Hersheypark 6/16/08 (Day 3)

Hershey Foods Corp. is the candy maker. If I'm not mistaken, they also own and operate Chocolate World. HERCO (Hershey Entertainment and Resorts) owns and operates the park, the lodging, and the sports and concert facilities (stadium, arena, and hockey team). I'm sure there were business and taxation issues that made the spinoff necessary.

Most people probably aren't aware there are two separate companies involved. In the park, the line between the two is pretty blurry.

I don't really mind the advertising at the park. Obviously, there wouldn't be a park if it weren't for the chocolate factories, so I'm cool with that. I don't have a problem with the food providers (such as Berks and Turkey Hill) getting a shout out. Maybe because I'm there several times a year for so many years, I've gotten used to it. But I don't feel I'm getting struck over the head by it. Maybe because they don't issue a press release for every sponsor proclaiming them the official this or that of Hersheypark.

HERCO owns Hersheypark Arena and the Stadium... but Derry Township (I believe that is the entity) owns GIANT Center.... HERCO only manages it. I think I heard that sometime in the future ownership will be turned over to HERCO, but I am not sure.

Funny thing about branding in Hershey... Dragonfrost mentioned in the *fun factoid of the day* that the hockey team while originally the Bears was in fact spelled B'ars (as in Davey Crocket who killed a b'ar when he was only three)... but was changed to the correct spelling of Bears when they entered the American Hockey League back in the 1930's because the league didn't like the "commercialism" of the play on words in their name. The original B'ars jerseys (then called 'sweaters') had a logo of a bear's head. Another *fun factoid of the day*... when the Syracuse Crunch play the Bears in Hershey, the scoreboard reads [Bears] and [Syracuse] and not the nickname of the team as it does with all other visiting teams... guess HERCO doesn't want to have the word [CRUNCH] on the board, even though the Syracuse team doesn't have anything to do with Nestle.

I still say that they should renovate the Hersheypark arena to a HUGE indoor bumper car venue (200'x80') and have the cars have some sort of hockey theming... maybe the Zamboni Demolition Derby. *** Edited 6/24/2008 8:42:23 PM UTC by SLFAKE***