” $1B either. The jobs that were coming to Florida represented another $250M per year, not to mention all of the other jobs that would’ve sprouted up to support them. Over the course of ten years this represents a loss of about $4B to Florida.

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Oh, the spin is that this was inevitable because Disney needs to cut costs and that it has nothing to do with him.

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Thanks for sharing your opinion.

I’m muting this thread now.

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Nothing DeSantis does is good for Florida.

Insurance rates so out of control that 30% of people impacted by Hurricane Ian had no insurance.
Lowest teacher pay in the country.
Among the lowest unemployment benefits in the country
Rolling back civil rights
Creating his own military (the Florida Guard)
Changing Florida laws to carve out exceptions for himself
#3 in Covid deaths in the US…

Seriously, I could go on but…I’d rather be packing and prepping to leave the state.

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Beyond just money, Disney is a gigantic media company. They could leverage all of that media presence to create change. It wouldn’t even necessarily need to be slanted. If they just improved the news reporting and spotlight without trying to both-sides ABC News coverage, that alone would both create a better news product and help them.

Any commentary about Disney leaving FL involves some existential threat and destruction to the company causing such a reaction. Long before it becomes that dire, it passes a point where they leverage their media empire to create change. They haven’t yet, for whatever PR and risk aversion reasons. All the Disney response moves so far have been understated and very targeted. Eventually that will change if it is not working.

My opinion is long before Disney would leave FL, instead Disney would work to remake FL into something they don’t need to leave. They’re likely to be successful at that too.

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… the loss of some real money. Until then ain’t nobody going anywhere.

Capitalism baby!

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We’ll see how far this goes.

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Well, he is term-limited out of office in 2027.

If you look at the things that Disney did, pre-lawsuit, they all seem to be based around simply outlasting the twit.

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The problem is, a) the legislature has already removed the whole “you must resign to run for president” part of law, and b) I wouldn’t be surprised if the courts invalidate term limits in florida for the governor like they had for the legislature, and c) his approval rating is in the middle to high 50s. What he’s doing is WORKING , which means what his replacements are going to do are going to be similarly voiced because that’s going to be seen as the path to success as a florida governor.

I don’t imagine unless it hurts that 55-60% who approve of him badly that if he’s term limited, the next governor will change tack on this.

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Those are fair points. He certainly has the legislature in his pocket. That said, his attacks on Disney are not doing him any favors in Florida. Since this began, DeSantis’ favorability among registered Florida voters has dropped from that 50-60% down to 35%, while Disney’s favorability among the same respondents is at 64%. To put it in perspective, the same poll gives the NRA a 40% favorable rating.

What he is doing is costing him, not helping him, in the long run. He is succeeding in what he is attempting to do, but not getting the final results that he is hoping for - at least, not here in Florida. That it might help carry him to the White House on a national scale is a whole other ball of wax.

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This may not be as wild a spin though. This move was scheduled before COVID, then pushed back to 2022, then to 2026 , and then cancelled. Disney’s streaming division is bleeding money, a lot of it. The parks are losing money too compared to where they were and are a nightmare to book for or attend. The last time we thought about going, the Disney reservation system pointed us towards a professional planner. For a vacation. Marvel movies are getting pushed back or cut, and with the WGA strike, there’s going to be a lot more of that. From what I was reading, dinner service on this “cruise” was cut back to one a night from two, and they were up to one server per 20 guests for meals, and were talking about cutting some of the “events” out because of cost on the “cruise.” Avatar did not perform as they wanted it to and even those sequels are in doubt now.

My friend at Disney Streaming is convinced layoffs are coming en masse at Disney because of freezes in hiring, salary, relocation, and on site benefits.

So it’s not entirely wrong to say a move/relocation that has already gone over budget by a few hundred million and hasn’t even officially started, and has been delayed a total of six years (2 for covid, but still), and doesn’t even have construction started yet MAY have been the victim of cost cutting measures after a number of boondoggles by the previous CEO.

Nat Geo lay-offs are expected as soon as this coming week.

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Are they? According to the last couple quarterly reports the profits coming from the parks has been way up.

But I agree that the reservation system is a real pain.

The shareholders don’t seem to believe those financials are really the whole story of what’s going on.

I wonder if Haitians would tolerate the Mouse as a presence in exchange for the massive influx of cash and infrastructure they’d bring…not that fixing the fallout of imperialism with corporate colonization would actually pan out well for the Haitian people in the real world.

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It really isn’t. It is only a few billion dollars in investment. Consider the steel industry in the Great Lakes, there was comparable investment, more geographic dependence, more supply chain and work force lock in, and when conditions changed most of the industry left for greener pastures. It would be a multi decade project in all likelihood, and not worth it for just DeSantis, but if his methods take hold, they’ll bounce happily. Political stability and protection are just another line item and if the line swings enough, they are out.

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And considering climate change, I suspect Disney already has some ideas about how they will eventually make this happen. The Florida government may be pretending it’s not real but I expect Disney sees the writing on the waterline.

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it’s a feature. disney sea. only unlike the one in tokyo, this one is actually half submerged

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