News SeaWorld Makes $3.4 Billion Takeover Bid for Cedar Fair

[rswashdc]

Wouldn’t penny pinching SEAS want to dump the Busch branding to save on naming rights once they get access to the Cedar Fair trademarks. The question would be if they go with Kings Garden Williamsburg or maybe just extend the Cedar Point branding to Williamsburg and Tampa.

 

[JohnKell]

Wouldn’t penny pinching SEAS want to dump the Busch branding to save on naming rights once they get access to the Cedar Fair trademarks. The question would be if they go with Kings Garden Williamsburg or maybe just extend the Cedar Point branding to Williamsburg and Tampa.

According to this article, the Busch branding was part of the original deal:
“The Sesame Workshop and Anheuser-Busch brands are among those that will remain in the parks, he said. Busch beer brands will continue to be poured at the parks, and the Busch Gardens name will remain on the parks in Tampa, Fla. and Williamsburg, Va., as they were sold to Blackstone as part of the deal.”

Blackstone Group buys the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme park chain for $2.3 billion+

Busch Entertainment Corp., owner of the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks, announced this morning that it had completed a deal to be bought by the Blackstone Group, for $2.3 billion in cash, plus up to $400 million in additional considerations. I'll be speaking with BEC chief Jim Atchison...

www.themeparkinsider.com

 

[Gavin]

ABIB retains and holds the trademark for Busch Gardens, and SEAS has the exclusive right to use the mark under a sponsorship deal from ABIB.

 

[BGWnut]

Full control of a regional market is the opposite of a burden. KD and BGW are more valuable together than apart just as KI and CP are more valuable together than they are apart.

I think it's clear that SEAS wants to expand their market reach and that's certainly part of the thinking here. That said, I'm confident that they also want to reduce regional competition wherever possible. Something SEAS has always struggled with is that EVERY park they currently own is in a hotly contested market. The two routes out of that situation are either to buy more parks in uncontested markets or buy your competition. This Cedar Fair offer gives them a little of both.

I wonder what parks. Dorneys got SP not too far. Maybe getting something like Mich Adv to turn into a pure SP elsewhere. Knotts makes sense since it’s landlocked for CF to give up as the “crown jewel” and make that “someone else’s” problem.

Is there any legal right to change the same on some of these? I can’t see Seaworld Anaheim but I could see Busch Gardens Knotts Farm being a good name.

Dorney is the first park that comes to mind for me. It's reasonably close to to SP and they could package them together and have a much stronger package to sell to people. I think the parks that make the most sense are ones that are close to other parks. Selling a combo pass for BGT and SWO is very successful and allows to spread some costs between the two. I could see them being interested in KD and Knott's for this reason, because they could package them together like they do for BGT and SWO.

Outside of those the park I think they would be most interested in is Carowinds. That opens them up to a newish market and gives people who are already frequenting VA and FL parks another location that they could visit.

 

[Zachary]

@Gavin highlighted Schlitterbahn to me the other day as well. That seems like a HUGE pickup for SEAS. It has a horrible brand reputation right now which likely is degrading its value, but water parks in Texas are a bulletproof business so it's probably an optimal time to buy. It's an hour away from SeaWorld & Aquatica San Antonio on the opposite side of the city. If you're trying to compete against Six Flags Fiesta Texas, adding Schlitterbahn New Braunfels could seriously tip the scales for a lot of folks. Oh, and it has a resort.

 

[tursiops]

The fact that they just posted for VP roles for Hotel/Resorts and new park development makes me think they are extremely interested in this deal succeeding. I agree with the above posts that select parks, like those mentioned, are at the top of the wishlist. But why turn down other successful parks like Cedar Point and Canada's Wonderland if you can nab them. Obviously I don't think all parks are going to get the same level of attention, plus I could still see some being sold off.

I think the BGW and KD dynamic would be very similar to SWO and BGT. They increase both parks value in my view.

 

[BGWnut]

The fact that they just posted for VP roles for Hotel/Resorts and new park development makes me think they are extremely interested in this deal succeeding. I agree with the above posts that select parks, like those mentioned, are at the top of the wishlist. But why turn down other successful parks like Cedar Point and Canada's Wonderland if you can nab them. Obviously I don't think all parks are going to get the same level of attention, plus I could still see some being sold off.

I think the BGW and KD dynamic would be very similar to SWO and BGT. They increase both parks value in my view.

I agree. If they can get all of them then they might as well. Like you said they could sell off the ones they don't want to Palace or maybe Herschend to recoup some of the costs of the merger. I really think that they will want to look to create situations like SWO and BGT because there's a benefit to having parks that close. So I think they would really be interested in replicating that in VA

 

[Alf33]

Oh, and it has a resort.

Along this line here's a paragraph from an article about the purchase from CNBC.

"SeaWorld would also benefit from Cedar Fair’s undeveloped land portfolio, which includes around 1,400 acres around its theme parks. This could be used to develop hotels, sports complexes or water parks, among other ventures."

 

[Jonesta6]

Along this line here's a paragraph from an article about the purchase from CNBC.

"SeaWorld would also benefit from Cedar Fair’s undeveloped land portfolio, which includes around 1,400 acres around its theme parks. This could be used to develop hotels, sports complexes or water parks, among other ventures."

Talk about unused land (without any further context as to why it's unused), BGW sits on roughly half the acreage SEAS owns (unless through the various corporate changes after AB they sold it) due to a conservation easement which makes it easier to get RPA buffer change approvals and potentially has old live munitions in the woods from the Camp Wallace grounds before the park existed. WC also sits on a smaller portion of their parcel, though I honestly have no idea what the extra land is for outside of there may have either been a requirement for a green belt when the park was originally developed or there were other development plans that never saw the light of day.

Then using KD as an example of unused CF acreage - per the other thread discussing it, it seems highly unlikely costs for using that land would be justified by demand so much that existing infrastructure including their boneyard storage and maintenance roads would have to all be removed or replaced... Plus the proposed county road and existing power lines would all have to be accounted for with any development plans.

Yeah, I'm sure in some of that land estimate there's truly usable space, but I'd guess it's not as much as that quote would lead anyone to believe.

 

[BGWnut]

Talk about unused land (without any further context as to why it's unused), BGW sits on roughly half the acreage SEAS owns (unless through the various corporate changes after AB they sold it) due to a conservation easement which makes it easier to get RPA buffer change approvals and potentially has old live munitions in the woods from the Camp Wallace grounds before the park existed. WC also sits on a smaller portion of their parcel, though I honestly have no idea what the extra land is for outside of there may have either been a requirement for a green belt when the park was originally developed or there were other development plans that never saw the light of day.

Then using KD as an example of unused CF acreage - per the other thread discussing it, it seems highly unlikely costs for using that land would be justified by demand so much that existing infrastructure including their boneyard storage and maintenance roads would have to all be removed or replaced... Plus the proposed county road and existing power lines would all have to be accounted for with any development plans.

Yeah, I'm sure in some of that land estimate there's truly usable space, but I'd guess it's not as much as that quote would lead anyone to believe.

This is correct. BGW uses approximately half of the land that the park owns. WCUSA uses about 1/3rd of the land it sits on. Lots of room for expansion here unlike all the parks in Florida.

 

[Jonesta6]

This is correct. BGW uses approximately half of the land that the park owns. WCUSA uses about 1/3rd of the land it sits on. Lots of room for expansion here unlike all the parks in Florida.

But how realistic is it for BGW to be able to develop much of the remaining land with the conservation easement and RPA buffer zone? Not impossible, sure, but would add considerable cost and hoops to jump through.

Back to KD, even without any similar large environmental concerns, realistically how much more land could be used? I guess maybe ancillary businesses like how CP owns much of the restaurants and the sports park outside of their gates?

 

[BGWnut]

But how realistic is it for BGW to be able to develop much of the remaining land with the conservation easement and RPA buffer zone? Not impossible, sure, but would add considerable cost and hoops to jump through.

Back to KD, even without any similar large environmental concerns, realistically how much more land could be used? I guess maybe ancillary businesses like how CP owns much of the restaurants and the sports park outside of their gates?

I would say that most of the land could be developed on. The RPA buffer isn't very big and they would be permitted to build on it. And I'm pretty sure the park is significantly over any conservation requirements they have. They could build on it if they wanted.

The larger problem is the cost to attach it to the park. It would significantly impact guest flow depending on where they build first. It would either be a significant one way path like Fiesta but bigger and further away from other stuff or it would end up similar killing an area because of how it loops around to have two entrances.

What I think is most likely is that eventually they use some of that space for a hotel/resort and have another coaster or two that run out into like Apollo does.

 

[qdeathstar]

I couldn’t believe this wasn’t being talked about here, turns out it was being talked about! Would be cool to get a 2fer pass…

 

[tursiops]

Could things get more complicated? Lots of ways this could get interesting.

 

[mtorange]

Could things get more complicated? Lots of ways this could get interesting. View attachment 25815

Why would Cedar Fair accept a bid from Six Flags when they just rejected a larger bid three years ago?

Also, I don’t want Cedar Fair being bought out by anyone, but if I had to choose between SeaWorld and Six Flags, I’d choose SeaWorld in a heartbeat. And I’ve already shared my frustration about SeaWorld in this thread, so that says a lot.

 

[horsesboy]

Why would Cedar Fair accept a bid from Six Flags when they just rejected a larger bid three years ago?

Also, I don’t want Cedar Fair being bought out by anyone, but if I had to choose between SeaWorld and Six Flags, I’d choose SeaWorld in a heartbeat. And I’ve already shared my frustration about SeaWorld in this thread, so that says a lot.

I posted an article earlier that discussed the many things that have changed. Long story short 3 years ago SF's offer was decent but not great but CF's stock price has gone down since then. The other key factor was CF was setup in such a way that they could share a dividin with their shareholders with little tax obligations to them and that would have gone away with the SF deal. The pandemic caused CF to take on new debt and suspended the payout to shareholders for an indefinite time taking that major obstacle away.

 

[tursiops]

Also the original Six Flags deal was cash and stock, so despite looking higher it wasn't as strong.

 

[panopticon31]

I definitely think there is a chance CF would prefer to go with SEAS vs Six Flags since due to Six Flags number of parks that purchase/merger would more likely to be interfered with by regulators

 

[warfelg]

The shame is I think CF is starting to get their shit together. I really hope my theory ends up being true that SEAS wants out of the heavily themed part of parks and would be using this to preempt a BGW/BGT sale. I doubt it but it I can dream.

 

[panopticon31]

The shame is I think CF is starting to get their shit together. I really hope my theory ends up being true that SEAS wants out of the heavily themed part of parks and would be using this to preempt a BGW/BGT sale. I doubt it but it I can dream.

I've said it a bazillion times before but I keep hoping that somehow some way SEAS spins off BGT & BGW and they go to Herschend. I think Herschend would bring the park quality back to whent he park was still owned by Busch