Sesame Place Williamsburg

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Local yokel over there said there were more adults waiting in line than kids. I'd definitely gladly accept a dark ride if it's the size of or slightly larger than Boo Blasters.

I'd also like SPW to have a second coaster just to bolster the kid options besides a bunch of flat rides. If they can get a ride like Oscar's Wacky Taxi with a ridiculously low height restriction that'd be grand.
 
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Honestly I'd be ok with them just building something like this either way. There's no need for them to build SPW in order to build something like this.
 
A full POV and queue walkthrough for anyone interested.
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I love how well they integrated the physical set peices, anamtronics and video together. It is a lot more seamless than other similar rides like the Cedar Fair Triotech rides. It's hard to tell from the one blurry video, but I think it might be a little bit better integrated than DarKastle ever way.

I would hope that a future Sesame Place park (or even the PA park) would add something like this, or put one in to Orlando.
 
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So, I didn't listen to seas Q4 conference call until today when I happened to have some spare time and I wanted to get an idea of if tomorrow's Q1 call might yield information of interest.

It turns out there was an interesting bit in the Q4 call. At the end they open it for Q&A. One of the last questions was about sesame and the status of their constructions.

While the asker didn't specifically ask, management did end up mentioning their second sesame place park as per their license agreement. He said specifically: "we are on time to execute that second property as scheduled". While details weren't offered beyond this, as to location etc; I did think this to be an interesting statement.

This info is 3 months old at this point, but I searched and did not find this info previously posted. I consulted the wisdom of @Zachary and decided to post it here.

It is reasonable to speculate that with no news of new land purchases by SeaWorld, that the second sesame gate will go at an existing property and we are likely frontrunners in that category.

For reference, you can hear it for yourself:
https://s1.q4cdn.com/392447382/files/doc_financials/Quarterly/2018/q4/Seaworld_20190228_900AME.mp3

The question is asked at 41:40 the bit about the second sesame gate is at 43:35.
 
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During today's conference call they said something interesting.

They reaffirmed the $150m capital expenditure amount and went on to say:

"... This amount excludes expenditures associated with expansion and <incomprehensible> capital expenditures including new properties, new revenue opportunities and/or cost reduction opportunities. We anticipate these non-core capital expenditures to be in the $30-35m range."

So the news here is the $30-35m figure.

I don't figure the cost of opportunities to consume the majority of this figure.

With the second sesame gate due in 2021 I expect the majority of the budget for sesame would be in the 2020 timeframe. But the majority of this $30-35m is likely going to be preconstruction planning/engineering/architecture costs. They left the door open by saying this could be new property or expansion of existing (likely the board is not ready to show their hand on specific plans). So SPW is in no way confirmed by this.. but it's also not ruled out. And at least it has a budget now.

I'll post a link to the reference material (the recording) when it is available.

Update link now available here at 12:00
 
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Anyone think there could be an announcement at the next quarterly results release? I'm really thinking they are running out of time to meet their deadline for a new park unless they get going soon. Perhaps the situation has changed behind closed doors.
 
My understanding is that sesame place is due "in 2021" not "by 2021". As along as the park opens Dec 31 2021 they still meet contract.

In the Q4 2018 conference call they seemed very confident they were in position to meet this commitment.

We may hear something about it at the conference call, but I don't expect it to be a full on announcement of the gate.
 
I think we are definitely nearing the time where they will have to at least announce where it will be built. From the press release of the renewed agreement is 2017 they committed to opening by 2021(see quote below). That means that we are less than 2 years away from it opening. Now it's possible that they announce a new agreement that gives them more time to work on the project. Either way I can't imagine that we won't know something by the end of 2019.

...with the second Sesame Place theme park scheduled to open no later than mid 2021 in a U.S. location to be determined. After the opening of the second Sesame Place, SeaWorld will have the option to build additional Sesame Place theme parks in the U.S.
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www.seaworldinvestors.com

SeaWorld Entertainment And Sesame Workshop Announce Expanded Partnership To Include New Sesame Place Theme Park

SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: SEAS), a leading theme park and entertainment company, and Sesame Workshop , the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street® , today announced the extension of their 37-year partnership to include the development of an additional Sesame Place® theme park in...
www.seaworldinvestors.com www.seaworldinvestors.com
 
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warfelg said:
Just want to point out; A SPW size wise is roughly the same as Chocolatetown at HP and they announced it about 16 months before its slated to open.
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True. But, if they wanted to fast-track it (depending upon JCC approvals) they might pull it off in less time. Not much land clearing for the "site", the ride area (Forest of Fun) is already complete, the water park stuff is probably mostly prefab and (if they use the plans from SWO) the "sets" for the middle show area are already designed. Of course a lot of other changes surrounding the actual park might throw a wrench in the timing.
 
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GrandpaD said:
True. But, if they wanted to fast-track it (depending upon JCC approvals) they might pull it off in less time. Not much land clearing for the "site", the ride area (Forest of Fun) is already complete, the water park stuff is probably mostly prefab and (if they use the plans from SWO) the "sets" for the middle show area are already designed. Of course a lot of other changes surrounding the actual park might throw a wrench in the timing.
Click to expand...

The biggest "slowdown" for a SPW will be parking and infrastructure. They likely won't go with any custom rides right away for ease of opening.
 
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Update from today's conference call:

Someone asked if they were working on the new sesame gate and if it would be delayed.

The board said simply that they are working on the agreed timeline but had nothing further to announce at this point.
 
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kmccarthy27 said:
If this becomes a big hit, I think this puts Water Country on notice.
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If they still eventually wanted to open a Sesame Place in Williamsburg, I see them going with the proposal of building it on the parking lot at BGW rather than taking over WCUSA.

WCUSA is one of the most well attended water parks in the country. I'm not sure that converting it to the Sesame brand would do them any favors considering what current clientele they would lose in the process. Adding Sesame Place to BGW would bring in more people while maintaining the current demographic.

Aquatica San Diego does not live up to the other Aquatica parks, so there it might actually bring in more business.
 
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gardener14 said:
If they still eventually wanted to open a Sesame Place in Williamsburg, I see them going with the proposal of building it on the parking lot at BGW rather than taking over WCUSA.

WCUSA is one of the most well attended water parks in the country. I'm not sure that converting it to the Sesame brand would do them any favors considering what current clientele they would lose in the process. Adding Sesame Place to BGW would bring in more people while maintaining the current demographic.

Aquatica San Diego does not live up to the other Aquatica parks, so there it might actually bring in more business.
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So this was more of a pivot to save a failing water park.
 
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