And to keep the trees.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg Project 2025 (?): Festhaus Park Hyper Coaster?
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
I understand your thought process here. But your culprit isn’t the new rides, it’s Scott Ross and SeaWorld pursuing shareholder buybacks via massive budget cuts. The investors LOVE the budget cuts. Capital investment versus budget allocations on things like food cost, staffing, landscaping, etc. are different decision making processes. The scope of investment of a capex expansion is significantly different. Honestly they could increase the budget for the 4- 5 items I mentioned before by 10% and everything for guest experience would improve significantly at largely immaterial cost to the park and SeaWorld……but the shareholders would sh*t a chicken about margins being down. If you stop building new rides the attendance bumps don’t happen reducing in park spending and the investors also sh*t a chicken especially if you increased the budget on those items mentioned before. Honestly they should just figure out which micro budget line items correlate with guest satisfaction the most and never cut those lines ever. New attractions is a logical approach to operating a theme park.
Absolutely wrecking the budget for the purpose of big returns for shareholders at the cost of guest satisfaction is not a logical approach and people eventually catch on when a quality experience is going downhill over time. I think we’re all pretty sick of shareholders slowly figuring out ways to make our experience with pretty much anything worse for their gain exclusively this is another classic example of that. Increase your budget for this stuff SeaWorld it’s not hard, the investors will be fine there’s gotta be a threshold for the park experience.
Actually now I’m curious if SEAS does budget to actual in their 10- Ks might have to get my comparisons on.
Also to note, my emphasis of enjoying their investment of new roller coasters is honestly, my way of focusing on the positive of the scenario. There’s a lot of crap and negativity in life, the world, etc. New roller coasters and major theme park attractions usually are always something that makes me smile unless I just don’t like the attraction but I’m still happy for other guests in the grand scheme of things. Pantheon is unthemed, the budget cuts are abysmal, lines long, restraint sensors inconsistent, the ride however is one of my favorite roller coasters ever so there’s that I guess. I also really like roller coasters.
I certainly understand the frustration with the impact of the budget cuts on guest experience. Things like a major food venue being closed for months at a time are giant fat “WHAT THE F*CK?” Decision. It seems like staff are largely frustrated with the tone at the top in my experience from the tidbits I’ve gotten out of workers and communication is a sh*t show. Again I think all of this goes back to how SeaWorld runs the entire company because if a company has a poor tone at the top or a toxic one it’s going to flow through the rest of the company.
Regardless new roller coasters are one of the few positives of all this debacle and I really like them and they should be there long term. Perhaps in a few years we will see a much better Busch Gardens and it will only make us appreciate the attractions even more then. Perhaps not, one can only hope. For now I can’t wait to ride Pantheon again and check out DarKoaster, I’m also certainly encouraged by the recent comments I’m seeing about employees attitudes and efforts to make the experience better, I hope the presidents letter to members is sincere and I’m encouraged by recent trends but they have a long way to go as of now.
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I don't think the issue is as black-and-white as you're making it out to be.
First, a marketable new cap ex product with high short-term returns doesn't have to just be a bare-bones coaster, which I was addressing in my original post when I called for more theming. Cap ex additions like CF's Jungle X-pedition and Aeronautica Landing are great examples of marketable additions that lead to immediate bumps in attendance. As I was alluding in my original post, I would much rather see a small Tumbili-style coaster or a few flats accompanied by robust enhancements to the surrounding area of the park, rather than all of the cap ex budget going to another record-breaking coaster plopped into a field.
Second, I don't think Wall Street is as anti-long term investment as you seem to be implying. Investors need to worry about the long-term legitimacy of a brand. Customers historically have visited -- and paid a premium for -- SEAS parks because the brand is known for a high-quality, immersive experience. To keep investors happy in the long term, SEAS needs to make the proper investments to maintain its brand.
Furthermore, the argument of prioritizing immediate returns on investment isn't logical even within the context of publicly traded corporations. If Apple stopped investing in R&D, they'd save tens of billions of dollars a year. In the very short term, their profits would skyrocket; for a little while, they'd earn the same revenue but incur some $26 billion fewer dollars in expenses. A short term investor's dream! But eventually they'd fall in the way of Polaroid and countless other companies who died by failing to invest in future development of their product.
If you're an Apple investor who's anything but a day trader, you don't want Apple to sacrifice its long-term investments for short-term profits. So, I believe it's overly simplistic to blame the investors for SEAS' current path. Their investors ought to care about long-term growth too.
Sounds like we both have very thought out viewpoints about how SeaWorld should run the park. The situation is what it is today.
EDIT: I should state I don’t agree with how SEAS is running the park by any means.
EDIT: I should state I don’t agree with how SEAS is running the park by any means.
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Wall Street is absolutely about short term gains over the long term health of any company. It's Wall Street behind the exporting of jobs to China and elsewhere to save a few cents in overhead costs. It's also Wall Street that champions layoffs and cost cutting measures for short term gains. The worst behavior is the current trend in stock buybacks that only benefit investors and is one of the worst uses of capital (this practice used to be illegal for good reason). Analysts on Wall Street award these examples of bad behavior by giving these companies positive reviews that usually result in stock price increases.
One of my favorite examples is Sears spending 10 billion on stock buybacks and then shortly going out of business. Instead of using that money to create an online presence they squandered it on stock buybacks to boost the stock price so the CEO and other management could cash out their stock options.
Another great example is GM using billions of dollars in stock buybacks just after the company was bailed out by the government.
Column: The biggest scam bankrupting business and the middle class
Corporate profits, as a percent of GDP, have doubled in the past 40 years. But where's that money going? Not to hiring, paying higher wages or investing in equipment. Corporations are instead using their profits to further reward shareholders. And that strategy, argues billionaire investor Nick...
www.pbs.org
As far as Apple, what passes for innovation nowadays is removing the headphone jack on their phones (I mostly buy Apple products and they just seem to be coasting along).
And think about all the companies that would have done better during the Pandemic if they hadn't outsourced to China (I guess it's okay because the government bailed them out and their employees).
Throwing out here again it’s the stuff that brings single day tickets in that is the common thread in everything SEAS is doing decision wise.
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That actually makes sense. It looks like general parking is now $35? I feel like it was $30 a few months ago. $25 a year ago.
Tech Layoffs and Stock Prices: A Mixed Picture
Stocks typically get a boost in the trading session immediately after layoff announcements but cuts don't guarantee lasting gains.
I think the overall capacity is generally estimated by parking spaces multiplied by four or something like that, but the specific number is not publicly stated. The individual building capacities are, however, usually visible somewhere near the entrances.
It's hard to say about crowd flow given the changes since DF operated - different attractions in Oktoberfest and even more around the whole park, potentially a smooth people-pleaser vs a head-banger, etc.
Generally though, any new attractions added to a park increases overall rider throughput/ride capacity, which in itself can be considered crowd control - if everyone's in a queue, then nobody's on a pathway. If there's a high ride capacity ratio to guests in the park, then you also end up with a pretty good day at the park.
It's hard to say about crowd flow given the changes since DF operated - different attractions in Oktoberfest and even more around the whole park, potentially a smooth people-pleaser vs a head-banger, etc.
Generally though, any new attractions added to a park increases overall rider throughput/ride capacity, which in itself can be considered crowd control - if everyone's in a queue, then nobody's on a pathway. If there's a high ride capacity ratio to guests in the park, then you also end up with a pretty good day at the park.
So those two links don’t appear to support your claims. Seems like layoffs are not championed, based on those links.
Tech Layoffs and Stock Prices: A Mixed Picture
Stocks typically get a boost in the trading session immediately after layoff announcements but cuts don't guarantee lasting gains.www.barrons.com
Layoffs are tricky. They usually result in a stock hit on announcement, but over time their long term impact on financials works in the company's favor. I believe that is why most companies overstate their layoffs at announce, to both make sure they don't have to announce more in the future and take another stock hit as well as say "look if we are doing this we are REALLY doing this, slashing costs" to get as much optimism from future-minded investors as they possibly can. One of those things where it's if you're going to cross that line, you may as well go all the way to the extreme.
People like to just group investors as one group, but every investor is a different person with different preferences. Sure there are general things everyone will say away from, but there is a substantial amount of long term gain minded investment groups that will see a stock down turn at layoff announcement and jump into the game at a discount if they feel the layoff will ultimately result in higher long term value.
People like to just group investors as one group, but every investor is a different person with different preferences. Sure there are general things everyone will say away from, but there is a substantial amount of long term gain minded investment groups that will see a stock down turn at layoff announcement and jump into the game at a discount if they feel the layoff will ultimately result in higher long term value.
So, uh, do we wanna get back to talking about a possible hyper coaster here?
Is the general consensus that this still will be an RMC?
I had another dream that BGW selected "Iron Drachen" as the name, which I mentioned long ago could work well!
But then I woke up and remembered reality and that the ride will likely be called "DrachN: Too Hot to HandL" and was immediately sobered."
I had another dream that BGW selected "Iron Drachen" as the name, which I mentioned long ago could work well!
But then I woke up and remembered reality and that the ride will likely be called "DrachN: Too Hot to HandL" and was immediately sobered."
I believe this is the hope. I do not think anyone has offered any evidence publicly on this site to suggest whether or not it will be RMC. If there is evidence, I would guess that it would be too risky to share at this point.
Also I’d feel that this would be a 2025 project at this rate? There hasn’t been any lane clearing for it to be a 2024 attraction imo