News, Analysis and Reviews of the Disney Entertainment Business
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Showing posts with label Governor Gavin Newsom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Governor Gavin Newsom. Show all posts
Disney has announced that guests from outside of California will be welcomed back at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on June 15, 2021.
Courtesy of Disney Parks Blog
Disneyland has been closed to out-of-state residents since March 14, 2020. The gates to the “happiest place on earth” reopened to California residents on April 30, 2021.
In addition, Disney has expanded its window for theme park reservations to 120 days.
The announcement on the Disney Parks Blog also highlighted ongoing safety measures: “The State of California strongly recommends that all guests be fully vaccinated or obtain a negative COVID-19 test prior to entering the theme parks. In addition, all guests will be required to wear an approved face covering throughout their visit at the Disneyland Resort. As always, our procedures may change as we continue to update our health and safety processes based on guidance from the state of California and local health officials.”
For good measure, on March 21, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that theme parks in California can return to full capacity – if they choose to do so – on June 15.
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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
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California matters. Whether people from other states like it or not, 12 percent of the U.S. population resides in the Golden State, and 15 percent of U.S. GDP comes from California.
Therefore, when Californian politicians impose misguided and costly policies – such as higher taxes and increased regulations – on entrepreneurs, businesses and investors, it, of course, matters most to Californians, but it’s not like the rest of us can just shrug our shoulders and not care.
This economic reality is part of the backdrop to the latest head-scratching decision by California Governor Gavin Newsom and his Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly. At a news conference on Tuesday, October 21, the Newsom administration finally got around to providing guidelines for reopening theme parks in the state. But the guidelines were split between smaller and larger theme parks, and the news for the big boys, like Disneyland, was anything but good. That, in turn, is bad news for workers and small businesses as well.
Smaller theme parks can reopen at 25% capacity or 500 in-county visitors, whichever is fewer, with admission by reservation only in the “moderate” tier. Larger theme parks can reopen at 25% capacity with reservations in the “minimal” tier.
The new guidelines mean Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and other large theme parks won’t be able to reopen for months until their respective counties reach the least-restrictive “minimal” risk level…
At best, that means major California theme parks won’t reopen until November or December. At worst, reopening dates could be pushed to next year, which makes setting a reopening date for Disneyland, Universal and other California theme parks difficult if not impossible. Without a firm reopening date, the parks can’t set staffing, training, ride testing and visitor reservation plans.
The Orange County Health Care Agency Director Clayton Chau was quoted saying that it would be difficult for Orange County to reach the “minimal” tier until there was a vaccine, and he was looking for something like that coming next summer. That would put the reopening of Disneyland into the summer as well.
In a statement, Disneyland President Ken Potrock said:
We have proven that we can responsibly reopen, with science-based health and safety protocols strictly enforced at our theme park properties around the world.
Nevertheless, the State of California continues to ignore this fact, instead of mandating arbitrary guidelines that it knows are unworkable and that hold us to a standard vastly different from other reopened businesses and state-operated facilities.
Together with our labor unions, we want to get people back to work, but these State guidelines will keep us shuttered for the foreseeable future, forcing thousands more people out of work, leading to the inevitable closure of small family-owned businesses, and irreparably devastating the Anaheim/Southern California community.
For good measure, Erin Guerrero, executive director of the California Attractions and Parks Association, said:
Theme parks have opened and operated safely around the world for months. Data and science prove that theme parks can operate responsibly anywhere – there’s no rational reason to believe they can’t do so in California. No one cares more about park employees and guest safety than the parks themselves.
Let me be unequivocal - the guidance issued by the Newsom Administration will keep theme parks shuttered for the foreseeable future…
This plan prolongs unemployment for tens of thousands of people, hastens bankruptcy for families and small business owners adjacent to parks, and contributes to insolvency for local governments whose budgets rely on parks as an anchor economic driver.
So, bewildering policymaking that undermines the California economy continues.
Some might ask: Why? At its core, it goes to a philosophical bias that places ultimate trust in government – i.e., in politicians and their appointees – to make broad decisions for society, while holding a deep distrust of private-sector entrepreneurs and businesses. But here we have another glaring example courtesy of Governor Newsom that politicians lack the knowledge and proper incentives to make intelligent decisions about most matters in life and the economy.
It’s true – politicians tend to be clueless. And Disneyland, other theme park operators, workers, small businesses that serve the parks and their workers, and the California economy suffer accordingly.
There are fireworks going off all around Disneyland in California. But it’s not about those over Sleeping Beauty Castle. Instead, it’s about political fireworks being fired between Disney and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) in terms of being able to open the happiest place on earth.
Take a look at the latest articles on the matter at the Orange County Register, and you get a pretty good feel for how frustrated Disney is, and how, well, clueless Newsom and his people are coming off.
As OCRreported this afternoon, Disney CEO Bob Chapek appeared on CNBC, and said, “It seems to me that the guidelines that are set up by the state of California are more stringent than any state across the country. If you look at the history of Disney and what we’ve been able to do during the reopening — rather than arbitrary standards set up without regard to actual fact — and what we’ve been able to do as a company, I think you’d come to a different decision about reopening Disneyland.”
Chapek went on to highlight what the company has done in its other parks: “I look across our Disney properties — be it Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, Walt Disney World, the Disney bubble for the NBA — and all I see is that we’ve been able to open up responsibly using the guidelines that health care experts have given us. As a result, we’ve been very, very successful at reopening without having issues that would preclude us from staying open.”
He also noted that given social distancing requirements, the parks are at 25 percent capacity, and “that won’t change until the CDC guidelines change.”
Meanwhile, it was hard not to take away from another OCRreport from October 13 that bureaucratic indifference and incompetence were running at full throttle in California. California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly was quoted declaring, “I know a number of people are continuing to wonder when that guidance is coming out and I like to say, ‘It will come out when we’re ready.’”
Ghaly also was quoted, “In terms of the California visits, those are upcoming, and together the information and the dialogue with our theme park operators across the state will help us land in a place that I think we can all feel confident is based on the best and most up-to-date information.” Now, that’s some bureaucrat-speak.
Another report today noted that while state officials had journeyed, unannounced, to Florida to see what was going on in the theme parks there, they apparently are getting around to checking out the California parks: “A delegation of state officials are visiting Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood this week to review reopening plans after a team from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration traveled to Florida last week to inspect COVID-19 protocols at Disney World and Universal Orlando.” The OCR story also noted, “California theme parks have been asking state officials for months to visit their properties and review their COVID-19 health and safety protocols…”
The outlook? Who knows? But Chapek told CNBC, “It’s not much of a negotiation. It’s pretty much a mandate that we stay closed.”
The fireworks continue, while Sleeping Beauty’s Castle has no visitors.
When Hong Kong Disneyland reopened on September 25, it meant that Disneyland, including Disney California Adventure, became the last Disney theme park to remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, city and business leaders, including Disney, are no longer quietly waiting for California Governor Gavin Newsom to act.
A coalition, known as ReOpen O.C. Now and made up of city leaders in Orange County, is publicly urging action. The group recently released a commercial urging the state to provide an opportunity for local theme parks to reopen.
What’s truly bizarre is that California government still hasn’t issued guidelines for theme parks to follow in order to reopen. That’s a breathtaking example of government falling down on the job.
And when the state apparently was getting ready to finally release guidelines, the draft made clear that it would be nearly impossible for theme parks like Disneyland to reopen. As the Orange County Registerreported:
California theme parks have been left waiting on the sidelines while other segments of the economy have reopened under Newsom’s four-tier Blueprint for a Safer Economy -— which proceeds from the most-restrictive “widespread” risk level through “substantial” and “moderate” before reaching the least-restrictive “minimal” tier.
Most California counties with major theme parks currently fall into the second-most restrictive “substantial” risk level — including Orange (Disneyland and Knott’s), San Diego (SeaWorld and Legoland), Solano (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom) and Santa Clara (California’s Great America). Los Angeles County — home to Universal Studios Hollywood and Six Flags Magic Mountain — remains in the most restrictive “widespread” risk level…
The initial draft guidelines from the state for reopening California theme parks reportedly call for:
·Individual theme parks can reopen only once their county reaches the least-restrictive “minimal” risk level
·Operate at 25% of attendance capacity
·Limit visitors to residents living within a 120-mile radius of each theme park
The state’s draft guidelines present two key problems for theme parks:
·Placing theme parks in the final tier of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy means the severity of the guidelines never change until the pandemic ends
·Reaching the least-restrictive “minimal” tier could be difficult to nearly impossible for California’s most-populous counties
The draft guidelines likely would prevent California theme parks from reopening for weeks or months.
Indeed, it’s likely that the parks would not be able to open until sometime in 2021 under these criteria.
That, of course, would continue to pile on the damage in terms of lost jobs, lost small businesses, lost output and income, and mounting problems for local governments, not to mention that state as well.
In a recent letter to Governor Newsom, mayors from cities across Orange County wrote:
Your focus on providing guidelines for restaurants, schools, personal services, gatherings, and so many other businesses and activities have given us hope, because with guidelines, a path forward can be envisioned.
However, a crucial segment of our region’s economy does not have this hope or path forward – theme parks – because no such guidelines have been issued. We know you have stated that you are working on these guidelines, and we respectfully request that they be issued now.
The importance of theme parks to the Orange County economy cannot be overstated. The Disneyland Resort is the single largest employer in Southern California, with over 32,000 direct jobs at the site and over 78,000 jobs created across the Southland. Knott’s Berry Farm is America’s oldest theme park and still one of the largest in California. It employs over 5,000 people and helps support an additional 5,000 jobs in the region. Collectively, this is nearly 90,000 jobs in the Southland that are on hold, due to the closure of theme parks.
These economic engines drive our region far beyond the borders of Anaheim and Buena Park. Many guests to our beach destinations incorporate a theme park stay into their travel plans. The iconic brands associated with our theme parks bring recognition to our region beyond the direct impact of travel. The employees of these destinations, and the small businesses that supply and thrive because of them, are scattered far and wide across the Southland. Quite simply, the current state of affairs – no theme parks and no path forward for theme parks – leaves a huge hole in the very heart of our economy that we cannot fill.
Regarding Disney’s recent announcement of laying off 28,000 workers, Todd Ament, President and CEO, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, made clear who was at least partially responsible in a statement:
The mass layoff announcement from Disney is tragic – and entirely foreseeable to all of us who have been calling on Governor Newsom to do what he has inexplicably failed to do – issue theme park re-opening guidelines. The Disneyland Resort has been closed for more than 6 months. For the first six weeks of the closure, they paid their cast members – and continue to pay their health care benefits once forced to furlough them. Disney has been ready to re-open since mid-July. Disney’s Florida theme parks have been operating safely since re-opening in July. Responsibility for Disney’s reluctant decision to lay-off more than 28,000 cast members lands squarely on the shoulders of Governor Newsom and those interests who have put their short-term agendas ahead of allowing cast members to return to work.
In the end, this is not about reopening theme parks versus public safety. Instead, this is a choice between allowing theme parks to reopen safely, and thereby allowing life to be injected back into the Orange County and surrounding area economy, or not.
The state has pulled back on its draft guidelines, with negotiations apparently continuing. So, Disneyland and other theme parks, and their employees, continue to wait for guidelines from Governor Newsom.
Walt Disney Company Executive Chairman Bob Iger has resigned from California Governor Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 economic task force. The task force, formed back in April at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, was meant to help guide the state’s actions in responding to the virus, and to give businesses a voice in recovery efforts.
Despite the fact that Disney and other companies have had to begin laying off thousands of employees – in Disney’s case, 28,000 – California still has not released guidelines for how and when theme parks in California will be allowed to reopen.
The theme park industry, represented by the California Attractions and Parks Association (CAPA), has repeatedly asked for the guidelines to be released.
On September 8, Governor Newsom held a press conference and said the state was “getting closer to concluding when and how to safely reopen those sectors,” and as recently as September 17 indicated that those guidelines were coming “very, very shortly.”
Theme park guidance is expected to come from the California Department of Public Health this week, issuing guidelines that will allow the dozens of theme parks across California, including Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, Legoland and Knott’s Berry Farm, to reopen. An initial draft of the document was released to theme park leaders for review. But Iger’s resignation may be a sign that it is too little, too late.
Newsom’s advisers have said a new set of state public health guidelines for theme and amusement park openings would be released by the end of the week. But the leader of the trade group representing those businesses said Thursday that a draft of the proposal shared by the state falls far short of what the industry needs.
“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,” Erin Guerrero, executive director of the California Attractions and Parks Assn., said in a written statement. “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.”
To put added pressure on the state to act, a commercial released by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce and the Reopen O.C. Now coalition began airing in California, urging the state to move forward on behalf of the businesses. Reopen O.C. Now cites theme parks as “responsible for close to 100,000 jobs in Southern California.” The commercial urged viewers to “Tell Governor Newsom Help Anaheim Get Back to Work. Reawaken our Region.”
Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, also held a virtual press conference last Tuesday (September 22) to urge California to act.
“To our California government officials, particularly at the state level, I encourage you to treat theme parks like you would other sectors and help us reopen,” D’Amaro requested.
In addition to the company’s four Florida theme parks, Disney successfully reopened their parks in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and France, while Disneyland (California) and Disney’s California Adventure remain closed, nearing the seven month mark. Disney has cancelled remaining reservations at their California resort through November 1, after initially announcing that they would be reopening the California parks on July 17 in time for the 65th Anniversary of Disneyland Resort. California officials put the brakes on that plan.
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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.
