Great to hear they made their target for the year, but it probably should be increasingly worrying for us that SDC's attendance has remained fairly flat for the past 25 years. The market has been evolving rapidly over this period. I'm certain that SDC still has the highest attendance in Missouri as well as nearly the highest attendance out of most of the central U.S. outside of Sandusky, but everyone else is catching up.
The last time I saw really good comparison figures between the parks of Missouri was probably ten years or more ago, and back then SDC had more visitors than all the other parks in MO combined. That was before the Halloween Haunt events really started taking off, and the other parks were simply smaller in general. Somehow those parks, with all their seemingly anti-consumer issues, have continued a steady incline while SDC/Branson has been struggling to figure out where to go next for the last decade. These are parks that charge $20+ to park your car, have an extra $50+ charge to even get on the rides on busy days, and don't even make their parks into places that are that enjoyable outside of the rides.
So all in all, just looking at these numbers it seems like if you're the CEO of HFEC, a growing national entertainment conglomerate of which SDC is now just a single property within a massive portfolio, you're going to either start thinking about making massive changes at the park or simply focusing major investments to other properties for the foreseeable future. We already know that DW is experiencing rapid growth and therefore getting massive capital investments over the next decade, so they're already taking the latter route to some degree.
I just wonder how many years until they say screw it and just fill the place up with rides, give up any pretense of being a semi-realistic Ozarkan town, and start a halloween haunt event of their own. SDC has always been a signature attraction of the midwest, but as we've been discussing for the entire existence of this fansite, the customer base is rapidly changing in ways that are hard for SDC/Branson to adjust to without choosing between their core base of visitors and the new generation of potential visitors. 15 years ago when SDC invested in Wildfire it started adjusting the focus of the park to include basic rides similar to their competition, but in doing so they shoved a new wedge in their customer base that now views the park as just another amusement park and expects little more than the basic amusement park experience. This wedge keeps growing as the older generations who grew up with and appreciate the "old" SDC die off and the newer generation of visitors doesn't necessarily understand or appreciate what they're seeing.
I know this is another big rant, but I just don't get it. SDC is so good to the consumer, and the other parks are so bad. SDC has free parking, amazing staff, great food, great operations, great scenery, a great line-up of rides, the park is enjoyable to visit even if you don't ride anything, and yet attendance isn't growing by leaps and bounds each year. What's missing?
I think they need a new marketing push to show consumers what they're actually getting at SDC beyond just a bunch of rides. They also need to get back to setting themselves apart as an institution and a unique attraction. Branson also really needs to get it's crap together and HFEC should start putting more pressure on them. The town is a mess and while little things here and there get improved from time to time, the whole town needs a master plan implemented ASAP to get growth started again. There's a whole other long-running discussion there.