A leading expert on Disney World's history in Florida told Insider that the amusement park is tied to its Florida home, due to its expensive operations and sprawling size.
While facilities such as factories can easily be moved, Walt Disney's World's sprawling, 27,520 acres made up of brick-and-mortar hotels, rides, stages, shops, and restaurants, is simply too vast, he said. The costs of building the new infrastructure would be astronomical.
The theme park and resort is Florida's largest attraction, but it gets a lot out of Florida, too. The self-governing privileges it enjoys — the ones at question in the lawsuit — mean Disney doesn't have to run its plans by zoning commissions or building-inspection departments, unlike rival theme parks, saving them time and money.
When Disney first came to Florida in the 1960s, the state didn't have much going for it, and struggled to recruit businesses there. The company knew it could ask for a lot.
"That's what Disney realized, and they wanted to get all their privileges up front and lock them in," Foglesong said of the decades-long provision, "because they figured they could never get that again."
On top of that, numerous small businesses in the area rely on Disney because of the tourism it brings to the state. That reality came into sharp view in a board meeting last month, as small business owners in the district housing Disney expressed their concerns about the possibility of facing new taxes and tolls.
Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters.
Disney doesn't even have the luxury of cutting off its investment in Florida, Foglesong continued. In fact, Disney plans to spend $17 billion in the state over the next decade.
Foglesong said that Disney did so because it must continually refresh its offerings, necessary given that 70% of visitors to the theme park are returning guests.
"It's a compliment but it's also threatening, because how do you get them to come back again to see the same stuff? You have got to have new rides and attractions," he said.
Other Republicans are taking DeSantis to task for his dedication to fighting with Disney
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley urged Walt Disney World to consider relocating from Florida to South Carolina.
Oficina del primer ministro de Corea, John Raoux, File, and Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
In spite of Disney's immovable location, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley last month proposed a solution for Walt Disney World in the ongoing battle: Just move to South Carolina.
Haley, who was South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, said elected officials in the Palmetto State would welcome Disney's business. She would be "happy," she said on Fox News, to introduce them to the governor and the legislature.
She then followed up on Twitter about her offer. "We've got great weather, great people, and it's always a great day in South Carolina! SC's not woke, but we're not sanctimonious about it either," she said.
Haley was using the word "sanctimonious" as a thinly veiled swipe against DeSantis, given that former President Donald Trump has used the nickname "DeSanctimonious" against the governor. The dig didn't escape Never Back Down, the super PAC that's supporting a DeSantis presidential run.
"Embracing woke corporations and copying Trump's lame attack at the same time? Someone's trying really hard to audition for VP!" the group wrote on Twitter.
Haley's comments came as Disney escalated its feud with DeSantis by filing a lawsuit to maintain control over its land. The lawsuit alleges that DeSantis was retaliating against Disney after it vowed to fight a school curriculum bill — HB 1557, Parental Rights in Education Act, which detractors have called the "Don't Say Gay" bill — that limited how gender and sexual orientation is taught in public schools.
She isn't the only presidential candidate to criticize DeSantis, who hasn't yet formally announced a presidential run. Trump mocked DeSantis for doubling down against Disney, and former Vice President Mike Pence, who is set to announce his decision about a 2024 run soon, criticized the actions as being antithetical to the values of conservatism.
"You don't use the heavy hand of government to punish a business," GOP presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas, said.
May 18, 2023: A previous version of this story ran on April 26, 2023. This article has since been updated to include Disney's plans to abandon its corporate campus in Florida.
Read next
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Kimberly Leonard was a senior correspondent at Insider, covering policy and politics.Based in South Florida, she reported on the Florida legislature, the 2024 Republican presidential primary, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, former President Donald Trump, and money in politics.She was first to report about the DeSantis Disney wedding, the formation of a pro-DeSantis Super PAC, and details of the DeSantis 2023 inauguration gala. She also got inside-the-room accounts of a secretive conservative gathering at Trump National Doral in Miami, and co-authored a longform profile about Florida first lady Casey DeSantis. Kimberly was one of the lead reporters for Insider's "Conflicted Congress" investigative reporting project that scrutinized congressional stock trades, bringing to light ethical violations and instances in which lawmakers' personal financial ties posed pontential conflicts of interest. She developed an expertise on the 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, and on analyzing financial disclosures for lawmakers, congressional staff, and White House officials. She first joined Insider in March 2020 as a senior healthcare reporter for Business Insider, where she focused on policy and politics, including federal officials' response to the coronavirus pandemic. She has appeared on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and C-SPAN. Her stories have been published by the Washington Post, Kaiser Health News, and The Atlantic.Kimberly spent most of her journalism career covering healthcare policy and has extensive knowledge about the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, addiction policy, infectious diseases, reproductive healthcare, and the US drug pricing debate.She previously worked for the Washington Examiner, U.S. News & World Report, the Center for Public Integrity, and the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. She graduated from the University of Richmond with a major in urban policy and a minor in journalism. Kimberly speaks fluent French, having lived in France and attended public school there until she was a teenager.
Erin Snodgrass was a senior reporter at Business Insider. She covered several topics, including geopolitical conflicts, history, courts, education, cruises, careers, and migration. She also wrote about the war in Ukraine and its impacts.Before joining Business Insider, Erin worked with InvestigateTV and Česká Televize. She graduated from Loyola University New Orleans in 2020 with a journalism degree and a political science minor.Her work has also been published in The Olympian and on Nola.com. She can be reached on X as @erinsnod.
