SeaWorld is drowning—in red ink. “As they reported continued declines in revenue and attendance,” the Orlando Sentinel writes, “SeaWorld Entertainment executives vowed to push for improved financial performance through a combination of new attractions, cost cuts and pricing strategies.”
SeaWorld cut its workforce by 320 people last year, and still posted a $12.5 million loss. Which isn’t to say that SeaWorld lacks for strategies to turn things around. They want to make themselves a discount alternative to their rather more lavishly endowed competitors: “The customer we’re going . . . after is more value-conscious than some of Disney and Universal’s customers,” said CEO Joel Manby. The company is also retrofitting their aging roller-coasters with new-fangled (really, just newishly fangled) virtual reality glasses.
Count The Scrapbook skeptical: SeaWorld is welcome to try goggling up its rides, but the reality (virtual or otherwise) is that anyone who wants such a virtual experience can get it at home with one of a variety of smartphone 3-D attachments. What you can’t get at home (unless you have a rather larger swimming pool than most residences can brag) is the sight of a five-ton orca leaping out of the water.
The Shamu shows were the essential part of the SeaWorld franchise. But the writing has been on the wall ever since the maudlin kids’ movie Free Willy transformed killer whales from fearsome predators to cuddly victims in captivity. The contentious 2013 documentary Blackfish furthered the cruelty-to-marine-mammals theme and SeaWorld was sunk.
The aquarium amusement park succumbed to the sustained pressure of animal rights groups such as PETA and WDC (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) and announced last year it is phasing out its orca extravaganzas. Even though not all the SeaWorld parks have ended the live shows outright, could it be that a drag on sales has already begun, as the public comes to believe there’s no more killer whale action to be seen?
It must have seemed like a good idea at SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment to finally make the controversy go away, just as it must have seemed like a good idea over at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus headquarters to ixnay, last year, the long-protested elephant element of its show. But take away the franchise-defining part of a business and you can’t expect the business to thrive. If no one has pointed it out to SeaWorld, The Scrapbook will: The Barnum folks just announced they’re folding up their tents.
