Very ironic! My time with the company began probably around 7/8 years after buyout & I always remember the buzz from anyone that got put on Chessy placement!
In my opinion, I think among the biggest issues Merlin have, is residing over such a diverse offering; each park & midway are very different from one another - they are essentially juggling a multitude of stand alone brands across the World, each with a complex personality to manage, maintain and develop. They potentially went too big, too quickly which can result in resources being spread thinly. I often wonder if the UK parks would thrive or fail if they were split up by a future buyout that allowed them to each become an independent focus.
Merlin also seem to have gotten comfortable doing the minimum for a while, however, I think right now is very much a transitional phase - we are seeing improvements, although they feel very dilute amongst the long-standing issues, some questionable 'try new things' choices and new management settling in.
I do think Chessington not being part of the Merlin buyout is a huge point of alternative history for the UK theme park industry that requires it's own topic as of you will remember, Thorpe park was being treated like Tussauds' new toy and got all the investment during the early 2000's while in contrast Chessington got done very dirty in that time and really was a shadow of its former self and was looking like Merlin would forget about Chessie until the last minute when it would be included.
So yeah, had they decided on thinking that Chessington was a lemon in their eyes, this would have major effects all round. Tussauds would likely have survived providing that if they sold Towers and Thorpe to Merlin at top dollar but kept Chessington and thr waxworks (the latter being like the family silver that no way Tussauds would let go) then not only does it mean Tussauds is now vastly reduced in size but it does mean than all the debt it had is cleared and that they could treat Chessington as their only child. The park would not be in a much better place IMO but we would never see many of Merlin's choices from RAP and Mandrill Mayham.
This would actually benefit Thorpe in which the only reason why they went for more a older crowd was that they wouldn't affect Chessington's market given their close proximity. With Chessington no longer there and without any of the strict planning rules they'd have to follow there compared to Thrope, Merlin would be laughing and would make Thrope as a true Alton Towers of the south in terms of appealing for all the family. In fact Saw was very close to being a more mine theme ride before getting changed to Saw at the last minute to appeal to the older crowd but without this, Saw's original theme still happens and many of the dark themes like with Swarm would never happen here, maybe Thrope gets Cbeebies Land instead of Towers (Londom centric ofc!)
I did this timeline of this happen with Alton Towers being quite different but that's another story. Anyway, the irony is that while Merlin wouldn't be as big with just Towers and Thorpe and none of the Tussauds waxworks (imagine Blackpool being a three way battle between Merlin, Tussauds and BPB!
) being in their hands, it would mean that without having to invest in Chessington, there would be more money to go round Towers and Thrope with not only many projects happening sooner let's say but maybe, to bring this back on topic, a larger budget for presentation for the park's as if a surviving Tussauds running a now well presented Chessington becomes the main challenge for Merlin, it might force them to actually spend money on upkeep which means we'd likely never have a poor looking Smiler or Galactica, maybe Tussauds by that point would have invested in buying a new second UK park of their choice (Lightwater or M&D's anyone?)
Yeah, should this be on another topic discuss more about this as I do find this fascinating as who knows different Towers would be in a alternative 2023 here...a park that actually is looking mostly clean?