DEBATE: "Franchise" Amusement Parks

[CWIPPERMAN]

I was just reading an article about how Bill Gates has started purchasing stock in "Six Flags". I started looking, and realized that there are "Six Flags" parks all over the country. I'm from Kansas City, and we have had an amusement park called "Worlds of Fun" for about 30 years now. It was originally owned by Lamar Hunt (who also owns the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Kansas City Wizards). About three years ago, Worlds of Fun was bought by "Cedar Fair Parks", the company that owns several amusement parks around the country.

Of course, there's always talk of Disney opening new parks throughout the country, and as we all know they are active in opening parks around the world.

On to my point....

It seems to me like the Amusement Park business is becoming a "Franchise" oriented marketplace. It seems like the smaller "mom & pop" places are getting bought by large corporate conglomerates. I'm curious to know other peoples feelings on this.

Here's my opinion. I personally love the idea of several parks being owned by one company. Here are some of the things that happened when Cedar Fair took over:

-When "Cedar Fair" bought "Worlds of Fun", immediately, the admission price dropped (a ticket at the gate is about $40.00, but you can purchase tickets at a local grocery chain for $21.95).

-Upon purchasing the park, Cedar Fair began construction on several new roller coasters, and removed some of the old attractions that had been there since the park was created. One of the new roller coasters they built - the Mamba - is among the top in the US as far as speed, and length.

-In the last 3 years, they have been steadily opening new, bigger, faster rides.... the old "Worlds of Fun" opened something new every 3 or 4 years.

-They did some "branding" by changning the kids area to "Camp Snoopy" - thus creating a tie-in with a well known character.... before it was a "park exclusive" character - "PJ Panda".

-Now, if you hold a "Season Passport" to "Worlds of Fun", you can use it at any of the other "Cedar Fair" parks.

The only real drawback I've seen so far is that it seems like the rides they've added are the same thing I see at their other parks. I noticed that "Six Flags" has a "Batman" ride at a couple of it's parks. It may be cheaper for them to have a ride designed and manufactured for multiple parks, then to create something new for each park.

Overall, it seems to me like some day, we will have "Franchise" parks opening throughout the country. Instead of a McDonalds on every corner, every city will either have a "Disney" park, a "Six Flags" park, or a "Cedar Fair" park. This could create a "cookie cutter" amusement park business, but it could also bring fun and entertainment closer to folks that now have to drive to find it.

Anyway..... what are some other opinions on this?

 

[DisneyFanGuy]

I think it depends on the company running the parks. Paramount, Disney, and Cedar Fair run very fine parks. My experiences at their parks have always been very positive. You have good days and bad days, but they all seem intent on running clean, safe, and enjoyable parks.

Every Six Flags park that I have visited in the past 4-5 years (admittedly only 3) has been extremely dirty, and understaffed with poorly trained employees. They do have some great rides, and then add them regularly, but there is a difference between running them larger and running them well.

Just my opinion.

 

[d-r]

-Now, if you hold a "Season Passport" to "Worlds of Fun", you can use it at any of the other "Cedar Fair" parks.

Now see, I think this is great. So if you get a pass for worlds of fun, you can go to cedar point or knots berry farms with your pass- I guess you could go to the snoopy thing in mall of america too, but if I remember how that was I think you pay per ride there anyway, so not sure how that would work. But anyway, I think that is really an awesome idea, right up there with holiday land's free coke.

I always wish that our wdw passes would work at disneyland (or even paris or tokyo). From Michigan, a flight to CA isn't much worse than a flight to FL. and disneyland sometimes makes more sense for a getaway weekend, but when you have a pass at wdw it makes it less attractive to buy tickets to disneyland. I honestly think that we might make an additional trip to disneyland if they took our wdw passes; sure, they wouldn't get the ticket price from us, but they'd get resort, food, etc. I mean, I think that the people who have wdw passes are pretty much never leave property people, which is who I think they are trying to attract to disneyland resort. I guess the concern is that people could buy the less expensive disneyland pass and go to florida, but I don't think many so. cal. residents will be going to FL THAT often that it would loose money, plus they would be paying resort, food, all those things. I really think it would be a good idea.

About the cookie cutter parks, I haven't been to enough of the different six flags to know how much alike they are. But the east and west coast disney parks share a lot in common - those are proabably the parks with the most things in common, but I don't know.

DR

 

[Bob O]

I have nothing against franchise parks!!! I think for disney they perfer to have their parks as resort destinations so to put a bunch of parks around the country would be a negative. But as for Six Flags it is great to buy a season pass and then get to go to any other park they own as part of the season pass. Its is a good cost cutting measure for the family but not something disney has to do to draw business as they are above the others park that have to resort to this to get business. And disney themselves has done just as much cloning of rides as any other park chain.

 

[Distriv]

Once again I agree with Bob, (this is getting weird!) franchise parks are fine! I also think that Disney is a cut above the rest because of the detail and theming. Of couse its not the same kind of franchise park as Six Flags, Six Flags is a Thrill ride park, as are most of the Cedar parks, Disney is Family oriented.

 

[KNWVIKING]

The biggest problem I have with most franchise type parks is that they are seasonal unless they are located in warm weather states. The problem with the seasonal parks is their workforce- most just don't care. The jobs are not "career" type, virtually no advancement,low pay,no benifits,etc. I won't condon any employee not giving 100%, but I do see why they have no motivation to do so. I live an hour away from a Six Flaggs. Been there once,never going back.

 

[DisneyFanGuy]

Seasonal attractions and parks ARE very difficult to run. The entire staff has to be trained every year and many don't return in future seasons. I have run restaurants in highly seasonal areas and they are ROUGH. I cannot even imagine how complex an operation like a seasonal theme park must be.

That said, some companies do it much better than others. They start earlier, train better, provide incentives, and maintain a culture that encourages employees to "rise" rather than "fall". This is also a function of the location general manager who sets the direction and tone.

When Six Flags took over Great America, their operation began to slide dramatically in Hospitality, Cleanliness, and Food Quality. I saw the same thing happen at Magic Mountain, and I am told that Six Flags World of Adventure has pretty much destroyed the Sea World of Ohio.

They are understaffed to the point of neglect. They don't sweep their parking lots or clean their bathrooms. The employees are under supervised and vary wildly in quality.

I have visited Paramount's Kings Island, Cedar Point, Knotts, Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America, and of course Disney and Universal over the past 10 years quite frequently. While nobody does it as well as Disney or Universal, I have had very positive experiences at the parks owned by Cedar Fair and Paramount. Six Flags seems to be concerned with ride enhancements and cost control. They really neglect the guest experience.

In my business, fast food, there is a real difference in operational excellence between companies (i.e. Wendy's and McDonalds) and between different owners (One Wendy's can be great while the other one down the street is awful). In a similar vein, different Franchises of Theme Parks are better than others, and some parks within the same chain may be great, while others are terrible. My experiences lead me to frequent Cedar Point, Paramount, Universal and Disney, and to almost completely avoid Six Flags parks. I vote with my dollar as do all consumers.

 

[YoHo]

While I would like to have my passes for WDW work at DL and Vice Versa, It will never happen. At least not with Seasonal passes. Now Hoppers, that MIGHT be a different story. Seasonal passes just wouldn't be worth it to a company like Disney especially in this economy.

 

[Bob O]

I think it is harder for seasonal parks to be run as good as year around parks. Turnover is higher and you are likely to get less qualified people but some parks like BGW and if all the reports are correct Holiday World do as good a job as any year around park when it comes to being a well run park. It gets down to managment and i think since SF attractes a different demographic than a disney park as an example and they feel they can slide on cleanliness/food quality and save money.
Unfortunaly some of us dont live close enough to a year around park and have to get by with a SF type park and make the best of it.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I'm going to leave the six flags bashing alone except to say I have never had a bad experience at six flags over georgia or at Great Adventure... or for that matter Magic Mountain (but I only went there once).

The pass idea is a wonderful one. I could see Disney (or Universal) taking a leaf from the page of the American Ski Company...just one because they did a lot of other things wrong...
American Ski has several different levels of annual passes. There is the one or two resort pass, there is an All-East Pass, and there is an everywhere pass (who's name escapes me).

The simplest approach would be to negotiate with Paris, Tokyo, Anaheim and Orlando a kick-back scheme. The revenue from an AP would have its first chunk go to the parent company (Oriental Land or Disney) then the other chunk would go in prorated amounts to where the pass was used...whether it was for discounts or park admission. The new pass could be called Globe Hopper and the Globe Hopper Annual Pass. The cost would have to be relatively close to that of WDW passes.

I would be interested in something like that...if I purchased it Disney would be assured that I planned to visit 2 of its parks within a couple of years. The only problem with the Globe Hopper is...how long would "forever" be guarenteed across all parks...I think you could only guarentee "forever" at the park the pass was activated/purchased from.

If you are peeking, Disney, I hereby quit claim all interest in this concept so you are free to take it without fear of lawsuit.