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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2025 Discussion

If you think you’d be able to: isolate all the variables, make accurate adjustments for every one of them to account for the change in visitation habits to Blackpool, the change in spending habits, whether it was windier, wetter or colder on the specific opening days of the park and whether the associated forecast was accurate, the change in marketing spread, reach and success, the ride lineup (and importantly how attractive it was to the demographic buying walk-around tickets), what the economy was like, what other events and attractions were occurring to pull visitors away (Olympics, football etc) and in (local events, fireworks, shows etc), how train strikes impacted visits, what the prices of tickets were (they are of course dynamic and are be would have to also account for other offers via hotels, Tesco clubcard etc), and of course anything else I might have forgotten; and one can be accurate enough to both have an adequate data set and measure by how much each factor impacted the purchase of walk-around tickets, such that you could somehow measure with sufficient enough certainty to assess whether implementation of a walk-around pass as of today is commercially worthwhile….

we’ll agree to disagree.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
But there aren't. You can do it, you just have to control for them, which is why you'd comission data analysis. It is measurable.
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What about when the consultants have been commissioned, the research done at length, the data analysis then completed, the results compiled and processed, with advice for the future given...
Then the actual owner of the park ignores the advice (expert, and paid for) and continues as they see fit.
What do you actually do then?
 
rob666 said:
What about when the consultants have been commissioned, the research done at length, the data analysis then completed, the results compiled and processed, with advice for the future given...
Then the actual owner of the park ignores the advice (expert, and paid for) and continues as they see fit.
What do you actually do then?
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Leave means leave and none of your experts or remoaning is ever going to change that. We're never going back, we're never going to discuss it, no I don't care that I'm still haemorrhaging... Oh. Wait. I might be getting my Mandy conversations confused.

You can lead a horse to water, yadayadayada.
 
rob666 said:
What about when the consultants have been commissioned, the research done at length, the data analysis then completed, the results compiled and processed, with advice for the future given...
Then the actual owner of the park ignores the advice (expert, and paid for) and continues as they see fit.
What do you actually do then?
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Reminds me of the Brian Clough quote

“If I had an argument with a player we would sit down for twenty minutes, talk about it and then decide I was right!”
 
Based on the accounts:

The PB continues into it's downward spiral. It would be a surprise if it makes it into the 2030s, without some kind of external investment.

You have to remember, the PB is full of aging equipment. It may make it stand out from the rest of the parks, but it is also a noose around it's neck. Each year it gets more expensive for them to maintain old one's, and they don't generate anywhere near enough money from those aging assets, to invest in new one's, without it being a significant, risky, gamble.

I don't want to be a doomer, but they are in a very bad place. Very little cash, almost no buffer for a bad summer season, increasing debt (using more of their credit line).

Let's not forget our wonderful government recently made it more expensive to hire people, which will impact places like PB.

Inflation is biting at them, including things like energy costs. Underlying cost of sales rose by 11%, which is not sustainable.

They are at the mercy of the banks basically and it won't take much more for the banks to call it a day.

Let's also remember, these accounts end in March 2024, so they have had a year's worth of trading since then and it could have feasibly got worse.
 
shakey said:
Without starting a POP v PPR debate again, we all know that a seaside park needs to have a PPR option.
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I must say there's been some healthy debate and comments over the past few days on this thread, which have made a good read.

equinoxmist said:
I don't want to be a doomer, but they are in a very bad place. Very little cash, almost no buffer for a bad summer season, increasing debt (using more of their credit line).
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For me after my first visit of the season at the weekend, it's sometimes the little things that niggle. There's little pride in quality. You ride the train past pretty much derelict parts of the park, which wouldn't take too much effort or time to clean up. Euro-pallets of crap, which need to be skipped or placed in the shop to sell for £100 a piece.

My favourite lack of quality control is at the top of the Big Dipper where there seems to be an ever increasing pile of bird guano underneath the teardrop/onion which if left for much longer will add another foot in height to the ride.
 
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I think you’re right on Pleasure Beach Express, there are more and more derelict areas accumulating. There’s the rotting dinosaurs (which to be fair they have repainted some of, but others which are still falling to pieces), the skull waterfall which is now switched off and quite literally falling apart, the pond before Big Blue which is currently drained and has the demolition material from the rockwork that was dismantled behind it dumped into the pond itself. The area along Infusion looks pretty poor, not helped by Infusion’s constantly partially-drained lake. Even the sections by Big One’s station don’t look great.

It’s curious that the park have done some work to the area, like the repaints and addition of audio, but haven’t followed through with it. As you say, cost-wise it’s probably a relatively low expenditure.

It’s not a great look for the park though, which I should point out in parts I think is pretty well presented.
 
They have now updated some of the website prices but still plenty that doesn’t make sense or add up. This weekend for example, why would anyone pay £2 more for a two day ticket than two separate tickets. Surely it should be a lot cheaper to encourage people to come back a second day and spend more like towers for example do. It’s also worth noting that a two day ticket on the day costs more than a spring pass where you can go everyday until end of May. Again it just doesn’t make sense IMG_9932.jpegIMG_9931.jpeg
 
Sigh. I remember not too long ago when BPB really cared about aesthetics and the park was arguably more presentable than most others in the UK. Standards have fallen so far.
 
Coaster said:
Sigh. I remember not too long ago when BPB really cared about aesthetics and the park was arguably more presentable than most others in the UK. Standards have fallen so far.
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I don't, the place has been a bit of a shambles since the Millennium.
The back of the train ride has been in a bad state pretty much since then.
I remember Valhalla opening day...
We arrived late on day one after we had both been working...expecting opening into the evening for the big new ride...
Only to see GT and Barbara walking back into the casino with other VIP's, through locked park gates, at six pm.
I was gobsmacked, The Big One shut after midnight around opening.
The big focus on Valhalla, designed for pay per ride at four quid a time, not wristbands, pretty much stopped any other cosmetic work on the park for years.
Then future improvements were at the cost of actual rides...Superbowl for rusty slab fountains, Whip for dancing fountains etc.

Pre millennium the park was cleaner, fuller and generally far better presented than it is now, with about twice as many eating and drinking places, that actually opened reasonable hours.
 
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The Nickelodeon land ticket has now gone on sale which what looks to be £25 flat rate at anytime - in line with what they did for feb half term ( although was advertised as more on gate for feb half term so assuming it’s not now with how it’s advertised.) A lot have asked for this and it will benefits families that spend most of their day in Nickelodeon land. It also seems to be like this is being advertised as a cheaper alternate for non riders. I get the parks/ financial implications of the non rider pass when it was £5/£10 and no way they will ever be able to do that again so think this is a good move overall. At least the non riders can’t say it’s £50 to walk round anymore as technically it’s half price if paying on the day. Plus a massive saying on the for families just wanting to do Nickelodeon rides
 

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Mark84 said:
... I get the parks/ financial implications of the non rider pass when it was £5/£10 and no way they will ever be able to do that again ...
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No way they will ever be able to do that again...
Why exactly?
This is still a 150% increase on the old non riders pass, so isn't a replacement.
 
rob666 said:
I don't, the place has been a bit of a shambles since the Millennium.
The back of the train ride has been in a bad state pretty much since then.
I remember Valhalla opening day...
We arrived late on day one after we had both been working...expecting opening into the evening for the big new ride...
Only to see GT and Barbara walking back into the casino with other VIP's, through locked park gates, at six pm.
I was gobsmacked, The Big One shut after midnight around opening.
The big focus on Valhalla, designed for pay per ride at four quid a time, not wristbands, pretty much stopped any other cosmetic work on the park for years.
Then future improvements were at the cost of actual rides...Superbowl for rusty slab fountains, Whip for dancing fountains etc.

Pre millennium the park was cleaner, fuller and generally far better presented than it is now, with about twice as many eating and drinking places, that actually opened reasonable hours.
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I still think if you go back 10 years, it was somewhere in the middle between 'not as good as it used to be' and 'much better than it is now.'
 
If PB had modernised the park around 2010 onwards the park would be in a.much better position. They now have alot of old rides, closed rides and a park that is looking derelict in places. It's going to take alot of time and money to fix that I I don't think the current ownership have either.
 
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