Kenversations: Is That a Hidden Mickey on Shamu?
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What About Disney?
Okay, so what about Disney? As a publicly traded company, The Walt Disney Company has a responsibility to at least consider making a play for the Busch parks, especially the ones in Orlando, which are in direct competition with the Walt Disney World Resort. Although Disney isn�t commenting yet, I would be shocked if they aren�t crunching the numbers and throwing around concepts.
Is Disney in any position to buy the Busch parks as a package? Would they want to in the first place?
Before Busch bought the Sea World parks, there had been talk of Disney doing it. But they didn�t.
In the 1990s, there was talk of Disney buying Knott�s Berry Farm, located not too far away from the Disneyland Resort. The idea, as I understand it, would have been to remake most of the Knott�s property, keeping some of the historic elements and essentiually turning it into the Disney�s America concept that got shot down for Virginia. I thought it would have been interesting for Busch, which had done a great job since acquiring Sea World from a textbook company, to buy Knott�s and merge their food companies and their theme park companies. Alas, Ceder Fair bought Knott�s.
The point of all of that was that Disney did not buy Knott�s, and didn�t buy the Sea World parks. Disney has never, ever bought a single existing theme park � at least, not as far as we know. I suppose it is possible that Disney could have owned a park or two at some time through some sort of shell company of which that none of us ever heard. The closest thing that Disney did was buy the Wrather corporation, which owned the Disneyland Hotel as well as the Queen Mary/Spruce Goose attraction in Long Beach, California. Disney subsequently dropped their interests in Long Beach.
Buying an existing theme park company would mean integrating a different corporate culture, and Disney has its own very distinct and strong culture. There was some clash between the Disney culture and that of the Queen Mary/Spruce Goose operation. Still, the corporation is under different management than it was when it got bad publicity in Long Beach and passed on Knott�s. Disney managed to integrate ABC, from whence rose Disney CEO Bob Iger. But then again the ABC acquisition was mostly about cable channels (Disney had what, one?) and media networks, which Disney had been lacking. Disney isn�t lacking theme parks. None are being built in the Western Hemisphere at this time.
As with Universal and other potential buyers, it the Orlando-area parks would probably be the most attractive for Disney. However, if Disney could add Disney Cruise and Disney Vacation Club operations to San Diego and near San Antonio, it just may make the idea all the more appealing. But I don�t hear much about people taking cruises from or to Texas. �Oooh, look! Oil rigs!� (That�s not a dig against Texas, by the way � seems like a great place to me.)
Disney has always had some animal elements in their operations, including Discovery Island and the Living Seas, but they really jumped into it big time with Disney�s Animal Kingdom. Sea World, Aquatica, and Discovery Cove could benefit from such tie-ins as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Disney Nature. DisneySea could finally come to America.
Plus, there�s the chance to get back into Virginia, although Busch Gadens is a far cry from Disney�s America.
Busch features Sesame Street characters while Disney has the Muppets � so that would be in interesting junction on Jim Henson creations. Now where are those Fraggles?
The three Orlando-area parks would provide little redundancy, theme-wise, to the Walt Disney World Resort. The Living Seas has a slight overlap with Discovery Cove and Sea World and Disney already has two water slide parks, so Aquatica would be a third. The Busch Gardens properties are another matter.
So, I could see Disney making a play, especially for the Orlando-area parks, especially if they could get a partner to help, such as the Oriental Land Company. It would be more likely to me that they wouldn�t want the Busch Gardens or Sesame Place parks as part of the deal, or would quickly sell them off. Either or both of those properties (and their water parks) could be sold off to any number of other theme park operators, such as Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Merlin Entertainment, Herschend, Hershey, PARC Management, or Parques Reunidos. Perhaps Hershey would want Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania? Cookie Monster might be happy.
The problem with breaking up the parks by location instead of theme comes up more with Sea World than Busch Gardens. Shamu is the Mickey Mouse of Sea World, and if the �rights� to Shamu can only go with one buyer, then the other Sea World parks are diminished in their draw and value if they aren�t kept together. I couldn�t see Disney buying Sea World Orlando and letting anyone else have Shamu.
If the San Diego park is sold off to Merlin if could be paired with Legoland. Even the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the famous San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal park, could potentially be a good owner, though the character of the park would likely shift more towards a conservation operation than a theme park.
I can salivate at the thought of Disney getting a hold of the parks � especially the Orlando parks - but I think these are more likely scenario elements:
Blackstone ends up with the Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego parks, grouping them with Merlin Entertainments (and thus Legoland), and Universal Orlando (NBC-Universal may reduce its stake, giving Blackstone majority ownership).
Candover Investments/Parques Reunidos may get a stake, or may end up with the Busch Gardens parks.
Busch family may take a stake.
Busch Gardens and neighboring water parks may end up with Cedar Fair or Six Flags.
On a personal note - I have missed contributing regularly to LaughingPlace.com in this capacity. I do pop up in the discussion boards, and blog occasionally at TheDisneyBlog.com, but I seem to have taken an unplanned break from regular contributions here. Life got in the way, keeping me busy with other things, keeping my mind elsewhere. So if you have missed me, I apologize for my scarcity. Maybe I will be able to make more regular contributions again.
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-- Ken Pellman
Ken Pellman is a Public Information Officer and freelance writer with a BA in Thematic Environmental Design. He resides in Anaheim with his wife, who is expecting their second child, their daughter, and their dog. Ken can be reached directly at Kenversations[at]flash[dot]net. Visit his personal blog at http://pellman.blogspot.com.
The views, opinions and comments of Ken Pellman, and all of our columnists and reviewers, are not necessarily those of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
--Posted August 7, 2009
�2007 Ken Pellman, all rights reserved. Licensed to LaughingPlace.com.