Mr. Yeargin has been on the outs for a while now. In fact, he had already been demoted out of the Attractions job. He does seem to have been genuinely disliked by the cast at Disneyland and his spending more time with his family is more a personal matter than some sort of Sign All Is Right With The New Guy.
ALL of Disneylands management has been in turmoil for a while now. California Adventure is a tremendous failure and the battles between Burbank, Anaheim and Orlando are much more interesting than the tortilla making machine. Both the heads of marketing and revenues (the ticket guy) were walked out a bit ago. And the future for Ms. Harris is certainly looking like shell be able to explore many more career options soon. This ones mostly corporate politics.
According to the rumors, Michael Eisner really hates sitting in a board meeting pleading for his very life and then have to listen to member start a comment with I was in Daddys park the other day and I saw
. First off, Eisner really hates this board member. Second, he really hates being reminded of the dead guy. Third, he especially hates having to refer back to his notes to figure out what this Dizzy Lands place is all about. Its not like its his fault these out-of-control lower management types went and spent a billion dollars in a parking lot. Why should the board get on him for something he didnt have anything to do with!!!!!! I guess if you have a couple billion in the bank you can pretty much construct your own mental reality.
Anyway, in typical Eisner style the head of Attractions was dumped as a big showpiece for the board. And now that a new lapdog has ascended to run the pack, its time to kill off all the pups of the recently toppled alpha-male. Ms. Harris is unfortunately far too vulnerable in all the wrong ways. A very nice and capable executive, but shes now simply one more lamb to kill in the great "we're doing something" show Eisner is putting on. (P.S. Mr. Weiss had better start thinking about what show he wants to produce on Broadway as well).
As for the sudden surge in maintenance its nothing but the new fiscal year budgets kicking in on October 1st. In addition to just the general maintenance funds, a lot of projects are budgeted in specific line items. Money to begin those works wasnt released until 10/1 as well.
The parks are very much run on a use-it or loose-it state these days. And everyone knows the next round of budget cuts is but weeks away. So while the moneys there, everyones buying as much paint, lumber and labor hours as they possibly can. But the piggy bank will be empty again real soon.
