In 2021, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced an ambitious plan to move the company’s Imagineering division from Glendale, Calif., to the Lake Nona area of Orlando, Fla. A favorable business climate in the Sunshine State, paired with a similar atmospheric climate to California, made the idea sound like a no-brainer to Chapek.
The project would have uprooted all the Imagineers and their families, forcing them to move across the country, an idea that was unpopular among the Imagineers. Former-CEO-turned-new-CEO Bob Iger saw the writing on the wall, and, as he has done with many of Chapek’s decisions, he reversed course.
Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced the decision to cancel the Lake Nona project in an email to cast members. D’Amaro wrote in part:
While some were excited about the new campus, I know that this decision and the circumstances surrounding it have been difficult for others.
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 with construction of the campus. This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one. As a result, we will no longer be asking our employees to relocate. For those who have already moved, we will talk to you individually about your situation, including the possibility of moving you back.
There’s plenty of language in that statement that could catch your eye if you’re looking for a scapegoat for the Lake Nona cancellation: “considerable changes,” “new leadership,” “changing business conditions.” And you better believe that the left-wing media has found who it wants to blame. If you guessed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), you won the prize.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom got in on the action of mischaracterizing the move, tweeting:
Turns out, bigoted policies have consequences.
That's 2,000+ jobs that will be welcomed back with open arms to the Golden State.
Thank you for doing the right thing, @Disney. https://t.co/1wrN2Zmi9O
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 18, 2023
Disney fan media took a piece of the action as well. Inside the Magic, an occasionally trustworthy source for nothing-burger Disney articles with clickbait headlines, reported, “Over the last several months, however, Disney has been in battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis amid disputes over the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Disney spoke in opposition to the Parental Rights in Education bill last year and has since come under fire from the Florida government over its self-governing abilities in Walt Disney World Resort.” The article continued by describing the lawsuits between the parties before covering the facts of the Lake Nona project cancellation.
The New York Times, probably counting on readers to not read past the headline, entitled its article, “Disney Pulls Plug on $1 Billion Development in Florida,” with a subheadline that mischaracterizes the decision as the latest in the war between the company and Florida: “A new office complex, and relocation of a division from California, would have created more than 2,000 jobs but was scuttled as the company and Gov. Ron DeSantis continue to feud.”
The article begins with a recap of the feud between DeSantis and Disney, leading anyone who bothers past the headline to believe that all of it is directly related to the battles between Florida and Disney. Readers have to get deeper into the article before discovering why Disney canceled the project.
“The project, near Lake Nona Town Center, was supposed to cost $864 million, but recent price estimates have been closer to $1.3 billion,” reads the fourth paragraph. A cost overrun of nearly half a billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, and it might even be worth pointing out to Newsom that if any “bigoted policies” led to the decision, it was his party’s treatment of the economy. But that wouldn’t fit the left’s narrative, would it?
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The Times also includes this handy explainer in the middle of the article:
The article also quotes “anonymous sources” who say that the feud with DeSantis played into the decision to shutter the project — without details, of course. But further into the article, the Times demonstrates that one major factor in the decision was Chapek vs. Iger rather than DeSantis vs. Disney:
The Lake Nona campus, about 20 miles from Disney World near the Orlando International Airport, had been championed by Bob Chapek, who served as Disney’s chief executive from 2020 until he was fired last year. Mr. Iger, who came out of retirement to retake Disney’s reins, was much less enthusiastic about the project — even before the company became mired in its battle with Mr. DeSantis. As soon as he returned to Disney, Mr. Iger began telling lieutenants, for instance, that it made little sense to move Imagineering so far away from Disney’s movie studios. As he is fond of saying, “Creative teams need to be together.”
Mr. Iger has been systematically reversing Mr. Chapek’s decisions. In February, for instance, he announced that Disney would restructure its inner workings, ending a framework put in place by Mr. Chapek. In March, as part of wide-ranging layoffs, Mr. Iger shut down a 50-person metaverse project that Mr. Chapek had started [emphasis added].
As Erick Erickson wrote about the situation, “Disney was going to build a project in Florida. Its costs ballooned to over $1.3 billion at a time Disney is trying to cut over $5.5 billion. Iger didn’t like the project already, and the staff didn’t like the project either. But somehow, this is Ron DeSantis’s fault?”
Disney is laying off around 7,000 more cast members globally (not just in Florida). At the same time, the Wall Street Journal has reported that “At Disney’s annual meeting in early April, Iger announced that the company plans to invest $17 billion in Florida over the next decade and create 13,000 new jobs.”
Similarly, D’Amaro wrote in his email, “We have plans to invest $17 billion and create 13,000 jobs over the next ten years. I hope we’re able to do so.”
“We are committed to our teams who call Central Florida home and to all of our Cast Members around the world, and I want to thank you for your continued dedication to Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products and for delivering world-class entertainment for our guests,” he concluded.
At the end of the day, it’s clear that the cancellation of the Lake Nona project at least isn’t primarily about the feud with DeSantis, and it may not be about those battles at all. But the mainstream media and left-wing politicians wouldn’t want you to know the truth.
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