network to a Disneyland station. All was to be accomplished at government expense (Toy
et. al., 1990).
The choice of the French site was announced in 1985.
After extensive
negotiations, the final contract for the $2 billion park -- whose costs eventually ballooned
4
to $5 billion -- was signed in 1987 by then Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and Disney
CEO Michael Eisner. In anticipation of the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty,
which was to formally change the European Community to the European Union in the
year the park was to open, 1992, the highly visible development was named Euro Disney.
Although the Walt Disney Company was eager to reap the potential profits from
the enterprise, the Suits at headquarters (and Michael Eisner in particular) were no more
enthusiastic than they had ever been about assuming much of the risk. Therefore the
structure for the new park was a complicated one. A finance company was set up as the
owner of the park, in which Disney took a 17% stake.
A separate company, Euro Disney,
was formed to operate the park, of which 49% was owned by the Walt Disney Company.
The parent Disney made arrangements to collect royalties and licensing fees from Euro
Disney on admissions, food, beverages and souvenirs, similar to those of Tokyo
Disneyland. To help raise capital, the rest of the shares of Euro Disney were listed on the
Paris stock exchange and available to the public at an opening share price of $11.50
(quickly rising to its all-time high of $18). Disney had paid about $1.50 for each of its
shares, a fact that, when it became known in the wake of a falling share price in the
1990s, caused considerable public criticism (Solomon, 1994). Foreshadowing the
discussion to follow, Euro Disney shares were selling on the Bourse in the summer of
2003 at about $0.60 a share (and have been around this level for many years).
The business press began to carry stories about possible problems for Euro Disney
as early as 1989 when the launch of Euro Disney shares in Paris was met by a group of
egg-throwing protesters who managed to pelt Michael Eisner in full view of the press.
Potato farmers and local residents in Marie-la-Vallée staged a number of well attended
protests and generated a good deal of public sympathy for what they claimed was a
governmental give-away of their lands and way of life. When Disney began hiring staff
for the park, the press carried stories about the demanding conduct and dress code on
which Disney insisted to the dismay of its employees. The company ran into some highly
publicized disputes with 16 of its French contractors, which threatened to delay the
scheduled opening and were sent to arbitration. Construction costs escalated, largely a
result of Disney’s desire to build an “architectural masterpiece” in Europe with no frills
spared.
The eagerness of the French government to attract Disney was not matched however
by French intellectuals. As cultural historian Richard Pells (1997:311-312) put it:
When the park opened in April 1992, writers competed with
one another to see whose denunciations were the most
hyperbolic. A ‘cultural Chernobyl’ exclaimed the theater
