I'll first give a short run down on some of the reasons that Disney wanted to leak out to the public through the cast members:
1) Terrorism / Security
2) ADA
3) Asbestos
4) Costly to Upkeep / Low Attendance
Above are four reasons cast members have given for its closing. Although many have already been addressed, I will debunk each of these. (I've done my research. My life was dedicated to getting the Castle back open for a while there.)
1) Terrorism/Security - The gift shops inside the castle and the areas just beyond the drawbridge are just as easy to plant/hide an explosive device. Disney has wanted to close the attraction down for years (They almost did in the early 1990s, but there was major protest, so they decided to keep it open.) and they used the September 11th attacks as a scapegoat, or rather, one of their scapegoats. Cinderella Castle (in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom) is at greater risk for a terrorist attack, since Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom is the world's most visited theme park. It would be much easier to cause damage to Cinderella Castle with its many unattended rooms and its restaurant (compete with restrooms). The difference between Sleeping Beauty Castle and Cinderella Castle is that Cinderella Castle makes a lot of money, whereas Sleeping Beauty Castle does not If Disney cared about the security of its Castles, it would have closed Cinderella Castle at the same time as Sleeping Beauty Castle.
2) Handicap Accessibility - The Castle is grandfathered. It doesn't need to comply with ADA rules. Very few attractions at
Disneyland are totally ADA compliant, but most don't need to be because of their ages.
3) Asbestos is a relatively new rumor. As Mr. Weiss stated, Asbestos is not a problem if it is behind the walls or under the floor. Most attractions and buildings at Disneyland would have asbestos because of their age. That's no reason to close a building. Every house, but one, that I have lived in has had asbestos. Every school I attended had asbestos. It's not a problem if you don’t lift up the carpets or bash through the walls and take a big whiff of it.
4) Cost - Disney's most outrageous "leaked" claim yet. The Castle cost virtually nothing to run. It required dusting and minor repair once in a while, but Disney didn’t' even do that, so it virtually cost them nothing except the hourly wage of the cast member that had to unlock the doors and turn on the electricity.
Sadly, Disney's reason number 4 is most likely the reason they closed the attraction, no matter how outrageous the statement. Disney executives never really cared for Sleeping Beauty Castle. They felt that it didn't warrant being in operation because of the attendance numbers. They didn't provide upkeep to the Castle at all for some years. (In 2000, they just boarded up the dragon scene after part of it stopped working.) They let the Castle go into a state of "disrepair". Disney's then-definition of "disrepair" was something that took a lot of time and effort to fix for what they saw as no reason. It was easy enough to clean up the dust and change out some of the lights, but Disney felt it was far too costly to do that in Disney's eyes. That is the reason we no longer have a Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough.
