Posted
With its stock price suffering and attendance dropping, SeaWorld announced Thursday that CEO and President Jim Atchison is stepping down and it is laying off employees. Atchison's severance package will include a cash payment of $2.4 million. He will also receive an annual consulting fee of $440,000. And he will be eligible for continued vesting of stock options.
Read more from The Orlando Sentinel.
This should have happened at least a year ago. The company was starting to look like Cedar Fair in Kinzel's last few years. Earnings take a bath this year, and there were almost no big cap ex projects other than the drop tower at BGT, which opened late. Gosh, Disney and Universal have a great year with new attractions... what a mystery!
What pisses me off to no end is that the company is on a slide and he gets millions for his trouble. Executive contracts are so broken.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
I don't think the impact of the movie of lies was significant. I think not building anything new when your competitors did is the problem.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
I suppose you could argue that emails, being a (relatively) inexpensive way to advertise, would allow the company to reach out to specific demographics (such as persons likely to be alarmed by Blackfish) at little cost and potential benefit.
Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.
--Fran Lebowitz
We were able to a 2 park fun card for $99 at BGW this past season that was good from the Spring opening to August 30.
Any other time we've gone to Williamsburg we had to pay almost full price to get in. They were discounting very heavily. When we visited over the 4th of July weekend it was packed. I thought they were doing well.
We went back for their Halloween event, and during the day everything was a walk on. Later in the day when the Halloween activities were starting the park was packed.
I really thought they were having a good year. We have talked about going for their Christmas event. Not sure if we'll make it or not.
Does anyone go along with me to harken back to the days of Anheiser Busch, thinking it was a much, much better time for these parks? It seems since Blackstone took over the places have just gone kind of meh.
Maybe AB used their deep pockets to subsidize the parks all along, as Busch Gardens started as a place for patrons to enjoy while they promoted their breweries and products. And now that an actual amusement park company is at the helm, maybe it's clear that the places can't quite stand alone. Perhaps it's a growing process, but it would explain the trimming of the fat. There have been a few new attractions but spread few and far between throughout the chain. And these layoffs are just disturbing. Maybe it will all turn around one day, but I hope it's not writing on the wall.
And I'm no expert, so I'm using words like "maybe" and "perhaps". But something ain't right here and it's noticeable. In no way do I blame Blackfish for the trouble. I think it goes back to the removal of free beer.
:-)
Edit to replace Palace with Blackstone. Duh.
I think AB was fine, and so was Blackstone. Things definitely appeared suboptimal under InBev. When they went public, I know Blackstone still had influence as a major investor, but beyond that they could largely run their own show. Atchison I believe was at the helm most of that time.
Blackfish is a distraction. Of course they respond to it, but that doesn't mean the dots connect to failure. If your biggest park executes a series of erratic pricing and discount schemes against competition that built significant new attractions, and you built nothing, of course you're going to take a hit. You would think they would have at least kept up on pushing the Swirling Hockeypucks To Penguinland, but they didn't.
The most ridiculous thing is cutting 300 jobs while still profitable. Replace the dead weight, absolutely, but if this is simply a cost-cutting move, it's short-sighted. It's bad enough they don't invest in the right cap ex, but not investing in the right people is a terrible idea.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
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