Six Flags and Cedar Fair Merger

WEBVTT

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From our studios this week in Orlando
and Tampa. This is Green Tag Theme

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Park in thirty. I'm Philip and
I'm joined as always by Scott Swinston of

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Scott Swinson Created Development. It is
big news this week. What something happenig

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news? If something happened, you
know, I haven't heard anything about this

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Halloween that's the big time kidding.
Yeah, Halloween, we survived it.

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Okay, moving on how we survived
it? Oh, I don't know though,

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to be determined, well for the
most part, for the most part.

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So yeah. Cedar Fair and six
Flags announced Thursday that they will combine

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in a merger of equals. So
we're going to talk about that merger today.

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Probably it'll be the main thing we
talked about on the show for today,

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and I'll go through some of the
details and we will kind of riff

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on some of the elements and bring
our expertise into it. But just to

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give everyone the details if you have
not heard yet. Together, they will

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operate twenty seven amusement parks, fifteen
one parks, and nine resort properties in

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North America. Combining, the companies
will generate more than three billion in revenue.

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Cedar Fair reported in attendance last year
or that's last year of two point

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four million, which is only a
one percent increase from the year earlier.

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Six Flags announced sixteen percent rise in
its third quarter attendants which total nine for

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three million. So this is all
stuff taken from the release, but they

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claim that they have little geographical overlap
and they anticipate one hundred and twenty million

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in cost savings within two years of
closing the deal. Once the deal closes,

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the combined company will operate under the
six Flags name, but they will

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trade under the ticker symbol FUN on
the Stock Exchange, and the Cedar Fair

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CEO is going to be the CEO
of the new company, while the six

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Flag CEO will become the executive chairman. The company's newly formed board will include

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six members from each of the parks, from six from Cedar Fair and six

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from six Flags, and it will
be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina,

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and will keep a significant finance and
administery of operations in Sandeski, Ohio,

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where Cedar Fair is based. Six
Flags will be based in Arlington, Texas.

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So they list a lot of the
synergistic moments and elements that are going

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to make them more competitive, et
cetera, et cetera. Given their broader

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geographic footprint, they should be less
seasonal, et cetera, et cetera.

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And I don't want to go into
too much of that because a lot of

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it's just a lot of I feel
like it's just boiley plate speak that you

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would put into any merger of this
kind. You know, we're gonna use

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our synergies to be better together,
et cetera, et cetera. And just

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as a reminder for people, the
ips that they hold that each holds six

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flags has DC comics and Looney Tunes
characters from its former owners and Warner Brothers,

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and Cedar Fair of course has Snoopy
and the Penis characters that it inherited

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with, not Sperry Farm. We
have not heard yet any hard details about

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this. Obviously, it's going to
close midpoint next year as long as it

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passes all the requisite votes and there's
no FEC interaction, which there shouldn't be.

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But the we have not heard from
the IP licenses as to whether they're

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going to whether or how they're going
to allow expansions of it, or if

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that's even a thing. I just
want to remind people about the ips that

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were involved. So with that being
all said, I'm going to give my

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point and then I think Scott has
a lot of them. My main point

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is is I thought it has a
lot of points. He has a lot

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of points. So yeah, yeah, I just was kind of like,

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well, this is the thing that's
happening. So I want to put the

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context out there because I think I
actually think this is a good idea.

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I think it's a good idea because
we had talked about this previously Agnauseum about

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how I'm not sure six Flags and
Cedar Fair. You know, I at

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least has raised the point previously as
that I wasn't sure how they were going

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to remain competitive if there It's kind
of like if you have SeaWorld and six

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Flags and Sater and they're all trying
to be fun capitals, I don't see

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where you're going to go, especially
with the market and mainly dominated by Universal

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and Disney. And I think it's
the same thing that I would also say

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is going to happen to streaming is
that, you know, people people don't

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really want more than three streaming services
they have to subscribe to, So you're

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either one of the three or you're
going to go out of business, right,

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it doesn't work. And I think
I would say there's something similar happening

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with theme entertainment, especially given all
of the increased competition from in home experiences

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and from other experiences that you can
go do outside of it. And you

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know, to Universal's point, I
think that's why they're looking to expand into

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food and other types of experiences.
So I think the theme park things,

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you're going to have three, right, And I think this is a move

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to try and be the third place
person, because if you look at the

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context last year in twenty twenty two, Universal had seven point five billion in

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revenue, Disney had twenty nine billion, and SeaWorld had one point seventy three.

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So if they're gonna put all this
twenty seven US parks together, that'll

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give them three billion, which will
put them pretty much squarely in third place.

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But just the context of the situation, that's still you know, Disney

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is at twenty nine and that was
last year. Disney and twyan that's going

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to have more this year because they're
operating. You know, their profits have

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been good at the parks, so
that'll be twenty nine versus three, and

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it'll even on universal side it will
be seven point five versus three. So

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really, I think this is the
worst news. This is the worst thing

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for SeaWorld of anybody. It is
here is the person that's gonna take the

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third spot. And if they succeed
in combining your Samuel passes and all this

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blahah blah blahlah, then really,
why would you choose SeaWorld unless it's like,

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you know, geographically close to you, or it's more convenient from from

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that standpoint, But otherwise it's like
this becomes the third point. I think

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they kind of push out SeaWorld.
And remember last year we talked about that

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that SeaWorld trying to purchase, you
know that there was that purchase thing with

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Cedar Fair that they said no.
So I think I think there are all

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three of these people are aware of
the competitive landscape in this way, and

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I think this is this is the
move that will kind of push SeaWorld out.

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So I don't think that it's a
it will work. As Ascott and

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I always say, it's going to
come down to the execution, but I

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think that the theory, I'm not
sure what else they would do, to

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be honest, with you. I
really don't, because the last thing I'm

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gonna end on is is something from
the City Investment Research. Uh, there's

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a there was an analyst at MPR
sited and I think this is an excellent

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statement. Whereas the theme park industry
as a whole has been under significant pressure

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since it start the pandemic, six
Flags has created additional pressure of its own

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with a volatile new attendance and pricing
strategy that has struggled to take route,

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alienating its core customers and leading to
dramatic drops and visitation along the way.

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And that is perfect because we talked
about how they tried to remember how they

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said they basically didn't like the riff
raft that they had at the park and

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they wanted to become more of like
a target type of thing, and they

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tried and they failed. So I'm
not sure what else they can do if

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if they really if they can't get
themselves at that out of that target market,

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and they I'm not sure what else
they can do besides merge and try

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and just become a bigger server of
that target market and basically become the new

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Malls of America. I'm done.
Well, So I agree with you,

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Philip, I think this is I
think this is a I think this is

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a good move, but it's not
something that's new for Sea World. I

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mean, if we go back through
the I'm sorry for six Flags, because

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if we go back through the history
of six Flags, you know, six

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Flags has tried for many, many, many many years, many many many

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different ways to get a larger market
share. There was, oh gosh,

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it had to have been ten twelve
years ago. They just went on a

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buying spree. They bought up every
independent park they possibly can, and we'll

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call it the Geaga Lake syndrome.
Geaga Lake is now a lovely set of

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condos. So it didn't work for
them. What they did was they overextended

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themselves when they purchased these other properties
and they became six Flags properties. It

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was six Flags Jeaga Lake as opposed
to a six Flags park, so or

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a Geaga Lake at six Flags property. That's how it was phrased. And

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the only reason I know this so
incredibly well is I was at that park

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shortly after they purchased it, and
it it was already you know, they

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were they were trying to shove some
money in there, but all they could

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do is do some new signage and
some some different ip merchandise. Really but

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this seems to make Oh and then
their next the next phase was there was

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you know, between SeaWorld Parks and
Entertainment and six Flags and cedar Fair.

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They've all at one point in time
seemed to have wanted to buy one another.

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There was or parts of one another. There was a time when Six

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Flags and this was several years ago
as well, Six Flags was looking to

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purchase the Bush Parks, the Busch
Gardens Tampa and Bush Gardens Williamsburg. Sea

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chose not to sell them at the
time. I don't even think they were

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SAA at the time, but anyway, whatever the parent company was called,

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chose not to sell them. Then, you know, as you mentioned,

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six Flats or SeaWorld looked at perhaps
purchasing Cedar Fair and vice versa, and

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that it's so I think this is
probably the most logical and successful way of

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expanding market share for six Flags and
for cedar Fair. And the fact that

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they've been very, very careful to
refer to it as a merger of equals.

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I think they have to make certain
that they don't alienate each other's clientele.

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But that's already happened. Anybody who
is on any of the social media

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streams anywhere have seen people who are
Cedar Fair fans just up in arms that

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it's gonna, you know, turn
their park into a blacktop jungle. And

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anyone who is a six Flags fan
is like, oh, now we're gonna

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get camp snoopy great. So there's
all kinds of it's already throwing throwing people

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for a loop. So I think
the more they can show we are going

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to be a merger of equals,
we are going to be equal partners,

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I think that's going to help their
their client base, their guest base.

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The other thing that I think is
really interesting about this merger and I and

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I and I quite like it.
If you think about it and correct me

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if I'm wrong, Philip, you
may have more data than I do.

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But with this merger, they will
easily be the company that owns the most

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number of theme parks in North America. I don't know for sure that's true,

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but I it sounds correct to me. It's well because it used to

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be it was six Flags for a
while, and then they sold some off

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and then I don't know where twenty
seven is a lot. I don't know

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where Palace. I don't know where
Palace falls in there, because Palace has

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a lot of little, tiny properties. But this, this seems like this

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seems like quite a bit when it
comes to major, major parks. So

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yeah, what twenty seven amusement parks
in fifteen water parks. That's a lot.

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I'd be hard pressed to see who
has more than who has more than

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that? Yet a lot? And
I will also say that with that model,

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and considering that, you know,
as you mentioned earlier, Philip,

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they're they're claiming that they don't have
a ton of geographical overlap, with the

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exception of California, that it's it's
possible that their business model is no longer

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going to be here's the destination.
It's it goes back to really what six

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Flags was originally, and that has
come to our park, come to our

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our hometown park, and and it
if they're smart. And again, let

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me just point out this is something
Philip and I talked about before we started

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recording today. Everything we're talking about
here, with the exception of what we've

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actually quoted from the announcement, is
conjecture. It's conjecture based on our experience

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in the industry based on what we've
seen happen before. So you know,

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this is all this is all just
us sort of throwing darts in the dark,

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and hopefully we won't hate each other. But the idea here is if

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they shift to that that hometown park
mentality, but have the pockets and the

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buying power of a much larger corporation, that could be a really smart business

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model, especially if you know,
God forbid, we have another another travel

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situation because of a pandemic or some
sort of some sort of shut down of

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travel. I mean, I will
I remember back going as far back as

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nine to eleven when travel just stopped. I was working at Bush Gardens at

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the time in Tampa, and thank
god, we had about a fifty percent

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attendance. Fifty percent of our attendants
came from locals, because that's what kept

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the park alive. The death nation
parks really hurt when travel went down,

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So that that may be you know, if that if this were if this

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were my choice, that would be
where I would dig my dig my feet

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in. I would really make certain
that each park that is there represents that

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area and and really caters to the
locals to make them so that they've always

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got their their season passes and when
when friends and family come to visit you

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in you know the Carolinas that you
go to Caroin's or you know they Yeah,

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and the thing that's going to help
them too is Cedar Fair. So

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much of the seaters, so many
of the Cedar Fair parks still have like

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Dougherty Park for example, still has
a rich history, and they they you

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know, they need to continue to
play into that. Yeah, I think

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I agree with you on that overall. Like they well, I think it

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goes back to Six Flags is and
they're failed strategy. Like you know,

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they they tried to shift the attendees
or they you know, they tried to.

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They tried to. It didn't work. Right. When it comes down

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to it, the people that go
to the parks, the Six Flags parks

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are for the most part, people
that are nearby who want to go for

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not very much money and just hang
out. And it's younger kids. It's

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kids. It's kids that nor that
I think in the past would have gone

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to the malls, you know,
and now they just go and hang out.

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And I do agree that I think
the their properties are synergistic for that

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reason. Because we even just talked
about the esports gaming thing going to Cedar

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point, I mean that kind of
stuff, that kind of stuff I think.

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I think if you if they basically
make them the mall model, I

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think that could work where agreed agreed, And I think that I think that

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some other excuse me, some other
tangents that we need to consider is if

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we look at the strengths from a
from a content standpoint of both of these

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parks. Six Flags is from my
perspective, six Flags has always been very

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good about finding synergy amongst their own
parks. So they're going to open a

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Batman coaster and it's going to open
in five of the parks. To you

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go to their Halloween event and you
see the same animation that has been purchased

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for every one of their parks and
then just distributed. I think that the

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I think the Cedar Fair model has
been to hold on to things that are

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nostalgic, and I think that there's
a place for both of these in this

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merger. So I'm hoping that they
don't throw out the baby with the bathwater

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and say let's just make everything new, or let's just hold onto everything old.

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I think if they can find a
balance of this, they'll be able

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to maintain that local interest and that
local market. I hope, I hope

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that is indeed the case. We'll
see. You know, that brings up

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something that I've seen a lot of
conversation about this, and because it's very

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close to our world already, and
I've talked about this to a few people

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already. You know, when it
comes to Halloween, I do think that

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the new company is going to continue
Halloween because all of them do Halloween,

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and because economies of scale. Again, if you have the scale, if

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you have the infrastructure, Halloween can
be profitable for you. It's the people

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that have to you know, put
up temporary structures and rent a parking lot

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that it's difficult for. But the
people that already have the infrastructure and you

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just make it a second gate or
whatnot. But I think that Halloween is

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going to be very different for these
models because you know what a lot of

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you know, I guess what I'm
trying to get to is a lot of

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people rag on how how bad the
Six Flags fright Fest event is. But

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you know what, it's profitable,
and it's not for the Haunt fans.

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It's for the teens that would go
to a mall and hang out and just

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want to be like, pretend scared. It doesn't matter if they're pretending to

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be scared or you know, it
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And

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I think they could be said.
I think they can be said with any

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park that has a solid fan base. I mean, there are people who

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go to Halloween or Nights in Florida
and say it is nothing but a drunken

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beer fest or drunken alcohol fest,
and it charges, it cost too much

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and you have to wait in line
for everything. But again it's still profitable,

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it's still amazing. You know,
each of them have their own target

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category. Yeah, but my point, yes, they each have their own

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target market. I mean, I
I've talked to people who have gone to

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who have gone to hor Nit's Florida
and just say, I will never do

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that again. It was horrible.
It was not an enjoyable as Concoline Constant

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yet. Yeah. Well yeah,
and you know even with the you know,

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going over to six Flags Magic Mountain. You know, this year of

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Corse was their first ip test and
remember everything opened late. You know it

248
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objectively speaking, you know, it
looked bad like the rollout looked bad.

249
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The houses did not look good objectively
speaking, and it was it was late.

250
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You know, they had issues.
But you know what, I put

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up a lot of videos about those
areas and I personally didn't think they were

252
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great. But the target market loved
it. The kids loved it. All

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the people that are commenting on on
my videos from the SAU scenes love it.

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Just like the Five Nights at Freddy's
display that was in Hollywood Horror Ight's

255
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Hollywood. It doesn't matter if it's
just the display. The kids love it

256
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because they get to see props from
the games in real life, and that's

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what they care about and doesn't matter, you know it. I just think

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that that that type of model.
I think I think they're gonna do Halloween,

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and I don't think it's I don't
think it's necessarily going to change.

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I think they're going to continue to
try and do I think, you know,

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I don't know what to say,
like an economy Halloween. You know,

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it's gonna be like, let's invest
in the scare zones and the shows

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to make it more of like a
teen hangout environment, and we could try

264
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some ips, but you know,
less probably less hide houses, less investment

265
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in infrastructure and fabrication because why because
it's not needed and it's still successful.

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I mean, you know, just
looking at the crowd engagement, Like at

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Magic Mountain, the kids love the
sliders, They love the sliders, they

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love the clowns, they love just
hanging out with the characters, they love

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dancing and just vibing with what's going
on, and screen Break did phenomenal for

270
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them. And I think that's another
I think these are this is how it's

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going to be, you know,
I just and I think that's okay.

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Well, what I think this is
all just reinforcing what we were talking about

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earlier, and that is finding finding
a business model or a product mix that

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works for your local demographic, that
works for your demographic. And don't misunderstand

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me, I am not sitting here
dissing Halloween horneites at all. I'm saying

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that there are people who like it, there are people who don't. And

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the same is true with with six
Flags, the same is true with Seaworlds

278
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and Bush Gardens, the same is
true with Disney. You know, there

279
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are people who who love these events
and there are people who don't. But

280
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as you say, who shoot where
the ducks are flying. Put your event

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up so that the people who are
in your area will come to your event.

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That's I mean, that's just the
simplest thing in the world. And

283
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I and I kind of hope because
I think part of the challenge that six

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Flags has had in the past when
they do their expansions or their purchases,

285
00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:04.799
they have focused too much at the
top of the pyramid and not enough boots

286
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on the ground. So I'm hoping
that during this transition, and assuming that

287
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it all does go through, because
I think it will, I hope that

288
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there is that they still allow the
parks to keep boots on the ground and

289
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make certain that the product that the
guests are actually seeing, not and not

290
00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:29.519
just the stockholders, that the product
the guests are seeing is still staying top

291
00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:36.359
quality, is still staying or equality
that their guests are comfortable with, because

292
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otherwise it's going to eventually turn around
and screw itself over. Another interesting factor

293
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that I want to throw in here
is six Flags is within the next year,

294
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six Flags, the six Flags name
or the six Flags brand, is

295
00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:59.920
about to get yet another international shot
in the arm when the new six flo

296
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Flags Park opens in Saudi Arabia.
And this is a massive undertaking. Granted

297
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it is funded by the public fund
in Saudi, so it is licensed.

298
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But still guests are are going to
recognize the six Flags name. This is

299
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what's happening. I mean, this
is what's happening in the Middle East.

300
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We talked about it with c World, WAW, we talked about it with

301
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Ferrari World, We've talked about it
with Warner Brothers World. But it gives

302
00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:37.680
a whole new international recognition to the
Six Flags brand and the Six Flags name.

303
00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:44.559
I'm I'm hoping that they'll be able
to bank on that. I'm hoping

304
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that they'll be able to bank on
that. And I think that's that maybe

305
00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:49.839
one of, if not one of
the larger, but one of the reasons

306
00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:55.160
they are choosing to operate under the
six Flags name. Oh yeah, well

307
00:22:55.160 --> 00:23:00.480
the six Flags name is way more
has I mean because Cedar Fair, you

308
00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:03.640
know, they don't name their stuff's
eater Fair, correct, everything is six

309
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:07.000
Flags. So the brand recognition is
it's as much stronger and now we'll be

310
00:23:07.079 --> 00:23:14.000
stronger internationally. So because that that
park is now slated to open October of

311
00:23:14.039 --> 00:23:18.839
twenty four, and uh, it's
you know it's it's going to steal the

312
00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:22.039
world record for the tallest fastest roller
coaster. It's going to you know,

313
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get a lot of media attention worldwide. And uh so I think that that

314
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they may be banking on some of
that as some additional at least brand recognition,

315
00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:41.039
and not that six Flags has trouble
with brand recognition. But I think

316
00:23:41.079 --> 00:23:45.000
it will expand it to be even
more international. Yeah, so I think

317
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I agree with all that. I
think that's probably was a factor as well.

318
00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:52.000
I don't I mean, you you
didn't want you don't want to kill

319
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:55.799
the sixth fen then you have this
deal, this licensing deal. But I

320
00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:00.680
think, uh, I think overall
it's a good strategy. I think I'm

321
00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:04.720
not sure it will work out in
the long run, right for them,

322
00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:08.319
just because you know, it's like
six Flags and Seed the Fair. They

323
00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:15.200
both strike me as like minimum Bible
product, which is which is necessary for

324
00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.000
their target market, right, I
mean, the target market does not have

325
00:24:18.039 --> 00:24:22.519
a lot of disposable income and they're
really just you know, going to hang

326
00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:29.160
out and just you know, it's
all. It really is the worst group,

327
00:24:29.559 --> 00:24:32.680
you know, objectively speaking, if
you were to design a you know,

328
00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:34.200
a theme park who you would want
to target. It's not the group

329
00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:37.599
you'd want to target for sure,
but that's what they have and now they

330
00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:41.160
have them. You know, they
have a diverse fight all over the country.

331
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So you know, they were they
basically were barely eking by after the

332
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:49.519
pandemic, you know, just kind
of barely making it, and that strikes

333
00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:55.720
me as an minimum bible product to
park. So I think the theory is

334
00:24:56.799 --> 00:24:59.640
as we've said, you know,
combine all that, get a bigger footprint,

335
00:25:00.119 --> 00:25:03.640
and then use your synergies to help
make up some of your margin so

336
00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:07.440
that you can hopefully more than EKE
buy. But I would not expect anything

337
00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:11.160
significant to change for any of these, Like I kind of feel like it's

338
00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:18.519
going to be business as usual because
why would you It's always the same thing

339
00:25:18.519 --> 00:25:22.279
with the Halloween point, Like,
why would you make heavy investment. It

340
00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:26.400
doesn't matter. You know, it's
not going to lead to a different target

341
00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:30.640
market coming in. It's not going
to lead for them spending more money because

342
00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:33.319
they don't have it, you know. So I do think that they're probably

343
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:37.960
going to solidify their upsells, you
know, and solidify all of that to

344
00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:42.039
be synergistic across all the brand but
aside from that, I don't think basically,

345
00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:45.160
I don't think much. Is it
going to change. I hope you're

346
00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:48.000
right. I hope you're right.
I hope they I hope they don't become

347
00:25:48.039 --> 00:25:49.920
so focused on the changes that are
happening at the top of the like like

348
00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:52.119
I say, at the top of
the food chain, that they ignore what's

349
00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:56.359
happening at the bottom, that they
ignore what's happening with the guests. The

350
00:25:56.359 --> 00:25:57.400
one thing I do want to point
out though, is you know, they

351
00:25:57.400 --> 00:26:03.079
have talked about use the term synergy, and they even in the statement they

352
00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:07.279
said they anticipate one hundred and twenty
million in cost savings within two years of

353
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:11.400
the closing. That's not a lot, it's not a lot, but that

354
00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:15.000
means I mean, keep in mind, you've got to corporate two corporate headquarters

355
00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:22.400
that have parallel that have parallel structure
roughly, so that means you're going to

356
00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:26.960
lose people. Yeah. I can't
see that that's going to change. So

357
00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:30.759
well, yeah, that's what's so
funny about it is they're like, it's

358
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:33.519
even more of the MVP mentality,
right, It's like, oh, if

359
00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:37.000
we put everything together, then you
know, we can have even less finance

360
00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:41.960
people. Correct, and you're like, well that only works, you know,

361
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:45.400
until you realize that there's still the
same number of financial transactions that somebody

362
00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:48.960
has to deal with. Correct,
And if you just half the staff,

363
00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:51.480
that may not be a good thing. So so now half the staff is

364
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:55.319
working twice as hard. Yes,
yeah, Classic six Lags, yep,

365
00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:56.200
you know, I have. I
have a joke with my friends. Are

366
00:26:56.200 --> 00:27:00.640
always like Classic six Flags, you
know where they go a lot more the

367
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:04.079
six Flegs parks than I do.
But they're like one person running the entire

368
00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:08.480
ride Classic six Flags. You know, the guests have to check their own

369
00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:14.599
safety restraints. Classic six Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I will. We'll

370
00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:17.640
see. I have not been I'll
be completely transparent. I've not been to

371
00:27:17.640 --> 00:27:22.200
a Six Flags park in many,
many, many years. I have been

372
00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:27.279
to a couple of Ceedar Fair parks, so I can't really speak to what's

373
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:30.160
happening. I do know that many
years ago the Six Flags parks were not

374
00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:34.759
in the best of They were not
in the same level of shape as say,

375
00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:37.960
you know what used to be the
Big Three, you know, the

376
00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:45.119
Disney's Universals, the Sea Worlds and
bush gardens. Is so but we'll see

377
00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:48.640
again, We'll see what happens.
We'll see what I've gotten worse. Yeah,

378
00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:52.799
Yeah, Well, and again I
hope, I hope they continue to

379
00:27:52.839 --> 00:28:00.559
grow because you know, I I
have always I've always loved working with the

380
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:04.480
Cedar Fair team, and I'm hoping
that as they get together, they will

381
00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:11.759
continue to expand and grow, and
and that they that they do end up

382
00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:15.960
helping each other out as large corporations. So again, this is all conjecture.

383
00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:19.440
We'll see what happens. It could
blow up and everything goes beautifully,

384
00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:23.000
or it could go crash into the
ground. Only time will tell. And

385
00:28:23.319 --> 00:28:29.440
to quote one of our favorite phrases, it's all about the execution. It's

386
00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:33.039
all about how they end up.
It's all about what the guest sees in

387
00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:36.559
the end. So one of the
things that Philip and I started talking about

388
00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:41.200
before we actually started recording this episode
is we are coming up on another you

389
00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:44.440
know, we'll call it the other
elephant in the room, and that is

390
00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:48.480
the Iappa Expo. Yeah. I
can't believe it's time already. I know,

391
00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:49.960
and I know, Well, you're
in Orlando now and then you're going

392
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:53.400
back to California, then coming back
to Orlando for it correct. I need

393
00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:56.240
to check on my plants, you
know. Yeah, yes, you're you're

394
00:28:56.279 --> 00:29:00.559
so very busy, so very busy. Well, and I'm going to be

395
00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:04.359
very busy during during Ayappa as well. I've got four different sessions that that

396
00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:07.720
I'm teaching, two on Monday and
two on Thursday. But we'll get into

397
00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:11.279
those more details, I think,
on our on our next episode, and

398
00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:15.279
then we actually may who knows,
fingers crossed, we may actually get to

399
00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:19.519
record anpisode where Philip and I are
in the same room as opposed to different.

400
00:29:19.799 --> 00:29:23.039
Well we're in the same state at
least this time. That's that's nice.

401
00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:26.480
But yeah, that's a change of
path, it's a change of pace.

402
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:29.400
Yeah. But yeah, So any
of our listeners who are going to

403
00:29:29.480 --> 00:29:33.759
be at Ayapa show, we will
both be there. Gantum has a booth.

404
00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:36.279
I don't know what the booth number
is because I don't take care of

405
00:29:36.319 --> 00:29:41.680
those those types of things. But
I will be wandering around doing interviews,

406
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conducting interviews, you know, doing
my press things. And Scott will be

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teaching many classes. You can probably
just searcher his name on the education sessions.

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Yeah, I think probably the probably
the one that I want to throw

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out there the most. If you're
going to be there on Monday the I

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will be part of the Entertainment Networking
the Entertainment Networking group at four o'clock,

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so check that out. And then
I've also on Thursday in the morning,

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I have a session that is called
what's it called. I wrote it so

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long ago. It's called Show and
Tell Using Entertainment to Educate, which I

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think is going to be pretty popular
and an awful lot of fun. And

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then I'm team teaching with my friend
Megan Gardner on how to workshop coming up

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with a new dark festival for your
attraction. So that'll be in the afternoon

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on Thursday. Just search them,
you'll find them and please feel free to

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come up and say hi. I
would love to. You know, if

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any of you are there for the
show and you see me or you see

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Philip, just come up and say
hello and let us know. We like

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to we'd like to say hi.
We're not we're not scary, we're not

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inapproachable. We are two guys who
talk a lot on computers. That's about

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it. We really do like to
say hi. Yeah, please, absolutely

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absolutely, So that is that is
our time. The next time, like

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I said, we'll be talking even
more about the Iappa Expo, but until

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then on behalf of Philipernandez with Gantam
Lighting and the Hunted Attraction Network and myself

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00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:07.839
Scott Swinson Scott Swenson Creative Development.
This is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty

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and we will see you next week