I've said it once and I'll say it again: Funimation in general seems to be very open and honest when they are asked about series they don't plan to continue. Big Windup, Case Closed, Kodacha, etc. When people ask about those series, they don't say "we can't say anything right now", they say "the sales weren't good enough to continue".
If One Piece was really being discontinued, Funimation would have probably treated it like the other properties they aren't buying more of. "Sorry guys, you weren't buying it so we can't afford to continue it".
Although I don't LIKE that we haven't heard anything yet, there's a couple of things that occur to me:
1. Based on what I've seen with the above stated examples, I'm of the opinion the clamming up is good news. It could mean that we might be getting movies included with the next batch of licensing, or the TV specials or something. They haven't come out and said they aren't continuing it yet like they have with other shows.
2. The whole Sgt. Frog thing was a disappointment for One Piece fans yesterday (although what I've seen of Sgt. Frog I liked) made me remember that One Piece isn't the only property Funimation has. If they announce everything for everything ever they won't have anything for any of the coming conventions.
Personally, I LOVE sitting in the audience at a Funimation panel to hear the new announcements. I haven't been lucky enough to be there for something I've REALLY wanted just yet (although I was there for the Summer Wars announcement and, um, that movie is freaking AMAZING, I just didn't know that at the time) but it's the whole reason people GO to industry panels - they want to hear cast announcements and new title acquisitions. Oh I'm sure some people might be interested in Funimation's social networking website or their quarterly sales figure but let's be frank: Funimations knows why people go, the fans know why people go, and there's an unspoken agreement that we sit through twenty minutes to a half hour of sales figures and trailers wait for the Q&A and the new information.
Let's say - theoretically - that Funimation has grabbed up the next season or two of One Piece, the Sgt Frog movies, Higurahi Kai, Sailor Moon, Fairy Tale, the third Evangelion movie, Strong World, and a handful of whatever's left of the Geneon catalog that they haven't gotten yet - I dunno, Fushigi Yuugi and Paranoia Agent.
Unless it's Anime Expo, that's a lot for one industry panel. Granted the people in the audience for that Industry Panel would probably see SOMETHING they like, but they what's Funimation going to announce at their next panel?
Funimatiom may be sitting on the license but for whatever reason are choosing to announce they have it at a later convention. Maybe they figured with Sgt. Frog that since it's been so long since the Sgt. Frog fans have gotten anything new they were due to get a license, whereas One Piece, while still a big show, still have one more DVD set waiting to be released that we already know about. I'm still wondering if we're going to see Season 4 premiere on the Funimation Channel (which is only available in HD and, coincidentally, One Piece Season 4 is where HD broadcast began).
It strikes me that until we hear Funimation say something about poor One Piece sales (which they haven't - if anything we keep seeing new merchandise for it INCLUDING STUFF WITH WATER 7 CHARACTERS ON IT which is PROBABLY a good indicator that the series is doing well) and a decision to not continue the series we should try not to panic.