No. Just no. They could barely pay RMC for Gwazi (due to a pandemic, I know) but we don't need them to ruin the Cedar Fair parks. They can barely run the few parks they have. Worst theme park news possibility in some time.
SeaWorld Makes $3.4 Billion Takeover Bid for Cedar Fair
- Thread starter Evan
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Agreed. The $3.4 billion valuation probably doesn’t take into account the goodwill Cedar Fair could charge for their name, which a company like SeaWorld could leverage into a full re-branding away from the PETA controversy.
Cedar Fair is worth less now. They didn't (cedar) fair very well in the past two years.
They COULD pay for it (they had cash reserves and credit), but didn't until they had to because they didn't know what was in store. They stopped paying all their vendors that weren't crucial to maintaining their facilities at the time. Once they reopened the parks they paid their bills. I think most people did similar things when money stopped coming in, prioritizing their bills.
None of this should be a surprise to anyone. Cedar Fair and Six Flags have both struggled in the past two years while SeaWorld Parks managed to thrive. They figured out a winning pricing strategy and formula to not only sell passes to their local markets, but keep those people coming to the parks and spending money all year. This is what SF/CF have tried (unsuccessfully) to do.
I'm seeing a lot of people fretting that SeaWorld will "ruin" the Cedar Fair parks, or close parks the way Cedar Fair did with Geauga Lake. So far SeaWorld hasn't ruined the parks they have. Yes, they've changed, but the market has changed, and they've adapted. They will NEVER be what they were under AB, but under AB they were almost a hobby. A goodwill arm of the brewing company. If they made a profit, great, but it didn't have to be a big profit since the beer always made big profits. Since they were spun off they stumbled and finally found their footing and figured out how to create a successful business plan.
The one concern I saw several people mention is Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg being a similar situation to Cedar Point and Geauga Lake. There's a big difference. SeaWorld operates four parks in close proximity here in Central Florida quite successfully each doing their own things and sharing business and passholders. When Cedar Fair bought Geauga Lake they killed off the animal programs (which guests loved), and had little interest in really trying to run GL successfully. Dick Kinzel ran the chain like Cedar Point was the only park that mattered to the detriment of several parks in the chain.
I can see great synergy and strategies with the acquisition. As it is there are many Passholders who buy Platinum passes from BGW and Sesame Place so they can enjoy their home parks, then come to Orlando in the winter and use their passes here. Add parks in Ohio, North Carolina, etc, and you only get more guests buying Platinum passes so they can do the same. Take a struggling park like Dorney and have nearby Sesame Place and suddenly people see more value in their pass and they have more leverage against Six Flags and Hershey Park. If anything Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion will both benefit. Many locals buy passes for one or the other. If they could get both for a few dollars more why wouldn't they?
I'll also add-- SeaWorld has added new attractions to ALL their parks in the past few years. In that same time period Cedar Fair added one or two big ticket items each year with many parks getting nothing. Cedar Fair was doing more than enough to ruin their parks on their own with lack of investment (just like Six Flags is doing). The Cedar Fair parks were the better purchase over Six Flags, they need less fixing in facilities and image.
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- Feb 7, 2014
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My main concern with this is that (to my eyes) parks like Knott's/Carowinds/Cedar Point in the CF chain HAVE been working on the year round entertainment offerings. Knott's especially since they are actually open all year round.
There also has been an uptick in live entertainment at the CF parks, which I am not sure would continue under SeaWorld.
It will be interesting to follow along on this one either way.
There also has been an uptick in live entertainment at the CF parks, which I am not sure would continue under SeaWorld.
It will be interesting to follow along on this one either way.
SeaWorld has been doing the exact same thing these past few years...
There's an event almost every weekend.
- Feb 7, 2014
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Oh, I agree, they have lots of food events with bands.
I guess I am singling out things more along the lines of Forbidden Frontier/Ghost Town Alive, Knott's Spooky Farm, Cedar Point Nights, etc.
Most of these things have live actors, original shows that get swapped out with each new festival, food offerings, and some of them have bands.
Please correct me if I am wrong (because I am happy to be), but SEAS has kind of pulled back on its live productions/original content last I knew (though admittedly I haven't been to BGW or SeaWorld since 2017).
- Jun 27, 2017
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Two thoughts.
This could be a buyout on the conditions they bring CF management in to run SW. Not the worst thing in the world, but the recent trend of one big project across all the parks annually is a concern.
Or they are buying assets to make it easier to dump the SW parks. It's been somewhere between speculation and a running joke that they keep building coasters to make the parks more attractive for a buyout. This certainly would do that.
This could be a buyout on the conditions they bring CF management in to run SW. Not the worst thing in the world, but the recent trend of one big project across all the parks annually is a concern.
Or they are buying assets to make it easier to dump the SW parks. It's been somewhere between speculation and a running joke that they keep building coasters to make the parks more attractive for a buyout. This certainly would do that.
- Aug 8, 2018
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I think Sea World should continue to invest in their parks. I’m not a huge fan of them try to purchase Cedar Fair as I’m not sure what would be the point except bigger market share.
They would need to keep the company as it’s own subsidiary in my opinion if this what’s to go through.
They would need to keep the company as it’s own subsidiary in my opinion if this what’s to go through.
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I do wonder how much it would affect additions to any singular park to suddenly have multiple other parks under your belt at once. As much as I love the pace Seaworld has been adding stuff recently, would they be able to keep it up if you add in all of the Cedar Fair properties as well? I'm legitimately curious, I don't know how deals like this normally go down.
I'm just excited to see orcas and dolphins in Lake Erie again.
- Mar 1, 2017
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CF has been working on it, but arguably SEAS has been having more success with expanding their event offerings to increase profit.
To me, the main synergy that would come from this purchase is combining most of the higher end regional/amusement parks in the US under one chain. If you add Cedar Point, Knotts Berry Farm, Kings Island, Carowinds, and Canada's Wonderland to the 5 SEAS parks, that's a large majority of the regional parks that combine good food and entertainment offerings with a strong enough attraction base to draw guests both locally and across the country. By applying SeaWorld's marking/event approach to all those parks the combined chain should be able to establish a clear niche without much competition below Universal/Disney but above Six Flags and other parks that focus primarily on rides.
However, this offer seems suspect. Supposedly the offer was all cash, which doesn't make sense because SEAS is already cash poor and heavily in debt, and the price offered probably isn't high enough for Cedar Fair to justify cashing out. If SEAS was actually trying to convince CF of possible synergy, then I would think some stock would be included so that CF stockholders could actually benefit from that synergy? Add in the past financial struggles of both companies and SeaWorld's management instability and I have a hard time understanding this offer let alone seeing it as something that actually has a chance of happening.
Can't tell if sarcastic or not, but there is zero chance of this.
This is SWE's opportunity to run away from their controversies, not double down.
- Aug 18, 2017
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I thought that the pandemic was at very least going to Thanos-snap the non-media conglomerate owned chains.
- Jul 8, 2019
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Has there ever been an instance where leveraging up on debt to acquire theme parks has worked out well?
Or maybe I should ask, has there ever been an instance where that didn’t end up in flames?
Or maybe I should ask, has there ever been an instance where that didn’t end up in flames?
This is a very interesting turn of events
It's funny because they're just getting the wheels turning again in their OG parks after the 2013 time period,
where people came to the earth shattering conclusion that they do in fact have Orcas in the parks. It seems like just yesterday.
I would think they would want to continue fleshing out their offerings there.
Personally I'd rather them put their money toward this
It's funny because they're just getting the wheels turning again in their OG parks after the 2013 time period,
where people came to the earth shattering conclusion that they do in fact have Orcas in the parks. It seems like just yesterday.
I would think they would want to continue fleshing out their offerings there.
Personally I'd rather them put their money toward this
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That was when the parks were majority owned by a Chinese investment company who had big ideas (until they went bankrupt).
The more I think about this merger, the more sense it makes. SeaWorld is looking to build hotels, and buying CF they bring in experience and a small hotel portfolio to use as a model. Economy of scale (more parks, more buying power) for EVERYTHING from napkins to roller coasters. It's the same model that Six Flags used in the Premier era which would have worked had it not been an economic downturn and never figuring out the right pricing strategy. Six Flags gave away the gate and never figured out how to charge a fair price for admissions and passes to actually recoup the money. SeaWorld has hit on a formula that is working and can easily be rolled out across more parks.
