Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

[Meister71]

It’s great value if you’re planning to visit a partnering park or two next year.

I am visiting Europa at least next year - but BPB say "Please note admission to our European park partners is subject to confirmation for 2023" - so not sure if this will be a decent perk or not.

 

[IDB]

Not that I’ve ever been to one, but what sort of attendances do the shows in the Horseshoe Bar draw?

 

[Enter Valhalla]

Guest experience and a whole load of staff you no longer need!

Though the thing I don't quite get is why scan at all? There is only the rider tier now right?

Totally agree. There’s literally no reason for it, and at the rides, there’s still staff on each turnstile anyway. The only staff it’s saving is those on the ticket desks. But in 2020, it was a case of just walk on to the rides as is the case at the theme parks. Now that the Pleasure Beach Pass has gone, there’s no reason why they can’t go back to that. I highly doubt that the park are doing anything with the data that they get for people scanning their phones anyway.

Sheer management incompetence.

I’m sorry but I’ve become so disillusioned with BPB over the past few years.

 

[shakey]

It could be that they intend to bring back the walk round pass and/or some sort of electronic ride token system.

That would be the only logical explanation as to why they haven't scrapped the scanners completely.

But it's Pleasure Beach we are talking about so looking for any logic in their decision making is pointless !

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[Poisson]

They have to let you in to visit Mandy's Ice Show, so they must give you walkaround access too.

 

[Nick🎢]

They have to let you in to visit Mandy's Ice Show, so they must give you walkaround access too.

Wow - I wonder if that is the nail on the head. Everyone suffers in case nana decides to go on the big one instead of watching the ice skating.

 

[yoursilentface]

I was at cala gran on a last minute bargain break last weekend so we had our first visit (been waiting for valhalla ) of the year

In the afternoon it started raining none stop so we was doing the indoor rides mainly...around 220 we came off river caves and the mrs asked can go to watch hot ice

Normally is answered with a stern no but seeing as it was bucketing down....

For some strange reason i kind of half enjoyed it but it's the first time i've really thought about the budget....the amount of skaters and staff is unbelievable really,not to mention how much freezing the ice must cost

For some reason i remembered Andrew lloyd webber recently saying on the news that west end theatre shows need to sell out to make a profit

The amount of money that show loses must be eye watering....i counted 28 skaters and i bet the amount it takes in ticket sales doesn't even come close to even paying their wages never mind everything else

 

[Nick🎢]

I was at cala gran on a last minute bargain break last weekend so we had our first visit (been waiting for valhalla ) of the year

In the afternoon it started raining none stop so we was doing the indoor rides mainly...around 220 we came off river caves and the mrs asked can go to watch hot ice

Normally is answered with a stern no but seeing as it was bucketing down....

For some strange reason i kind of half enjoyed it but it's the first time i've really thought about the budget....the amount of skaters and staff is unbelievable really,not to mention how much freezing the ice must cost

For some reason i remembered Andrew lloyd webber recently saying on the news that west end theatre shows need to sell out to make a profit

The amount of money that show loses must be eye watering....i counted 28 skaters and i bet the amount it takes in ticket sales doesn't even come close to even paying their wages never mind everything else

I have no idea how much it fills up. But based on a capacity of 2200 x AVG ticket price x 2 performances it could be a right spinner. I can't see them pulling 4400 bottoms a day for it though surely?

 

[rob666]

I was at cala gran on a last minute bargain break last weekend so we had our first visit (been waiting for valhalla ) of the year

In the afternoon it started raining none stop so we was doing the indoor rides mainly...around 220 we came off river caves and the mrs asked can go to watch hot ice

Normally is answered with a stern no but seeing as it was bucketing down....

For some strange reason i kind of half enjoyed it but it's the first time i've really thought about the budget....the amount of skaters and staff is unbelievable really,not to mention how much freezing the ice must cost

For some reason i remembered Andrew lloyd webber recently saying on the news that west end theatre shows need to sell out to make a profit

The amount of money that show loses must be eye watering....i counted 28 skaters and i bet the amount it takes in ticket sales doesn't even come close to even paying their wages never mind everything else

dare we ask...were there many other viewers?

 

[yoursilentface]

dare we ask...were there many other viewers?

The blocks next to the stage on either side were completely full...the block facing the stage had a decent amount in and there was people scattered about

It was raining pretty heavily though and i think most people had gone to escape the rain....BPB sent an alert out on the app telling you to do just that!

 

[yoursilentface]

I have no idea how much it fills up. But based on a capacity of 2200 x AVG ticket price x 2 performances it could be a right spinner. I can't see them pulling 4400 bottoms a day for it though surely?

They normally barely get a decent crowd for the free matinee that we saw...the paid evening show is even emptier i believe

 

[Dave]

It does feel like they need to knock the ice show on the head. It is a shame as I am sure it’s a great show and it’s sad the British public have lost interest in these live entertainments, but ultimately when they stopped walk ins and contracted the opening hours people where always going to focus on the rides as that’s what they have paid for.

 

[Plastic Person]

Hot Ice is a big part of BPB's heritage and is still technically impressive and passionately performed, even if Amanda's guiding tastes feel dated in 2022. As theme park entertainment goes, it's up there with the best.

Nonetheless, it's also clearly a huge vanity project at this stage and a massive drain on resources. The show would not stand a chance elsewhere.

 

[John_P]

Just add Spongebob and the squid guy to the matinee show and highly advertise it in Nick Land

 

[Squiggs]

For some reason i remembered Andrew lloyd webber recently saying on the news that west end theatre shows need to sell out to make a profit

I recall exactly the same statement. It's not quite as straight forward as ALW makes out though. His Cinderella would have needed to sell out in order for it to continue, because it was a new show.

New shows in the West End need a good long run of near sell outs in order to recoup the cost of origination. So there are quite a few casualties of Covid that are now closing way earlier than I think anyone was expecting (here's looking at Dear Evan Hansen and Come From Away, as well of course Cinderella, but in Cinderella's case it mainly closed because it was a mediocre musical). It becomes pretty quickly apparent if a producer and venue will make a profit from a show, and often things get quite brutal even if a show looks like it will break even.

If you consider your local pantomime, that will need to be selling about 75% of its ticket in order to start making profit and most local venues are really looking to sell 90%+ to sure up their finances for the following year (hence why the Christmas lockdowns were so bad for local theatres). But again, a decent panto is likely to come at a significant set of origination costs, though way lower than the Westend, but which you generally need to recoup in around 6-8 weeks.

A few steps down the ladder, if you look at a decent am-dram musical (i.e. with hired sets and costumes) in a 500 seat theatre, those need to be selling about 50-60% of their seats to start making profits. Obviously these are cutting out the significant cost of wages, but it gives you an idea of basic origination costs - as the majority of out-goings for am-drams fall into this category.

This may well be Amanda's saving grace as it is very likely that Hot Ice, even when creating a new iteration, will actually have reasonably low origination costs. I'd assume that there's a reasonable level of repurposing, recycling and reusing going on down in t'arena.

 

[Nick🎢]

If we assume 50% capacity for just the evening performance at £20 average ticket price, which I think is pessimistic. That's £154k a week turnover. That's very conservative too. I suspect it might be more viable than we give it credit for given the great run down above.

 

[Poisson]

A quick check of hot ice seats for Monday evenings performance. Looks like they've only sold 233 seats. They've got capacity for around 2000 seats

@Poisson calculated if everyone with a seat paid the maximum price, no freebies etc, then they'd get a total of £5,919 from this performance..

Still at least I guess there will be plenty of legroom for everybody.

The above was on the 6th of August for the 8th August showing.

Now lets have a look for tomorrow, BH Monday with 2 showings assuming everyone is paying max (adult) prices. Only the evening showing shows the seat map.

Evening Showing:

Yellow: 42 x £18 = £756
Green: 63 x £25 = £1575
Pink: 2 x £18 = £36
Blue: 110 x £28 = £3080
Red: 38 x £32 = £1216
Standing: 0 x £10 = £0

Total Takings: £6663
Tickets Sold: 255

Reported Venue Capacity: 2000

I'm not au fait with costs of running such a show but with 28 reported dancers, I doubt it is cheap. Anyone up to speed on costs?

 

[shakey]

This was on the 6th of August for the 8th August showing.

Now lets have a look for tomorrow, BH Monday with 2 showings assuming everyone is paying max (adult) prices. Only the evening showing shows the seat map.

Evening Showing:

Yellow: 42 x £18 = £756
Green: 63 x £25 = £1575
Pink: 2 x £18 = £36
Blue: 110 x £28 = £3080
Red: 38 x £32 = £1216
Standing: 0 x £10 = £0

Total Takings: £6663
Tickets Sold: 255

Reported Venue Capacity: 2000

I'm not au fait with costs of running such a show but with 28 reported dancers, I doubt it is cheap. Anyone up to speed on costs?

I doubt takings of £6600 would be anywhere near enough to cover staff wages for the day (if you include everyone required to put the performance on), let alone all the other running costs.




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[Poisson]

I'd assume BH Monday would be a busy day as such. I'm not sure how many paying punters the matinee would get.

If they had split shift setup for the day, assuming the dancers were pegged at 8 hours of pay for £20 an hour (no idea if accurate) then they would cost £4480 per day alone. I've done plenty of work with lighting/audio techies and they are not cheap either.

 

[rob666]

Most days the show has been running with around 25% of seats having bums on them.
Somebody has been keeping a quiet eye on the seating arrangements this year, every few days.
Never been more than 50% full, many days a great deal less.
And we do not know how many of those seats have actually been paid for.
The show is a massive loss maker, and has been for decades.
Probably cost the park half a dozen decent new rides over the years.