Colorado's governor has by now made it quite clear that he would like to see Disney move from its current home near the beaches of Florida to be near the mountains of his state.
There may be a lot of betting on the NBA Finals, but none of the prizes would be as unique as Disney World. In a tweet on Tuesday, Gov. Polis tagged Florida Gov. DeSantis, who has recently announced his campaign to run for the White House.
The governor wrote in his "friendly wager" to DeSantis, "if the @nuggets win the finals against the @MiamiHEAT, Disney World will move to Colorado, the ACTUAL happiest place on earth [sic] to do business, have fun, and be free! #ColoradoForAll."
While the move could be a pipe dream of sorts for Polis, it did signal growing pressure on Florida's lawmakers to consider how their politics could affect big revenue creators for the tourism-dependent state. Reports have cited how over $1.1 billion in state and local taxes have run through Florida because of Disney's residence there.
DeSantis has been accused of installing key figures in a legal battle against Disney to favor his side as Florida's legislature made major changes to Disney's governing structure.
The changes were said to be a retaliatory measure in response to Disney's public opposition to the so-called "Don't Say Gay" legislation in that state. It's not the first time Polis has made his thoughts on the row between DeSantis and Disney known.
Last year he called DeSantis' legal battle "authoritarian" and "socialist." Polis said it was an attack on the private sector. Polis said the government of Colorado would not "meddle in affairs of companies like Disney or Twitter. Gov. DeSantis had said at the time that he would look for ways that Florida could hold "these Twitter board of directors accountable for breaching their fiduciary duty."
He was responding to the leadership at Twitter last year who were reportedly making moves to affect Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform.
