Will Walt Disney World Leave Florida?

Ron DeSantis Might Push Them Over The Edge

Written by William Spivey

I moved to Orlando from Jacksonville in 1985. Walt Disney World was 14 years old, much younger than Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, which was 30. Part of the reason Walt Disney World was planned was that there was no room for growth for California Park. If you’ve ever been to Disneyland, it’s landlocked, surrounded by hotels, souvenir shops, and local businesses. Foresighted executives selected an area near a then-small town called Orlando where land (mostly orange groves) could be bought up relatively cheaply when anonymous buyers scooped up the land they needed without alerting sellers as to who the buyer was or their intent.

The Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World) has been the most visited theme park worldwide for years. Before COVID and afterward, in 2019, there were over 20 million visitors, which doesn’t include the other nearby Disney-owned parks. Epcot had over 12 million guests, MGM Studios had 11 million plus, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom had almost 14 million patrons.

There is a solar system of businesses dependent on Disney and its guests. Besides the more than 25 hotels owned by Disney, hundreds of other hotels depend on theme park revenue. Without Disney World, arguably, there would be no Universal Studios, Sea World, Legoland, and others that draw people to Florida. Orlando has the second most hotel rooms in the country, many of them attributable to Walt Disney World. Orlando International Airport is the busiest in the state and 7th most active in the country. Disney World is Florida’s largest employer, with approximately 75,000 employees. If Disney World were to pick up and leave Florida, the void it would create would be unimaginable.

One would think that no politician in their right mind would do anything to alienate the business that not only is Florida’s largest employer but brings over 35 million visitors to the state that stay multiple days and spend lots of money. Ron DeSantis has gone to war with Disney World because they dared express an opinion about his “Don’t Say Gay” legislation after the bill was passed.

When Disney World came to Florida, they set up the Reedy Creek Improvement District, where Disney is basically its own government. On its property, Disney can build its roads, has its own fire department, and does its own permitting. Disney does contract out for police services in addition to their own security forces. Still, they are basically self-contained, creating considerable savings for Central Florida taxpayers who aren’t footing the bill. The Reedy Creek Improvement District is one of over 1,800 special tax districts in Florida, so while it is special, it isn’t uncommon. The Republican stronghold, The Villages, is another example where a special tax district exists.

Ron DeSantis is nothing, if not petty. In the past, he’s attacked cruise lines, school districts, and local governments that put their customers and citizens first in trying to protect them from COVID-19. DeSantis wanted Florida “open for business,” and Florida ended up ranking 3rd-highest in COVID-19 deaths. DeSantis is busy attacking “wokeness,” aided by a Republican-controlled, super majority state legislature and a complicit Florida Supreme Court who won’t stand in his way. When Disney World exercised its First Amendment right of free speech, DeSantis couldn’t help but attack.

His first move was to go after the Reedy Creek Improvement District and remove its special tax district. He got tied up in lawsuits, many by area residents that would now have to foot a tax bill previously paid by Disney. Unable to get precisely what he wanted. DeSantis moved to replace the Reed Creek governing board, giving himself control over Disney World’s growth and some operations.

“Today, the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end. There’s a new sheriff in town, and accountability will be the order of the day.” — Ron DeSantis.

Disney appeared to be rolling over and accepting their fate until we found that just before DeSantis was to assume control, Disney entered into a 30-year development contract with several restrictive covenants, which severely limited the new board in what they could do.

Caught off guard, DeSantis has asked the state officials he controls to look into Disney’s actions both civilly and criminally. DeSantis was embarrassed and now wants to send people to jail. Disney undoubtedly has very smart lawyers, but DeSantis cares little about the Constitution or the law. He created his own private army and isn’t afraid to use it. Desantis just asked the Florida Legislature for an extra 98 million in funding for the Florida National Guard that he created because the US National Guard required its members to be vaccinated. Will DeSantis roll up to Disney’s gates with his army?

Hopefully, it’s an exaggeration that DeSantis will employ troops against Mickey Mouse, but he will respond. He needs to impose his will on Disney World, who will have another reaction of their own. DeSantis recently wrote to the Florida Inspector General:

“These collusive and self-dealing arrangements aim to nullify the recently passed legislation, undercut Florida’s legislative process, and defy the will of Floridians” — Ron DeSantis

So where does it end? Will DeSantis make moves affecting Disney’s bottom line to the point they consider leaving Florida? Perhaps they decide the infrastructure in Florida is too much to leave behind but choose to establish another site as a Florida alternative.

The critical factor in setting up elsewhere is available land reasonably priced in a warm weather locale. What warm state has politics much different than Florida? Texas is centrally located, but its governor competes with DeSantis for the most socially unconscious. What are the chances in this era that anyone could make an anonymous land buy as Disney did outside Orlando in the late 1960s? The inevitable leak during the buying phase would destroy the budget. Disney could purchase an existing park like a Six Flags location if one existed with available land for growth.

It’s most likely Disney will stay in Florida. They were there before DeSantis and will be there when he’s gone. Still, you best believe number crunchers are figuring out the cost/benefit ratio of every option, including some I have yet to imagine. At a Disney shareholders meeting, CEO Bob Iger said the following:

“He’s decided to retaliate against us, including the naming of a new board to oversee the property, in effect to seek to punish a company for its exercise of a constitutional right. And that just seems really wrong to me. And so our premise is that any action that thwarts those efforts simply to retaliate for a position the company took sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida.” — Bob Iger

Iger went on to say Disney planned to invest $17 Billion in the Disney parks during the next decade, creating 13,000 more Disney jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. Is DeSantis willing to risk all that to be seen flexing his political muscles? Probably. The only question is what Disney will do in response.