Rumor on a blog- Tink & Lightside ending for a Full on west ?!?!?

[Ariel484]

^^agreed...financially it doesn't make sense for Disney...

Right now there are 8 events (2 weekends worth of kids races, 5K, 10K, half marathon), 2 weekends where they get more people into the hotels and parks, 2 weekends where they sell runDisney merch and get vendors to pay for expo booths. If they switch to a marathon that's now 5 events (kids races, 5K, 10K, half and marathon - assuming they'd schedule it similar to WDW weekend in January).

Unless runDisney/Disney are majorly losing money on Tink/SWLS somehow, or Anaheim really wants to cut a weekend out, this really does not make sense.

 

[hotblooded]

^^agreed...financially it doesn't make sense for Disney...

Right now there are 8 events (2 weekends worth of kids races, 5K, 10K, half marathon), 2 weekends where they get more people into the hotels and parks, 2 weekends where they sell runDisney merch and get vendors to pay for expo booths. If they switch to a marathon that's now 5 events (kids races, 5K, 10K, half and marathon - assuming they'd schedule it similar to WDW weekend in January).

Unless runDisney/Disney are majorly losing money on Tink/SWLS somehow, or Anaheim really wants to cut a weekend out, this really does not make sense.

Plus, it's been several days since this was posted, and there's been no evidence reported anywhere else to support it.

 

[IamTrike]

The local government should be on board with Disney. Anaheim would be nothing without Dis.

Also, I don't buy RD cancelling two race weeknds for one weekend with a Full Marathon. Two weekends make way more money than one. If nothing else, it brings thousands of people to the park in downtimes that spend money on tickets, food and merchandise. It's something else that's holding these races up.

Yeah I think I remember one of the negotiations Disney had before they added all the race weekends was that they would increase the number of west coast races. I think at that point studies had shown each race weekend brought in an incremental increase of about $20 Million to the local economy. I think that number seems high. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's close to $10 million. With that much money tied to the events it seems hard for me to believe that Anaheim would be against these events.

 

[GreatLakes]

I highly doubt the rumor has any merit. Running a full marathon in the city of Anaheim shouldn't really be that hard. Plenty of cities run marathons on their streets without the luxury of a large private property absorbing a portion of the race. I don't think that would be the hold up. I think running a Disneyland full in Anaheim negates the biggest draw of the full in Florida, running through all 4 parks. A Disney full marathon is expensive and the short amount of time you are in the parks in California would make it very hard to justify the inflated price Disney would charge. Disney runners also don't seem to be really clamoring for another full. I suspect a pretty high percentage of Disney runners never plan to even run a full.

My suspicion is the same as just about everyone's and that is the city holding up permits. It very well might not even be that the city itself is hostile to Disney races but that they have public works projects that are holding it up. A local race had to change dates only a few months out due to a public works project. The project was known well in advance and the race didn't run on any of the streets. The problem came from the local transit authority because the detour route for their buses was using a part of the race route and in the end the buses won out despite it being them that waited so long to make a route decision.

The thing about Super Heroes weekend(Marvel) is California is the one place they can have that race. So it makes sense for them to keep that one and shutter the other two if that is indeed what they are doing. Registration for that one may pick up if there are two less races and if not, it can always be rebranded to I don't know - Star Wars. But you know runDisney does like to keep us all guessing.

From what I've heard reported Disney can not have any Marvel character used by Universal in a park. They are allowed on property just not in a park. If WDW wants an Avengers or other Marvel property race weekend they can, they just have to make sure none of the characters are in a park. It wouldn't be that hard to make sure any Marvel characters are on the roads outside of the park gates. I don't know if they really want to go through that trouble but it is possible based on what has been reported about their contract regarding Marvel.

I do events as part of my job. For a first-time event, 6 months would be tight, but this isn't a new race or theme -- just an updated theme, if speculation based on changes to Dark Side and that bit of code is correct. And most of the prep work is behind the scenes. It's plenty of time to pull this off.

I don't know. For a local event that returns year after year 6 months isn't that big of a deal. For an event that is aimed at vacationers from out of state 6 months is tight. I can make plans based on a 6 month window but I know a lot of people who need a lot more lead time to travel across the country to run.

 

[Ariel484]

I think running a Disneyland full in Anaheim negates the biggest draw of the full in Florida, running through all 4 parks. A Disney full marathon is expensive and the short amount of time you are in the parks in California would make it very hard to justify the inflated price Disney would charge. Disney runners also don't seem to be really clamoring for another full. I suspect a pretty high percentage of Disney runners never plan to even run a full.

Agreed. For me personally, I have done the WDW marathon 4 times. To me, that race is worth the price. If there was a Disneyland marathon, I could see doing it once to "check it off the list" and then that would be it.

I think the marathon distance is a "bucket list" distance for most - their goal is to do it once and then they achieve that goal and that's it. And if people want to run a Disney marathon I could see them choosing WDW over a hypothetical Disneyland marathon simply because there are more parks to run through. Or they would say "26.2, whaaa, no way" and stick to half marathons.

I think this is tougher for international travelers - planning travel to DL from out of the country cannot be easy. Seems like they would need more time than what runDisney is currently giving them.

 

[rteetz]

From what I've heard reported Disney can not have any Marvel character used by Universal in a park. They are allowed on property just not in a park. If WDW wants an Avengers or other Marvel property race weekend they can, they just have to make sure none of the characters are in a park. It wouldn't be that hard to make sure any Marvel characters are on the roads outside of the park gates. I don't know if they really want to go through that trouble but it is possible based on what has been reported about their contract regarding Marvel.

Not quite. WDW can use certain characters like Guardians inside the park which is why we are getting the Guardians attraction in Epcot. Now they can't use the Marvel name though. Using other Avengers characters for a race and having them appear outside the parks just seems kind of weird. I don't think we ever see them use Marvel characters for a race at WDW because of the proximity to Universal.

 

[IamTrike]

Not quite. WDW can use certain characters like Guardians inside the park which is why we are getting the Guardians attraction in Epcot. Now they can't use the Marvel name though. Using other Avengers characters for a race and having them appear outside the parks just seems kind of weird. I don't think we ever see them use Marvel characters for a race at WDW because of the proximity to Universal.

I've only one Disnleyland race but I also thoughtduring the DL races Disney doesn't place characters in places that aren't on their property. They have other entertainment but not characters.

 

[rteetz]

I've only one Disnleyland race but I also thoughtduring the DL races Disney doesn't place characters in places that aren't on their property. They have other entertainment but not characters.

Disneyland can have all of the marvel characters within the parks if they wanted really. The contract with Universal is for east of the Mississippi. Disneyland will not have official Disney characters outside of the parks though because that is not Disney owned property. Walt Disney World has the blessing of size and Disney owns all of the property that the race is on.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Without even reading the article, I'm skeptical. If the city wants one race weekend canceled, I would be very surprised if Disney cancels Star Wars or Tink because those races sell. Maybe they don't "sell out" anymore, but how are we defining sold out? Because there roughly 14,000 runners at the 2017 Light Side and that number was higher than the number of runners at the Inaugural Star Wars Half in 2015 which was sold out. I can't see them canceling a race that sells 14,000 or so bibs in favor of a race that sells 7,000 bibs like Superheroes. Throw in the lure of the Kessel Run medal which is much trickier to do at WDW because of the Universal contract.

And I can't imagine the uproar if they were to cancel Tinker Bell as it's the only west coast women's race.

Changes may be coming, but they may not be as drastic as some are predicting.

 

[Keels]

Apologies for the placeholder and replace -- this is the most updated info that's been received ... just wanted to pull some names out, in an effort to keep everything semi-anonymous on a public board like this. We do have an incredibly active Facebook group discussing all of this, so if you want to DM me I can send you the link and add you.

ANYWAY.

To put things into more perspective, at some point yesterday there were a group of us on a RunDisney group on Facebook that got kinda lambasted about talking about conspiracy theories related to Light Side and Tink - and, frankly, it's pretty much in line with what we talk about here.

So, like I've posted earlier - I started reading the minutes from Orange County City Council meetings, and in talking with some friends ... we felt like there were some loose ends that could easily be tied up and maybe lead us to a little bit of information if we just directed the right questions to the right people.

My friend took it up today to start making a few calls and sending a few emails to city council members in Orange County. I have another friend that manages charity registrations who reached out to people today. And, myself, I reached out to my contacts at Active and a couple other entities to get information - ANY information.

I've posted much of this earlier, so it will look familiar ... this time around, some names have been redacted AND there is a little more information added. Here goes!

-- My friend was able to speak with a member of the Disneyland Public Affairs team directly about Light Side Weekend. She was willing to speak briefly and concisely about Light Side Weekend, and this is what she said:
1. The delay in the announcement of a registration time is due to something entirely internal that she cannot disclose and has nothing to do with Anaheim. "This has nothing to do with the city and is completely internal."
2. Disneyland (or runDisney) has not filed any application for any permits with the city of Anaheim or any other city. "We have not applied for any permits for our 2018 races as of yet."
3. She could give no timeline as to when an announcement might take place.
4. "The minute we have something we will post it to the (runDisney) website."

... So, that just brought our group to believe that the RunDisney boilerplate of "permitting issues" is a ruse. This is backed up by the trend of RunDisney and Anaheim races - the permits for road closures have always been filed 30 days before race weekend, and not by Disney themselves but by CalTrans and signed by the Director of Public Works. They are presented on a portion of the agenda that is immediately approved without the city council hearing what the measure is and entails.

With that behind us, my friend kept emailing and calling council members.

Later this evening, he received the following return voicemail (he TOTALLY screens ...):
"Hi, this is Councilwoman [REDACTED] for the Anaheim District (inaudible). Thank you so much for reaching out to me. The reason, the marathon is not going to be canceled. The Star Wars will still happen next January. And the only reason that the registration is not open as of yet is because there's a little bit of snafu with IT. So just keep getting in there. It will take place. I have been assured by people from Disney that the marathon will continue. So if you want to keep up with me periodically, that would be great. .... (she left me her number) thank you for reaching out. We'll see you in January. Bye. Bye."

He also received the following information via phone call or email:
- A reporter who covers Anaheim said he checked with Anaheim City Hall. He said someone there told him they had not received any request for a permit to close city streets regarding Star Wars Light Side Half Marathon or anything like that. So it appears to be on Disney's side. He said he left a request for comment with his contact at Disney.
- An aide for another councilperson called me back seeking more information on my request for information.

I've spoken with one friend that works with a charity group and she decided to call the race group they contract with directly and ask if charity partners could give back their purchase of bibs without penalty because now it's becoming too difficult to sell bibs and they were told that any returned bibs would be refunded as long as they are surrendered by the existing deadline.

Another friend - also in the charity sector - plans to meet with the director of Spectrum Management, the entity that serves as race director and handles all the race weekend logistics for Disneyland races - tomorrow afternoon in an attempt to get more details on charity bibs and to what EXACTLY seems to be the hold-up with Light Side.

So. What can we glean from this?

It's not Anaheim, Orange County or permitting that's holding the race up. It's purely RunDisney/Disney and some internal issue.

 

[CP3uhoh]

I'm extremely impressed with the city of Anaheim, wow. That's pretty good follow up for government.

 

[DLgal]

Sounds like Disney is feeding b.s. to the local government. "An IT snafu?" Sorry, not buying that at all. Active handles all the registrations anyway and they are still processing race registrations for other RD weekends...

 

[VickiHD]

WILL UPDATE SHORTLY!

What am I missing? Was an article posted then deleted??

 

[Keels]

Sorry for the pull and replace ... needed to redact some information not meant for a public message board.

But all of the information still stands and has now been sent to multiple of us.

 

[JulieODC]

Wow - good scoop @Keels! I wonder what the internal issue could be?? Seems big if they haven't reconciled it at this point so "close" to the race date...

 

[Dis_Yoda]

How did your friend's convo go yesterday?