COVID-19 & Coasters: Coronavirus Impacts on the Amusement Industry

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Jonesta6 said:
So I'm more thinking parks are going to continue with anything already (mostly) paid for and/or constructed (Pantheon, Drachen Spire, the KD 4D FreeSpin) but are going to lay low for awhile on any more major purchases.

Their bottom lines are hurting compared to normal years, and my assumption based on the anecdotal evidence presented around this forum is that there's pent up demand tempered with caution meaning many parks may be better off penny pinching until the pandemic is over and large-scale consumer confidence and spending go back up.
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Like @rwashdc said I would expect parks to look at ways to draw people to come visit. I expect SEAS at least to continue on their path of capital investment and bring new rides and attractions to their parks in the coming years. That strategy did appear to be working before the pandemic. I think money will be tight at theme parks but that these places know that headlining attractions attract people and will be looking to do that.

As far as whether that means we see more clones that's an interesting question. I think it will depend on the chain. Places like Six Flags don't have as much of an issue with clones as other chains. I do think that you will see manufacturers pushing custom coasters more than clones because they make more money from them. I do think it's likely that you see companies be even more willing to push the envelope because that's what parks will be interested in. Could lead to an interesting few years.

Of course all this is prefaced by the fact that this is all unprecedented and we have no idea what it will be like post-Covid. I wouldn't expect it to be like a normal recession where it takes years to recover. I expect we will see a recovery happen pretty quick. And there will be a lot of people who just can't wait to go back to theme parks and similar activities.
 
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With SEAS going all in on a certain Premier Rides clone everywhere, it's not so hard to think there's going to be more since the costly engineering is more or less already taken care of.
 
Jonesta6 said:
With SEAS going all in on a certain Premier Rides clone everywhere, it's not so hard to think there's going to be more since the costly engineering is more or less already taken care of.
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You mean because they built three of them with no evidence that they had planned to build more? Not to mention that was a contract that was signed about 5 years ago now. I definitely wouldn't point to them as a sign that they would build more of them. I especially don't see them coming for a few years. They have already been making payments on rides for 2021 at a number of their parks. It isn't likely that they will decide that with those sunk costs that it's cheaper to do something else. The rest would then depend on what the economy looks like post-pandemic and anyone telling you they know what it will be like is lying to you because no one really knows. There are a lot of smart people with guesses but there isn't really a reference point for anything like this.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect SEAS to build any more coaster clones. What I would expect them to purchase is more rides like Finnegan's if the evening doesn't recover quickly post-pandemic. Of course that will be after Pantheon and the spire open which means we are looking at 2023.
 
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BGWnut said:
You mean because they built three of them with no evidence that they had planned to build more? Not to mention that was a contract that was signed about 5 years ago now. I definitely wouldn't point to them as a sign that they would build more of them. I especially don't see them coming for a few years. They have already been making payments on rides for 2021 at a number of their parks. It isn't likely that they will decide that with those sunk costs that it's cheaper to do something else. The rest would then depend on what the economy looks like post-pandemic and anyone telling you they know what it will be like is lying to you because no one really knows. There are a lot of smart people with guesses but there isn't really a reference point for anything like this.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect SEAS to build any more coaster clones. What I would expect them to purchase is more rides like Finnegan's if the evening doesn't recover quickly post-pandemic. Of course that will be after Pantheon and the spire open which means we are looking at 2023.
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Apologize, I was being a little sarcastic there but apparently that didn't come across right - yeah, who knows. I do see the argument for clones though if they're unique to a region since they can still be exciting.
 
So I listened in to the Six Flags Q2 Earnings Call and here are the things I thought were most important. I’ll especially emphasize on the diversity and Halloween/Christmas portions of the call.

Various Stuff
  • Virtual Queuing will be tested at certain Six Flags (SF) parks and will likely be implemented sooner rather than later. I'm surprised that this isn't already a thing.
  • SF is only expecting attendance to hit around 25 to 30 percent for the foreseeable future during the pandemic. It was unclear if this was due to capacity or because of the lower-than-expected park attendance we've been seeing industry-wide. My guess is the latter.
  • Revenue for Q2 2020 was down by 96 percent, which was expected thanks to parks being closed for most of this time period (April 2020 to June 2020).
  • It is currently unclear if any of the currently closed parks will reopen in 2020. They did not want to speculate on this because it is a fluid situation.
  • At the moment, they are exploring modified versions of their Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park events. More on this in a later section.
  • SF expects $80-90 million to be spent on capital investments in 2020, about $10 million less than originally projected.
Five-Point Diversity Plan (not COVID-related, but I thought this was important to include)
  1. They are creating a Diversity and Inclusion Council to discuss any concerns and how they can improve this in their parks.
  2. They will host trainings on diversity and inclusion for all team members.
  3. They will address unconscious biases in their parks: They have updated grooming guidelines, social media guidelines, and hiring policies. They will also be correcting all names of park rides and park infrastructure that may be offensive to guests or team members, so expect some name changes in the future.
  4. They are working to hire a more diverse team that is representative of the general population and to hire more workers that have been underrepresented in the parks.
  5. They are actively working with minority suppliers to develop long-term alliances.
Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park
  • As stated above, the current plan is to host modified versions of both Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park.
  • The three main points influencing decision-making include the safety of guests and team members, whether parks are operating "cash flow positive," and brand reputation (specifically Fright Fest).
  • Six Flags will be making decisions in the next few weeks. They are "planning to have something out there" that encourages guests to come to the parks during these time periods.
  • When asked about the cancellation of Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween at Walt Disney World and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando, Six Flags stated that they have an advantage over these events because they do not rely as much on hotels and airfare since they are regional parks. They said that they believe that there is a pent-up demand for Fright Fest especially and that the parks are spread out and regionally diverse. As long as the parks keep operating "cash flow positive", these events will still go on and decisions on these events will be made on a local basis.
The status of Halloween events at theme parks has certainly been a roller coaster, as one day it feels that Halloween is doomed and the next day it feels like maybe the smaller parks can do these events after all. I hope for clarity soon, and I'm now even more interested in seeing Cedar Fair's and Seaworld's thought processes regarding Halloween Haunt and Howl-O-Scream, both of which have Q2 calls on August 5th and 10th, respectively.
 
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SF note about the parks being cash flow positive is a good thing to hear and keeping the majority of capital investments is smart in this environment.

I'd be curious how their lower park attendance compares to normal attendance and what their profitability looks like even with that lower attendance. This will probably require waiting until next quarters earnings to get a better idea how performance will look for the medium term.
 
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mtorange said:
Revenue for Q2 2020 was down by 96 percent, which was expected thanks to parks being closed for most of this time period (April 2020 to June 2020).
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I know this number isn’t unexpected at all, but holy shit. “Revenue down by 96 percent” is just so shocking to read. Imagine being told last year that Six Flags’ revenue would drop by 96 percent. You wouldn’t believe it.
 
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Joe said:
I know this number isn’t unexpected at all, but holy shit. “Revenue down by 96 percent” is just so shocking to read. Imagine being told last year that Six Flags’ revenue would drop by 96 percent. You wouldn’t believe it.
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The flip side of this is expenses are way down as well. There's a lot of industries where this isn't the case and the pandemic is just a killer on them.
 
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So I was thinking about reports from all over that things are far worse on the weekends than during the weekdays. And I'm trying to keep this as non-political as possible, but the lax rules and issues seem to line up with the weekends. And it seems just in general weekends are where there's just issues with mask wearing and outbursts about it, along with stores being less likely to do something about it. I can't think of any direct link here, but it seems to me after working all week, being forced to wear a mask all week, they feel like they can go without wearing one elsewhere.

Because it's interesting to me that it's mostly happening when people are customers at a store. You don't hear of this happening with the employees where they are yelling about rights and causing fights. So it's just rather something striking me as interesting and to think about.
 
I genuinely wonder if SEAS going to come out ahead of this attendance wise, compared to other parks. Whereas Disney and Universal cancelled halloween events out the gate, SEAS is still pushing through hell and high water to host special events as frequently as possible. Other chains are choosing to stay closed, they're getting inventive as seen in Williamsburg and finding new ways to maximize profits. It seems like the parks they own are moving in full force to be as open as possible and have as many new ways for guests to spend their time or money in the parks. It makes sense as they just dropped a boatload of money on 2020 additions and as we know, there's quite a few attractions that we're planned for 2021 that are delayed to 2022.

They are treading these challenging waters to separate themselves from the 2014 days of Blackfish where the parks were under constant scrutiny and struggling in the stock market to stay afloat. It seems like they are trying to get as far aways as possible from these financial burdens during these strange times and come out in a position of success. Then again, we don't really know anything until the TEA numbers come out and this is all just rambling from a fan. Maybe SEAS isn't viewed as noteworthy of a chain at this point? Didn't fit the narrative of the story? Who knows, either way very interested to see how this 2020 season shapes up and really hopes that next year will be a much better year for all parks.
 
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I’m honestly quite conflicted on this.

SWO/BGT seem to be doing basically the minimum DeSantis is requiring to be open. By doing so they are able to get a good number of people in, and can do Halloween events. Because it’s known DeSantis is altering reporting numbers it also can hide the impact an event like that would have. So in a way the Florida governor is making it easy for a park to have that jump if they want to.

But I’m conflicted because, you can still tie a outbreak to those parks. What if a scare actor gets too close. Or someone takes off a mask in an unsupervised part of a haunt. A super spreader event can happen on SEAS property and it could tie back to them.
 
Complex problem at work here - on one hand they're like CF and SF parks where they need to make money as unlike Disney or Universal there aren't other major divisions of the company such as film or tv to keep revenue flowing.
But on the other hand, they need to keep guest safety in the middle of the pandemic at the top of their list, even if that means shutting down parks to stop the chance of virus spread being linked to them.
The added complexity is, unlike other chains, they have a volatile board of directors/rotating CEO problem, and are still trying to get past Blackfish backlash.
 
Is anybody going to buy season passes early and at a discounted rate, or are we all going to wait to see whether or not this shit is finally under control? I'll be waiting it out this time for our SF season passes. At least I don't have to worry about CF. They did us right by extending through 2021. Note that we don't have SF memberships. We have season passes. They have done nothing for us.
 
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