I can't be the only one OOTL, can anyone explain to me why Scott Ross is like public enemy #1 on Parkfans?
The State of the Park: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Thread starter CoasterTalkBob
- Start date
He is the majority share holder of SEAS and the chairman of the board. He has used that power to micro manage with the eye on driving up the company's profit ability and has forced them through several CEO's. In short hebis the poster child for Wallstreet greed.
This idea gets cited a lot, but I never see evidence to support it. It may be true that the parks under AB didn’t face the same financial pressure to maximize profit that they do now as a publicly traded company — but what‘s the evidence that the “entire purpose” of BGW under AB was to market beer?
Every company is greedy. This is more a poster child for where one individual has de facto control of a company for good or bad, yet is not the majority owner. It's just bad corporate governance to have a board deferring to a single individual.
Not only do those paragraphs lack any citations to back up their claims, they seem to mainly be describing the origins of the “Busch Gardens” parks not as the theme parks we recognize today, but as the nature preserves and beer gardens the early “Busch Gardens” properties began as.
I mean I shouldn’t make it sound as “absolute” with “entire” more “they were closer to that on the spectrum” at least from a guest facing perspective, as businesses are significantly more complex than cost centers and profit centers.
Was that sarcasm or is someone in an advisory role actually supporting that open source and peer reviewed info is not accurate? So done...
I'm sorry, but this is absurd. Your source is bad. Sorry. Don't know why you're "So done..." because someone simply critiqued the place you got your info.
@Mushroom is correct that the referenced portion of the entry is entirely uncited. @Mushroom is also correct that the referenced portion is speaking about Busch Gardens parks as they existed long before the development of BGW. If you don't think those statements are accurate, then counter them. If you do think those statements are accurate (which they are), just eat your humble pie and move on. @Mushroom never criticized you—only countered your source. No idea why you took it so personally.
The most absurd aspect of this is that, yes, the Busch Gardens article has been "peer reviewed" by Wikipedia editors, and they found the entry to be inadequate—hence the sources needed banner on the Busch Gardens page. The very source you're holding in such high esteem agrees that, in this case, it's not up to par.
Broadly speaking, I am a huge proponent of Wikipedia. On net, Wikipedia has, undoubtedly, massively increased the quality and availability of generally reliable information online. That said, it is still a wiki. Anyone who opens up a website that can be edited by almost anyone and believes it's infallible is gonna have a real bad time.
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So in my prior position converting private practices to being corporate-owned, I saw what I see in BGW. At first, it’s still the same heart and people with the same vision. Then, Corporate needs margin, and the medical providers feel the squeeze, and they either squeeze expenses down or gently squeeze patients into purchasing more. Now I left this business because of the absolute icky nature of doing this to kind-hearted, caring people.
For BGW, it was once a celebration of the lifestyle and values of AB, like Red Bull celebrates extreme sports or Jeep celebrates no-limits adventurers. Today, it’s more like the Corporate is interested in creating enough feeling of celebration and a taste of values just enough to eek out that margin.
I still see heart in many of the people working AT Busch Gardens, so all is not lost. But I think it’s difficult to see growth and a bright future when the Corporate can squeeze at any time.
For BGW, it was once a celebration of the lifestyle and values of AB, like Red Bull celebrates extreme sports or Jeep celebrates no-limits adventurers. Today, it’s more like the Corporate is interested in creating enough feeling of celebration and a taste of values just enough to eek out that margin.
I still see heart in many of the people working AT Busch Gardens, so all is not lost. But I think it’s difficult to see growth and a bright future when the Corporate can squeeze at any time.
They had an article on this in the Washington Post regarding the purchase of private practices by investment firms and how things start out great but then they get pressure to increase margins resulting in poorer care and more expensive treatment. My wife was taken to the emergency room recently and they wanted to do an MRI scan and my wife declined. Our primary care physician couldn't believe they wanted to do an MRI instead of CT scan which is faster and cheaper (sufficient for the reasons the emergency doctor stated and she probably would have agreed to it). Of course it's because MRIs cost more and we have insurance. We should have just insisted on a CT scan. It's no joke that you need to be an advocate for yourself when dealing with the health care industry.
It's one thing to cut corners on an amusement park for profit but to apply these same practices to peoples' health care is disgusting.
Anyone else feel like there's some love being put back into the park recently? I'm noticing a lot of small touches, like the painting of Alpengeist's snow and the new grill roof at Trappers.
Chain wide they seem to be doing some course correction with things that were long neglected getting attention. They are listening to the fans to some degree and bringing back more of the original character that was slowly disappearing from the parks.
Now they just need to do some course correction on the food quality...
I had one of my best visits in years this week.
Everything opened at park opening time instead of staggered.
2 train operations and 3 on Verbolten despite light crowds on Wed Thu
All 3 of the major food locations were open from park opening until 30 mins before close. Food was great. They were even running 2 lines at Festhaus and Smokehouse on Friday. Friday was a little busier but not crowded (0 to 10 min waits)
The boat was even running on Friday.
Only negatives were Cable Skyway was closed.
And of course the dishonest surcharge on top of their already sky high food prices. $36 for salad fruit and drink!
Everything opened at park opening time instead of staggered.
2 train operations and 3 on Verbolten despite light crowds on Wed Thu
All 3 of the major food locations were open from park opening until 30 mins before close. Food was great. They were even running 2 lines at Festhaus and Smokehouse on Friday. Friday was a little busier but not crowded (0 to 10 min waits)
The boat was even running on Friday.
Only negatives were Cable Skyway was closed.
And of course the dishonest surcharge on top of their already sky high food prices. $36 for salad fruit and drink!
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Damn, BGW was absolutely slammed yesterday. I counted upwards of 8-10 different school groups. Could only get one ride on Tempesto.. out of all rides within my three hours there.
Yup it was busy indeed I was there but with my 4 year old and the kid rides and stuff under his 42in height requirement where not to bad. It was definitely a temper your expectations day though.
Just took another tour of BGW on Google street view. (Still images from June, 2009) So beautiful.
A few thoughts came to mind:
The place is generally the same as it was nearly 20 years ago. However, there was actually much more manicured, less overgrown foliage all over the park, and somehow more tree coverage. It's like over the years, they've taken out the "essential" foliage that gave you that feeling of tree coverage even though today, there seems to be more shade provided by trees because of the overgrowth. I personally prefer the manicured gardens vs simply forest.
There are SO many more buildings now. Like little booths that block lines of sight and restrict guest flow (BarKastle, Invadr plaza, France stage, etc). Nearly every "original" building location available was used in '09. Today, it's like there's dead spaces everywhere (Questor, Bird Theatre etc). Even Festhaus Park, pre-Verbolten was laid out beautifully as a special events space that really felt like you're at a concert venue.
Essentially, the park was the same but so much less crowded with junk. Every corner of the park was manicured and intentional. Guest facing and behind the scenes were clean and orderly. It's a shame it's gone to shit in that regard. I'd love to blame all the seasonal events like Howl o Scream and Christmas Town but those events were happening back then too.
When things were done, there were paved roads, cut grass, pruned shrubs and organization. You just don't see that anymore unfortunately.
A few thoughts came to mind:
The place is generally the same as it was nearly 20 years ago. However, there was actually much more manicured, less overgrown foliage all over the park, and somehow more tree coverage. It's like over the years, they've taken out the "essential" foliage that gave you that feeling of tree coverage even though today, there seems to be more shade provided by trees because of the overgrowth. I personally prefer the manicured gardens vs simply forest.
There are SO many more buildings now. Like little booths that block lines of sight and restrict guest flow (BarKastle, Invadr plaza, France stage, etc). Nearly every "original" building location available was used in '09. Today, it's like there's dead spaces everywhere (Questor, Bird Theatre etc). Even Festhaus Park, pre-Verbolten was laid out beautifully as a special events space that really felt like you're at a concert venue.
Essentially, the park was the same but so much less crowded with junk. Every corner of the park was manicured and intentional. Guest facing and behind the scenes were clean and orderly. It's a shame it's gone to shit in that regard. I'd love to blame all the seasonal events like Howl o Scream and Christmas Town but those events were happening back then too.
When things were done, there were paved roads, cut grass, pruned shrubs and organization. You just don't see that anymore unfortunately.
I was in the park briefly yesterday and, for some reason, it struck me just how incredibly filthy the place was. Like yeah, we know the bathrooms, on all but the least busy days, are a shitshow and yeah, the dining areas have consistently been pig-stys. ENORMOUSLY cutting custodial staff and nuking overnight cleaning entirely will do that to a place. But what really struck me yesterday was just the disgusting state of the paths, buildings, walls, railings, etc. Yeah, I know the park doesn't wash the paths every day before opening like they did pre-COVID, but it honestly felt like it hadn't been done in weeks now. There was just a layer of dirt, grime, and debris everywhere I looked.
I was at KD on a Friday this week so it's not a fair comparison, but KD was certainly cleaner on Friday than BGW was on Sunday—and a claim like that just a couple years ago would have been downright unimaginable.
I was at KD on a Friday this week so it's not a fair comparison, but KD was certainly cleaner on Friday than BGW was on Sunday—and a claim like that just a couple years ago would have been downright unimaginable.
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