I’m just stating my feeling that a company pushing forward to do something just because another one is doing something is bad reasoning. Like you said it’s about making a profit. If a company feels that what it would take to do so could expose them to lawsuits or the like, then it might be smarter to wait.
COVID-19 & Coasters: Coronavirus Impacts on the Amusement Industry
- Thread starter GrandpaD
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I’m just stating my feeling that a company pushing forward to do something just because another one is doing something is bad reasoning. Like you said it’s about making a profit. If a company feels that what it would take to do so could expose them to lawsuits or the like, then it might be smarter to wait.
Also, reopening dates have A TON to do with where said park is located. I am CONFIDENT there will be many states that are not going to allow SF parks to hit their desired mid-May reopening schedule.
Arguing about whether parks should reopen is pointless when many of the parks being discussed can't reopen right now.
Arguing about whether parks should reopen is pointless when many of the parks being discussed can't reopen right now.
Amen. Looking at some early stats of states that have loosened different regulations doesn’t look great, but it is too early to tell.
I'm happy to hear that Six Flags has released a preliminary strategy to reopen amid the pandemic during their first quarter earnings report. I'm hoping that Cedar Fair and Seaworld follow suit during their reports on Wednesday, May 6th and Friday, May 8th, respectively.
I'm also surprised that Cedar Fair says it takes six weeks to reopen and Six Flags only takes two to three weeks to do the same.
Let's hope things get back to a "new normal" soon. I'm beginning to feel a bit more optimistic that we'll see our VA parks open in late May or early June. I'd love to see the parks open for Memorial Day weekend!
I'm also surprised that Cedar Fair says it takes six weeks to reopen and Six Flags only takes two to three weeks to do the same.
Let's hope things get back to a "new normal" soon. I'm beginning to feel a bit more optimistic that we'll see our VA parks open in late May or early June. I'd love to see the parks open for Memorial Day weekend!
I’m curious how much has to do with parks that were planned to open and has done that prep work vs parks that haven’t done that work.
Keep in mind, there is an executive order to ‘stay at home’ in Va until June 10th. No parks will be opening before then, no matter what.
I think parks need to take into account the long-term risk of opening too early. Yes, they might see revenues sooner, but they might be forced to shut back down again. If what we saw on the Orange County beaches is any indicator, people are not going to be as responsible as necessary.
If that leads to another COVID outbreak and the park has to shut back down, what are the financial and publicity implications? I imagine the cost of having to sanitize and re-open the park a second time might be a concern. Additionally, would such an incident create negative publicity that would discourage people from visiting the park, especially before there is some vaccine or treatment available?
I think every park will need to determine if they think they can afford to open, as well as if they have to reopen. It is not a simple equation, because the reason they are closed is a pandemic that is still very active, and which may become worse again, before we find a vaccine or cure.
If that leads to another COVID outbreak and the park has to shut back down, what are the financial and publicity implications? I imagine the cost of having to sanitize and re-open the park a second time might be a concern. Additionally, would such an incident create negative publicity that would discourage people from visiting the park, especially before there is some vaccine or treatment available?
I think every park will need to determine if they think they can afford to open, as well as if they have to reopen. It is not a simple equation, because the reason they are closed is a pandemic that is still very active, and which may become worse again, before we find a vaccine or cure.
As Nicole mentioned, opening too early could be detrimental in the short & long run. As testing technics improve, contact tracing will be utilized more and more. Should the tracing lead back to a park they'll become a "covid park" in the minds of consumers and drive them away. Look know long it took Chipotle to recover (or Chi Chi's never recover). It's the perception that'll be stronger than the reality.
This is true, but Governor Northam has said that he would like to rescind the order before that if possible. Here are a few things that I believe show that he might end the order early.
1) Today marks the first day hospitals, dentists, and veterinarians can resume elective procedures or appointments.
2) The executive order that called for non-essential businesses to stay closed expires next Friday, May 8th unless he decides to extend it again. If non-essential businesses are opening back up, that means that the stay-at-home order will definitely be broken, so I definitely feel like it'll be rescinded before June 10th.
3) He has also said that testing capabilities are ramping up very quickly in the state, which is one of the main issues that needed to be addressed before we begin Phase 1 of reopening.
The governor will be giving an update at 2pm today, so I'm curious to see if anything will be announced. He said on Wednesday that we would be getting an update on testing in particular during today's briefing. With that being said, I expect Northam to have entertainment venues pretty low on his priority list, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens!
***One other thing to note: As I was finishing up this post, I saw on CNN that Ohio has extended their stay-at-home order to May 28th, which doesn't bode well for our friends at Kings Island or Cedar Point that need about six weeks notice before reopening.
I don't think this means CP would not open until 6 weeks after 28 May though. As soon as they have confidence that 28 May will be the date, they'll start the rehires and it'll be 6 weeks from then. So if they started today, then a week into June they could be open.
I won’t speculate on what ‘he’ the governor, or anyone else has said may happen. I only know what orders are currently in place that will prevent any park from opening. I don’t pay much attention to the chit chat mumbo jumbo. Just official orders and CDC recommendations. But I also think that the mumbo jumbo makes for some good reading material on this forum! So carry on! I’m reading.....
The problem is, there are two orders in place. One for non-essential businesses to close; another for gatherings greater than 10.
So next week the non-essential business order expires. If BGW could demonstrate plans for adequate social distancing, they could legally open up after next Friday.
I feel like this is a very legal gray area and not black and white "they could open after next Friday". Is all of BGW/KD considered one gathering? Is each individual building within BGW/KD its own gathering? What about rides? It's a very gray legal area that I feel unless you have lawyers really studying the order we can't tell. I would guess we could consider BGW/KD to be like an outdoor mall, but outdoor malls aren't technically one business.
You could use the example of county parks. Most of those are still open, and you can have more than 10 in them, but they've shut down a lot of the playground equipment.
It could be somilar and a little bit different for a theme park, where parks had to shut down playground equipment, they also don't have staff monitoring/cleaning them.
I don't think you can. One (BGW/KD) is a place of business, the other (county parks) is public property.
I highly doubt any park will close down again once they re-open, at least not willingly. The shutdown has devastated their businesses and the parks will adjust operations and protocols before going along with another indefinite shutdown. I think the parks were more amenable to the initial shutdown due to lack of information about COVID-19 and for many the shutdown was during the slow season.
Chipotle hardly skipped a beat from their outbreak - just look at their financials and growth. They never went down during that incident. Yes, they had to adjust operations, but they handled it correctly and their brand remained strong.
Chi Chi's had already been through a bankruptcy before their incident and was already on the way down in general. That outbreak was just the final straw for them.
I'd imagine BGW and KD have contacts in the governors office they discuss this with to work out re-opening. If the parties were far off base from one another, you'd imagine they'd be posturing legally which hasn't happened yet. Most the lawsuits in various states have involved smaller businesses that don't have as many relationships or sway with their state's executive office.
Yes, keep in mind that a KD staff member is on the Governor's Task Force that is discussing what reopening VA will look like. I'm hoping that issues like these are being discussed.
As @mtorange said, I hope they are talking about it. But as it stands right now it seems to be a very gray area that majority of people don't have the answer to. I know with my company, we have our call on Monday to learn more about what we are legally allowed to do.
I do as well. I'm curious if there's ever going to be more detail to some of this coming soon or not. We're 1 week away from certain things opening up. If he does extend this he can't wait too long because some businesses have to start thinking about what they need to do and prepping to open.