Disney CEO Bob Chapek continued the firm stance against the State of California that The Walt Disney Company has taken as it relates to the reopening of Disneyland.
As you may know, Disneyland has been fighting a rather public battle with California Governor Gavin Newsom amidst unprecedented layoffs of 28,000 Cast Members from the Disney Parks division of the company. Disneyland originally announced a July 17th reopening date, only to have to postpone their reopening due to a lack of guidance from the state.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Chapek was asked how the negotiations with the State of California were going. Here’s what he had to say:
It’s not much of a negotiation [with the State of California], it’s pretty much a mandate that we stay closed. You know, I look across our Disney properties whether it be Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, Walt Disney World, the Disney bubble for the NBA, and all that I see is that we’ve been able to open up responsibly using the guidelines that healthcare 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.
It would seem to me that the guidelines that are set up by the state of California are more stringent than any states 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 that are set up without regard to what actual fact is, and what we’ve been able to do as a company, I think you might come to a different decision about reopening Disneyland.
The remarks are just the latest in the back-and-forth between the theme park giant and Governor Newsom. Newsom recently said he’s in “no hurry” to issue theme park reopening guidelines and that reopening theme parks would need to be part of a “health-first” approach. The suggestion that reopening theme parks now would not be consistent with a “health-first” approach drew backlash from the Disney Parks Chief Medical Officer who rejected that notion in a recent press release.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!