SeaWorld Orlando's Future Plans

[Andysol]

I don't want Universal to be the one bogged down in the animal rights issues.

I love SeaWorld, don't get me wrong. But as a business, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole right now.

Merlin might be interested. I know people were hoping/wondering if Six Flags might be interested.

If someone already in the theme park industry bites, it would probably be a company like them, where they're used to owning coaster-heavy parks. Not one of the big guys like Disney or Universal. They've got too much immersive theming awesomeness on their plates to try and right this ship.

You know, what's funny is- if people truly cared about animal rights and had half a brain- Merlin and in particular, six flags, would be a massive step down in animal care. Merlin owns Sealife Aquariums- and only ~40% are certified through the AZA; whereas all 3 Seaworld parks and BGT are all certified through it. And don't get me started on the atrocities that happened in Ohio or Discovery Kingdom once Bottom feeding Six Flags got involved. I know you're not advocating for either one- but again, from an animal rights standpoint- based on track record and history- it's in no better hands than Seaworld (sans Disney taking over).

As for Seaworld Corp- they are in a huge gamble situation in my eyes. I could see them switching Seaworld to Busch Gardens and it being of benefit. Busch Gardens San Diego, San Antonio and Orlando. The question is- by changing to Busch Gardens, does the elimination of the negative stigma that "Seaworld" posses outweigh the reduction in name recognition and branding that Busch Garden has?
Truthfully, I think they should just switch the Busch Gardens- focus on adding plantings and landscaping- make rides the priority with animal attractions the secondary interest. But I believe this course of action would make things worse before they got better.

Bringing it back to Universal- while the land in Orlando would be attractive- Discovery Point and Aquatica are certainly viable pieces they would have to do little to. However; do the Orcas and other wildlife get moved to San Antonio? Or does SA need to get purchased as a package deal?

Again- let's bring this full circle to animal rights. Do we want a company that is going to come in and remove orcas altogether- thereby shipping them off to China and Russia? F that. In the meantime, we can pretend Sea pens are the best method for them to live out their days- albiet a totally unproven and extremely risky endeavor. Say Uni bought Seaworld and put the orcas in sea pens and they all die. Great marketing. The "I told you it wouldn't work" people would be out faster than you could blink. PETA wouldn't take the hit there- Universal would. Seaworld is a great property to buy if our society was reasonable and thought rationally. Instead they think emotionally and are irrational. Thus, I'm with Alicia- I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole until all the Orcas are dead in 20 years.

I summarize this all with: What a mess.

 

[UNIrd]

You know, what's funny is- if people truly cared about animal rights and had half a brain- Merlin and in particular, six flags, would be a massive step down in animal care. Merlin owns Sealife Aquariums- and only ~40% are certified through the AZA; whereas all 3 Seaworld parks and BGT are all certified through it. And don't get me started on the atrocities that happened in Ohio or Discovery Kingdom once Bottom feeding Six Flags got involved. I know you're not advocating for either one- but again, from an animal rights standpoint- based on track record and history- it's in no better hands than Seaworld (sans Disney taking over).

I agree with this part 100%. We should not want any company nvolved who may look at the animal care, conservation efforts, and rescue program as a budget that can afford to take cuts.

 

[WAJAS]

There is actually a lot of space SeaWorld could use for shows and houses for a Howl O Scream event. Ports of Call, the many pavilions behind bayside, bayside, Wild Arctic queue and exhibit, the Nautilus Theatre, and lots of tent space backstage all could be used. If BGT gets sold to Merlin and SeaWorld keeps the rights to that event (because it does occur in SeaWorld San Antonio park as well), then I could see it being successfully run alongside their daytime kid's current event.

I want an evil Key west scare zone!!

 

[Disneyhead]

Here is my prediction:

-Someone buys the Busch Gardens parks

-Universal buys the Orlando complex. But not the SeaWorld name. The animals go to San Diego.

-San Antonio closes.

-San Diego becomes NGO research facility.

 

[GadgetGuru]

Here is my prediction:

-Someone buys the Busch Gardens parks

-Universal buys the Orlando complex. But not the SeaWorld name. The animals go to San Diego.

-San Antonio closes.

-San Diego becomes NGO research facility.

I agree with everything except the Universal part. Somebody will end up buying the animal-less remains of Orlando. But, Universal has enough on its plate. I don't think it wants to spend all of the time + money on bringing SeaWorld up to its standards. I'm pretty convinced that a very random company is going to buy SeaWorld Orlando as a way to enter the theme park market.

 

[bob albert]

Any one ever think that the announcement of them stopping the Orca shows have led to a drop in attendance? Going silent on defending yourself sure didn't help. Sure the show still goes on at Orlando and San Antonio for the time being but it was covered as they were stopping them and the GP doesn't sweat the details. They just heard "Stopping Killer Whale Shows." Once the Orcas are gone, there's nothing really much to differentiate you from the now hundreds of zoos and aquariums that have really stepped up their game with their immersive habatats on the Animal side.

Anyhoo, I know that they have brought in a firm that specializes in debt restructuring, ipos and going private.

I hope they are working on going private. That stops the gripe fest every three months at the end of quarters and takes a bat away from those that use it to bludgeon you with it for their SJW cause. Look at the attention Peta got with it's stock purchase. Going private with a group that doesn't want to flip you but actually own you would be the best course of action.

Headset VR is 3d TV ten years ago. A tech that isn't going to mainstream. That was money that could have rehabbed J to A. Someone tell me how Sony VRs are doing on their dominate gaming system

VR is not at all like 3d TV was years ago. Maybe it won't be a mainstay on coasters, but it is revolutionaly technology with real world applications.

 

[Andysol]

Here is my prediction:

-Someone buys the Busch Gardens parks

-Universal buys the Orlando complex. But not the SeaWorld name. The animals go to San Diego.

-San Antonio closes.

-San Diego becomes NGO research facility.

I don't see how/why San Antonio would close. It's still extremely profitable to them and is a tourist hub with cheap taxes and no competition on that level.
I could see someone else buying that location before it would just shutter its doors.

 

[UAN17]

Seaworld are far from going bust, having read their latest financial statements, but they simply must make better decisions when they do invest or it will quickly deteriorate for them.

 

[Nick]

While Howl-O-Scream to Sea World sounds great, I think it would fall on it's face in Orlando. The scareactors aren't better there for no reason. I know people who have been doing HOS for 15-20 years (A shocking amount have done it for 10+ years). Many of the people involved all the way up to the managers used to be scareactors themselves. These are the people who make the event tick, not the name brand.

SWO would only get HHN's rejects anyway unless they offer better pay (which I believe they actually do from my experience working both events). HOS also does real auditions. They make you prove yourself as a scareactor before they hire you. HHN just hires people based on what you look like, how tall you are or what your body build is.

 

[Donald Razorduck]

Here is my prediction:

-Someone buys the Busch Gardens parks

-Universal buys the Orlando complex. But not the SeaWorld name. The animals go to San Diego.

-San Antonio closes.

-San Diego becomes NGO research facility.

San Antonio isn't the park that's struggling and Texas is the least pc place they could be in a sizable market. San Antonio needs a sister Busch Gradens park that focuses on South and Central America(for the umpteenth time.) that has the hotels designed into it like Phantasialand. It doesn't have to be heavy on attractions, again, just like Phantasialand.
I could have a hell of a small but excellent animal collection as well. Quality over Quantity.

 

[matt78]

Here is my prediction:

-Someone buys the Busch Gardens parks

-Universal buys the Orlando complex. But not the SeaWorld name. The animals go to San Diego.

-San Antonio closes.

-San Diego becomes NGO research facility.

In this scenario would the San Diego Zoo have any interest in the San Diego Park. I think PETA would have a hard time going against them since the are one of the top zoos in the world. Also wouldn't it make sense to sell the San Antonio park with Busch Gardens and just rebrand it as Busch Gardens San Antonio or Busch Gardens Texas while sending the animals to the San Diego park.

 

[Mr. EPCOT]

San Antonio isn't the park that's struggling and Texas is the least pc place they could be in a sizable market. San Antonio needs a sister Busch Gradens park that focuses on South and Central America(for the umpteenth time.)

There actually used to be a Busch Gardens in Houston, with an Asia theme.

 

[GAcoaster]

If any of the SeaWorld parks closes it will be San Diego. They don't own the land and always have to leap through hurdles for any new construction. California is the place most likely to ban keeping marine mammals completely.

San Antonio has been a growth market for them and the competition from Schlitterbahn and Six Flags has actually seemed to benefit all three parks with people from all over Texas coming to visit all three parks for vacations.

Orlando always comes down to the value of the land. The park is worth nothing to someone like Universal, but the land is worth a fortune. Unlike the land on the Lockheed site that I believe still needs a lot of environmental remediation (contaminated soil) and has people suing to stop Universal from building a park there, the SeaWorld property is already zoned as a theme park and has the utilities and other infrastructure required. I believe the size of the SeaWorld land is also larger than the property on Universal Boulevard. When you look at the maps and satellite images it appears that the land SeaWorld owns is about the size of IoA and USF put together.

I think that if the Busch parks are sold off it will hurt both BGT and SeaWorld Orlando more than anyone realizes with so much cross traffic between local passholders and tourists with multi park tickets. I think if Merlin is really buying the BG parks they should also buy SeaWorld Orlando as well just to keep that synergy. Re-brand the park as SeaLife Theme Park (using the brand of their existing aquariums). Having the combination of SWO/BGT/Orlando Eye/Madame Tussaud's/Sea Life/Legoland here in Central Florida would be a real contender with Universal and Disney offering multi-day vacation experiences.

 

[Mad Dog]

I see that Sea World San Diego received permission to build the Electric Eel coaster next year (similar to the recent BGW coaster in Italy section of the park), and BGW filed for permission for a coaster for 2019, 300 plus feet tall, code named Madrid (maybe a new land also, Spain)

 

[GAcoaster]

BGW filed for permission for a coaster for 2019, 300 plus feet tall.

They filed for an "attraction" 315' tall, not necessarily a coaster.

 

[Mad Dog]

They filed for an "attraction" 315' tall, not necessarily a coaster.

They already have a fairly new drop tower, so a coaster might be a good guess. If it's in that now empty back section, where the wild & crazy coaster used to be (forget it's name), that's a pretty darn big piece of land.

 

[GAcoaster]

There's a better chance it's a swing ride. Building a new "land" with a new connecting bridge across the gorge AND a $30 million coaster is probably more than they can spend right now.

 

[Donald Razorduck]

There's a better chance it's a swing ride. Building a new "land" with a new connecting bridge across the gorge AND a $30 million coaster is probably more than they can spend right now.

Yeah, leaning to a Star Flyer and then a coaster three to four years out. I can see a spinner for a bull fight theme or is that too non pc.

 

[StarTrekGeek]

They already have a fairly new drop tower, so a coaster might be a good guess. If it's in that now empty back section, where the wild & crazy coaster used to be (forget it's name), that's a pretty darn big piece of land.

I believe you're referring to Drachen Fire.

That ride could easily be a star flyer, though I agree that the land rumored for Spain has potential for something big with that land (a giga coaster with that seems like asking for too much considering the state of the company, though it would be awesome). IMO, BGW has been building plenty of coasters recently (Verbolten in 2012, Tempesto in 2015, and Invadr in 2017). I'd rather they give some attention to the Tampa park before adding another coaster in Williamsburg. Sure BGT got Cobra's Curse, but they also have a lot of abandoned areas in the park that should be addressed soon.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

From Andrew Hyde,