quote:
Originally posted by AMP
I believe the bottom line is if the market will not support the expenses while maintaining an adequate profit margin, the results are what you we are reading today in these reports.
Is it that the market won't support price increases or the owner/management's paradigm about what the public is willing to pay?
I dare say that if Bell's had gone with a fixed gate admission of $15.00, all rides inclusive, they could have kept out the riff-raff the last few years and kept the park up a little better.
No, the same family of four likely wouldn't come back every Friday, but it's no more expensive than an outing at Keystone or another area lake when you figure in gas, launch fees, gas for the boat, etc.
It only cost $3.00 to go in and loiter around. That in itself was enough disincentive for parents with real money to spend to let their kids go there.
Bell's PricingNo, it wouldn't have kept
Randi Miller & Clark Brewster the fair board from their short-sighted closing, but Bell's might have the finances in the bank today to actually re-open somewhere.
Now, here is the pricing for Big Splash:
Big Splash $$$19.95 and various other rates. That is the kind of admission which should keep it profitable and not cheap enough to encourage criminal-minded loitering. However, this might be an admission price which is too high for the average family and fits AMP's comments. Perhaps lowering this price by $5.00 per head might actually raise total gross revenue by making it more accessible to more people's budgets.
That place looks packed everytime I go by there, though it could be mostly season pass holders. I doubt there are any financial troubles other than Murphy raking off profit and not ploughing it back into maintenance.
If it is true that Bell's rent of $135K was more than twice as much as any other tenant, then Big Splash is only paying at the most $67K or thereabouts.
Granted, Big Splash has a shorter season than Bell's did- pretty much Memorial Day to Labor Day (give or take a few weeks).
Here's a random sampling of other parks in the region:
Six Flags Arlington, Tx.- $31.99 at the gate, $25.99 via the internet. SFD does all kinds of promotions with DFW area residents with special ticket prices to keep them coming. Seven or so roller coasters and major attractions, big concerts- great regional draw.
Frontier City, OKC- $25.99 at the gate. Not exactly a Six Flags (Six Flags has sold off Frontier City) as far as attractions, somewhat of a regional draw.
Whitewater Bay, OKC- $21.99 also divested from the Six Flags family this year apparently to the same holding company which bought FC and other smaller non-branded Six Flags parks.
Worlds of Fun, KC- $37.95
Oceans of Fun, KC- $26.95
The random sampling seems to show that water parks charge less for admission than ride parks do.
Since the average wage in OKC and surrounding rural areas isn't significantly higher than Tulsa, that makes it hard to really believe it's a wage-earner issue at all.
I'm not personally aware of any of these other parks suffering financially. I don't believe there were financial problems with the two OKC parks which led to their sale, they just didn't meet the Six Flags business model is the gist of all I read on it awhile back.
I guess if I were to distill this into one paragraph:
Bell's should have been charging more for gate admission and made it all-inclusive. This would have short-circuited the gang problems, allowed them to pay more rent, and have more improvements. None of those though seem to me like the real reason Bell's lost it's lease. On the other hand, Big Splash, while paying less rent and charging more for admission sounds like they aren't taking care of the place.
To me, it all sounds like owner mis-management.
