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BGWnut

Advisory Panel
Sep 24, 2018
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I shouldn’t have said operations, but each one of them were involved in the business management of the park from those positions. John and Donny, for example, weren’t cooking meals and picking ingredients; they were the ones making the dollars-and-cents decisions of their department.

Serious question, though. Does anyone have a rough estimate of what the park president salary is? I hope this doesn’t come off in bad taste, but I’m curious about what the position would be comparable to from a career standpoint.

It depends on the qualifications and experience they have. Like @Jahrules said I would think the salary would be around $150,000 as a base. That would be minimal qualifications and I would expect that could also be negotiated higher. They also get bonuses and such for performance.

SeaWorld and theme parks in general don't necessarily pay as much as you could get in other industries. For reference SeaWorld's new CEO only makes 600k + stock and cash incentives.
 
Since "President" can be a title for about every industry....

Salary.Com -The average Amusement Park Manager salary in the United States is $60,978 as of June 27, 2019, but the salary range typically falls between $49,702 and $82,674.

As for Disney (2018 figure for similar position) -
When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Operations Manager at Disney Parks & Resorts can expect to make an average total pay of $101,764
 
President is a different title than manager.

I'd think that role is more akin to something like 'manager of festhaus' would make 60k.

There's no way a park president's salary would be that low.
 
Since "President" can be a title for about every industry....

Salary.Com -The average Amusement Park Manager salary in the United States is $60,978 as of June 27, 2019, but the salary range typically falls between $49,702 and $82,674.

As for Disney (2018 figure for similar position) -
When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Operations Manager at Disney Parks & Resorts can expect to make an average total pay of $101,764

“Manager” could refer to pretty much any full-time management position in the industry. So that number would not only vary greatly from park to park, but even greatly within a park depending on how up that “manager” is.

Also, @Jahrules, I think that value is for “President” as a general rule across all industries. I don’t think we can assume a Park President necessarily follows that trend, especially since the reason I asked is because I’d like to see if a Park President is indeed comparable to other President roles.

Keep in mind the President role used to be Vice President and General Manager like the Cedar Fair parks use. I think this was changed when Carl Lum took over. Maybe using the original title would make for a more accurate comparison?
 
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True, but I'm thinking those numbers are more in line than $150K for BGW.

Just dealing with kingsmill alone has to be worth 100k+ minimum. Looking realistically at the role and responsibilities and being the public face of the park in the community any less than 150k would be highway robbery.

Keep in mind Kevin is essentially the boss of everyone in the park. Talented design engineers aren't cheap (100k+ minimum). And you wouldn't have their boss making less then the employees under him/her.

And Kevin wouldn't even be their direct boss. Suzy would be their boss and then she reports to Kevin.
 
How many employees at the park?

I'm not qualified to answer that. But I do want to remind you it's not just one park. Kevin is also president of water country.

Also, from the James City County meeting we know that Busch Gardens is the largest employer in James City County. The school district is second.

And WCUSA is in a different county.
 
I know Kings Dominion has about 4,000, so between BGW and WCUSA I’d imagine the numbers are in the same ballpark.
 
How many employees at the park?

Busch typically has between 6,000 and 7,000 employees over the course of an operating season.
I'm not qualified to answer that. But I do want to remind you it's not just one park. Kevin is also president of water country.

Also, from the James City County meeting we know that Busch Gardens is the largest employer in James City County. The school district is second.

And WCUSA is in a different county.

WCUSA employees are technically employees of BGW and therefore are considered employed in JCC and not York County.
Since "President" can be a title for about every industry....

Salary.Com -The average Amusement Park Manager salary in the United States is $60,978 as of June 27, 2019, but the salary range typically falls between $49,702 and $82,674.

As for Disney (2018 figure for similar position) -
When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Operations Manager at Disney Parks & Resorts can expect to make an average total pay of $101,764

Those roles are for managers which like others have said at BGW would be like a Culinary manager for England or the photo manager or the park ops manager for landscaping. Manager at BGW is the lowest level of salaried leadership positions. SEAS restructured their leadership structure last year and went from having 3 levels of salaried leadership in each department (VP, Director and Manager) to have only 2 levels (Sr leader and leader). Those are the same as the VP and Manager used to be so they essentially got rid of the director role.

Another note is that Disney is literally unlike every other theme park in the US. They pay significantly more than every other theme park operator. Just look at the fact that they are going to be instituting a $15 minimum wage by 2021. Meanwhile at Universal they could only raise it to $12 and hour. Meanwhile at SeaWorld Orlando it was raised to $11 an hour.

You can never compare a Disney salary to anywhere else in the industry.
 
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A point of reference. Couldn’t discern if VP position shown here is at corporate or park level.
 
A point of reference. Couldn’t discern if VP position shown here is at corporate or park level.
My guess would be that was a corporate position. However they only have one salary reporting so it's also possible that it was someone at the park level who had worked in that position for years and was getting an annual raise.

From what I understand the park president total compensation package typically comes to around 300k. This includes a company car and some living expenses covered by the company as well. It also includes stocks and other bonuses.
 
Total comp figures also typically include medical/dental and 401k figures as well.
 
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This is a long conversation about guessing what a guy's salary was. It may just be me, but I think that's rather personal information.
 
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The debate wasn't about Kevin's personal salary, but rather the salary of the position. Nothing personal about it.

Plus research has shown that the more public salary information is the better for everyone.
 
This is a long conversation about guessing what a guy's salary was. It may just be me, but I think that's rather personal information.

I tried to make explicitly clear that that wasn’t my intent. Personally, I think it’s a perfectly reasonable discussion as it relates to the park’s seniormost position.
 
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I understand how the discussion could be more broad about the position in general, but with it being housed in a thread dedicated to Lembke, it seems more personal.

The thread organization change solves this issue to me.
 
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