Aug. 22, 2023
Q2 Earnings and Hurricane Hillary

While Hurricane Hillary causes SoCal theme parks to close for the first time in a long time, we review the Q2 2023 earnings from Disney and Universal
While Hurricane Hillary causes SoCal theme parks to close for the first time in a long time, we review the Q2 2023 earnings from Disney and Universal
WEBVTT
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From our studios this week in Los
Angeles and Chicago. This is green tag
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them Parking thirty. I'm Philip.
I'm joined as always by Scott Swinson of
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Scott Swinson Created Development. And there's
a lot of rain happening right now in
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south of California. I was gonna
say, what the heck is going on?
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Normally, you know, I'm the
one in Florida who has to deal
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with these these storms and such,
and you know, it's now it's you,
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guys. You're you're stealing all of
our thunders and some of our lightning
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and some of our wind. And
I really thought I would get to avoid
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hurricane season, or at least a
little bit of it, having you know,
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this year where that just follows me. But yeah, I think the
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reason why I bring it up is
because it's a little bit related to some
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of the themes we've been talking about, and of course the industry, as
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the Hole has been talking about.
Right now, I'm sitting here and there's
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rain around me, but I'm up
north by six Flags and Disland has already
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closed, and six Flags never opened
today, and universals closing early, and
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Knot's never opened today. So really
the parks are they're losing a day on
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this and they're closing and they had
events scheduled in blah blah blah. But
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you know, there's already a lot
of talk about how this was kind of
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parallel with climate change just due to
the how hot the waters were, and
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you know what kind of created in
WHA And I think we talked about well,
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and they're saying the same thing right
now. They're saying the same thing
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in Florida too, that this is
going to be the Gulf waters are so
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warm right now that this could be
a very active I hope it's wrong.
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I hope they're wrong, but they
saying it's could be. They're saying it
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could be a very active storm season, if not hurricane and tropical storm season.
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So we'll see where that's going to
go. I mean, I think
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it's interesting. Do you think that
the parks closed because there was they had
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legitimate concerns over what was going to
happen, or do you think they closed
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as sort of a visible a visibility
issue because you know, again, people
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people in Florida, we're used to
hurricane warnings and we're used to storm warnings,
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but out there in California. You're
not was that? Do you what
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do you think do you think there
was there was actually a physical threat or
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do you think it was just more
a we should be doing this so that
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people can feel comfortable to stay at
home again. I think with any with
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most natural disasters, I feel like
other people are a lot of the threat.
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You know, there's already been a
lot of car pile ups and a
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lot of accidents, and up here
where I am, it's mainly runoffs,
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and it's mainly just the issue of
the area is not set up. The
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infrastructure is not set up for this
type of storm. And I think looking
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at the attractions takeaway, I think
that's really that's really what we're looking at.
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We just we talked several stories ago
about the heat, you know,
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and that being a thing that attraction
is not set up for. And now
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we're looking at, you know,
potentially will these theme parks in California need
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to also look at hurricane type of
preparedness and tropical storm preparedness and you know,
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you know how prepared haird are we
are not as our infrastructure for increasing
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climate issues, and how will that
impact our tourism? I think that's a
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that's a big theme. I don't
have answers to it, but that's a
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big theme, right, No,
I think I think you're absolutely right.
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And it's interesting because over the years, the parks and the the building standards
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for the parks in Florida have changed
because of the more the likelihood of either
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tropical storms or hurricanes or severe weather. So again, well we'll see where
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it all goes. But the building
standards I know, have changed, and
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things, you know, have to
have to be able to survive a category
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I think it's like a category three
or something like that, so they're built
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with that in mind. It's also
a question not only of loss of revenue
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during the running of the season,
but also you know, the loss of
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assets. So they want to make
sure that they can you know, betten
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down the newest ride, the newest
attraction, whatever, so that they don't
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if they lose a day, you
know, if they lose a day of
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attendance, that doesn't help them,
but it's it hurts some significantly less than
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losing an entire attraction. So I'm
hoping knock Wood, I'm hoping that all
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the attractions in California are are ready
for this. Can survive this without any
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major major issue. And again,
it was a Category one when it came
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when it made landfall. And I'm
guessing that it will be downgraded very quickly
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if it hasn't been already. So
again we will. We can touch based
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on this perhaps next week and see, you know, if there was any
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ramifications or there were any ramifications from
the storm. But but you're right,
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we have to take into consideration that
the world exists outside the industry, but
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it does impact the industry and we
need to you know, we talked about
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this, you know, a couple
of years ago when we were talking about
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COVID preparedness and and and you know, the only way to get prepared is
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to stay prepared and have multiple paths
of of of opportunity, multiple paths of
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planning, so that you know,
it's possible. We may we may even
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see that. One of the challenges
is there is a supply chain issue because
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of the I doubt it, but
it's possible. So yeah, this is
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just something that I'm guessing. The
parks really don't have a hurricane plan per
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se, but but I bet they
will. Now, Yeah, well I
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wouldn't bet on it, but I
would hope. I wouldn't. I'm not
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sure all of them won't get a
game plan, but you know, but
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well yeah, yeah, and maybe
and maybe that her clan came plan is
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when one comes, we close our
doors. But yeah, I'm hoping if
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there is going to be you know, if there is going to be any
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potential for wind in any of the
parks or flooding or whatever, that they've
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done that they've they've done their due
diligence, They've you know, closed things
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down appropriately. They may not even
have a storm shutter option, but that
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things are as as battened down and
uh and stormproofed as possible. But again,
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like you say, this is completely
new to them. We were talking
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just before we started recording, and
and I made the analogy of its like
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if you have a snowstorm in Arizona, everybody is is there's a heightened sensitivity.
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Everybody's a little crazy. They're driving
differently, they're you know, looking
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out for things that don't exist yet, but they're planning. They're going,
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oh, this is terrible, we're
never going to make it. So yeah,
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So I don't want to under I
don't want to under emphasize or over
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emphasize what this could do for California
or to California. I'm I'm going to
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guess that it's going to be minimal. But again, we'll recoup, recoup
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and recover and then readdress perhaps next
week and say, yeah, nothing happened,
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moving on, Yeah, yeah,
okay, Well, let's let's transition
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over to some news we didn't cover
last week because we had so many kind
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of trip reports to talk about last
week. But uh, yeah, we
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started talking, we started talking and
chat and then it just all right,
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so let's let's let's move on.
Sorry, I was about to do it
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again, wasn't it. Yeah?
Oh gosh, Okay. We had the
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latest quarterly earnings recap from Disney.
There's a lot. There always is a
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lot, and as usual, they
bury the leads I think intentionally, so
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we so I'm going to just kind
of go through some of the big takeaways
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and all the buckets and then we
can we can talk about it. But
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so they revealed that the Disney Parks
and the Disney Experiences section, including all
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the theme parks and all that they
saw a thirteen percent increase in revenue to
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eight point three billion, while also
posting a two point four three billion and
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operating income. So to back up, Disney is not doing great as a
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whole, but the theme parks and
this Parks and Experienced division obviously is the
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part that's doing really well. So
that's kind of what was highlighted is at
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thirteen percent increase in revenue, attendance
at the international parks obviously rose, and
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we talked about how at Walt Disney
World it was a little bit of a
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decline and they're attributing that to heat
and drop in pent up demand, blah
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blah blah, all that kind of
back to equalizing nature. They they didn't
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mention they had to mention on the
call of course, and Endless have remained
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cautious about the future of the park
segment as demand appears to have slowed couples
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with heightened risks to margins and made
inflation. We've talked about that too,
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you know, we'll see how that
goes. They did. We did get
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a number for the Galactic Star Cruiser
that they closed earlier. They basically said
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it would be one hundred million accelerated
depreciation charge, which basically is it'll end
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up being two hundred million of that
they're writing off for the Star cruiser kind
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of spread throughout multiple years, but
it'll be two hundred million. So so
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now we have a number. It
cost two hundred million at leaser. That's
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what they're writing off, a two
hundred million, which since there's since there
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was like, uh not many rooms, that equates to about two million dollars
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per room, which is interesting.
Well, but but also I mean,
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yes, that sounds like a big
chunk of change, and it is.
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I mean, you know, I
wouldn't want to lose it, but I
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don't have to worry about it because
I don't have it to lose, So
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that's good. But the other side
of that too, though, is I
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applaud them for diving in because now
they have a whole bunch of data as
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to how to the next time they
try to do something that's this immersive and
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that's this boutique style. They have
a bunch of data that they can pull
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from to say, here's why this
didn't work, you know, and Disney.
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Disney is usually pretty good about that. They will they will be able
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to say, here's something that didn't
work the last time we tried it,
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but instead of saying it didn't work
when we tried it before, or something
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like it before they'll say here's why
it didn't work, and they'll pull those
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data points and try to implement them
in something in the future. Yeah,
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I agree. I think we talked
about that as well last time when when
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it was closed. Originally, I
just was a little surprised by the number,
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and I think even I was surprised. I was like, do you
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know two hundred million is is a
chunk of that's a that's a pretty big
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test. But I guess it's the
whole you know philosophy that you've talked about,
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Scott, which is, you know, if you're going to test it,
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you need to test it right,
because that's the only way it tests
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will work. Sorry, I don't
know whether that happened on your under mind.
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We had a little glitch there,
folks. That's okay, that's okay.
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Froze or Philip did. I don't
know whether they did. But we're
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back together now, we're back.
Yes, I was saying that two hundred
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million surprised me in the amount a
little bit, But I think it's uh
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what you had been saying previously,
which is just they had to really test
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it, you know, that's the
only way to know is to is to
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put the money to test it,
right, and you have to kind of
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question how did they think they were
going to earn that back? But that's
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a whole we could do a whole
dissertation. I agree that that's a great
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point. How how long did they
think he was going to have to be
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sold out basically to make back two
hundred million, That's that's that's a great
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question. I'm not sure how I
feel about the analyst section about the future
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of the parks, because you know, analysts are saying based on the demand
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slowing and heightened risk to margins and
mid inflation. We'll talk about that a
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little bit later too, with with
hiring. Right it's happening now for Halloween,
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but right, Yeah, And the
weird thing about that is it's sort
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of like an analysts have remained cautious
about supply and demand. I mean,
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it's it's a To me, it's
a it's a really basic statement, and
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it's it's kind of covering their behinds
just in case things do tank. But
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to me it was I just kind
of look at that and went, Okay,
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that's just a sort of a template
statement that we just sort of stamp
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on everything. We are we are
happy, but we are cautious because things
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could stop working. Yeah, well, to me, I agree with that,
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but I I think it was a
little bit like again we talked about
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this too, but a little bit
like it's like everybody has been expecting this
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surgeon demand to continue at the same
pace, which is which is unrealistic,
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right because it I mean, some
some some attractions we've worked with Scott have
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like doubled or tripled. There a
tendency you just can't that's not sustainable,
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you know, to keep doubling and
doubling that's ridiculous. So yeah, it
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feels like we've been talking about that. There's a equalization point the exactly that
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we've been talking on the industry where
we're getting closer to that by the end
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of this year when consumer spending they've
kind of they've when consumers have spent a
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lot of their they're saved up capital
from over the pandemic, and then through
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into next year, it's going to
be a much more competitive landscape. And
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that's a good thing. Competition is
good for for everybody. But but you
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know, yeah, it's we've we've
talked about this, We've talked about this
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for years, and that's that hitting
that equilibrium. You know, it's if
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you think about it like water,
if you if you build up a huge,
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huge you build a dam, and
you build up this huge sort of
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stockpile of water, then you break
the damn there's this huge rush, but
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that huge rush doesn't last forever,
and eventually equilibrium is reached. So once
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we get there, then we have
to, you know, focus on quality,
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which is why we've also said during
the rush, hopefully those smart companies
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and you know, those of you
who are listening, hopefully you've kept your
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quality high so that when the equilibrium
comes, you've already built that fan base
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with all the people that were coming
to you, either for the very first
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time or all at once. So
uh and finally, Disney Plus is still
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struggling, but it's struggling not as
much as that was previously struggling. I
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guess that's the takeaway. We're still
in trouble, but not as much yet.
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That was the whole takeaway as far
as I can I can take it.
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I mean, there's numbers and you
know, they they've announced, you
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know, they're their subscribers miss the
estimates, but they're announcing that they're they're
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going to reduce expense, blah blah
blah, you know, all this all
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this talk, but you know,
I think I think basically we're still going
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to have to see because clearly the
Disney Plus model is getting closer to resolution,
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but it is not fixed yet and
it is still in trouble, and
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you know, that's we're just going
to see where that develops. They said
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they would resume paying a dividend by
the end of twenty twenty three, So
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in line with that, they did
announce in order to pay the dividend,
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they're going to be cutting budgets more
than they had previously announced a little bit.
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But we don't really know exactly where
that's going to go. I'm not
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so again back to stuff we've talked
about previously. We're not sure how much
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of that is impacting the budgets for
entertainment at the parks, right, you
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know, and we've talked about that
a little bit. How the entertainment offerings
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are still light, even though it's
like, even though the Parks division is
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doing the best of everything, and
clearly people want live entertainment and they need
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to be competitive, and the way
to be competitive is to let people look
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at Mickey Mouse, because that's your
advantage, right. I think like even
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though all of that, they you
know, we haven't seen too much expansion
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with live entertainment, and it could
all be back do to them trying to
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return a dividend by the end of
the fiscal year. So I think that's
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that's all happening well. And and
the other thing to take into consideration too,
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is live entertainment in the theme park
is a significantly smaller amount, significantly
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smaller amount of investment than it is
in new movies, new product for for
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Disney, Disney plus etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The the investment is less
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and the return is less. You
know, even though the parks are doing
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well, that's sort of like saying, our our lemonade stand is kicking butt,
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but our garage sale is tanking.
You know, you kind of have
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to look at what has the possibility
of generating the most revenue. So I'm
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glad because I'm in the theme park
industry. I'm glad that the live entertainment
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experiences and that the parks are doing
well because that that reflects very well on
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those of us who work in the
industry. But it's it's all a question
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of perspective. And as you say, they lead with what they want you
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to take away as a stockholder,
and they want to make sure that you
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know, nobody loses They're they're not
being dishonest, but they want to make
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sure that nobody loses faith in the
in the company as a whole, and
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that's that's essential. Yeah, yeah, Okay. We also heard some news
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from the Sea World. Oh,
I think we had we talked about how
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they had they had pre previewed the
report kind of you know, where they
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let people know what was it gonna
be good, and it wasn't good.
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So basically they saw a dip.
They saw a decrease in both attendance and
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in revenue in that last quarter.
The attendance dropped one hundred and twenty five
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thousand, which is a two percent
drop from the same period in twenty twenty
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two, and of course the revenue
declined one point seven percent, falling from
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five hundred million roughly to four hund
ninety six. You know, and they're
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because they're blaming weather of course,
and also Conadian wildfliers and blah blah.
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But I think we I think the
larger problem that these these parks, and
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I want to say these parks,
I mean like the Sea World in the
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Six Flags, you know, like
clearly, Disney Universe Soul are in that
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area where when people are making decisions
about their limited disposal income, they are
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going to you know, they're not
going to give up Disney, clearly,
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and they're not going to give up
going to Halloween horror nights clearly, right,
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Like that's I mean the popcorn sippers
blah blah. You know, they're
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they're entrenched so much, you know
that, I think people are going to
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be choosing those. I think it's
going to be the parks that are not
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holiday traditions for families, you know
as much that are going to be struggling.
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And I think we're seeing that now. And I'm not sure it's going
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to get any better for these parks, you know. I think objectively speaking,
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they'll get more people just because of
the holidays, but I'm not sure
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they will see an increase versus the
previous years. Yeah, I agree with
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you to it. I agree with
you to a certain extent. However,
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I do think that and I'd be
curious to see this. I'd be curious
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to see the numbers on this.
I do think that the holiday offerings,
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even for the secondary the non Disney
and non Universal parks, I think that
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the holiday because the the died in
the wool holiday goers, whether it's Halloween
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or Christmas, are local. For
the most part. Universal is an exception.
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Disney is an exception, but for
you know, the SeaWorld parks,
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it's primarily a local audience and it
is their tradition to go. I think
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the biggest challenge is it's a the
day product, is that the full time
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product is not quite as essential to
people to consumers as as the Disney or
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the universals, because again, Disney
is one of those things that families make
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a either a summer tradition or a
vacation tradition to make certain that they go
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and see, we got to take
it's little Jimmy's eighth birthday. We have
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to go to Walt Disney World in
Florida, and we live in Minneapolis,
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you know there. I think it's
the day product that really is going to
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is going to be the driver here
because the seasonal product, and I'm guessing
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this is anecdotal. I do not
have the data to show this, but
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I think it would be interesting to
see how does say, for example,
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Hollow Scream at Sea World Orlando compared
this year to last year as far as
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attendance goes, just taking that Halloween
element out of the out of the matrix
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and see did that did that decrease
the same amount as the attendance did I
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just I'm curious. I'm very curious. That's an excellent point. You know,
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basically that the parks aren't, well, the parks are are a little
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bit less competitive, but their seasonal
offerings might be more competitive. Basically.
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M Yeah, that's interesting. That's
an interesting point. And there might be
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there a lot too that because you
know, as you know very well,
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you know, the Hollow Scream in
Bush Gardens is a tradition I think for
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a lot of people there because it's
been so long, you know, it's
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it's over thirty Well, and I
look at you know, I look at
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people like and I mean, granted, you are a you are a Halloween
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super super fan boy, Halloween and
content creator, and so you're going to
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go to the park's seasonal events.
Yeah, but not necessarily make a plan
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to go to the parks during the
day unless you're going there for the seasonal
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events. So you know, I
think I'm curious. I would I just
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be curious because I think that I
honestly think that the seasonal events, if
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it's if it holds true from when
I was at the parks, the season
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seasonal events are the saving grace.
They're the insurance policies because they're kind of
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I won't say money in the bank, but they're kind of consistent in the
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fact that we know that in October
people are going to go to Halloween events,
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we know that in December people are
going to go to Christmas events,
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and of course, as we've learned, October now starts in August. But
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you know, well, yeah,
we call it October now, but yeah,
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welcome. Well it's funny because we
don't. We don't even when it
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comes to the production side of it, we don't even think of it as
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Halloween season and Christmas season. It's
the holiday season. Start of the season
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now, Yep, it starts lea
July and we're working on it. Yeah,
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yeah, I that's interesting. I
am very curious to see how how
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those numbers work out. That's an
interesting point. I think overall, it's
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back to what we've been saying which
is that all attractions are going to need
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to be just more competitive in twenty
twenty four, basically by the end of
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you know, by the end of
this quarter in twenty twenty four, just
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more competitive overall because you know,
because of the increased basically there's less demand
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because people do have less savings than
they had, and there's increased supply because
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everyone is finally reopened and you know, fired on all cylinders, which is
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great for everybody, they're all back. But that's just the reality there.
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There's there's less demand and more supply, and that means a more competitive landscape.
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And we'll see what the two years
of retraining of the audience has done.
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You know, is it imperative that
we go to X y Z theme
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Park every single year? Is it
imperative that we get our season pass every
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single year? Because COVID retrained us, retrained us all to behave in a
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certain way. And we won't know
that we said this, we said this
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a very long time ago. We
really won't know the impact for at least
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another from now, about another three
to five years as to how much it's
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changed changed the landscape of the industry. Yeah, well, it's that time
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of year again, which is that
we are actively hiring for the holiday season.
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Of course, that has already started
for a lot of places, and
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is you know, beginning for a
lot of other people. There's two stories
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I want to put together. One
is that there's a push from county supervisors
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in LA that are proposing a twenty
five hourly minimum wage, and it's going
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to apply to basically multiple sectors.
But one of those sectors is tourism,
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and because it's in LA County,
it really is going to only impact Universal
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and six Flags because Disney is not
in LA County, right, so so
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neither is not. So this is
an interesting one because I have several friends
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that work there and they're following this
very closely, and their unions are involved
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in blah blah blah. And the
reason I think that's interesting is just because
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I think this is one of those
weird things that I actually think has a
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chance of passing, only because Disney
would benefit from it heavily if it did
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pass, because you know, if
your competitors are required to pay twenty five
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but you're not, that's great for
you, you know. And and I'm
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going to couple that with a story
from Sea to Point which has started doing
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their job fares for their holiday season, and they this year have said they
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are just hiring people on the spot. So that's the organized just say.
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The potential employees will partake in interviews
and offers on the spot with part managers
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and positions available from high school students
to career professionals. So they are really
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pushing and we've seen some signs some
places where where people are saying, like
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now hiring fourteen and up. So
it's it's interesting because many of my clients,
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I mean, that's why I'm here, That's why I'm here in the
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Chicagoland area, why I'm here in
South Farrington. This is our third set
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of auditions for for Terror Roulette,
which is a new haunted attraction here and
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you know, as you know,
the Chicago Land area is filled with with
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haunted attractions, so we had to
find ways to be compelling competitive both from
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a pay standpoint as well as from
a content standpoint and a commitment to the
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performers stand point. So you know, I completely understand that the hiring on
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the spot thing I find really interesting
because you know, again you all know
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that back in the day when I
when I worked at Bush Gardens. We
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did that for a hollow scream starting
in the oh gosh, early two thousands,
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like two thousand and two, two
thousand and three. You could come
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in and we did in the entertainment
department. We didn't do it in the
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other departments. But if you came
in, you auditioned, You did an
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audition, If you passed the audition, you went to a human resources interview.
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If you passed the human resources interview
view, a job offer was made
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on the spot. Now that pulled
away when we had to do and it
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was always contingent upon passing. It
was a drug free workplace at the time,
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so you had to you had to
you know, you pass your drug
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screening, et cetera, pass your
background check. But the offer was made
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on the spot. So I know
that for a short period of time.
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I don't know what it is now, but for a short period of time
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they went away from that and have
Now they may be coming back with seeder
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point, you know, but paving
the way. But it sounds like they're
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doing it for pretty much everybody because
they're they're that desperate. It's like you
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need a job, show up,
you know, it's it's that and again,
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like with the twenty five dollars minimum
wage for Universal and six Flags,
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they are. That just shows to
me that they're in a competitive enough market
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that they need to do that,
they need to elevate. I'm not sure
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it's going to work quite the way
they think it's going to work. As
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you say, I think it will
benefit Disney more than it will benefit Universal
376
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and six Flags, But we'll see. I think that there's there's two sides
377
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to this coin. It can either
be. It can either be well,
378
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wait a minute, I was going
to go work for Disney because well it's
379
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Disney, but they're not paying you
know, they're paying twenty and and and
380
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six Flags is paying twenty five.
It may I think the intent is to
381
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sort of level that playing field.
It may bring it, but yeah,
382
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yeah, I don't know. It
might. We'll see. We'll see what
383
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happens. We'll see what happens.
Yeah, well, I guess I want
384
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to know from me, you Scott, you know, because that's all hypothetical.
385
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Well, well, we'll track that
story, of course, and if
386
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there's if there's you know, if
something materializes, we'll let well, of
387
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course we'll talk about it. And
just for reference too. I think right
388
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now it's about eighteen, so it
would be a seven dollars an hour jump
389
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for all positions. And that is
that's a lot. I mean, that
390
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is I'm sure the executives around there
are that's eye popping. So but all
391
00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:41.480
that aside, Scott, tell like
about the hiring season, What has anything
392
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changed about this year's hiring season since
you're actively doing it versus what we've talked
393
00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:52.119
about previously, you know, Well, interestingly enough, a month ago,
394
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I would have answered this question differently. I'm starting to see things change now.
395
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Originally I was, I was very
frightened by the hiring season, and
396
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again not just for this particular project, for the other projects that I'm working
397
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on around the country, because I'm
sure that there are idiosyncrasies for each each
398
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area, you know, each competitive
niche. And what I was finding early
399
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in the audition process, because let's
face it, you know the holiday season
400
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auditions start in June early July,
and so we were what we were seeing
401
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then is we were seeing a lot
of people sign up, but a huge
402
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no show rate, as much as
fifty to seventy percent. In some cases,
403
00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:37.240
people would sign up saying yes,
I want a job and then just
404
00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:42.160
not show up for the interview or
for the audition. Now what we are
405
00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:47.839
seeing is the people are as we're
getting closer and closer. I think the
406
00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:56.119
fuse is getting shorter and shorter,
and there the turnout rate is significantly higher.
407
00:28:56.920 --> 00:29:00.640
In fact, back at Zoo Tampa
we had the last set of auditions,
408
00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:04.640
I think we had an eighty percent
turnout rate for those who had signed
409
00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:11.079
up. So going from forty to
fifty percent to eighty percent is huge.
410
00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:15.200
So I don't I would love to
be able to sit here and say and
411
00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:18.119
here's why. But I think it's
something as simple as people have come to
412
00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:22.799
the come to the realization that gosh, you know, we've we've kind of
413
00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:27.079
coasted and they'll be work there when
we when we want it. But the
414
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:32.039
reality is that is not the case. You know, we we worked our
415
00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:37.119
butts off to get stuff cast,
and now that we're in our I wouldn't
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00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:40.279
even say the final hours you know
where we still have a couple of months.
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00:29:40.279 --> 00:29:42.799
But to be fair, you know
here and here and here in Chicago
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00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:48.519
or South Barrington, we're going to
start rehearsals in a little over two weeks,
419
00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:53.839
so we're I guess we're kind of
there, and especially from a costuming
420
00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:57.759
standpoint, and you know, the
scenic is going up, all of that
421
00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:03.279
is happening, So I guess we
are kind of at the final hour and
422
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:07.759
I'm hoping that people are recognizing it
because we're seeing some great people, but
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00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:11.200
we may not have jobs for them
because they didn't audition soon enough. They
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00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:14.680
didn't come out soon enough to get
those jobs, so we're having to be
425
00:30:14.759 --> 00:30:17.599
careful. And like I said,
I like to hire on the spot.
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00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:22.359
But because we've done that, I'm
curious to see whether we'll do it next
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00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:25.160
year because now we're seeing the great
people at the end. So this is
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00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:30.640
something that we're going to continue to
follow. But my recommendation, if you
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00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:33.240
are out there and you're looking to
get seasonal work for the holiday season,
430
00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:37.839
if it's not too late, audition
now, because I know that they're still
431
00:30:37.880 --> 00:30:41.079
I've still got clients that are auditioning. I'm ninety percent certain this will be
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00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:45.640
the last audition for this particular project, and I've got we do have other
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00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:49.960
auditions for other projects in different parts
of the country. So if you don't
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00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:53.160
have a gig now and you want
to audition for it, go, don't
435
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:56.599
wait, don't wait any longer,
because people are starting to come out.
436
00:30:56.599 --> 00:30:59.960
They're starting to realize, oh my
gosh, I got to do it now,
437
00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:03.920
or I'm done. And speaking of
being done, we are done for
438
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:07.599
another week. That's our thirty minutes. So guys, once again, thank
439
00:31:07.640 --> 00:31:10.960
you all so much for listening and
hope to see you next week on behalf
440
00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:14.920
of Philipernandez myself Scott Swinson. This
is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty See
441
00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:15.440
you next week
1
00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:05.519
From our studios this week in Los
Angeles and Chicago. This is green tag
2
00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:09.640
them Parking thirty. I'm Philip.
I'm joined as always by Scott Swinson of
3
00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:14.400
Scott Swinson Created Development. And there's
a lot of rain happening right now in
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south of California. I was gonna
say, what the heck is going on?
5
00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:20.000
Normally, you know, I'm the
one in Florida who has to deal
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with these these storms and such,
and you know, it's now it's you,
7
00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:27.879
guys. You're you're stealing all of
our thunders and some of our lightning
8
00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:32.359
and some of our wind. And
I really thought I would get to avoid
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00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.119
hurricane season, or at least a
little bit of it, having you know,
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00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:38.240
this year where that just follows me. But yeah, I think the
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reason why I bring it up is
because it's a little bit related to some
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of the themes we've been talking about, and of course the industry, as
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the Hole has been talking about.
Right now, I'm sitting here and there's
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rain around me, but I'm up
north by six Flags and Disland has already
15
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closed, and six Flags never opened
today, and universals closing early, and
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Knot's never opened today. So really
the parks are they're losing a day on
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this and they're closing and they had
events scheduled in blah blah blah. But
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you know, there's already a lot
of talk about how this was kind of
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parallel with climate change just due to
the how hot the waters were, and
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you know what kind of created in
WHA And I think we talked about well,
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and they're saying the same thing right
now. They're saying the same thing
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in Florida too, that this is
going to be the Gulf waters are so
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warm right now that this could be
a very active I hope it's wrong.
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I hope they're wrong, but they
saying it's could be. They're saying it
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could be a very active storm season, if not hurricane and tropical storm season.
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So we'll see where that's going to
go. I mean, I think
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it's interesting. Do you think that
the parks closed because there was they had
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legitimate concerns over what was going to
happen, or do you think they closed
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as sort of a visible a visibility
issue because you know, again, people
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people in Florida, we're used to
hurricane warnings and we're used to storm warnings,
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but out there in California. You're
not was that? Do you what
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do you think do you think there
was there was actually a physical threat or
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do you think it was just more
a we should be doing this so that
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people can feel comfortable to stay at
home again. I think with any with
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most natural disasters, I feel like
other people are a lot of the threat.
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You know, there's already been a
lot of car pile ups and a
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lot of accidents, and up here
where I am, it's mainly runoffs,
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and it's mainly just the issue of
the area is not set up. The
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infrastructure is not set up for this
type of storm. And I think looking
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at the attractions takeaway, I think
that's really that's really what we're looking at.
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We just we talked several stories ago
about the heat, you know,
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and that being a thing that attraction
is not set up for. And now
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we're looking at, you know,
potentially will these theme parks in California need
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to also look at hurricane type of
preparedness and tropical storm preparedness and you know,
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you know how prepared haird are we
are not as our infrastructure for increasing
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climate issues, and how will that
impact our tourism? I think that's a
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that's a big theme. I don't
have answers to it, but that's a
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big theme, right, No,
I think I think you're absolutely right.
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And it's interesting because over the years, the parks and the the building standards
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for the parks in Florida have changed
because of the more the likelihood of either
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tropical storms or hurricanes or severe weather. So again, well we'll see where
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it all goes. But the building
standards I know, have changed, and
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things, you know, have to
have to be able to survive a category
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00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:40.599
I think it's like a category three
or something like that, so they're built
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with that in mind. It's also
a question not only of loss of revenue
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during the running of the season,
but also you know, the loss of
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assets. So they want to make
sure that they can you know, betten
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down the newest ride, the newest
attraction, whatever, so that they don't
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if they lose a day, you
know, if they lose a day of
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attendance, that doesn't help them,
but it's it hurts some significantly less than
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losing an entire attraction. So I'm
hoping knock Wood, I'm hoping that all
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the attractions in California are are ready
for this. Can survive this without any
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major major issue. And again,
it was a Category one when it came
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when it made landfall. And I'm
guessing that it will be downgraded very quickly
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if it hasn't been already. So
again we will. We can touch based
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on this perhaps next week and see, you know, if there was any
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ramifications or there were any ramifications from
the storm. But but you're right,
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we have to take into consideration that
the world exists outside the industry, but
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it does impact the industry and we
need to you know, we talked about
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this, you know, a couple
of years ago when we were talking about
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COVID preparedness and and and you know, the only way to get prepared is
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to stay prepared and have multiple paths
of of of opportunity, multiple paths of
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planning, so that you know,
it's possible. We may we may even
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see that. One of the challenges
is there is a supply chain issue because
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of the I doubt it, but
it's possible. So yeah, this is
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just something that I'm guessing. The
parks really don't have a hurricane plan per
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se, but but I bet they
will. Now, Yeah, well I
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wouldn't bet on it, but I
would hope. I wouldn't. I'm not
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sure all of them won't get a
game plan, but you know, but
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well yeah, yeah, and maybe
and maybe that her clan came plan is
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when one comes, we close our
doors. But yeah, I'm hoping if
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there is going to be you know, if there is going to be any
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potential for wind in any of the
parks or flooding or whatever, that they've
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done that they've they've done their due
diligence, They've you know, closed things
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down appropriately. They may not even
have a storm shutter option, but that
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things are as as battened down and
uh and stormproofed as possible. But again,
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like you say, this is completely
new to them. We were talking
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just before we started recording, and
and I made the analogy of its like
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if you have a snowstorm in Arizona, everybody is is there's a heightened sensitivity.
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Everybody's a little crazy. They're driving
differently, they're you know, looking
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out for things that don't exist yet, but they're planning. They're going,
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oh, this is terrible, we're
never going to make it. So yeah,
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So I don't want to under I
don't want to under emphasize or over
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emphasize what this could do for California
or to California. I'm I'm going to
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guess that it's going to be minimal. But again, we'll recoup, recoup
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and recover and then readdress perhaps next
week and say, yeah, nothing happened,
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00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:40.560
moving on, Yeah, yeah,
okay, Well, let's let's transition
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over to some news we didn't cover
last week because we had so many kind
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of trip reports to talk about last
week. But uh, yeah, we
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started talking, we started talking and
chat and then it just all right,
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so let's let's let's move on.
Sorry, I was about to do it
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again, wasn't it. Yeah?
Oh gosh, Okay. We had the
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latest quarterly earnings recap from Disney.
There's a lot. There always is a
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lot, and as usual, they
bury the leads I think intentionally, so
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we so I'm going to just kind
of go through some of the big takeaways
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and all the buckets and then we
can we can talk about it. But
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so they revealed that the Disney Parks
and the Disney Experiences section, including all
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the theme parks and all that they
saw a thirteen percent increase in revenue to
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eight point three billion, while also
posting a two point four three billion and
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operating income. So to back up, Disney is not doing great as a
111
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whole, but the theme parks and
this Parks and Experienced division obviously is the
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part that's doing really well. So
that's kind of what was highlighted is at
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thirteen percent increase in revenue, attendance
at the international parks obviously rose, and
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00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:55.360
we talked about how at Walt Disney
World it was a little bit of a
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decline and they're attributing that to heat
and drop in pent up demand, blah
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00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:07.000
blah blah, all that kind of
back to equalizing nature. They they didn't
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mention they had to mention on the
call of course, and Endless have remained
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cautious about the future of the park
segment as demand appears to have slowed couples
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with heightened risks to margins and made
inflation. We've talked about that too,
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you know, we'll see how that
goes. They did. We did get
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a number for the Galactic Star Cruiser
that they closed earlier. They basically said
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it would be one hundred million accelerated
depreciation charge, which basically is it'll end
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00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:41.200
up being two hundred million of that
they're writing off for the Star cruiser kind
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of spread throughout multiple years, but
it'll be two hundred million. So so
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now we have a number. It
cost two hundred million at leaser. That's
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what they're writing off, a two
hundred million, which since there's since there
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00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:54.240
was like, uh not many rooms, that equates to about two million dollars
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per room, which is interesting.
Well, but but also I mean,
129
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yes, that sounds like a big
chunk of change, and it is.
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I mean, you know, I
wouldn't want to lose it, but I
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00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:07.480
don't have to worry about it because
I don't have it to lose, So
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that's good. But the other side
of that too, though, is I
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applaud them for diving in because now
they have a whole bunch of data as
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to how to the next time they
try to do something that's this immersive and
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00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:24.799
that's this boutique style. They have
a bunch of data that they can pull
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00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:28.960
from to say, here's why this
didn't work, you know, and Disney.
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00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:33.679
Disney is usually pretty good about that. They will they will be able
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to say, here's something that didn't
work the last time we tried it,
139
00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:39.240
but instead of saying it didn't work
when we tried it before, or something
140
00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:41.159
like it before they'll say here's why
it didn't work, and they'll pull those
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00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.679
data points and try to implement them
in something in the future. Yeah,
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00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:52.159
I agree. I think we talked
about that as well last time when when
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00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.600
it was closed. Originally, I
just was a little surprised by the number,
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00:09:54.679 --> 00:09:56.240
and I think even I was surprised. I was like, do you
145
00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:01.960
know two hundred million is is a
chunk of that's a that's a pretty big
146
00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:05.440
test. But I guess it's the
whole you know philosophy that you've talked about,
147
00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:07.360
Scott, which is, you know, if you're going to test it,
148
00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:09.799
you need to test it right,
because that's the only way it tests
149
00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:16.879
will work. Sorry, I don't
know whether that happened on your under mind.
150
00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:18.360
We had a little glitch there,
folks. That's okay, that's okay.
151
00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:20.559
Froze or Philip did. I don't
know whether they did. But we're
152
00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:24.360
back together now, we're back.
Yes, I was saying that two hundred
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00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:30.440
million surprised me in the amount a
little bit, But I think it's uh
154
00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:35.919
what you had been saying previously,
which is just they had to really test
155
00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:39.360
it, you know, that's the
only way to know is to is to
156
00:10:39.399 --> 00:10:41.559
put the money to test it,
right, and you have to kind of
157
00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:45.480
question how did they think they were
going to earn that back? But that's
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00:10:45.639 --> 00:10:50.080
a whole we could do a whole
dissertation. I agree that that's a great
159
00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:52.639
point. How how long did they
think he was going to have to be
160
00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:54.919
sold out basically to make back two
hundred million, That's that's that's a great
161
00:10:54.960 --> 00:11:00.679
question. I'm not sure how I
feel about the analyst section about the future
162
00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:05.039
of the parks, because you know, analysts are saying based on the demand
163
00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:09.039
slowing and heightened risk to margins and
mid inflation. We'll talk about that a
164
00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:13.639
little bit later too, with with
hiring. Right it's happening now for Halloween,
165
00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:18.279
but right, Yeah, And the
weird thing about that is it's sort
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of like an analysts have remained cautious
about supply and demand. I mean,
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it's it's a To me, it's
a it's a really basic statement, and
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it's it's kind of covering their behinds
just in case things do tank. But
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to me it was I just kind
of look at that and went, Okay,
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that's just a sort of a template
statement that we just sort of stamp
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on everything. We are we are
happy, but we are cautious because things
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could stop working. Yeah, well, to me, I agree with that,
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but I I think it was a
little bit like again we talked about
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this too, but a little bit
like it's like everybody has been expecting this
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surgeon demand to continue at the same
pace, which is which is unrealistic,
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right because it I mean, some
some some attractions we've worked with Scott have
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like doubled or tripled. There a
tendency you just can't that's not sustainable,
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you know, to keep doubling and
doubling that's ridiculous. So yeah, it
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feels like we've been talking about that. There's a equalization point the exactly that
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we've been talking on the industry where
we're getting closer to that by the end
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of this year when consumer spending they've
kind of they've when consumers have spent a
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lot of their they're saved up capital
from over the pandemic, and then through
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into next year, it's going to
be a much more competitive landscape. And
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that's a good thing. Competition is
good for for everybody. But but you
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know, yeah, it's we've we've
talked about this, We've talked about this
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for years, and that's that hitting
that equilibrium. You know, it's if
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you think about it like water,
if you if you build up a huge,
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huge you build a dam, and
you build up this huge sort of
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stockpile of water, then you break
the damn there's this huge rush, but
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that huge rush doesn't last forever,
and eventually equilibrium is reached. So once
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we get there, then we have
to, you know, focus on quality,
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which is why we've also said during
the rush, hopefully those smart companies
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and you know, those of you
who are listening, hopefully you've kept your
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quality high so that when the equilibrium
comes, you've already built that fan base
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with all the people that were coming
to you, either for the very first
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time or all at once. So
uh and finally, Disney Plus is still
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struggling, but it's struggling not as
much as that was previously struggling. I
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guess that's the takeaway. We're still
in trouble, but not as much yet.
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That was the whole takeaway as far
as I can I can take it.
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I mean, there's numbers and you
know, they they've announced, you
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know, they're their subscribers miss the
estimates, but they're announcing that they're they're
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going to reduce expense, blah blah
blah, you know, all this all
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this talk, but you know,
I think I think basically we're still going
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to have to see because clearly the
Disney Plus model is getting closer to resolution,
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but it is not fixed yet and
it is still in trouble, and
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you know, that's we're just going
to see where that develops. They said
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they would resume paying a dividend by
the end of twenty twenty three, So
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in line with that, they did
announce in order to pay the dividend,
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they're going to be cutting budgets more
than they had previously announced a little bit.
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But we don't really know exactly where
that's going to go. I'm not
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so again back to stuff we've talked
about previously. We're not sure how much
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of that is impacting the budgets for
entertainment at the parks, right, you
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know, and we've talked about that
a little bit. How the entertainment offerings
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are still light, even though it's
like, even though the Parks division is
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doing the best of everything, and
clearly people want live entertainment and they need
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to be competitive, and the way
to be competitive is to let people look
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at Mickey Mouse, because that's your
advantage, right. I think like even
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though all of that, they you
know, we haven't seen too much expansion
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with live entertainment, and it could
all be back do to them trying to
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return a dividend by the end of
the fiscal year. So I think that's
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that's all happening well. And and
the other thing to take into consideration too,
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is live entertainment in the theme park
is a significantly smaller amount, significantly
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smaller amount of investment than it is
in new movies, new product for for
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Disney, Disney plus etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The the investment is less
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and the return is less. You
know, even though the parks are doing
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well, that's sort of like saying, our our lemonade stand is kicking butt,
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but our garage sale is tanking.
You know, you kind of have
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to look at what has the possibility
of generating the most revenue. So I'm
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glad because I'm in the theme park
industry. I'm glad that the live entertainment
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experiences and that the parks are doing
well because that that reflects very well on
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those of us who work in the
industry. But it's it's all a question
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of perspective. And as you say, they lead with what they want you
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to take away as a stockholder,
and they want to make sure that you
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know, nobody loses They're they're not
being dishonest, but they want to make
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sure that nobody loses faith in the
in the company as a whole, and
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that's that's essential. Yeah, yeah, Okay. We also heard some news
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from the Sea World. Oh,
I think we had we talked about how
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they had they had pre previewed the
report kind of you know, where they
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let people know what was it gonna
be good, and it wasn't good.
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So basically they saw a dip.
They saw a decrease in both attendance and
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in revenue in that last quarter.
The attendance dropped one hundred and twenty five
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thousand, which is a two percent
drop from the same period in twenty twenty
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two, and of course the revenue
declined one point seven percent, falling from
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five hundred million roughly to four hund
ninety six. You know, and they're
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because they're blaming weather of course,
and also Conadian wildfliers and blah blah.
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But I think we I think the
larger problem that these these parks, and
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I want to say these parks,
I mean like the Sea World in the
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Six Flags, you know, like
clearly, Disney Universe Soul are in that
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area where when people are making decisions
about their limited disposal income, they are
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going to you know, they're not
going to give up Disney, clearly,
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and they're not going to give up
going to Halloween horror nights clearly, right,
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Like that's I mean the popcorn sippers
blah blah. You know, they're
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they're entrenched so much, you know
that, I think people are going to
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be choosing those. I think it's
going to be the parks that are not
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holiday traditions for families, you know
as much that are going to be struggling.
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And I think we're seeing that now. And I'm not sure it's going
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to get any better for these parks, you know. I think objectively speaking,
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they'll get more people just because of
the holidays, but I'm not sure
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they will see an increase versus the
previous years. Yeah, I agree with
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you to it. I agree with
you to a certain extent. However,
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I do think that and I'd be
curious to see this. I'd be curious
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to see the numbers on this.
I do think that the holiday offerings,
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even for the secondary the non Disney
and non Universal parks, I think that
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the holiday because the the died in
the wool holiday goers, whether it's Halloween
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or Christmas, are local. For
the most part. Universal is an exception.
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Disney is an exception, but for
you know, the SeaWorld parks,
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it's primarily a local audience and it
is their tradition to go. I think
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the biggest challenge is it's a the
day product, is that the full time
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product is not quite as essential to
people to consumers as as the Disney or
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the universals, because again, Disney
is one of those things that families make
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a either a summer tradition or a
vacation tradition to make certain that they go
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and see, we got to take
it's little Jimmy's eighth birthday. We have
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to go to Walt Disney World in
Florida, and we live in Minneapolis,
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you know there. I think it's
the day product that really is going to
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is going to be the driver here
because the seasonal product, and I'm guessing
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this is anecdotal. I do not
have the data to show this, but
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I think it would be interesting to
see how does say, for example,
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Hollow Scream at Sea World Orlando compared
this year to last year as far as
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attendance goes, just taking that Halloween
element out of the out of the matrix
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and see did that did that decrease
the same amount as the attendance did I
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just I'm curious. I'm very curious. That's an excellent point. You know,
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basically that the parks aren't, well, the parks are are a little
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bit less competitive, but their seasonal
offerings might be more competitive. Basically.
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M Yeah, that's interesting. That's
an interesting point. And there might be
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there a lot too that because you
know, as you know very well,
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you know, the Hollow Scream in
Bush Gardens is a tradition I think for
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a lot of people there because it's
been so long, you know, it's
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it's over thirty Well, and I
look at you know, I look at
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people like and I mean, granted, you are a you are a Halloween
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super super fan boy, Halloween and
content creator, and so you're going to
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go to the park's seasonal events.
Yeah, but not necessarily make a plan
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to go to the parks during the
day unless you're going there for the seasonal
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events. So you know, I
think I'm curious. I would I just
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be curious because I think that I
honestly think that the seasonal events, if
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it's if it holds true from when
I was at the parks, the season
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seasonal events are the saving grace.
They're the insurance policies because they're kind of
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I won't say money in the bank, but they're kind of consistent in the
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fact that we know that in October
people are going to go to Halloween events,
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we know that in December people are
going to go to Christmas events,
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and of course, as we've learned, October now starts in August. But
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you know, well, yeah,
we call it October now, but yeah,
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welcome. Well it's funny because we
don't. We don't even when it
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comes to the production side of it, we don't even think of it as
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Halloween season and Christmas season. It's
the holiday season. Start of the season
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now, Yep, it starts lea
July and we're working on it. Yeah,
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yeah, I that's interesting. I
am very curious to see how how
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those numbers work out. That's an
interesting point. I think overall, it's
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back to what we've been saying which
is that all attractions are going to need
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to be just more competitive in twenty
twenty four, basically by the end of
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you know, by the end of
this quarter in twenty twenty four, just
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more competitive overall because you know,
because of the increased basically there's less demand
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because people do have less savings than
they had, and there's increased supply because
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everyone is finally reopened and you know, fired on all cylinders, which is
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great for everybody, they're all back. But that's just the reality there.
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There's there's less demand and more supply, and that means a more competitive landscape.
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And we'll see what the two years
of retraining of the audience has done.
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You know, is it imperative that
we go to X y Z theme
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Park every single year? Is it
imperative that we get our season pass every
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single year? Because COVID retrained us, retrained us all to behave in a
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certain way. And we won't know
that we said this, we said this
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a very long time ago. We
really won't know the impact for at least
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another from now, about another three
to five years as to how much it's
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changed changed the landscape of the industry. Yeah, well, it's that time
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of year again, which is that
we are actively hiring for the holiday season.
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Of course, that has already started
for a lot of places, and
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is you know, beginning for a
lot of other people. There's two stories
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I want to put together. One
is that there's a push from county supervisors
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in LA that are proposing a twenty
five hourly minimum wage, and it's going
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to apply to basically multiple sectors.
But one of those sectors is tourism,
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and because it's in LA County,
it really is going to only impact Universal
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and six Flags because Disney is not
in LA County, right, so so
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neither is not. So this is
an interesting one because I have several friends
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that work there and they're following this
very closely, and their unions are involved
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in blah blah blah. And the
reason I think that's interesting is just because
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I think this is one of those
weird things that I actually think has a
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chance of passing, only because Disney
would benefit from it heavily if it did
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pass, because you know, if
your competitors are required to pay twenty five
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but you're not, that's great for
you, you know. And and I'm
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going to couple that with a story
from Sea to Point which has started doing
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their job fares for their holiday season, and they this year have said they
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are just hiring people on the spot. So that's the organized just say.
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The potential employees will partake in interviews
and offers on the spot with part managers
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and positions available from high school students
to career professionals. So they are really
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pushing and we've seen some signs some
places where where people are saying, like
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now hiring fourteen and up. So
it's it's interesting because many of my clients,
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I mean, that's why I'm here, That's why I'm here in the
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Chicagoland area, why I'm here in
South Farrington. This is our third set
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of auditions for for Terror Roulette,
which is a new haunted attraction here and
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you know, as you know,
the Chicago Land area is filled with with
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haunted attractions, so we had to
find ways to be compelling competitive both from
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a pay standpoint as well as from
a content standpoint and a commitment to the
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performers stand point. So you know, I completely understand that the hiring on
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the spot thing I find really interesting
because you know, again you all know
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that back in the day when I
when I worked at Bush Gardens. We
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did that for a hollow scream starting
in the oh gosh, early two thousands,
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like two thousand and two, two
thousand and three. You could come
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in and we did in the entertainment
department. We didn't do it in the
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other departments. But if you came
in, you auditioned, You did an
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audition, If you passed the audition, you went to a human resources interview.
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If you passed the human resources interview
view, a job offer was made
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on the spot. Now that pulled
away when we had to do and it
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was always contingent upon passing. It
was a drug free workplace at the time,
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so you had to you had to
you know, you pass your drug
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screening, et cetera, pass your
background check. But the offer was made
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on the spot. So I know
that for a short period of time.
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I don't know what it is now, but for a short period of time
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they went away from that and have
Now they may be coming back with seeder
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point, you know, but paving
the way. But it sounds like they're
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doing it for pretty much everybody because
they're they're that desperate. It's like you
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need a job, show up,
you know, it's it's that and again,
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like with the twenty five dollars minimum
wage for Universal and six Flags,
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they are. That just shows to
me that they're in a competitive enough market
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that they need to do that,
they need to elevate. I'm not sure
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it's going to work quite the way
they think it's going to work. As
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you say, I think it will
benefit Disney more than it will benefit Universal
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and six Flags, But we'll see. I think that there's there's two sides
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to this coin. It can either
be. It can either be well,
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wait a minute, I was going
to go work for Disney because well it's
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Disney, but they're not paying you
know, they're paying twenty and and and
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six Flags is paying twenty five.
It may I think the intent is to
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sort of level that playing field.
It may bring it, but yeah,
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yeah, I don't know. It
might. We'll see. We'll see what
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happens. We'll see what happens.
Yeah, well, I guess I want
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to know from me, you Scott, you know, because that's all hypothetical.
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Well, well, we'll track that
story, of course, and if
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there's if there's you know, if
something materializes, we'll let well, of
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course we'll talk about it. And
just for reference too. I think right
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now it's about eighteen, so it
would be a seven dollars an hour jump
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for all positions. And that is
that's a lot. I mean, that
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is I'm sure the executives around there
are that's eye popping. So but all
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that aside, Scott, tell like
about the hiring season, What has anything
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changed about this year's hiring season since
you're actively doing it versus what we've talked
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about previously, you know, Well, interestingly enough, a month ago,
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I would have answered this question differently. I'm starting to see things change now.
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Originally I was, I was very
frightened by the hiring season, and
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again not just for this particular project, for the other projects that I'm working
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on around the country, because I'm
sure that there are idiosyncrasies for each each
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area, you know, each competitive
niche. And what I was finding early
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in the audition process, because let's
face it, you know the holiday season
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auditions start in June early July,
and so we were what we were seeing
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then is we were seeing a lot
of people sign up, but a huge
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no show rate, as much as
fifty to seventy percent. In some cases,
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people would sign up saying yes,
I want a job and then just
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not show up for the interview or
for the audition. Now what we are
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seeing is the people are as we're
getting closer and closer. I think the
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fuse is getting shorter and shorter,
and there the turnout rate is significantly higher.
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In fact, back at Zoo Tampa
we had the last set of auditions,
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I think we had an eighty percent
turnout rate for those who had signed
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up. So going from forty to
fifty percent to eighty percent is huge.
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So I don't I would love to
be able to sit here and say and
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here's why. But I think it's
something as simple as people have come to
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the come to the realization that gosh, you know, we've we've kind of
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coasted and they'll be work there when
we when we want it. But the
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reality is that is not the case. You know, we we worked our
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butts off to get stuff cast,
and now that we're in our I wouldn't
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even say the final hours you know
where we still have a couple of months.
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But to be fair, you know
here and here and here in Chicago
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or South Barrington, we're going to
start rehearsals in a little over two weeks,
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so we're I guess we're kind of
there, and especially from a costuming
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standpoint, and you know, the
scenic is going up, all of that
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is happening, So I guess we
are kind of at the final hour and
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I'm hoping that people are recognizing it
because we're seeing some great people, but
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we may not have jobs for them
because they didn't audition soon enough. They
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didn't come out soon enough to get
those jobs, so we're having to be
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careful. And like I said,
I like to hire on the spot.
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But because we've done that, I'm
curious to see whether we'll do it next
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year because now we're seeing the great
people at the end. So this is
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something that we're going to continue to
follow. But my recommendation, if you
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are out there and you're looking to
get seasonal work for the holiday season,
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if it's not too late, audition
now, because I know that they're still
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I've still got clients that are auditioning. I'm ninety percent certain this will be
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the last audition for this particular project, and I've got we do have other
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auditions for other projects in different parts
of the country. So if you don't
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have a gig now and you want
to audition for it, go, don't
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wait, don't wait any longer,
because people are starting to come out.
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They're starting to realize, oh my
gosh, I got to do it now,
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or I'm done. And speaking of
being done, we are done for
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another week. That's our thirty minutes. So guys, once again, thank
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00:31:07.640 --> 00:31:10.960
you all so much for listening and
hope to see you next week on behalf
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of Philipernandez myself Scott Swinson. This
is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty See
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00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:15.440
you next week











