Kentucky Kingdom/WA/FC Rumor

[KBCraig]

Location of HQ doesn't matter. They have to travel to visit any of the properties.

I'm sure many of you know about Piggly Wiggly grocery stores. They were the first grocery chain most of us in the South knew about.

Do you know where Piggly Wiggly is headquartered? Keene, New Hampshire.

Do you know where the Piggly Wiggly grocery store nearest their HQ is located? Ohio.

Of all the things HFEC might do that I cheer or condemn, the location of their HQ is least among them.

[chittlins]

Location of HQ doesn't matter. They have to travel to visit any of the properties.

I'm sure many of you know about Piggly Wiggly grocery stores. They were the first grocery chain most of us in the South knew about.

Do you know where Piggly Wiggly is headquartered? Keene, New Hampshire.



Do you know where the Piggly Wiggly grocery store nearest their HQ is located? Ohio.

Of all the things HFEC might do that I cheer or condemn, the location of their HQ is least among them.

Piggy Wiggly was a store franchise brand for Malone and Hyde food distribution based in Memphis for decades along with a couple of others, namely Big Star. Pitt Hyde sold off M&H to Fleming Company out of Oklahoma, they actually helped stock Walmart's first supercenters till Walmart figured it out on their own and ditched them. Fleming then hitched their wagon to supplying Kmart Supercenters and promptly got left holding the bad and into bankruptcybwhere those franchise names like Piggly Wiggly got sold off to here and there. The Hyde Family held on to the one business they saw a future in and doubled down on it. That was once called Auto Shack now known as AutoZone. Ironically they also had a Walgreens like Drug store outfit called Super D's but just closed them down when the sold the food distribution business. My grandfather was the first independent grocery that ever signed up to M&H and withstood 5 decades of them trying to get him to become a Piggly Wiggly.

Anywho, I still don't see the need to move from ATL just for the convience of ATL and Delta alone.

[Swoosh]

While we are wishful thinking the Busch Gardens parks would be nice additions. Notice I left out SeaWorld but I can see that as well.

Well considering that the Busch parks are part of the SEAS Chain you’re not going to get one band without the other.  Not to mention, HFEC already has aquariums so why wouldn’t that be a good fit? Finally if you buy SEAS you get the rights to use Sesame Street IPs which would really benefit the current portfolio

[chittlins]

While we are wishful thinking the Busch Gardens parks would be nice additions. Notice I left out SeaWorld but I can see that as well.

Well considering that the Busch parks are part of the SEAS Chain you’re not going to get one band without the other.  Not to mention, HFEC already has aquariums so why wouldn’t that be a good fit? Finally if you buy SEAS you get the rights to use Sesame Street IPs which would really benefit the current portfolio

Just the overhead of full fledged zoological theme parks. Williamsburg isn't heavy with animals and Tampa isn't really either whereas the SeaWorlds are but the locations make you truly national.

[Swoosh]

While we are wishful thinking the Busch Gardens parks would be nice additions. Notice I left out SeaWorld but I can see that as well.

Well considering that the Busch parks are part of the SEAS Chain you’re not going to get one band without the other.  Not to mention, HFEC already has aquariums so why wouldn’t that be a good fit? Finally if you buy SEAS you get the rights to use Sesame Street IPs which would really benefit the current portfolio

Just the overhead of full fledged zoological theme parks. Williamsburg isn't heavy with animals and Tampa isn't really either whereas the SeaWorlds are but the locations make you truly national.

If you think the Tampa park isn’t heavy on animals then I question if you’ve ever actually been there.  I’ll give you the Williamsburg park but even it has a large animal presence

[HumphreyHawk]

In many ways I think HFE would be a prefect owner for the Busch and SeaWorld parks but I hope that doesn't happen.

I think all parks with animals (including zoos) are just going to have increased pressures by the public and through regulations on the conditions of the animals.  Its a liability HFE already has through the aquariums but those parks have much more vulnerable animals that would be under the publics spotlight.

It's pretty obvious the busch/seaworld parks are backing off the animal attractions and ramping up the rides over that past 10 years.

If anyone takes over those parks I'm going to anticipate an announcement with it about animal attractions being closed down with the deal.

[chittlins]

While we are wishful thinking the Busch Gardens parks would be nice additions. Notice I left out SeaWorld but I can see that as well.

Well considering that the Busch parks are part of the SEAS Chain you’re not going to get one band without the other.  Not to mention, HFEC already has aquariums so why wouldn’t that be a good fit? Finally if you buy SEAS you get the rights to use Sesame Street IPs which would really benefit the current portfolio

Just the overhead of full fledged zoological theme parks. Williamsburg isn't heavy with animals and Tampa isn't really either whereas the SeaWorlds are but the locations make you truly national.

If you think the Tampa park isn’t heavy on animals then I question if you’ve ever actually been there.  I’ll give you the Williamsburg park but even it has a large animal presence

I've been there, several times. It is and it's more like Wild Adventures in the dry land vs. Marine life cost aspect. My points was an aquarium is one thing and then there's the  costs of maintaining so many different costly high maintenance marine exhibits and arenas as opposeded to herd animals in a safari type setting.

[Swoosh]

While we are wishful thinking the Busch Gardens parks would be nice additions. Notice I left out SeaWorld but I can see that as well.

Well considering that the Busch parks are part of the SEAS Chain you’re not going to get one band without the other.  Not to mention, HFEC already has aquariums so why wouldn’t that be a good fit? Finally if you buy SEAS you get the rights to use Sesame Street IPs which would really benefit the current portfolio

Just the overhead of full fledged zoological theme parks. Williamsburg isn't heavy with animals and Tampa isn't really either whereas the SeaWorlds are but the locations make you truly national.

If you think the Tampa park isn’t heavy on animals then I question if you’ve ever actually been there.  I’ll give you the Williamsburg park but even it has a large animal presence

I've been there, several times. It is and it's more like Wild Adventures in the dry land vs. Marine life cost aspect. My points was an aquarium is one thing and then there's the  costs of maintaining so many different costly high maintenance marine exhibits and arenas as opposeded to herd animals in a safari type setting.

HFEC also owns aquariums.  Are you sure you understand their portfolio of properties?

[chittlins]

While we are wishful thinking the Busch Gardens parks would be nice additions. Notice I left out SeaWorld but I can see that as well.

Well considering that the Busch parks are part of the SEAS Chain you’re not going to get one band without the other.  Not to mention, HFEC already has aquariums so why wouldn’t that be a good fit? Finally if you buy SEAS you get the rights to use Sesame Street IPs which would really benefit the current portfolio

Just the overhead of full fledged zoological theme parks. Williamsburg isn't heavy with animals and Tampa isn't really either whereas the SeaWorlds are but the locations make you truly national.

If you think the Tampa park isn’t heavy on animals then I question if you’ve ever actually been there.  I’ll give you the Williamsburg park but even it has a large animal presence

I've been there, several times. It is and it's more like Wild Adventures in the dry land vs. Marine life cost aspect. My points was an aquarium is one thing and then there's the  costs of maintaining so many different costly high maintenance marine exhibits and arenas as opposeded to herd animals in a safari type setting.

HFEC also owns aquariums.  Are you sure you understand their portfolio of properties?

Gotdayum do you not understand scale and the costs associated with it?

Newport Aquarium has 1 million gals of 'aquatic habitat''. The Killer Whale tank alone in Orlando is over 6 million.

There's a huge difference in operating an aquarium vs. A fully involved sealife theme park and the numbers of each bears that out. One is increasing and another is static to decreasing outside of China. That was the thought I making. There's aquariums and then there's SeaWorld. Apples and oranges.

There's a reason Disney got rid of the shark pool at Typhoon. Costs, even for powerful Disney.

[Lampie]

I really can’t see HFE being in a place(currently or next 5 years)where they could buy sea world or even become a majority partner. While it’s fun to speculate it just seems highly improbable. It would be like whataburger buying out Burger King. One chain is so much smaller they just don’t have the capital to come close to doing a deal like that.

All that said. The banter between sea world and SDC on Facebook yesterday was fun.

[HumphreyHawk]

I really can’t see HFE being in a place(currently or next 5 years)where they could buy sea world or even become a majority partner. While it’s fun to speculate it just seems highly improbable. It would be like whataburger buying out Burger King. One chain is so much smaller they just don’t have the capital to come close to doing a deal like that.

All that said. The banter between sea world and SDC on Facebook yesterday was fun.

I wouldn't consider it improbable at all.  For the record....I'm not saying it will happen.

Hard to compare the two companies because HFE is private so we don't have the same reported numbers that SeaWord Enterprises have to report.  We don't have a real info on how much capital they have or or how much money they have made.

I don't think they are as far apart in size as your thinking.  HFE has alot more properties than just SDC and Dollywood.  But obviously, you have to would give SeaWorld/Busch Gardens the advantage in asset value with there parks attendances and locations.  Real Estate alone the company is worth a pretty penny even if the brands have devalued.

But smaller companies take over larger companies all the time.  Especially if it involves outside investors and/or arrangements concerning debts.  It's all about making the money work.

Plus...even though Whataburger is also a crappy burger....I doubt they want any association with Burger King.  If HFE would want to keep expanding....you have to think that those SW/BG parks would be the top of the line existing parks that fit into there business model. 

But who knows....HFE owns the globetrotters....so???