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Manby out at SeaWorld

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chittlins:
He couldn't right the ship after stepping into a mishandled situation with the backlash from a biased, overly slanted hit piece that CNN had a financial stake in promoting.

shavethewhales:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/02/27/seaworld-ceo-joel-manby/376136002/

Seems like a knee-jerk reaction to a difficult situation. I don't know what Manby could have done differently. The parks are shifting away from animal shows and towards more rides as the market dictates. It's simply going to take time to shove off the bad PR drama. I feel like the parks are heading in the right direction and attendance is slowly ticking back up.

Wonder if Manby regrets stepping into that crapshow. Was it a step up for his career? Seems like HFEC, while being a smaller company, had so much more potential for him. DW and SDC are growing like weeds, and there are tons of other properties to acquire and grow.

The good thing about Manby is that he actually spent a decent amount of time with Jack and Pete and seemed to understand their vision for the parks, whether or not he always followed it. I've heard he's a bit of a shark, but that's what you expect from high-profile CEO's.

I wonder where he'll land next...

sdcfan88:
Would it be bad if he by chance came back to HFEC?

Swoosh:
Manby was an idiot to kill the orca breeding program.  I know he thought that that was the only issue SeaWorld had at the time but all it did was alienate the park loyalists.  At this point they might as well just go full marine zoological park with thrill rides because they’ve completely ruined the show side - which is why people came to the park in the first place.  Yeah Yeah “animal rights and stuff” - give it a rest.  Until you go completely vegan don’t even start.

History Buff:

--- Quote from: Swoosh on March 03, 2018, 08:55:00 AM ---Manby was an idiot to kill the orca breeding program.  I know he thought that that was the only issue SeaWorld had at the time but all it did was alienate the park loyalists.  At this point they might as well just go full marine zoological park with thrill rides because they’ve completely ruined the show side - which is why people came to the park in the first place.  Yeah Yeah “animal rights and stuff” - give it a rest.  Until you go completely vegan don’t even start.

--- End quote ---

I'll agree.  I didn't go to SeaWorld to see Cirque-style shows and dog acts - though that was going before Manby was involved.  I don't really see that he did much for SDC either - except appear on a very staged Boss episode.  His reign set into motion much of the generic appearance and modernization that we continue to see in SDC's improvements.

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