2023 is a huge year for The Walt Disney Company as it’s the 100th anniversary of the company's founding, but this week marks a much smaller, though no less important anniversary for the company. This week is the 58th anniversary of the press conference that officially announced Walt Disney’s plans to build Disney World. If you’re wondering what the appropriate gift is for a 58th anniversary, it’s apparently financial disclosures.
60 years ago, Walt Disney began to survey swamp land in central Florida. Large swaths of it would then be purchased, all through various shell companies, as a way to prevent anybody from learning who was buying the land or why, to keep the price down. 58 years ago this month the Orlando Sentinel reported that it believed Walt Disney was the man behind the landgrab, leading to the press conference where Walt would reveal his plans for Disney World, including his concept for a city of the future, called Epcot.
Disney celebrated the day by releasing data from a recently completed study regarding the economic impact that that Walt Disney World has on the state of Florida. This is a less-than-subtle jab at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is currently involved in a political war against the company. Disney World is suing DeSantis over changes that have been made to the company’s way of doing business, and this is all clearly meant to remind interested parties that Disney World brings a lot of money into the state and that money could be spent elsewhere.
The numbers are certainly eye-opening. According to the report, Disney generated $40 billion in economic impact in the state of Florida in the previous fiscal year. More than a quarter million jobs are directly or indirectly attributable to Disney, meaning that 1 in every 32 jobs in the state exist because of the company. Disney’s blog post states that, if Disney were gone from Florida, the state's unemployment rate would become the second highest in the nation, it is currently the 21st lowest. It's unclear I the group recently banned from Disney World, 3rd party tour guides, are included in the jobs indirectly created.
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Disney has recently indicated plans to spend as much as $60 billion on theme park growth over the next decade or so, with at least $17 billion of that set for Walt Disney World. However, amidst the legal battle between the theme park resort and the state, Disney CEO Bob Iger has indicated that if business conditions are such that it is not in their interest to spend that money in Florida, it could be spent elsewhere. Iger already canceled the move of Walt Disney Imagineering to Florida, a deal that was estimated to be worth $1 billion to the state of Florida.
Clearly, this report is part of the process of making it clear just how much Disney World brings to Florida, and how that could change if Disney isn't able to conduct business the way it previously has.
While the resort certainly isn’t going away, the company can certainly focus elsewhere. There are plans for a major expansion of Disneyland Resort sometime in the next several years and over the last couple of years the biggest growth in Disney’s Parks, Experiences, and Products division has been among Disney’s international parks, so there’s every reason for Disney to spend more money where the money is already growing.
There are still major projects on the horizon for Walt Disney World. A new land dedicated to the Tropical Americas is set for Disney's Animal Kingdom and a new, as yet unannounced land is planned for Magic Kingdom. These additions will employ lots of people to sign and build them, as well as new Cast Members to run everything. Disney will always be important to Florida, and Florida will always be important to Disney, but just how important they will be to each other in the future remains to be seen.
