Well, the latest chapter of the “Disney vs. DeSantis” story has been released with North Carolina and Virginia pining to provide a new home to The Walt Disney World Resort as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refuses to end his government’s battle with the Mouse. But would it ever actually happen?
The answer is absolutely not. Seriously, how could it? The entire area of The Walt Disney World Resort is twice the size of Manhattan Island. Four Theme Parks, two water Parks, a high-class shopping and dining district, scores of Resort Hotels, and one of the very few monorail train systems operating in the Western Hemisphere represent a gargantuan and historic feat of long-term investment that covers over 50 years, hundreds of millions of dollars–if not billions–and employs tens of thousands of people at one time.
There is no amount of money in the world nor any political benefits that could truly justify such a transfer.
North Carolina’s “Mickey’s Freedom Restoration Act” is nothing more than an attempt for opportunistic politicians in a boring state that offers nothing but semi-decent beaches and the most pathetic skiing options in the entire nation a chance to get a shot at the man who most political analysts claim to see as the GOP’s only other frontrunner for the upcoming Presidential Election than Donald Trump.
Despite what some of the mainstream media would suggest, the rule of law still exists in Florida. Governor DeSantis will face reelection in less than four years–or even possibly need to step down even earlier due to the election.
The Walt Disney Company has been around for 100 years. Since the opening of Disneyland in California, its leaders have set a standard of negotiating with any level of government in order to conduct business around the world. For over half of that time, the Walt Disney World Resort has continued to develop in Central Florida as governors come and go. At the end of the day, the worst Disney will be left with is more taxes, a slower “Florida-first” development timeframe, and the inability to put its new and current Cast Members and employees through a forced conversion program towards critical race theory and other “woke” perspectives of the workplace.
Now, Disney CEO Bob Iger has stated the desire to invest billions of dollars into Disney World over the next ten years, including transferring thousands of Walt Disney Imagineering jobs to a new base in Lake Nona. Could short tempers and short-term thinking at the Mouse House fall for the temptations being set by other states and redirect new development projects and employee transfers there, spending the billions of dollars intended for Florida on a different low-tax home for Imagineers and trigger the creation of a whole new Disneyland? Sure, that is a possibility. But what is already in Florida will stay in Florida.
The idea that Disney would ever uproot 50 years’ worth of progress because they are choosing to resist the current governor’s attempts to make them more equal under the law to every other Floridian is utterly ridiculous.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s and may not reflect the sentiments of Disney Fanatic as a whole.
