SeaWorlds future

[seascapemvy]

Listening to the earnings conference call yesterday and the love fest that Sea World had towards Six Flags is it possible the Sea World and Six Flags will merge. I know everyone keeps talking about Universal Buying Sea World but with the land purchase they just completed I don't see any reason for them to buy Sea World but Six Flags and Sea World sounds like a great merger and would help attendance in Orlando as existing Six Flags season pass holders would spend a day at Sea World and maybe even Bush Garden while visiting Disney and or Universal. I know my family would spend at least 1 day at Sea World on one of our yearly trips to WDW. I think Sea World needs something major to survive and a merger is the solution, it's only a question of who?

 

[JimmyV]

I don't know if the concept is sustainable. Just as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus is retiring its iconic elephants, Sea World is going to have to move into a different direction to account for modern sensibilities. I don't know if it can produce $50 worth of entertainment that is engaging enough to draw people away from WDW or US/IOS even for a day. My daughter has always been an animal lover and when she was very young, we always spent a day at SW. But then AK started to fill that need and we haven't been back in at least a dozen years. I suppose Universal could somehow try to transform the park into a third gate. But the park would have to be made over to the point of it no longer being recognizable as Sea World in order to get people interested in using a day's admission there. I don't have any answers here, but I am fairly certain that the Sea World concept as we know it is over. Stick a fork in it. It's done. Demographics are our future, and the young, Bernie Sanders generation is not only disinterested in Sea World. They are outwardly hostile toward it.

 

[dlavender]

I could see the 6 flags angle. Sea World already has the best coasters in Orlando, and will definitely have the best once the new one is up. In college, it was my favorite park (Anheiser owning it at the time definitely had an impact on that )

 

[anneboleyn]

I, personally, will celebrate the day that place is no longer in business. I just worry about the animals, especially the whales. They can't be released, so what can be done with them?