BREAKING NEWS: California Governor Gavin Newsom WILL NOT Present Disneyland Reopening Plan Today
Yikes! What an unusual few days its been in Disneyland news. In case you haven’t been following along with us, the Walt Disney Company and the state of California have been butting heads over plans to reopen Disneyland and Disney California Adventure theme parks in Anaheim. And though just yesterday, the State promised a theme park reopening plan by the end of the week, the latest news is that this simply isn’t going to happen.
Just take a look at the tweet below from LA Times reporter Phil Wilson:
The Newsom administration is postponing the release of its guidance for reopening Disneyland and other amusement parks during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was expected to come out this week. Amusement park officials complained that it was too restrictive.
— Phil Willon 🦅 (@philwillon) October 2, 2020
This is not surprising given a weeks worth of will-they-won’t-they news culminating in Disney Chairman Bob Iger promptly stepping down from Governor Newsom’s Economic Task Force yesterday reportedly in protest over the plans for reopening suggested by the state.
Photo Credit: ABCNews.go.com
The news that Iger had walked away from the task force was a bold me and was confirmed by a Disney spokesperson to The Sacramento Bee. Now, it should be clear that the spokesperson would not reveal why Iger had stepped down but it was oddly timed, coinciding with the news that the Newsom wilson was getting ready to release guidance on theme park reopening.
This was immediately followed by an official statement from the California Attractions and Parks Associations urging the governor to rethink his plans before releasing them. The association wrote in their official statement, “While we are aligned on many of the protocols and health and safety requirements, there are many others that need to be modified if they are to lead to a responsible and reasonable amusement park reopening plan.” The statement continues, “We ask the Governor not to finalize guidance for amusement parks before engaging the industry in a more earnest manner, listening to park operators’ expertise, and collaborating with the industry on a plan that will allow for amusement parks to reopen responsibly while still keeping the health and safety of park employees and guests a top priority.”
As we reported at MickeyBlog earlier this week, Disney, in an official statement (above) announced that it would lay off nearly 28,000 workers in California and Florida. As you can see from the statement, which was released by Disney Chairman Josh D’Amaro, one of the things that pushed Disney to make this unfortunate decision was the “unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen.” By that he means the lack of a reopening plan released by Governor Newsom’s office after months of waiting.
According to the piece in The Sacramento Bee, when asked yesterday if Newsom’s administration was buckling under pressure from Disney to reopen the parks the Governor said, “unequivocally no.” Newsom continued, “We are not putting the health and safety of people visiting this state or recreating in this state at theme parks at risk.”
Iger’s move to step down from the economic task force was a bold move and indicates that Disney and the Governor’s office aren’t seeing eye-to-eye when it comes to reopening the theme parks. We here at MickeyBlog will continue to follow this closely and promise to keep you updated as soon as we’ve heard more.
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