A North Carolina lawmaker wants to invite Disney to move Disney World to North Carolina.

[smahala1991]

A Guilford County, NC lawmaker wants to invite Disney to come to North Carolina. Governor Ron Desantis of Florida wants to end the special tax status granted to Disney ever since the 1960s. While North Carolina is a great touristy state, I do not think it would work.

For one, Disney World is already set in Florida. The Park has been open since 1971 in the state, with construction going on since the mid to late 1960s. It would take years to undo all of Disney World in Orlando to move to North Carolina.

Secondly, North Carolina and its surrounding states are already overflowing with tourism. The Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and NC already have several smaller amusement parks and Dollywood. Traffic in the area is considered to be highly congested. Charlotte already has Carowinds, which attracts millions of visitors already. The traffic going there continuously jams up Interstates 77 and 85. Virginia and North Carolina also share the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 470-mile-long scenic road stretching from The Smokies to the Shenandoah National Park. Three hours away in Richmond, VA, lies another theme park, Kings Dominion. South Carolina is already overcrowded with visitors to Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, and Charleston. Georgia has Six Flags in Atlanta which shares I-85 with Greensboro and Charlotte. The state's interstate systems (of which there are several) would be way too congested. Plus, the major metro areas of Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh are growing rapidly. Florida has a population of 21.78 Million. North Carolina sets at just 10.5 million.

Lastly, many NC citizens would likely support the same measures as Gov. Desantis. North Carolina has a very conservative-leaning population in most of the rural areas. However, NC is a swing state with a Democratic Governor and a Republican General Assembly. Politics would be way too much of a divide.

So, While North Carolina is a beautiful state and one of the most traveled-through states in the US, we do not have room for Disney World here. We are a small state growing somewhat too rapidly with people moving from states like Texas, California, New York, and Michigan. Disney would undoubtedly help out tourism, but it would make the transportation corridors much more congested.

[MrOracle]

There's no way in hell that Disney is going to pack up over $50 billion dollars worth of investments and move to the Carolinas. There's also not enough infrastructure there or room to build it. Moving Disney World is a pipe dream at best.

Disney enjoyed an incredible amount of legal autonomy - which was given to Disney expressly for the purpose of building Epcot - a full city, which was Walt's dream. When Walt died, Disney canceled the Epcot project almost immediately, and that should have been the end of Reedy Creek, but Disney used its money and influence to keep that control until now. They (Disney) also directly ran Reedy Creek even though they were legally prohibited from doing so from Day 1. That's not speculation either - there's tons of evidence and witnesses - it's been an open secret for decades.

If you think that the Carolinas would give all that to Disney, you'd be mistaken. It's easy to talk big and look good to their constituents by making the offer, but they know full well it will never happen.

[smahala1991]

Charlotte, The Triad, and Raleigh are crowded as it is, and there's no way in hell the farmers in Eastern NC are gonna give up their tobacco, cotton, peanut, and peach crops

[MrOracle]

Exactly. DW would require thousands of acres of land, and it's not like the farm owners are looking to sell. Plus, Disney isn't in any position to buy, especially not at the price they would demand from Disney.

Disney was able to build DW because they were able to buy up huge amounts of empty swamp land secretly for cheap. There's no cheap land for Disney anywhere else.

[smahala1991]

DW was specifically built with Florida in mind, as Carowinds and Dollywood were built with Tennessee and NC/SC in mind. Dollywood uses the Smokies to its advantage. A lot of their rides incorporate mountainous and hilly terrain. Disney wouldn't be able to and probably wouldn't do the same.

[Avicenna]

You know your state well, and you're correct that it's already a great and significant tourist destination that doesn't need Disney. A further problem would be that Disney isn't built for the types of winters there are in North Carolina- it's built for central Florida, where cold days are very few in number. Even in Wilimington, it's a lot colder in January than it is in Orlando (highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s).

[smahala1991]

Correct, Disney is not made for the Carolina climate. Carowinds and Dollywood are built and maintained for their settings and climates. The people who work for these two parks know the terrain and statistics well enough to know what works and what won't. Disney, however, was rumored to have owned land in The Carolinas in the '60s, and Ironically not far from where Carowinds sits today, although I think his land was closer to Rock Hill, SC.

[Msputiton]

I think one of the biggest part of the popularity of Disney is the location of fl. Because of the year round beautiful weather and beaches.

Which is probably why DeSantis is doing what he is doing, plus the massive size of Disney would be very hard to move to another state. Probably by the time they. Build the new park, DeSantis will either have been voted out, or made president and the next person in office my give them back their tax status🤷🏾‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Of course he does. Disney will consider it to get desantis to back down. Disney is getting too political in states like florida, its fine when they are doing in their own intrest but in stuff like abortion it's just not their place. Disney would very much like to be an independent state within the US

[WindAtMyBack]

Nothing but an attention grabbing politician. They can't be taken seriously. They might as well invite the entire Orlando metro area to move to another states, because you can't separate the two. The idea is absurd, and I'm sure this politician knows that. It's all for show. Politicians do that sort of thing all the time.

[slatyb]

Lastly, many NC citizens would likely support the same measures as Gov. Desantis. North Carolina has a very conservative-leaning population in most of the rural areas.

Many would but the state is almost evenly divided between urban Democrats and rural Republicans. Republicans are able to remain in control of North Carolina only by aggressive gerrymandering.

[slatyb]

There's a reason Disney World and Disneyland are in Florida and Southern California: the weather. The climate in both locations is warm and sunny year-round. North Carolina has a mild climate but winters are cool and wet.

[Anonymous]

They’re not moving. They have the money to fight DeSantis and they’ll just wait him out. He won’t be in office forever and they’ve largely stripped his oversight board of any authority anyway. Most of this is just political theater for conservative voters who want to see DeSantis engage in his culture war. It doesn’t really need to lead anywhere to make them happy and keep them voting, which is the point of this entire exercise.

[strateguy632]

traffic jams but maybe native n. c. would want it nearer? anyway you presented well

[AsaKyo]

That would be interesting since I've never had the chance to go, but I wouldn't mind being able to travel out of state for a bit

[WanderingLoveWizard]

Disney World sucks ass if you're over the age of 12.
It's just a lot of overpriced shit, waiting in line and listening to parents yell at their kids.
Not worth it

[Surely]

Does anyone really know what, if any taxes, Disney World currently pays?
As Brandon says. Big cooperations need to pay their fair share!

[Snakeyes7]

With all this money Disney has been losing these past several years due to retarded business decisions, can they really afford such a move?

[Anonymous]

Clearly they never been to Disney world, the company simply can't afford to move.

[najekim]

Oh great. I can see it now, Goofy & Donald driving NASCAR.

[msc545]

Nah. Fuck DeSatan.