The past year has not been an easy one for The Walt Disney Company as a direct result of the ongoing pandemic.
Related: Disney World impacted by gloomy tourism figures in Florida
With film and television productions closed and Disney parks in the United States temporarily closed in March – Disneyland Resort on March 14 and Walt Disney World Resort on March 20 – the company began to feel financially depleted earlier in the year.
In addition, all four other Disney parks and resorts worldwide – Shanghai Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disney Resort – have been temporarily closed – and reopened or closed again – in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.
To put things in perspective, Josh D’Amaro’s Parks, Experiences and Products division – which includes theme park properties and the Disney Cruise Line – lost $ 2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 alone.
Despite these unfortunate facts, the four theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort – Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios – have remained operational with a variety of pandemic health and safety protocols in place since July 2020.
Disneyland Resort, however, remains temporarily closed for the time being. Neither Disneyland Park nor Disney California Adventure Park has been able to postpone an official reopening date, although the Downtown Disney District and the partially reopened Buena Vista Street are offering limited experiences for visitors.
Related: The closure continues to impact Disneyland Resort landmarks
Now, with California Governor Gavin Newsom giving no real indication of when the Disneyland Resort may be allowed to reopen amid Golden State’s regional home stay requests, the Orlando Business Journal is reporting that The Walt Disney Company is seriously considering transferring certain operations from California to Florida:
Sources with business knowledge tell OBJ that nothing has been signed and it is unclear which Disney divisions (NYSE: DIS) or how many people would move to Lake Nona [an Orlando-area master planned community]. The discussions come about because many renowned California companies, such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE), in the past few months, have revealed relocations to cities in the Southeast, which are seen as more favorable to business and taxes.
OBJ goes on to share speculation about the fact that this change may be due to “Disney’s increasingly difficult relationship with the state of California”, noting:
Related: As tension builds, Disney executive Bob Iger leaves Newsom’s task force
It is important to note that the Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Bob Iger, or other executives have yet to make an official statement regarding any potential operational reallocation.
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