With the Coronavirus pandemic affecting theme parks, sports, and movie theaters alike, ESPN is struggling to keep content fresh for its viewers, and in order to mitigate the financial effects of COVID-19 on the network, it is asking its top commentators to take pay cuts.
According to the Sports Business Journal, ESPN has asked its 100 most highly paid commentators to take voluntary 15% pay cuts over the next three months. It is unknown how many of the commentators have agreed to the take these pay cuts, which are meant to deter further furloughs for ESPN employees who may be in more precarious financial positions than some of the on-air commentators.
The commentators impacted include Stephen A. Smith (who makes a reported $8M per year) and Mike Greenberg (who makes a reported $6.5M per year), and game analysts like the highly-paid Alex Rodriguez and Kirk Herbstreit, whose salaries are in the seven-figure range. Employees in lower pay grades are not included in the voluntary pay reductions.
Imagineer Joe Rohde has been taking Disney fans on an online digial tour of Disney’s Animal Kingdom through his Instagram, providing deep backstory on its ethos and culture. He’s discussed the Tree of Life and Africa, and today we follow him through Asia as he discusses the beautiful Anandapur and Maharajah Jungle Trek!
“At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Asia really means South Asia and Southeast Asia, where you find Tigers….We have styled the entire thing as The Kingdom of Anandapur. It’s something like India something like Nepal and something like parts of Indonesia.
As with Africa, we want everyone to have a sense of going on an adventure, so even if you were from India, you walk around here going “I haven’t been to this part of the country”… A purist could criticize this as being kind of expropriation and amalgamation, but we try to be careful and we really do want to transcend any particular country and stick with the idea of animals and the people they live with.
“It’s important to remember that all of these lands are fictional. And because they are fictional, they have been edited and focused in an artificial way….
Our Asia is focused on the harmony and disharmony of use of space. Habitat competition vs accommodation. The tigers live in an abandoned hunting lodge. The white water raft trip goes through an illegally logged Forest. The train in Expedition Everest cuts through a forbidden part of the mountains. The Gibbons and Siamangs live right in the middle of town amidst ruins under restoration. This is a bit of design hyperbole, but it’s meant to indicate this idea of humans and animals living cheek by jowl in the same spaces.”
“This was inspired by multiple sources. One was Sigiriya in SriLanka where there is a truly huge set of claws left over from a giant lion. One is Mahabalipuram in India where there are colossal stone animals. The other is at Angkor Wat, colossal human sculptures in ruins with roots overgrown.
Ours is a tiger. So it could have been an old Hindu shrine of Dawon the tiger-lion who is variously ridden by Durga, Kali or Parvati. Or a Buddhist shrine to Padmasambhava who also rides a tiger. But it’s in ruins so we cannot tell.”
“In the queue for the Kali River Rapids attraction are murals on the ceiling depicting traditional Buddhist parables in which animals act out moral precepts. These are called the Jataka Tales. The ceiling of this building, indeed the entire building is loosely based on a building on the island of Bali called the Kerta Gosa. It too has a lavish painted ceiling with a very similar carved ornament at the very peak.
All the murals that you see in the building are original. They were painted by an old Balinese master painter. When we started the work, I brought him a full set of western watercolor brushes as a gift. He chose to paint all those murals with his traditional tools…Split pieces of bamboo which he cut with a knife and smashed to create a brush.”
Let’s head into the Maharajah Jungle Trek with Joe to look at, not only the animals, but the artistry…
“There are three distinct mural sequences in the Maharajah Jungle Trek. There are the tiger murals, which if you look closely reveal antique scenes of tiger hunts, making it clear that there used to be way more tigers. By the way, some of these shots are from inside the tiger area…when the tigers were not there. The second group in this sequence are the carved stone murals (real stone carved in Bali) representing a little moral tale in which man comes into the forest, cuts down the forest, and disaster follows. In the final frame the animals and the man have reconciled and nature begins to bloom again. The last set of murals are meant to depict the four great kings of Anandapur.”
“When we opened, we had Bengal tigers who had grown up together. I believe they were all sisters….. The Tigers you see today are Sumatran Tigers, which are an important Conservation challenge. For those who are concerned about where animals like these come from…Rest assured they are not captured in the wild. Ironically, there are almost none left in the wild. At any legitimate accredited Zoological facility, ours included, those animals are part of international networks committed to maintaining healthy and genetically Viable populations.
When we started conceptual work on Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 1990 estimates are there were as many as 100,000 tigers in the wild. Today there are maybe 3500….Thanks to global effort’s some tiger numbers are stabilizing. That doesn’t mean much unless we do a lot more to protect jungle habitat with enough animals in it for Tigers to eat.”
Join is soon in Part 4 as Joe take us all to the thrill of Asia – Expedition Everest!
With the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic not going away any time soon and The Walt Disney Company still facing an uncertain financial future, the company has secured a new credit line of up to $5 billion, according to Seeking Alpha.
Disney revealed in a new SEC filing on Monday that it entered into a 364-day credit agreement with Citibank for up to $5B just last Friday, with the option to extend the maturity beyond April 9, 2021 if lenders consent.
Due to the size and short term nature of the credit line, it’s apparent that the credit agreement is to offset COVID-19’s impact on company-wide operations. The 2021 maturity date also confirms that both parties believe the company will be back on its feet within a year or so, aligning with what other analysts have inferred regarding park attendance levels and revenue.
The Walt Disney Company also recently announced a $6 billion U.S. debt offering as well as a $1.3 billion Canadian debt offering in March. At the end of the previous fiscal year, Disney had long-term debt worth over $38 billion. Disney is far from the only media company seeking to raise money, with Comcast, owner of Disney’s chief theme park rival, Universal Parks & Resorts, also raising money to offset COVID-19’s impact on their operations.
When we saw permits filed earlier this month for work on a Table Service Restaurant, bus stop, transportation dock, and more at the site of Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge, it was still assumed that construction had been halted throughout Walt Disney World Resort––and it has, for the most part––but according to a new report from the Orlando Business Journal, one local construction firm continues chipping away at the upcoming nature-themed Disney Vacation Resort property in progress.
Balfour Beatty Construction LLC continues work on the 900-room resort taking over the space of the former River Country throughout the closure. In a statement to the Orlando Business Journal, it outlined the safety measures it was taking in light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis:
“Balfour Beatty is taking all necessary measures to ensure workers, clients, partner and the public are safe. As a essential business, we have a responsibility to keep our projects operating while we modify the way we deliver work to allow for the new and necessary health and safety measures that are now required as a result of this pandemic. The practicalities of how to implement social distancing in the field are complex and our workforce is committed to meeting these needs, knowing that each decision has an impact on not only the team’s ability to deliver and our production flow, but the health and wellbeing of everyone.”
Work has continued despite smaller crews and stringent new regulations from the CDC. According to analyst David Heger, it’s in Disney’s best interest to keep work going for certain projects, especially if they’ve already been funded. And surely, a shiny new resort will beckon to both casual guests and DVC members alike in the aftermath of the extended closures. Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge is expected to open in 2022.
Two of Disneyland Paris’ long-awaited summer events, Magical Pride and Electroland, have effectively been cancelled in light of new restrictions from the French government, which may also entail a delayed re-opening date for the resort itself.
President Emmanuel Macron has announced that the current lockdown would be extended for at least month, until May 11. The government has also cancelled all summer festivals and events through mid-July, including the popular Solidays music festival and even the Tour de France, both set to take place in late June. Electroland was scheduled for July 3 through the 5th, with featured headliners including Martin Garrix, Dimitri Vegas, and Like Mike.
Disneyland Paris remains closed “until further notice”, with its official re-opening facing inevitable postponement in light of these new regulations, which prohibit large public gatherings until at least mid-July in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
