Feb. 28, 2024
Do Cedar Fair's Earnings Matter?
Cedar Fair reported a loss during the last earnings, but does it matter?
Cedar Fair reported a loss during the last earnings, but does it matter? We also discuss Six Flags Great Adventure’s Savannah Sunset glamping resort and the ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ off-Broadway show.
Show Outline:
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:01 Cedar Fair Earnings
- 04:15 Theme Park Profit Models
- 15:30 Six Flags Great Adventure’s Savannah Sunset glamping
- 25:15 ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ off-Broadway show coming to New York City
SOURCES
- Cedar Fair: https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/202402/10048/
- Six Flags Glamping: https://attractionsmagazine.com/six-flags-great-adventure-savhannah-sunset-glamping-resort-opening-june/
- Dungeons and Dragons: https://attractionsmagazine.com/dungeons-dragons-off-broadway-show-new-york-city/
WEBVTT
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Los Angeles and someplace in Texas.
This is green Tag, they bark in
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there. I am Philip, and
I am joined as always on my co
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host Scott Swinson, a Scott Swinson
Crery Development and Green Tag is all about
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us taking the top stories in theme
park from each week and asking questions and
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puzzling through them together. And Scott
is he's somewhere and I don't know,
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he's always Texas. You know,
it seems like it's always busy season now.
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I don't know. For Scott.
Yeah, it used to be.
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It used to be only fourth quarter, and boy is that changed. But
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yes, I am in. I'm
just outside of San Antonio. I'm in
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New BRONFORLDS Texas, and I'm doing
some work here for my wonderful friends at
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Natural Bridge Cavern. So so yes, I am in this adorable little airbnb
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here in somewhere. As Philip so
adequately or so adequately that was really a
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cutdown, so so so, as
Stuteley noted, I am somewhere in tech
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perfect. Okay, today day we're
going to start off trying to figure out
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if the earnings from six Flags actually
matter, because I have been, I
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have been. Really it's like,
we had a pre show discussion and I'm
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like, does this matter? I
don't know, and Scott was like,
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let's just start recording. So this
yeah, because again we were having before
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we started recording the show, we
were having this intense, in depth conversation
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and I said, wait a minute, this is good content. Let's share
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this with So here we go.
This could this could fly or it could
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flop, but we're going to still
have the same So here we go.
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So six, so Cedar Fair released
their earnings, and the tail dr version
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of this is I'm not sure if
it even matters because it's kind of like
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it's a little bit like a like
a well, we'll talk about it.
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So, So, first of all, their attendance dipped slightly, only slightly,
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from twenty six point seven in twenty
twenty three million people to twenty six
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point nine million in twenty twenty two, so that's a slight flightlight dip.
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Their revenue also dipped a little bit. In park per capital spending was down
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one percent. It was partially offset
by a five percent increase and out of
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park revenues. Okay, here's the
interesting part though. So basically metrics are
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down from the previous years, but
only by like a tiny bit. The
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interesting part was that they had a
record five point eight million guests in the
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final four months of twenty twenty three, which is a nine percent increase over
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the same period in twenty twenty two. However, the spend during that time
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decreased. They also reported a loss
in that same quarter of ten million,
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driven by costs associated with the merger
with six lags. Okay, So I
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was trying to puzzle out with thought. I was like, okay, Like,
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so TLDR their numbers are slightly down, but we've talked about why all
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the numbers kind of should be down
because there was revenge travel that was still
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happening in the quarter of their referencing, and now it's like adjusting. We've
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talked about adjustment forever. And then
basically they're making tickets cheaper to get people
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into the parks during the holiday season. So yeah, like, yeah,
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their attendance is much higher and the
per spend because that's just how it works.
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More more people come into the park, so on average they spend less.
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Like sure, right, Uh,
I think well, there was I
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mean, there was an old way
of approaching attendance and theme park revenue.
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Uh there it was always there was
always this sort of arm wrestle back and
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forth of is it more important to
have clicks of the turnstile or is it
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more important to actually uh make make
more money on the ticket sales? And
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this has been, this has been
so I'm going fight back and forth what
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what what I was when we were
trying to figure out when we're trying to
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figure out that this is important not
is basically, and this is why I
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need Scott's help on because you know, the way I understand it as like
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a you know, much newer to
the theme park world. The veterans.
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He's the veteran. Okay, the
veteran, not that type of veteran.
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So I was wondering, Okay,
so here's what I thought. I see
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that there's almost like there's like three
kind of tiers to this. Tier.
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One is just like you you learn
in restaurants school, because I was in
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that first and and it is butts
and seats basically is what our chef used
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to say, which basically is we
had to get people into the park,
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and the more people that are in
the park, the more chance we had
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that they will buy things. We
have higher margin on okay, So that
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to me that was like the original
as a few years maybe like from the
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last decade or whatever. That was
like the Tier one. Tier two was
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like they discovered this thing called the
second Gate, and that was Halloween,
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and Universal has made it its own
separate quarter and now everyone else literally everyone,
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like remember last season when we talked
about you know, coming near you
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lights on everything like insert x here. So everyone has decided that Q four
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they could charge, they could make
two gates, they could double their inventory,
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right essentially, because the problem with
the problem with number one is that
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just like in restaurants, it expires. You can't get the day back.
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So if you don't sell out every
single day, you've lost your inventory and
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you can't get it back. But
now Tier two we discovered, hey,
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actually we could just invent new inventory. They could do the single the second
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gate, invent new inventory. And
people are like, aren't the guests going
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to get upset that we're having their
day that used to be twelve hours and
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now it's only like six and they're
like, apparently not so. And this
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is a uniquely American thing. We
talked about that too. And then Tier
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three, I think is where we
were getting to write like at the Crest
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of the Peak, which I think
it's really just Disney that has been journey
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into the new Frontier, which i'd
call Tier three, which is like if
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our parks sell out and our gates
sell out, they're like, you know,
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they're after dark events, a gimbig
bash, all that selling out,
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what can we possibly do? Oh, we could add entirely new properties that
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are luxury experiences that we could sell
outside of the park, and that would
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include the sar Cruiser some of those
items that they're doing. That is how
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I understand it did correct, right, So that's how I understood it.
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Not so much well, but I
think we could. Honestly, I think
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we can say that Universal is starting
to sort of dip their toe into that
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as well with the New Vegas Experience. You know, things that are outside
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the confines of their park, or
different different approaches to park like the Family
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Park, you know those kinds of
things. So yes, I think you're
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absolutely right in that. The the
back back in the day, it was
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you know, if we build it, they will come. And what we
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need to do is get as many
clicks on the turnstile as we possibly can
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but even back then, like I
said, there was still an arm wrestling
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going on. There was still a
fight going on between do we look at
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real money or do we look at
attendance? And what usually ended up happening
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is by the end of the year
whichever was higher. That was the matrix
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that we chose to use when we
were reporting it to this to anybody else
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like the stockholders or the media or
whatever. So, yes, our attendance
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is up. What we wouldn't say
is but our revenue is down because we
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took we cut our ticket price in
half. So to that end, it
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apparently is still an ongoing battle back
and forth. But in what you in
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what we've just talked about and what
we've reported here, seems like it's the
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same thing, right, Like nothing
has changed exactly, Like this is business
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as usual? Is how I read
this? Right? And I think,
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yeah, exactly exactly. And and
the way I look at it is we
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had a slight down tick at Cedar
Fair. We had a slight down tick
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and what really, but what really, what is the light at the end
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of the tunnel is we had significantly
we had a nine percent increase of clicks
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of the turnstile. But we did
it at a lower per person a per
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capita, so we did a lower
per cap and that's not necessarily the wrong
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thing to do if you are on
a recovery, if you have a long
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term recovery plan, the more people
you can get in, the more they
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can have fun. What we what
really and then to really make it sort
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of a this is more of a
wash is their losses. Many of their
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losses are attributed to the merger,
which is going to create in theory,
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a great deal of growth in theory. So yeah, but yeah, because
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we just we really don't know.
We really don't know. I actually,
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my gut tells me that the Cedar
Fair six Flags merger is a good thing.
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I think it is going to be. I think they I think both
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companies having some sort of familiarity with
both companies. I think both companies have
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things the other one doesn't have.
So if they're able to pull the strength
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from both, I think they will
make a better merged company. But it's
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not going to happen instantly. And
you know, like I like, like
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I mentioned to Philip before we even
started recording, as I said, at
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this point, from what I can
see, Cedar Fair is still acting like
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Cedar Fair and six Flags is still
acting like six Flags, and they're in
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the process of coming together. But
when you take two big behemoth companies like
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this, it is a slow process. There is so so much legally is
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that they have to go through before
they can start acting like, you know,
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a nice smoothly running machine, you
know. So they're still figuring that
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out, and I think, you
know, I think we can only give
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them the time to do that.
But you know, now that we've gone
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through it, and after we've had
our both our pre recording discussions and are
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on air discussions, I kind of
look at this and go, yeah,
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they had a downtick, right,
yeah, yeah, so I guess yeah,
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I think that so basically like it
is news, but I think for
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our audience it's not really important because
it's just business as usual. I think
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the only important thing might be to
understand that they are still struggling with that
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tier one right, like, like
they they haven't gotten to the point where
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they can Yes, they're not selling
out, correct, they're not selling and
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they're not selling out, but they've
learned that by reducing their by reducing their
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gate, by reducing their ticket price, that they can drive attendance, So
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it depends on what they do from
this point. You know, this is
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information, This is interesting information to
evaluate, for them to evaluate and to
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have. Do they need to reduce
their spend so that this new lower ticket
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price. Do they need to increase
opportunities for in park upsell? Do you
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know there's a lot of there's a
lot of factors that come into play here,
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but it is interesting information. I
won't say, you know, it's
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it's unimportant for our listeners. I
think it is important for us to recognize
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that all too often with large corporations, the moment there is something that is
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not yea a growth, everyone freaking
out. I look at it. A
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catastrophe. Yeah, everyone freaks out. It's a down tick. That's not
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where you want to be and you
can't sustain that. But the information that
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they have is good. Say it
and this leads into our I guess,
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I guess the related story, but
I don't know. I think it's it's
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also clear that they haven't figured out
really a way to make more second gates,
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and I think that's that was my
You know, if you look at
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tier two, which is second gates, you know, Disney, this is
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something Disney is becoming very good at, which we've reported on previously. But
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you know they're they're doing now they
have Star Wars nights and they're it's all
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like it's like they have second gates
year round now and they are selling out
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and and so they're really finding a
way to make that Tier two work.
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Well, they're selling out in California. Let's let's be clear here, California
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is you have a You have a
very different perspective of of what Disney is
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doing than than I do. Disney
is even though they have more than one
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park, But in California, Disney
is a park. It's a park that
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has two haves in my opinion.
In Florida, it is a resort,
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so it required it's a multi,
a multi hotel resort with significantly more parks,
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significantly more land, and it is
not filling up. So I think
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that when we talk about Disney,
we kind of have to make that distinction.
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You're right, Disney, California,
they can't take the capacity. But
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let's be honest, that park was
never built for the capacity that it was
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supposed to that it's that it could
potentially have. Now it's a tiny park,
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it's got no queue, it's got
no you know, it's got doesn't
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have enough parking. There's a lot
of things. So the whole idea of
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the reservation concept there, you know, that's how they're managing. They're actually
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at the opposite they're having the opposite
challenge of Tier one. They have too
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many potential people in the park and
to try to diversify that. That's why
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I think is driving the second gate, to try to say, Okay,
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well you can't get in during the
day, but here's another here's some more
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ticket media that we'll put out at
night, which is much more, much
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sexier to a Disney fan, to
say, come to this exclusive event.
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Then we're going to open the park. We're going to have a day ticket
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and a night ticket. Yeah,
for the same product that I think that
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was exactly what I said. I
mean, I think that's kind of how
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I sorted this discussion, which is
that I just wanted to clarify that that
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is only true in California. Yeah, but I'm not true it Disney in
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Florida. So I had agree with
that. I mean, I think that
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clearly they're scaling back the reservation system
in Florida. So you know, and
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we know that it's not been a
capacity and they don't have I guess this
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is where my knowledge is lacking.
But I don't believe that they have as
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many second gate options year round as
Disneyland does in Florida. Like at this
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point, we have like a after
we have a second gate option like almost
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every month here in California. And
I don't think that's true. But to
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your point, to your point,
for the part of the reason they don't
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is because they haven't correct. I
mean, I'm painting this as a progression.
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I'm paying this as like an ideal
progression for business models in theme park
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area. And I think that it's
this might have been maybe what Bob was
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mentioning when we talked about last week. It's like, is this the thing
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he's talking about when he's like,
we're putting all this money into increasing capacity,
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Like, does he mean part of
it trying to max out the capacity
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in Florida? You know what?
Possibly? Possibly, And it could be
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also that the capacity or the the
expanding capacity is the second Yeah. So
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related to all this, of course, talking about this concept of like a
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second gate and whatnot. So six
Flags has made some two announcements. I
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was trying to tie them to the
first one, but I think now that
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we've talked about it, I don't
think it. It doesn't really fit because
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you almost see like the thing like
six Flag, it's like Cedar Fair.
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Sorry, Cedar Fair is still struggling
to get enough people in the parks.
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But six Flags, I would argue
they're also struggling to do that, but
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they're also trying to do second things
into the parks at a full ticket price,
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because as we've reported, they can
get people at the parks. They
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had a nine percent increase at a
lower so Six Flags they had two things
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that came out of they're interesting.
First is that they're doing a glamping resort
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that's opening June fourteenth. And this
this is that I believe that's at actually
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two locations, but the one that
I have here in the show notes is
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from the Great Adventure in Savannah,
and basically it's an overnight glamping property.
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It's going to have twenty suites.
Then it can cater to couples up with
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up the two guests, or you
know, for smaller families. So they
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come with a daily breakfast, Giraft
free feeding and park admission to six Flags
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Great Adventure, six Flags Hurricane Harbor
Park and the Wild Safari Adventure for every
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person on the reservation. If they
already have park admission, they oversee front
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line access the parkingstead, which I
would say is not really a great deal.
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And A Trash's Magazine is the one
that brought the story and they did
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a mock checkout and they said that
the prices for two nights on opening weekend
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this June is fourteen hundred in a
couple suite and twenty two hundred in a
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family suite. So it's basically it
definitely is a pre a whole property that's
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designed to be a premium property,
So it definitely would be them trying,
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you know, I think that tier
two type of thing on the six Flag
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side. It's also interesting to note
that they went that six Flags Magic Mountain
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here in California has announced they are
bringing back Screen Break. It's coming back
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March twenty second through April thirteenth,
and this is the second year that they're
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and have done this and the main
difference is between last year and this year
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is that they've gone from fourteen nights
last year to eight nights this year.
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And last year they offered a multi
night ticket. This year there's no multi
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night ticket. It is forty dollars
per person plus parking unless you are a
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passholder. If you're a pass holder, you can get entry for free,
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but it is limited, like it's
first come, first serve, and it's
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limited, so you can reserve online. If the online reservations sell out,
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you can show up at the park
in person before the event and try and
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get a ticket from guest services if
you have an annual pass if but basically
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once they're gone, they're gone,
and then you would have to buy a
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ticket to come to the night event
of screen Break. And this year screen
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Break the offerings are relatively the same. There's two hunted houses, three scare
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zones, two DJ areas, and
they have themed food and beverage and whatnot.
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And last year we talked about how
I actually think they did an excellent
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job making at a new event,
like when when you went last year it
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was monsters, it was gouls gone
wild. It was actually like a screen
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Break theme. It wasn't just Halloween. It was actually like monsters on a
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spring break, and it was excellent. It was actually really well done.
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I talked about it last year about
how I think it's because they had access
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to talents that they don't normally have. This year, they've announced that they're
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going to just bring back all the
themes and the same stuff. They're going
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to change out one of the haunted
houses to be saw instead. So Theirica
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Saw was a really popular one.
And again ips all that, so they
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must have had the license to last
through screen break, which shows some future
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planning. But yeah, I mean, essentially it's seems to me like very
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similar where you know, they did
the test the first year and it went
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mediums, they're going to do it
again. It was enough to do it
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again, but clearly they're reducing the
nights to just being on the Friday Saturday,
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not Sunday, and they are trying
to make the per spend guest higher
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by reducing the ticket options and probably
limiting the amount of free tickets that can
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come in. But ultimately they're still
trying to get more people to come in
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for a second gate and trying to
spend more money on the food and beverage
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and all that stuff. Well,
it sounds to me exactly what you were
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talking about in your Tier one discussion. They're trying to max out the capacity
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for fewer nights. I mean,
that's that just is quite honestly good business.
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Now, whether it creates a good
product, that's a whole nother story.
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How can they manage the larger crowds
on the on the fewer nights,
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et cetera, et cetera, et
cetera. That goes back to our old
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you know, the old song and
dance that we always do. What about
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what about our execution? What's the
execution going to be? So it seems
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like they're they're doing that. I
mean, I think it sounds like a
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good idea. If it was a
good event last year, let's hope that
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it's a good event this year.
I think they're they're finding a way that
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they can max out that that capacity
over eight nights versus fourteen nights, which
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seems like a good business move.
I want to step back just a little
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bit to the glamping resort experience.
So high end has Star Cruiser vibes in
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my opinion for sure, well it
has it has. I mean, being
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being from Florida, it has.
It has Animal Kingdom Lodge vibes. To
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me. It's also something that at
one point in time six Flags in Tampa.
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I'm sorry, Bush Gardens in Tampa
talked about experimenting with as well.
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So here are here are the things. This goes back to my Not only
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is it it's not really a new
idea, it's something that that has been
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done before, and it's been done
by Disney, which they, you know,
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have a a bit better track record
with the the the higher end experiences,
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not necessarily including glac Star Cruiser.
But so it's I'm curious. I
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hope that six is almost outsourcing this
because six Flags forgive me six Flags friends,
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but six Flags is not the first
company, not the first theme part
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company I think of when I think
of high end exclusive experiences. Now,
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maybe this is a turning point for
them. Maybe this is something that is
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coming about because of the Cedar Fair
merger. You know, maybe they're starting
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to, as a combined company explore
these options for more high end exclusive experiences.
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I don't know. I will say
it sounds really cool and the concept
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art that I've seen looks really cool. And no, I don't have any
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sort of behind the scenes access,
it's what's been published. But but I'm
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just again, it comes back to
that execution, and is this this seems
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it. Just when I saw this
announcement, the first thing I thought was,
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this seems out of character for six
Flags. This seems out of character
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for six Legs. Now, I'm
not saying they can't do it. I'm
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not saying they won't do it.
Well, I'm saying it just seems out
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of character based on their previous track
record and the way they've kind of positioned
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themselves in the industry. You know, they've always positioned themselves as very much
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an amusement park. You know,
Yes they have ips, yes they have
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themed areas, but for the most
part, it's an amusement park with a
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couple of themed areas and some ips, which, as a coaster nerd like
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myself, I love Six Flags exactly
for that. So I'm curious. This,
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like I said, seems out of
a little bit off brand. But
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is this the sign of the new
six Flags, the new six Flags Cedar
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Fair merger. I don't know.
We'll see. Yeah, I don't know.
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Cool. I agree with you on
all those. I also would say
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that I think the price point is
pretty high for the area that they are
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in, like the the Yeah,
I mean it, I mean, just
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looking at that ma checkout, like
fourteen hundred and a couple suite and twenty
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two hundred in the family suite.
I don't know, like twenty two one
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hundred dollars for two nights. And
this is in Savannah, like I don't
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when it is and stuff, But
it better, Like I said, I
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want, I want my car washed
when I come out. I mean,
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they it better be. It better
have every bell and every whistle. Now,
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granted, if there are only twenty
suitets, it is possible that they
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are able to give them the kind
of service that you deserve for that level,
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for that price level. And you
know, a giraffe and a giraffe
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feeding, you know what does that
mean? Are you doing it from your
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balcony or are you schlepping out to
the chain link fence that holds the giraffe?
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Two very different experiences. So I
don't I just think this would be
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maybe not. I mean, I
just think that this would even be expensive
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in California, right, you know? And and well it breaks down to
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what for a family would be eleven
hundred to night for a couple, seven
333
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hundred for a couple. Yeah,
seven hundred per night. So yeah,
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that's especially when you're not like you're
not. You could go to like the
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Ritz Carlton right for like up a
similar price, right, and then you
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just buy a ticket to go into
the park, you know, like and
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take an over there. Like it's
not like I don't, I don't know.
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I don't know. I don't know. Well, whatever, we'll see
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as as you said, execution,
but you know, it does include it
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does include the it does include the
park admissions. Yeah, but so I
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have to kind of back that out. It's not that high. I get
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it, I get it. No, I I, like I said,
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if the it comes down to execution, like we always always always say,
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I don't. I don't know whether
it's a thing that I would do.
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But if someone came back to me
and said, oh my gosh, you
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would never believe this was on a
six Flags property because they take care of
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us like gold, all right,
consider it, okay, I don't know.
348
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We'll have to see yeah, yes
or no. I think the section
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should be called the gamification of improvisation. And this is the story is that
350
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the Dungeons and Dragons, an off
Broadway show, is coming to New York
351
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City. The op Broadway show Dungeons
and Dragons, the twenty Sided Tavern is
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an interactive theatrical production that allows the
audience to participate in a live, officially
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licensed Dungeons and Dragons fantasy quest.
The plot is driven by audience decisions and
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the show features a cast of five
actors play playing over thirty unique characters in
355
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a popular forgotten realm setting. Each
performance is unique, with the audience voting
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00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.079
on key stories decisions throughout through the
use of an app so the audience empts
357
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can decide which characters appear and help
them overcome puzzles, riddles, and combat
358
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experiences. Additionally, some audience members
will be chosen to join the cast on
359
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stage in various activities, including trivia
characters and fantasy beer pong. So,
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for those that haven't played Dungeons and
Dragons before, I'm sure you're familiar with
361
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the whole concept of the D twenty
system and all that, But essentially Dungeons
362
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and Dragons is like you make your
character and then you go through you know,
363
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generally it's a tabletop game, uh, And that means that everything is
364
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done in the imagination and on paper, and generally what you're doing is you
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make, you make a character,
and then you know, you act or
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you role play through situations and whenever
you want to do something or you know,
367
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use a skill or whatever. You
know, like you want to try
368
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and convince someone to do something,
so you have to roll a persuasion skill
369
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or whatever you're rolling dice to determine
how how well you will succeed at the
370
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item or whether you'll succeed in fail
or fail right, and you get certain
371
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boosts to what you do. So
basically what this is doing is is taking
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that the portion of the rolling thing
and allowing the audience to participate in that
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through the app, and then that
influences the outcome in real time of what's
374
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happening on stage. Yeah, and
the thing that I think is interesting and
375
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that it's not really mentioned in this
story, so I'm curious to see how
376
00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:18.279
how it plays out is actually having
the game master who is the one who
377
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helps facilitate the forward movement of the
show. There are so many things about
378
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this particular story that I really really
like. First off, it it ties
379
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into what we've been talking about for
several weeks now, and that is how
380
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powerful the gamer's market is right now. More powerful, more vibrant, touching
381
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more people, opening more wallets than
movies, you know, than what's happening
382
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in Hollywood. And again, it
wasn't until I went to gen Con that
383
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I truly saw the power of gamers
and the power of the gaming culture.
384
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So that I think is really exciting. Secondly, this is truly immersive.
385
00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:07.119
You know, you've heard me use
my phrase. I get tired of people
386
00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:11.279
saying things are immersive when they're just
three hundred and sixty degrees or something you
387
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walk through. Something is immersive when
the participants or the audience members actually can
388
00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:22.799
impact the forward momentum of the presentation, can actually change what's happening. This
389
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is clearly what's happening here. So
I think that's I think that's really fun.
390
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The third thing that I'm excited about
is this is a wonderful from what
391
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it's how it's described here. It's
a wonderful melding of technology from the game
392
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app and live performance from bringing people
up on stage to play fantasy beer pong.
393
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:45.599
This is this is just like yep, super simple. Love it easy
394
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to do and easy to make to
make work. And the fourth reason is
395
00:28:49.799 --> 00:28:57.079
completely selfish. So two years ago
at Tampa Fringe or three years ago at
396
00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:00.960
Tampa Fringe. I got a chance
to sit in as a guest in a
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fringe show that was very, very
similar to this in concept. It was
398
00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:11.880
not licensed by Dungeons and Dragons.
It was not It was a completely different
399
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.440
scenario, completely scripted for the show, but it did exactly the same thing.
400
00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:22.200
There were only four of us.
There was a game master and four
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actors, and we were all improv
actors, and we utilized the exact same
402
00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:30.720
concepts, the rolling of dice,
the but and then the audience. Because
403
00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:33.720
we didn't have an app with a
fringe show, the audience actually had a
404
00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:37.759
die that they could roll at certain
key moments and and change, and we
405
00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:41.440
had to all adapt to the changes
that were being made within the realm,
406
00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:49.759
within the world with the the reintroduction
of Dungeons and Dragons through Stranger Things.
407
00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:56.799
I think this this really taps into
a multi generational audience. And I'm very
408
00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:00.920
very excited about this, and I'm
excited that it's it's getting attention. I'm
409
00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:06.039
excited that it's coming to New York, and I'm hoping again with good executions,
410
00:30:06.039 --> 00:30:07.680
I agree with all that success.
Very quickly, I wanted to just
411
00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:12.440
add that you know you mentioned about
the real time interactive pulling you through the
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00:30:12.440 --> 00:30:15.960
story. I also want to highlight
that a big part of D and D
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00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:19.400
as consequences and the dice help enforce
consequences, right, and so I think
414
00:30:19.480 --> 00:30:23.400
that So I think that's a big
piece of it that's clearly going to be
415
00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:26.599
in there, because the characters will
face consequences demand how well you roll it
416
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:32.880
don't roll. And also it's when
you said the technology pairing, I think
417
00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:36.720
it's important to point out we've talked
about this before, but this is this
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00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:41.559
is technology helping the story. It's
not the other way around. And I
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00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:45.680
think that's right. That's critical because
you know, it's like you could not
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00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:48.759
do this without technology. That's when
technology should be used. You know,
421
00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:53.759
can you tell the story in a
better way, a more seamless way through
422
00:30:53.799 --> 00:30:59.720
technology or is it or is it
putting a layer that distracts you? And
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00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:03.000
this is not that. This is
like we are using it to make sure
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00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:07.279
that the improv actors can do something
without skipping a beat, and that everybody
425
00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:11.519
can truly everybody can just pay quickly
and just make it frictionless. And I
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00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:15.559
think that's that's those are my two
points. Yep. Yep, and I
427
00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:18.839
think those are great points, Philip, thank you for sharing. And as
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00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:21.200
far as friction lists, we are
going to slide right on out of this
429
00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:25.559
show because we are out of time. So yeah, I'll get better at
430
00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:26.480
my transition. I keep saying that, I've said that for the last three
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weeks that I'll get better with my
transitions. I haven't. The show's over,
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so I'll keep working on them on
behalf of Philipernandez with Gantam Lighting and
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00:31:34.039 --> 00:31:37.759
the Haunted Attraction Network and myself Scott
Swinson with Scott Swinson Creative Development. This
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00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:42.519
once again is Green Tag Theme Park
in thirty ish and we promise that we
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00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:45.079
will see you again next week
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Los Angeles and someplace in Texas.
This is green Tag, they bark in
2
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there. I am Philip, and
I am joined as always on my co
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00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:11.119
host Scott Swinson, a Scott Swinson
Crery Development and Green Tag is all about
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us taking the top stories in theme
park from each week and asking questions and
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puzzling through them together. And Scott
is he's somewhere and I don't know,
6
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he's always Texas. You know,
it seems like it's always busy season now.
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I don't know. For Scott.
Yeah, it used to be.
8
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It used to be only fourth quarter, and boy is that changed. But
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yes, I am in. I'm
just outside of San Antonio. I'm in
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New BRONFORLDS Texas, and I'm doing
some work here for my wonderful friends at
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Natural Bridge Cavern. So so yes, I am in this adorable little airbnb
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here in somewhere. As Philip so
adequately or so adequately that was really a
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cutdown, so so so, as
Stuteley noted, I am somewhere in tech
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perfect. Okay, today day we're
going to start off trying to figure out
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if the earnings from six Flags actually
matter, because I have been, I
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have been. Really it's like,
we had a pre show discussion and I'm
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like, does this matter? I
don't know, and Scott was like,
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let's just start recording. So this
yeah, because again we were having before
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we started recording the show, we
were having this intense, in depth conversation
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and I said, wait a minute, this is good content. Let's share
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this with So here we go.
This could this could fly or it could
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flop, but we're going to still
have the same So here we go.
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So six, so Cedar Fair released
their earnings, and the tail dr version
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of this is I'm not sure if
it even matters because it's kind of like
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it's a little bit like a like
a well, we'll talk about it.
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So, So, first of all, their attendance dipped slightly, only slightly,
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from twenty six point seven in twenty
twenty three million people to twenty six
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point nine million in twenty twenty two, so that's a slight flightlight dip.
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Their revenue also dipped a little bit. In park per capital spending was down
30
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one percent. It was partially offset
by a five percent increase and out of
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park revenues. Okay, here's the
interesting part though. So basically metrics are
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down from the previous years, but
only by like a tiny bit. The
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interesting part was that they had a
record five point eight million guests in the
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final four months of twenty twenty three, which is a nine percent increase over
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the same period in twenty twenty two. However, the spend during that time
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decreased. They also reported a loss
in that same quarter of ten million,
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driven by costs associated with the merger
with six lags. Okay, So I
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was trying to puzzle out with thought. I was like, okay, Like,
39
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so TLDR their numbers are slightly down, but we've talked about why all
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the numbers kind of should be down
because there was revenge travel that was still
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happening in the quarter of their referencing, and now it's like adjusting. We've
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talked about adjustment forever. And then
basically they're making tickets cheaper to get people
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into the parks during the holiday season. So yeah, like, yeah,
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their attendance is much higher and the
per spend because that's just how it works.
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More more people come into the park, so on average they spend less.
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Like sure, right, Uh,
I think well, there was I
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mean, there was an old way
of approaching attendance and theme park revenue.
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Uh there it was always there was
always this sort of arm wrestle back and
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forth of is it more important to
have clicks of the turnstile or is it
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more important to actually uh make make
more money on the ticket sales? And
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this has been, this has been
so I'm going fight back and forth what
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what what I was when we were
trying to figure out when we're trying to
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figure out that this is important not
is basically, and this is why I
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need Scott's help on because you know, the way I understand it as like
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a you know, much newer to
the theme park world. The veterans.
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He's the veteran. Okay, the
veteran, not that type of veteran.
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So I was wondering, Okay,
so here's what I thought. I see
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that there's almost like there's like three
kind of tiers to this. Tier.
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One is just like you you learn
in restaurants school, because I was in
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that first and and it is butts
and seats basically is what our chef used
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to say, which basically is we
had to get people into the park,
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and the more people that are in
the park, the more chance we had
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that they will buy things. We
have higher margin on okay, So that
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to me that was like the original
as a few years maybe like from the
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last decade or whatever. That was
like the Tier one. Tier two was
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like they discovered this thing called the
second Gate, and that was Halloween,
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and Universal has made it its own
separate quarter and now everyone else literally everyone,
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like remember last season when we talked
about you know, coming near you
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lights on everything like insert x here. So everyone has decided that Q four
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they could charge, they could make
two gates, they could double their inventory,
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right essentially, because the problem with
the problem with number one is that
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just like in restaurants, it expires. You can't get the day back.
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So if you don't sell out every
single day, you've lost your inventory and
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you can't get it back. But
now Tier two we discovered, hey,
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actually we could just invent new inventory. They could do the single the second
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gate, invent new inventory. And
people are like, aren't the guests going
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to get upset that we're having their
day that used to be twelve hours and
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now it's only like six and they're
like, apparently not so. And this
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is a uniquely American thing. We
talked about that too. And then Tier
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three, I think is where we
were getting to write like at the Crest
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of the Peak, which I think
it's really just Disney that has been journey
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into the new Frontier, which i'd
call Tier three, which is like if
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our parks sell out and our gates
sell out, they're like, you know,
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they're after dark events, a gimbig
bash, all that selling out,
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what can we possibly do? Oh, we could add entirely new properties that
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are luxury experiences that we could sell
outside of the park, and that would
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include the sar Cruiser some of those
items that they're doing. That is how
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I understand it did correct, right, So that's how I understood it.
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Not so much well, but I
think we could. Honestly, I think
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we can say that Universal is starting
to sort of dip their toe into that
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as well with the New Vegas Experience. You know, things that are outside
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the confines of their park, or
different different approaches to park like the Family
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Park, you know those kinds of
things. So yes, I think you're
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absolutely right in that. The the
back back in the day, it was
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you know, if we build it, they will come. And what we
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need to do is get as many
clicks on the turnstile as we possibly can
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but even back then, like I
said, there was still an arm wrestling
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going on. There was still a
fight going on between do we look at
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real money or do we look at
attendance? And what usually ended up happening
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is by the end of the year
whichever was higher. That was the matrix
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that we chose to use when we
were reporting it to this to anybody else
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like the stockholders or the media or
whatever. So, yes, our attendance
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is up. What we wouldn't say
is but our revenue is down because we
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took we cut our ticket price in
half. So to that end, it
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apparently is still an ongoing battle back
and forth. But in what you in
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what we've just talked about and what
we've reported here, seems like it's the
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same thing, right, Like nothing
has changed exactly, Like this is business
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as usual? Is how I read
this? Right? And I think,
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yeah, exactly exactly. And and
the way I look at it is we
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had a slight down tick at Cedar
Fair. We had a slight down tick
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and what really, but what really, what is the light at the end
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of the tunnel is we had significantly
we had a nine percent increase of clicks
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of the turnstile. But we did
it at a lower per person a per
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capita, so we did a lower
per cap and that's not necessarily the wrong
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thing to do if you are on
a recovery, if you have a long
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term recovery plan, the more people
you can get in, the more they
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can have fun. What we what
really and then to really make it sort
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of a this is more of a
wash is their losses. Many of their
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losses are attributed to the merger,
which is going to create in theory,
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a great deal of growth in theory. So yeah, but yeah, because
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we just we really don't know.
We really don't know. I actually,
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my gut tells me that the Cedar
Fair six Flags merger is a good thing.
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I think it is going to be. I think they I think both
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companies having some sort of familiarity with
both companies. I think both companies have
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things the other one doesn't have.
So if they're able to pull the strength
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from both, I think they will
make a better merged company. But it's
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not going to happen instantly. And
you know, like I like, like
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I mentioned to Philip before we even
started recording, as I said, at
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this point, from what I can
see, Cedar Fair is still acting like
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Cedar Fair and six Flags is still
acting like six Flags, and they're in
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the process of coming together. But
when you take two big behemoth companies like
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this, it is a slow process. There is so so much legally is
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that they have to go through before
they can start acting like, you know,
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a nice smoothly running machine, you
know. So they're still figuring that
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out, and I think, you
know, I think we can only give
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them the time to do that.
But you know, now that we've gone
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through it, and after we've had
our both our pre recording discussions and are
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on air discussions, I kind of
look at this and go, yeah,
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they had a downtick, right,
yeah, yeah, so I guess yeah,
140
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I think that so basically like it
is news, but I think for
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00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:05.799
our audience it's not really important because
it's just business as usual. I think
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00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:11.600
the only important thing might be to
understand that they are still struggling with that
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00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:16.039
tier one right, like, like
they they haven't gotten to the point where
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they can Yes, they're not selling
out, correct, they're not selling and
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they're not selling out, but they've
learned that by reducing their by reducing their
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gate, by reducing their ticket price, that they can drive attendance, So
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it depends on what they do from
this point. You know, this is
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information, This is interesting information to
evaluate, for them to evaluate and to
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have. Do they need to reduce
their spend so that this new lower ticket
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price. Do they need to increase
opportunities for in park upsell? Do you
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00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:52.799
know there's a lot of there's a
lot of factors that come into play here,
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00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:54.720
but it is interesting information. I
won't say, you know, it's
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it's unimportant for our listeners. I
think it is important for us to recognize
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that all too often with large corporations, the moment there is something that is
155
00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:05.200
not yea a growth, everyone freaking
out. I look at it. A
156
00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:09.679
catastrophe. Yeah, everyone freaks out. It's a down tick. That's not
157
00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:13.639
where you want to be and you
can't sustain that. But the information that
158
00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:18.120
they have is good. Say it
and this leads into our I guess,
159
00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:22.080
I guess the related story, but
I don't know. I think it's it's
160
00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:26.399
also clear that they haven't figured out
really a way to make more second gates,
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00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:30.159
and I think that's that was my
You know, if you look at
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tier two, which is second gates, you know, Disney, this is
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something Disney is becoming very good at, which we've reported on previously. But
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you know they're they're doing now they
have Star Wars nights and they're it's all
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like it's like they have second gates
year round now and they are selling out
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and and so they're really finding a
way to make that Tier two work.
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00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:52.399
Well, they're selling out in California. Let's let's be clear here, California
168
00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:56.080
is you have a You have a
very different perspective of of what Disney is
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00:11:56.120 --> 00:12:03.080
doing than than I do. Disney
is even though they have more than one
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00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:07.200
park, But in California, Disney
is a park. It's a park that
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has two haves in my opinion.
In Florida, it is a resort,
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so it required it's a multi,
a multi hotel resort with significantly more parks,
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significantly more land, and it is
not filling up. So I think
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that when we talk about Disney,
we kind of have to make that distinction.
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You're right, Disney, California,
they can't take the capacity. But
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let's be honest, that park was
never built for the capacity that it was
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supposed to that it's that it could
potentially have. Now it's a tiny park,
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it's got no queue, it's got
no you know, it's got doesn't
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have enough parking. There's a lot
of things. So the whole idea of
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the reservation concept there, you know, that's how they're managing. They're actually
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at the opposite they're having the opposite
challenge of Tier one. They have too
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many potential people in the park and
to try to diversify that. That's why
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I think is driving the second gate, to try to say, Okay,
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well you can't get in during the
day, but here's another here's some more
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ticket media that we'll put out at
night, which is much more, much
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sexier to a Disney fan, to
say, come to this exclusive event.
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Then we're going to open the park. We're going to have a day ticket
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and a night ticket. Yeah,
for the same product that I think that
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was exactly what I said. I
mean, I think that's kind of how
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I sorted this discussion, which is
that I just wanted to clarify that that
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is only true in California. Yeah, but I'm not true it Disney in
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Florida. So I had agree with
that. I mean, I think that
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clearly they're scaling back the reservation system
in Florida. So you know, and
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we know that it's not been a
capacity and they don't have I guess this
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is where my knowledge is lacking.
But I don't believe that they have as
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many second gate options year round as
Disneyland does in Florida. Like at this
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point, we have like a after
we have a second gate option like almost
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every month here in California. And
I don't think that's true. But to
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your point, to your point,
for the part of the reason they don't
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is because they haven't correct. I
mean, I'm painting this as a progression.
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I'm paying this as like an ideal
progression for business models in theme park
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area. And I think that it's
this might have been maybe what Bob was
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mentioning when we talked about last week. It's like, is this the thing
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he's talking about when he's like,
we're putting all this money into increasing capacity,
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Like, does he mean part of
it trying to max out the capacity
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in Florida? You know what?
Possibly? Possibly, And it could be
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also that the capacity or the the
expanding capacity is the second Yeah. So
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related to all this, of course, talking about this concept of like a
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second gate and whatnot. So six
Flags has made some two announcements. I
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was trying to tie them to the
first one, but I think now that
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we've talked about it, I don't
think it. It doesn't really fit because
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you almost see like the thing like
six Flag, it's like Cedar Fair.
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Sorry, Cedar Fair is still struggling
to get enough people in the parks.
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But six Flags, I would argue
they're also struggling to do that, but
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they're also trying to do second things
into the parks at a full ticket price,
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because as we've reported, they can
get people at the parks. They
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had a nine percent increase at a
lower so Six Flags they had two things
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that came out of they're interesting.
First is that they're doing a glamping resort
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that's opening June fourteenth. And this
this is that I believe that's at actually
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two locations, but the one that
I have here in the show notes is
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from the Great Adventure in Savannah,
and basically it's an overnight glamping property.
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It's going to have twenty suites.
Then it can cater to couples up with
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up the two guests, or you
know, for smaller families. So they
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come with a daily breakfast, Giraft
free feeding and park admission to six Flags
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Great Adventure, six Flags Hurricane Harbor
Park and the Wild Safari Adventure for every
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person on the reservation. If they
already have park admission, they oversee front
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line access the parkingstead, which I
would say is not really a great deal.
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And A Trash's Magazine is the one
that brought the story and they did
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a mock checkout and they said that
the prices for two nights on opening weekend
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this June is fourteen hundred in a
couple suite and twenty two hundred in a
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family suite. So it's basically it
definitely is a pre a whole property that's
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designed to be a premium property,
So it definitely would be them trying,
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you know, I think that tier
two type of thing on the six Flag
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side. It's also interesting to note
that they went that six Flags Magic Mountain
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here in California has announced they are
bringing back Screen Break. It's coming back
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March twenty second through April thirteenth,
and this is the second year that they're
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and have done this and the main
difference is between last year and this year
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is that they've gone from fourteen nights
last year to eight nights this year.
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And last year they offered a multi
night ticket. This year there's no multi
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night ticket. It is forty dollars
per person plus parking unless you are a
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passholder. If you're a pass holder, you can get entry for free,
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but it is limited, like it's
first come, first serve, and it's
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limited, so you can reserve online. If the online reservations sell out,
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you can show up at the park
in person before the event and try and
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get a ticket from guest services if
you have an annual pass if but basically
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once they're gone, they're gone,
and then you would have to buy a
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ticket to come to the night event
of screen Break. And this year screen
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Break the offerings are relatively the same. There's two hunted houses, three scare
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zones, two DJ areas, and
they have themed food and beverage and whatnot.
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And last year we talked about how
I actually think they did an excellent
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job making at a new event,
like when when you went last year it
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was monsters, it was gouls gone
wild. It was actually like a screen
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Break theme. It wasn't just Halloween. It was actually like monsters on a
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spring break, and it was excellent. It was actually really well done.
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I talked about it last year about
how I think it's because they had access
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to talents that they don't normally have. This year, they've announced that they're
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going to just bring back all the
themes and the same stuff. They're going
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to change out one of the haunted
houses to be saw instead. So Theirica
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Saw was a really popular one.
And again ips all that, so they
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must have had the license to last
through screen break, which shows some future
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planning. But yeah, I mean, essentially it's seems to me like very
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similar where you know, they did
the test the first year and it went
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mediums, they're going to do it
again. It was enough to do it
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again, but clearly they're reducing the
nights to just being on the Friday Saturday,
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not Sunday, and they are trying
to make the per spend guest higher
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by reducing the ticket options and probably
limiting the amount of free tickets that can
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come in. But ultimately they're still
trying to get more people to come in
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for a second gate and trying to
spend more money on the food and beverage
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and all that stuff. Well,
it sounds to me exactly what you were
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talking about in your Tier one discussion. They're trying to max out the capacity
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for fewer nights. I mean,
that's that just is quite honestly good business.
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Now, whether it creates a good
product, that's a whole nother story.
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How can they manage the larger crowds
on the on the fewer nights,
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et cetera, et cetera, et
cetera. That goes back to our old
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you know, the old song and
dance that we always do. What about
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what about our execution? What's the
execution going to be? So it seems
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like they're they're doing that. I
mean, I think it sounds like a
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good idea. If it was a
good event last year, let's hope that
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it's a good event this year.
I think they're they're finding a way that
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they can max out that that capacity
over eight nights versus fourteen nights, which
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seems like a good business move.
I want to step back just a little
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bit to the glamping resort experience.
So high end has Star Cruiser vibes in
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my opinion for sure, well it
has it has. I mean, being
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being from Florida, it has.
It has Animal Kingdom Lodge vibes. To
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me. It's also something that at
one point in time six Flags in Tampa.
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I'm sorry, Bush Gardens in Tampa
talked about experimenting with as well.
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So here are here are the things. This goes back to my Not only
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is it it's not really a new
idea, it's something that that has been
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done before, and it's been done
by Disney, which they, you know,
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have a a bit better track record
with the the the higher end experiences,
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not necessarily including glac Star Cruiser.
But so it's I'm curious. I
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hope that six is almost outsourcing this
because six Flags forgive me six Flags friends,
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but six Flags is not the first
company, not the first theme part
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company I think of when I think
of high end exclusive experiences. Now,
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maybe this is a turning point for
them. Maybe this is something that is
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coming about because of the Cedar Fair
merger. You know, maybe they're starting
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to, as a combined company explore
these options for more high end exclusive experiences.
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I don't know. I will say
it sounds really cool and the concept
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art that I've seen looks really cool. And no, I don't have any
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sort of behind the scenes access,
it's what's been published. But but I'm
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just again, it comes back to
that execution, and is this this seems
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it. Just when I saw this
announcement, the first thing I thought was,
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this seems out of character for six
Flags. This seems out of character
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for six Legs. Now, I'm
not saying they can't do it. I'm
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not saying they won't do it.
Well, I'm saying it just seems out
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of character based on their previous track
record and the way they've kind of positioned
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themselves in the industry. You know, they've always positioned themselves as very much
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an amusement park. You know,
Yes they have ips, yes they have
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themed areas, but for the most
part, it's an amusement park with a
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couple of themed areas and some ips, which, as a coaster nerd like
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myself, I love Six Flags exactly
for that. So I'm curious. This,
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like I said, seems out of
a little bit off brand. But
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is this the sign of the new
six Flags, the new six Flags Cedar
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Fair merger. I don't know.
We'll see. Yeah, I don't know.
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Cool. I agree with you on
all those. I also would say
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that I think the price point is
pretty high for the area that they are
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in, like the the Yeah,
I mean it, I mean, just
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looking at that ma checkout, like
fourteen hundred and a couple suite and twenty
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two hundred in the family suite.
I don't know, like twenty two one
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hundred dollars for two nights. And
this is in Savannah, like I don't
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when it is and stuff, But
it better, Like I said, I
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want, I want my car washed
when I come out. I mean,
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they it better be. It better
have every bell and every whistle. Now,
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granted, if there are only twenty
suitets, it is possible that they
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are able to give them the kind
of service that you deserve for that level,
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for that price level. And you
know, a giraffe and a giraffe
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feeding, you know what does that
mean? Are you doing it from your
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balcony or are you schlepping out to
the chain link fence that holds the giraffe?
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Two very different experiences. So I
don't I just think this would be
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maybe not. I mean, I
just think that this would even be expensive
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in California, right, you know? And and well it breaks down to
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what for a family would be eleven
hundred to night for a couple, seven
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hundred for a couple. Yeah,
seven hundred per night. So yeah,
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that's especially when you're not like you're
not. You could go to like the
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Ritz Carlton right for like up a
similar price, right, and then you
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just buy a ticket to go into
the park, you know, like and
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take an over there. Like it's
not like I don't, I don't know.
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I don't know. I don't know. Well, whatever, we'll see
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as as you said, execution,
but you know, it does include it
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does include the it does include the
park admissions. Yeah, but so I
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have to kind of back that out. It's not that high. I get
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it, I get it. No, I I, like I said,
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if the it comes down to execution, like we always always always say,
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I don't. I don't know whether
it's a thing that I would do.
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But if someone came back to me
and said, oh my gosh, you
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would never believe this was on a
six Flags property because they take care of
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us like gold, all right,
consider it, okay, I don't know.
348
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We'll have to see yeah, yes
or no. I think the section
349
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should be called the gamification of improvisation. And this is the story is that
350
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the Dungeons and Dragons, an off
Broadway show, is coming to New York
351
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City. The op Broadway show Dungeons
and Dragons, the twenty Sided Tavern is
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00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:33.279
an interactive theatrical production that allows the
audience to participate in a live, officially
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00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:38.319
licensed Dungeons and Dragons fantasy quest.
The plot is driven by audience decisions and
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the show features a cast of five
actors play playing over thirty unique characters in
355
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a popular forgotten realm setting. Each
performance is unique, with the audience voting
356
00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.079
on key stories decisions throughout through the
use of an app so the audience empts
357
00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:55.599
can decide which characters appear and help
them overcome puzzles, riddles, and combat
358
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experiences. Additionally, some audience members
will be chosen to join the cast on
359
00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:03.599
stage in various activities, including trivia
characters and fantasy beer pong. So,
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for those that haven't played Dungeons and
Dragons before, I'm sure you're familiar with
361
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the whole concept of the D twenty
system and all that, But essentially Dungeons
362
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and Dragons is like you make your
character and then you go through you know,
363
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generally it's a tabletop game, uh, And that means that everything is
364
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done in the imagination and on paper, and generally what you're doing is you
365
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make, you make a character,
and then you know, you act or
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you role play through situations and whenever
you want to do something or you know,
367
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use a skill or whatever. You
know, like you want to try
368
00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:40.519
and convince someone to do something,
so you have to roll a persuasion skill
369
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:45.680
or whatever you're rolling dice to determine
how how well you will succeed at the
370
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item or whether you'll succeed in fail
or fail right, and you get certain
371
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boosts to what you do. So
basically what this is doing is is taking
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that the portion of the rolling thing
and allowing the audience to participate in that
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through the app, and then that
influences the outcome in real time of what's
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happening on stage. Yeah, and
the thing that I think is interesting and
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that it's not really mentioned in this
story, so I'm curious to see how
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how it plays out is actually having
the game master who is the one who
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helps facilitate the forward movement of the
show. There are so many things about
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this particular story that I really really
like. First off, it it ties
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into what we've been talking about for
several weeks now, and that is how
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powerful the gamer's market is right now. More powerful, more vibrant, touching
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more people, opening more wallets than
movies, you know, than what's happening
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in Hollywood. And again, it
wasn't until I went to gen Con that
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I truly saw the power of gamers
and the power of the gaming culture.
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So that I think is really exciting. Secondly, this is truly immersive.
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You know, you've heard me use
my phrase. I get tired of people
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saying things are immersive when they're just
three hundred and sixty degrees or something you
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walk through. Something is immersive when
the participants or the audience members actually can
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impact the forward momentum of the presentation, can actually change what's happening. This
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is clearly what's happening here. So
I think that's I think that's really fun.
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The third thing that I'm excited about
is this is a wonderful from what
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it's how it's described here. It's
a wonderful melding of technology from the game
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app and live performance from bringing people
up on stage to play fantasy beer pong.
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This is this is just like yep, super simple. Love it easy
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to do and easy to make to
make work. And the fourth reason is
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completely selfish. So two years ago
at Tampa Fringe or three years ago at
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Tampa Fringe. I got a chance
to sit in as a guest in a
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fringe show that was very, very
similar to this in concept. It was
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not licensed by Dungeons and Dragons.
It was not It was a completely different
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scenario, completely scripted for the show, but it did exactly the same thing.
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There were only four of us.
There was a game master and four
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actors, and we were all improv
actors, and we utilized the exact same
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concepts, the rolling of dice,
the but and then the audience. Because
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we didn't have an app with a
fringe show, the audience actually had a
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die that they could roll at certain
key moments and and change, and we
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had to all adapt to the changes
that were being made within the realm,
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within the world with the the reintroduction
of Dungeons and Dragons through Stranger Things.
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I think this this really taps into
a multi generational audience. And I'm very
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very excited about this, and I'm
excited that it's it's getting attention. I'm
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excited that it's coming to New York, and I'm hoping again with good executions,
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I agree with all that success.
Very quickly, I wanted to just
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add that you know you mentioned about
the real time interactive pulling you through the
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story. I also want to highlight
that a big part of D and D
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as consequences and the dice help enforce
consequences, right, and so I think
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that So I think that's a big
piece of it that's clearly going to be
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in there, because the characters will
face consequences demand how well you roll it
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don't roll. And also it's when
you said the technology pairing, I think
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it's important to point out we've talked
about this before, but this is this
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is technology helping the story. It's
not the other way around. And I
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think that's right. That's critical because
you know, it's like you could not
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do this without technology. That's when
technology should be used. You know,
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can you tell the story in a
better way, a more seamless way through
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technology or is it or is it
putting a layer that distracts you? And
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this is not that. This is
like we are using it to make sure
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that the improv actors can do something
without skipping a beat, and that everybody
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can truly everybody can just pay quickly
and just make it frictionless. And I
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think that's that's those are my two
points. Yep. Yep, and I
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think those are great points, Philip, thank you for sharing. And as
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far as friction lists, we are
going to slide right on out of this
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show because we are out of time. So yeah, I'll get better at
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my transition. I keep saying that, I've said that for the last three
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weeks that I'll get better with my
transitions. I haven't. The show's over,
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so I'll keep working on them on
behalf of Philipernandez with Gantam Lighting and
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the Haunted Attraction Network and myself Scott
Swinson with Scott Swinson Creative Development. This
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once again is Green Tag Theme Park
in thirty ish and we promise that we
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00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:45.079
will see you again next week








