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Alex Lo

If our own officials won’t put up a fight with greedy Disney in the US, our lawmakers should do it for them.
On Saturday, those sitting on the Legislative Council Finance Committee will be asked to approve a whopping HK$10.9 billion facelift for the troubled theme park under a six-year expansion plan. Let’s vote against this great American rip-off. Send them back to the boardroom to renegotiate a better deal.
For this expansion project, Hong Kong taxpayers will have to fork out up to HK$5.8 billion.
More than a billion will be used to pay US Disney for its generosity and ingenuity in “designs and technical support” for the new rides and features.
HK$350 million proposed for struggling Hong Kong Disneyland by US parent company
Is Disney a partner or a contractor in all this? Perhaps realising how bad it looks, Disney has offered to sweeten the deal somewhat.
It will contribute an extra HK$350 million, along with a waiver of two years of management fees worth about HK$114.4 million.
It’s not as generous as it sounds. It turns out – and we have only been told this last month – that Disney gets paid between 5 and 10 per cent of the park’s annual gross revenue. It also pockets all the royalties – which make up the biggest portion of Disneyland’s payout to its US parent.
Those are guaranteed earnings, while Hong Kong absorbs the losses. No wonder corporate Disney doesn’t seem to care too much even if the theme park has suffered losses in eight of its 11 years in existence.
Despite the latest “concessions”, Disney will still charge more than half a billion for the upgrade. Another feather in the cap of commerce minister Greg So Kam-leung... Not!
Disney and the government have argued the new concessions mean the expansion cost will be shared equally between the two sides, instead of the previous ratio of 53:47.
Hong Kong Disneyland on roller-coaster ride amid expansion plans
Well, care to explain why some 5 per cent of the total cost is still being used to pay Disney?
We have lined the pockets of Walt Disney for far too long.
Lawmakers should vote down the funding and hold up the project for now. Clearly So and his team are incapable of delivering a better deal.
Let’s wait for the new government to be formed after the summer.
Hopefully, a more competent team will be put together to renegotiate a fairer deal.


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Disney

Time to stop the great Disneyland rip-off

Our legislators must vote against more funding for the theme park until we can get a deal that is good for us, not a greedy company

Hongkongers are not happy with the “happiest places on earth” after reports revealed for the first time that the theme park needs to pay between 5 and 10 per cent of its revenue to its American parent as royalties every year. Photo: Xinhua

City wants a new deal: Hong Kong Disney sends billions of dollars back to US parent company while reporting losses

Hong Kong Disneyland might have paid the Walt Disney Company up to HK$3.37 billion in royalties since 2009. Photo: Dickson Lee

Michael Tien Puk-sun attends the meeting of LegCo Panel on Housing Affairs in Tamar. 05DEC16 SCMP/ David Wong

Opinion

Our legislators must vote against more funding for the theme park until we can get a deal that is good for us, not a greedy company


My Take

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}My Take | Time to stop the great Disneyland rip-off

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Our legislators must vote against more funding for the theme park until we can get a deal that is good for us, not a greedy company

My Take | Time to stop the great Disneyland rip-off

Our legislators must vote against more funding for the theme park until we can get a deal that is good for us, not a greedy company