News Quarterly Financial Results

[Thriller]

MSN

"United Parks & Resorts (PRKS) said Q1 results fell short of expectations as reported attendance was down 5.0% from a year ago in Q1 to 3.2M guests. Unfavorable weather in San Diego and Florida in January and February, and again in Florida and Texas during their peak spring break periods, were factors, as well as a decline in international attendance.

Total revenue per person increased 2.1% to $86.43 during the quarter. Admission per person decreased 0.5% to $45.81, while in-park per person spending increased 5.3% to a record $40.62. Total revenue fell 3.0% to $278.3M to miss the consensus estimate by $1.3M.

Adjusted EBITDA fell 14.1% year over year to $58M."


People have finally had enough of their price gouging and surcharging.

 

[ThoosieTube]

I grew up going to BGT and have been a platinum pass holder for years and didn’t renew because they screwed up on their end and cancelled my pass a week early. I had reached out to customer service 3 different times to get it resolved. All 3 times I ended up at an Indian call center where I was told it was resolved when it in fact was not. Got to the park thinking this was resolved then had to go to guest services to get it fixed where they again failed to resolve it. They gave me a pass to get in for the day but I had none of my pass perks. Sent an email about all of this to Busch and never heard a thing. All this to say, if this is how they treat their most loyal customers it’s no wonder the financials are going down a cliff!

 

[MIKEYT67]

I grew up going to BGT and have been a platinum pass holder for years and didn’t renew because they screwed up on their end and cancelled my pass a week early. I had reached out to customer service 3 different times to get it resolved. All 3 times I ended up at an Indian call center where I was told it was resolved when it in fact was not. Got to the park thinking this was resolved then had to go to guest services to get it fixed where they again failed to resolve it. They gave me a pass to get in for the day but I had none of my pass perks. Sent an email about all of this to Busch and never heard a thing. All this to say, if this is how they treat their most loyal customers it’s no wonder the financials are going down a cliff!

Busch has nothing to do with the parks

 

[ThoosieTube]

Busch has nothing to do with the parks

I’m aware, I sent an email to Busch (the park) through the feedback section on their website

 

[MaxxForceFan]

They are getting ready to sell off the land.

 

[I64 Trekker]

They are getting ready to sell off the land.

Are they blaming the weather for the need to sell off the land?

 

[MaxxForceFan]

From the Q2 2026 earnings call:

Marc Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, United Parks & Resorts:
On real estate, we are happy to have received significant interest from serious parties to acquire some or most of our real estate. We have been actively engaged with these parties over the past months to clarify and negotiate terms that can meet our requirements. While we don’t want to share too much, as we are in current discussions, I can tell you that the valuation being offered for our real estate compares very favorably to the valuation the public equity markets assign to our enterprise. When and if we transact with one or more of these counterparties will be determined by the ultimate terms we negotiate. Our view of the future value of the business as currently situated, general market conditions, and other relevant factors.

A key takeaway from this exercise to date is that multiple, highly credible third parties assign significant value to our real estate that we do not believe is currently reflected in the public market price of our common equity.

James Hardiman, Analyst, Citi: Got it. That’s helpful. There were some very specific remarks as part of the prepared remarks on the real estate piece, the idea that there are parties that are interested in acquiring, I think you said some or most of your real estate. I guess I’m curious, I don’t know how much more you can add to that, probably not much, but curious what’s on the table here. Are we talking sort of the sale of unused or undeveloped land, or is the idea of a broader sort of REIT spin-off, prop co-op co actually on the table as you talk to some of these interested parties? Thanks.

Marc Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, United Parks & Resorts: Yeah, James. I’ll try to share what I can. I want to be sensitive to just the fact that we’re kind of, as I said in my prepared remarks, we don’t want to share too much, obviously. We did try to give you guys some more color, but I think what you could have there is anything from one property to multiple properties, and we’ve heard from people who like the idea of something along that spectrum. Maybe you sell one to demonstrate the value. Maybe you sell multiple ones if you can get a really strong value. I think the point we are making is there could be multiple ways to think about it, and that’s probably all we can share now.

What I was trying to emphasize in the remarks is that there are people out there, names you would recognize, who recognize the value of our real estate, and that doesn’t seem to translate to the public equity value. The valuation they’re ascribing to our real estate, or how to think about our real estate, it compares very favorably, I guess, to the public market value of our stock. If nothing else, even if we don’t do anything, and who knows if we will do anything, there’s no guarantee, obviously. The good part of this exercise is that there are people who are now recognizing the value of our real estate, but we’d like to see more of that transfer over, obviously, to our stock price.

https://www.investing.com/news/tran...sorts-misses-q2-2026-profit-view-93CH-4834882

 

[Zachary]

Darkest timeline.

I guess the best outcome would be the sale of the Sesame Places for land (since both parks could be not long for this world anyway)? Then that sell-off could illustrate the value of the chain's broader land holdings and provide the stock pump Wall St is looking for? Same could be executed with unused land in Orlando and Williamsburg too, I suppose?

Hate to see them flirting with the possibility of a full RIET/leaseback setup though. Very grim.

 

[Coolguy15]

Darkest timeline.

I guess the best outcome would be the sale of the Sesame Places for land (since both parks could be not long for this world anyway)? Then that sell-off could illustrate the value of the chain's broader land holdings and provide the stock pump Wall St is looking for? Same could be executed with unused land in Orlando and Williamsburg too, I suppose?

Hate to see them flirting with the possibility of a full RIET/leaseback setup though. Very grim.

Is someone able to explain this to me like I’m 5? I’m not good with financial stuff haha. Particularly the last part about RIET.

 

[at4n27]

Is someone able to explain this to me like I’m 5? I’m not good with financial stuff haha. Particularly the last part about RIET.

Think Enchanted with EPR.

 

[Fiender]

Imagine every SEAS park getting the same amount of investment as Darien Lake. Even if a park is profitable, and the lease agreement includes a certain amount of capex into the leased property, it becomes a game of politics as to who pays for what. If a coaster needs a brand new train, does that fall under maintenance costs, or can the park write it off as capex (and therefore save money?)

It's a crapshoot and not something anyone who actually cares about these parks would consider.

 

[Zachary]

Is someone able to explain this to me like I’m 5? I’m not good with financial stuff haha. Particularly the last part about RIET.

Imagine owning your home. Then imagine selling the land under your house to an investor with an agreement in place allowing you to continue living in your house on its same land, but you just have to rent said land from the investor from now on. Normally a deal like this would allow you to live in your house for X number of years for X number of dollars per year. At the end of that term, you would need to renegotiate terms with the owner of the property (the investor to whom you sold your land). And that's, of course, assuming said investor even wants to continue renting your land back to you at all—they may decide that your land is actually worth more subdivided amongst three different, new houses or they could decide that the land your house is on would make a better (read: more profitable) gas station than a home.

It inflicts enormous reoccurring costs on a business with the short-term advantage of obtaining a large sum of immediate capital. It also makes long-term investment into a property a less attractive option as you can't be positive that you'll still be there a leaseback negotiation or two down the line. Basically, short-term gain for long-term pain.

 

[warfelg]

You know - I hated when this started with PE and chain restaurants - but now that it’s hitting parks I DESPISE it even more. The fact that parks have becomes so consolidated that this is one of the few options left for cash infusions makes me so heated.

Kill the mega corps.

 

[Mushroom]

Kill the mega corps.

United Parks is hardly a mega corp. It’s literally part of the S&P SmallCap 600. They’re just a badly managed company.

 

[Jonesta6]

Ok, how about create a wall of separation from PE and executive boardrooms (ie. remove Scott Ross and his cronies from direct power) and institute new regulations requiring corporations to consider long-term effects of their decisions instead of serving only the short-term interests of shareholders. Of course, while we're at it, maybe it can really rain cats and dogs (without harming them) too.

 

[warfelg]

Ok, how about create a wall of separation from PE and executive boardrooms (ie. remove Scott Ross and his cronies from direct power) and institute new regulations requiring corporations to consider long-term effects of their decisions instead of serving only the short-term interests of shareholders. Of course, while we're at it, maybe it can really rain cats and dogs (without harming them) too.

I just wish there were still options outside of leveraging the land and putting that risk out there.

 

[Jonesta6]

I know that reads as facetious, but I wrote that with the kernel of concern - PE's only reason to exist is to extract wealth. I can't think of too many scenarios where that ends well for companies bought out by PE firms; ergo there needs to be some firm regulations in place to roll back enshittification practices in favor of consumers. I believe that if that were to happen, many of the companies currently scrounging for change will be on much firmer financial footing.

 

[Coasternerd]

Also worth noting, PE is especially bad for a company like SeaWorld—in regards to animal care. If the company can’t afford to negotiate terms and goes under, what happens to the animals? There’s not many more facilities that would be able to handle the relocation of all the animals they have.

 

[warfelg]

Also worth noting, PE is especially bad for a company like SeaWorld—in regards to animal care. If the company can’t afford to negotiate terms and goes under, what happens to the animals? There’s not many more facilities that would be able to handle the relocation of all the animals they have.

Pens just suck in general because they are going after what’s actually valuable: the land. And the more apes buy up places, the less options there are for companies to get cash infusions outside of loans or sell land. They aren’t interested in buying a used asset like a ride, the kitchen of a restaurant, or things like that. So if a place had the ability to sell an asset or two like that they have less options of where to sell it to if they need to offload something for cash.

It’s why I hate PE and megacorps - they leave smaller markets by having less ownership groups in whatever space they live in so a sell anything except the land and name option ends up with less interested parties. And sometimes the ones interested can’t afford what’s being sold because that aren’t a big enough corp to take on the expense of whatever wants to be sold.

 

[MakoMania]

Okay so with this whole land sale or lease situation, I have been under the assumption for a long time that we are only talking about owned but undeveloped land.

Examples include the expansion lot across the street from SWO or the vast swathes of undeveloped parcels adjacent to SWSA, rather than the parks themselves. Am I mistaken with that?