According to the article I read, the Orlando facility was to be a Disney-built and Disney-operated facility. It would have been attached to their Wild World of Sports complex and used for parties/entertainment/open bowling most of the time and then would host Nationals once every three years, with Reno also getting it once every three years and a random city getting it the other time.
Disney has been hit just like everyone else in this economy, but I don't think the USBC's issues had much of an effect here.
What Disney cares about is six months of tourists coming to Orlando primarily in the summer, which is the weak time for Disney World due to the heat/humidity in central Florida about that time. If you go on the Disney website, you'll notice that they give deep discounts for their summer guests. It's the spring, fall and Christmas/New Year's Eve that get charged out the wazoo.
I'm sure Disney is thinking they can build the bowling center, then offer up lodging packages to the bowlers. Couple that with Disney's bus and boat shuttle system and it's the perfect place to have a tournament.
Jess