Reedy Creek, DeSantis, and Disney’s “Sole Goal in Florida” — See CEO Bob Iger’s Latest Comments

If you’ve been keeping up with Disney news recently, you’re likely very familiar with the ongoing dispute between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Now, we’ve got another update on just where that battle could be headed.

It all started with former Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of the Parental Rights in Education Act, which ultimately transformed into a battle over Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. DeSantis signed a law to rename the District (now the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District), appoint an entirely new Board, and make other key changes. But things have gotten a bit more complicated lately. 

A Bit of Background

Just when DeSantis and the Board thought they’d regained control over decisions made on Disney property, the Board discovered some agreements entered between Disney and the previous Board of Supervisors for Reedy Creek that give Disney a large amount of control over land decisions for several years to come.

DeSantis has ordered an investigation into Disney’s actions, the new Board has suggested they would look into the agreements and potentially pursue legal options to challenge them, and DeSantis has gone so far as to threaten hotel tax changes and tolls on roads to Disney World’s theme parks as a result of the situation.

Disney has insisted that all of its agreements signed with the District’s prior Board were “appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law.”

And current CEO Bob Iger has commented on the whole situation saying DeSantis “decided to retaliate against us [in response to Disney’s comments about the Parental Rights in Education Act], including the naming of a new board to oversee the property and the business, in effect to seek to punish a company for it…That just seems really wrong to me.”

But that’s not the end of Iger’s thoughts on the battle.

Iger’s Latest Comments

Time Magazine interviewed Iger as one of the Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” for 2023. During the interview, Iger was asked “Did you checkmate Ron DeSantis?”

Iger responded by stating that it was Walt Disney’s vision that transformed a “swampland in Central Florida” into a booming business that employs thousands of people (over 75,000) and is a major tourist destination visited by tens of millions each year. This creates value both for the company and for the state of Florida. (This is something he’s pointed out before — noting how Florida is important to Disney World but Disney World is also important to Florida.)

Iger insisted that Disney’s “sole goal in Florida is to continue creating that value for all those constituencies.” He shared, “All we want is a relationship with the state that enables us to continue to do that.”

He continued, “We have the desire to continue to invest there to grow that business so that we can hire more people so that we can increase our attendance, and so that we can basically increase more value for the Walt Disney Company and for the state of Florida,” Iger said. “It’s that simple.”

This is again something Iger has noted before. During the recent shareholder meeting, Iger noted that Disney is planning to invest $17 billion into Disney World over the next 10 years. These investments are expected to create 13,000 new jobs and thousands more indirect jobs. He said this would also “attract more people to the state and generate more taxes.”

That’s why Iger has previously shared that “any action that thwarts those efforts, simply to retaliate for a position a company took sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida.”

During the TIME interview, the interviewer noted that Iger is usually a person that approaches things with a let’s-sit-down-and-get-past-our-differences attitude rather than a “let’s-go-to-the-mattresses” attitude. (Go-to-the-mattress essentially refers to preparing for battle or war.)

Iger said that he doesn’t see this as a “going-to-mattresses situation.” Instead, he has said that if Desantis wants to meet with him to discuss this, he’d “be glad to do that.” Iger continued, “I’m one that typically has respected our elected officials and the responsibility that they have, and there would be no reason why I wouldn’t do that.”

For now, it doesn’t look like the situation with the District is dramatically changing, though a proposal could soon be considered that would attempt to centralize more power in the Board of Supervisors. And it is interesting to hear Iger’s thoughts on the situation.

We’ll continue to keep up with the ongoing dispute, so follow along for more! In the meantime, click the link below to check out more Disney and DeSantis news.

Click here for more Disney and DeSantis news and what King Charles has to do with the situation

 

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