Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of: <a href="http://www.LaughingPlace.com/News-ID512660.asp" target="_blank"><b>LP Column: 3/17/09 Kenversations; Is That a Hidden Mickey on Shamu?</b></a> Ken looks at the possible buyers - including Disney - of the Anheuser-Busch theme parks including Busch Gardens and Sea World.
Originally Posted By SFH Since I wrote this, news has come out that makes is less likely that Six Flags will be doing any major purchases soon. -Ken
Originally Posted By thoughtbeast Ever since the sale of Anheuser-Busch to InBev was first announced, I knew that Busch parks would be sold off. Personally, I would not want Cedar Fair to buy any of the parks. They recently bought Carowinds, which is outside of Charlotte, from Paramount and have really messed things up. InBev should really keep Busch Gardens since the monorail to the beer plant is not only an icon, but one of the most popular attractions of that park. If I were to guess, Disney may be interested in Sea World Orlando, but they probably really aren't looking for any acquisitions at this time.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 I see this going one of two ways ... Blackstone buys ALL of the parks and winds up a true rival to Disney in FLA in terms of size, scope and reach ... or InBev winds up holding on to them for a while so they actually sell for close to their value. ~Got Whales?~
Originally Posted By dlport I think it is doubtful that Disney makes a play, the Seaworld parks are wonderful, but not Disney themed (in terms of quality and consistency), so on top of the purchase price, you would have to spend a lot of money on improvements. I recently took my family to Seaworld San Antonio, which is a gorgeous park in terms of setting (Texas "hill country", with oak trees everywhere), and has a ton of open surrounding property for development (think...hotels by Disney.) But even assuming Disney would like a foothold in Texas, it would take huge amounts of money to theme the place, not to mention that the park is light on rides, and heavy on animals. Just not a great fit in my opinion.
Originally Posted By SFH dlport, thanks for your insight. I do agree that if Disney would want to bring the Sea World parks to a point where they were like Disney-built parks, it would take a lot of work. There are advantages for Disney, though (aside from preventing another company from rivaling them in Orlando). The parks are already established and drawing an audience. The infrastructure is already in place. Disney wouldn't have to overhaul the parks entirely all at once. They could "Disneyfy" them slowly, project by project. If I had to wager money, I wouldn't bet on Disney buying them. But as I wrote, I'd love to see what the Imagineers could do with the places. Ken "SFH" Pellman
Originally Posted By tokyodisneydad I will cross off OLC for you. Yes there are details in the contracts that disallow OLC from getting involved with American parks, but more than that TDR is currently in a large expansion process at both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySEA. OLC is not going to take the time to even consider involvement outside Japan. In addition about your comment involving DisneySEA coming to America.....A Sea World is nowhere near being close to being anything like DisneySEA. In fact except for the letters SEA the two parks have very little in common. Ok I will give you the fact that TDS is water themed, but it would not be the best park in the world (IMO) if Shamu was jumping in the middle. TDS is more about Exploration and Adventure than sea......Disney Society of Explorers and Adventurers. I personally hope thst Disney will stay away from Sea world.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss If Disney took over Sea World, I see them turning it into an extension of DAK.
Originally Posted By brotherdave Nice article, Ken. Very thought provoking, to be sure. As you have already written, scratch Six Flags as a potential buyer. They're near bankruptcy as it is and are in no position to buy the parks. After what they did the Sea World in Ohio, I'm glad. They merged it with neighboring Geauga Lake and formed Six Flags World's of Adventure, which lasted only three seasons. Both parks are closed now after selling to Cedar Fair. All that's left is a small waterpark on the site of the former Sea World. Six Flags ran the former Sea World side very poorly. It's quality diminished almost immediately as it became dirty and ragged looking almost overnight. Very sad what happened there. Which brings me to Cedar Fair. After buying Six Flags Worlds of Adventure (the merged Geauga Lake & Sea World in Ohio), they immediately closed the Sea World side down. Six Flags moved or sold the animals to other parks and zoos because Cedar Fair wasn't interested in them. Cedar Fair demolished most of the Sea World side of the park and turned it into a water park. In 2007, they decided to close the historic 119 year old (and once very successful) Geauga Lake amusement park. They moved what rides they wanted to other CF parks, auctioned or sold other rides, and demolished the rest. The park's historic Big Dipper coaster is pretty much all that remains and it's future is uncertain at best. After purchasing the property from Six Flags, CF's CEO, Dick Kinzel, said that they were not interested in animal parks. Also, Cedar Fair is in financial turmoil themselves, though definitely not as serious as Six Flags. The aquisition of the Paramount Parks really added a tremendous debt load on the company. Just last week, Cedar Fair announced that they were looking to sell three of their parks, Valleyfair in Minnesota, World's of Fun in Kansas City, and California's Great America in Santa Clara. The latter is being sought by the SF 49ers for a possible location for a new stadium. Lastly, Mr. Kinzel has already stated that Cedar Fair was not interested in the Busch parks. Given their current status, I can see why. So scratch Cedar Fair from a list of possible buyers. My guess as to the main interested parties involved are: Blackstone/Merlin Entertainment - They seem to be the most logical choice. Parques Reunidos - After buying the succesful Kennywood Entertainment family of parks, I'm sure that they're looking to expand acquisitions in the U.S. However, my guess is that they might be more interested in Valleyfair and Worlds of Fun right now. Still, they have the ability to buy all of them with Candover behind them. They also own marine life parks in various other countries around the world. I'd still consider them a top interested buyer. Disney - I'm still skeptical that Disney would buy the parks simply because that they've never bought existing parks before. However, the fit with Sea World seems a natural for them. And for reasons that Ken mentioned, it seems that they should be a leading contender. Besides, I'm sure that they might like the opportunity to buy out their competition (and do so before others can). The quality of the Busch parks is high enough that Disney would not have to do too much 're-imagineering' them right away. They could do it gradually as Ken stated. Besides, they would gain presence in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas to sell the Disney name. They might even acquire the right to use Sesame Street characters as part of the deal, which is something Michael Eisner tried to accomplish when he tried to buy Jim Henson Productions back in 1989, but Jim wouldn't include. They still wouldn't own them outright, but at least they might have the American theme park rights to them. Busch Family - I believe that the Busch family would love to retain control of the parks from a previous article that I've read. If they can't buy them outright, perhaps they can possibly work a deal with whomever does to still have a majority share and continue operating them as they always have. To me, this would be the best case scenario for the parks. Competition is always good. I'd hate to see the parks merged with some other pre-existing company. Overall, I don't think we'll see an immediate sale of the parks due to the economy. InBev would almost certainly want to get top dollar for them. Also, if they keep them long enough, it's possible, just like GE with Universal, that they may realize how profitable they really are to keep. Unlikely, but still a possibility.
Originally Posted By SFH Unfortunately, I have never been to DisneySea. Yes, I know it is very different from Sea World. What I meant was that it would be possible for Disney to make DisneySea-style additions to Sea World. Or, Disney could build a new new DisneySea park. Here's the thing. Sea World was very helpful in writing "marine life protection" legislation. Not only does it protect marine life, but it makes it very hard for any American competition to Sea World in terms of featuring as much performing marine animals as they do. Sea World is kind of grandfathered in, and they have a stock of marine animals they can breed. Disney would be able to use that population to creat a park that would feature both DisneySea-style attractions AND Sea World-type shows. SFH
Originally Posted By sharpc I'm not going to give a really long post here, as most people have already provided prevalent points of view. I think Disney wouldn't be put under considerable pressure to buy the parks, as it would require massive changing in theme/scope/etc in order to match it up to the DISNEY name. I do see the possibility of Disney buying the parks and putting it under a different label, as to appeal to a different audience. I think Disney has realized that its name requires characters (EPCOT, DCA) in order for people to want to see it a lot. Acquiring these would allow the company to go off in a new direction that could become a sort of testing grounds for the company.
Originally Posted By SFH So, now Cedar Fair is looking to sell some parks, and NBC-Universal actually might be interested in Sea World? Maybe InBev should buy the Cedar Fair parks and make theme parks a bigger part of its business?
