[Boycott the NFL on HULU...] Disney scraps plans to build $900M Florida campus, relocate 2,000 jobs

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

Bleeding money by the truckload, Disney cancels Chapek.

<https://nypost.com/2023/05/18/disney-cancels-plans-to-move-2000-jobs-to-
florida/>

Disney pulled the plug on a nearly $900 million development project in
Florida that would have brought 2,000 high-paying jobs to the state
because of “changing business conditions, the company said Thursday.

The stunning move comes amid Disney’s escalating feud with Florida Gov.
Ron DeSantis after he dissolved the company’s longtime special district
overseeing its Orlando-area theme parks – leading to warring lawsuits.

“Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more
taxes, or not?” Disney boss Robert Iger said on an earnings-related
conference call with analysts last week.

Iger’s predecessor, Bob Chapek, had planned to invest $864 million in a
new campus in the Lake Nona region, about 20 miles from the Magic Kingdom,
and relocate 2,000 workers from its California theme park.

The jobs, some as Disney characters and “Imagineers,” had an average
salary of $120,000, according to an estimate from the Florida Department
of Economic Opportunity cited by the New York Times.

But Chapek was fired last year and Iger returned as CEO, quickly ordering
the company to reduce 7,000 jobs and slash $5.5 billion from content and
administrative budgets, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement
of this project, including new leadership and changing business
conditions, we have decided not to move forward,” said Josh D’Amaro, Walt
Disney Parks and Resorts chairperson, In an email to employees on
Thursday.

The changing business conditions include both job cuts and growing
tensions with Florida lawmakers and DeSantis, the Journal reported, citing
people familiar with the matter.

Hundreds of Disney workers have already relocated to Florida, and will be
given the option of moving back, D’Amaro said in the memo to workers,
which the company sent to The Post.

“While some were excited about the new campus, I know that this decision
and the circumstances surrounding it have been difficult for others,”
D’Amaro wrote.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond Thursday to a request
for comment.

Disney and DeSantis have been locked in an increasingly acrimonious battle
that started in March 2022, when Chapek criticized Florida’s so-called
“Don’t Say Gay” bill that would limit the discussion of gender identity
and sexuality in elementary schools.

DeSantis, who is expected to announce he will seek the 2024 Republican
nomination for president, then moved to strip Disney of its long-standing
self-governing power over Walt Disney World,

The governor signed the bill into law and argued that “woke Disney” should
not receive special treatment in the state.

Disney called the move political retaliation over what should be protected
free speech and sued the state last month to have the moves reversed. The
state sued Disney.

Disney currently employs more than 75,000 people in the Orlando area.

“I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World
business,” D’Amaro wrote. “We have plans to invest $17 billion and create
13,000 jobs over the next 10 years. I hope we’re able to do so.”

Laurie Sturtevant
2 days ago

It's funny how they're spinning this to be about DeSantis. The Imagineers
were up in arms when they heard they would have to move from California to
Florida. They were threatening a mass exodus a couple of years ago about
it. So now they can just back off that move and say it was because of the
big bad Florida Governor instead of saying they caved to their talented
employees who didn't want to move.

redfoxjr
2 days ago

Disney is bleeding money right now. It's definitely easier to run a
deflection and take eyes off the real problem that their content machine
is sputtering at the box office and with streaming as well. They most
likely looked at the numbers and realized they couldn't afford to move
forward. But it's easier to just blame DeSantis than admit that they
created their own problems.

Elisa K
2 days ago

They should be watching their six, because now that the tech job market is
cooling off and people are cutting back because of changes in the economy,
the higher the odds are that Disney will replace these talented employees
with a contract firm and lay the lot of them off after they train their
replacements. It wouldn't be the first time that Disney has done that.
They are not the sweet sugar plums and fairy dust company people like to
think they are.

Richard Bucci
2 days ago

(1) $900 million is a spec in Florida’s exploding economy. (2) Good luck
staying in California, a state that is slowly but steadily imploding.(3)
DeSantis for President.


--
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