Merlin - destined for mediocrity?

[GooseOnTheLoose]

We used to compare to Disney
Surely that says it all?

You still can, but that's the business as a whole rather than individual parks. The parks have never been comparable to Disney, under any ownership, with consistent levels of themed, investment and visitor numbers.

Merlin Entertainments, as an entire company, is still comparable to the Disney Experiences division, but only by one metric: total visitor numbers. Merlin achieves this, of course, by operating far more attractions in a heck of a lot more countries than Disney. If you averaged out visitors for attractions, the gap may be even wider.

 

[jon81uk]

I could have seen Paultons overtake Chessington as they are very similar parks, but the new land currently being planned (potentially Minecraft themed) will give Chessington a bigger boost than Paultons planned Vikings land. But thereis no competition between Paultons and Thorpe or Alton.

 

[Alsty]

seemingly trapped in a cycle of "robbing Peter to pay Paul"

Citation also needed. You've made an allusion to Nemesis being "over" themed and Hyperia being "under" themed, as though one project robbed cash from another, but there's no evidence to suggest this. Hyperia has always, from the get go, been described as a "stylised" ride, similar to Icon.

I actually agree with the robbing Peter to pay Paul analogy but in terms of CAPEX vs OPEX.

It seems like they can stump up large sums of cash for their new attractions, but then seemingly have to find loose change down the back of the sofa for the maintenance, upkeep and presentation of them. This also extends to funding for operational budgets such as staff, training, cleaning, events etc.

 

[AstroDan]

Further evidence.

 

[Martin]

But Alton Towers and Thorpe Park in the medium to long run will likely need a fresh creative outlook for their theming to jolt them out of their 2006 techno industrial timewarp, with Alton Towers maybe leaning more into creepy & funny UK fairy tales and Thorpe Park having a total Victorian steam punk (mixed with Roman) overhaul.

All started going downhill for Thorpe once it stopped being themed around the fact it's an island. Saw, Swarm, especially Hyperia, all just gave up on that, even Stealth and the "hotel" made an attempt. Double down on that again and give the place an identity

 

[Enter Valhalla]

Further evidence.

Is this Scarefest days only? Or does it include the 4pm closes? If it’s the latter, then that’s pretty poor.

That said, there’s been plenty of times over the years where Alton have announced a big set of staggered openings, only to cancel them a few days in.

 

[Bowser]

All started going downhill for Thorpe once it stopped being themed around the fact it's an island. Saw, Swarm, especially Hyperia, all just gave up on that, even Stealth and the "hotel" made an attempt. Double down on that again and give the place an identity

Saw and Swarm have great theming though, some of the best in the country. I don’t think theming everything to one single identity is viable for a park (with the honourable exception of Efteling).

 

[TedShatner10]

The chances of the Towers becoming the next Oakwood are precisely zero.
There has been too much investment in the park to let it rot, unlike Oakwood, which is rotting away rapidly as a school holiday park.

But by the late 2020s/early 2030s Alton Towers may still feel quite rundown in comparison to a massively expanded Paultons and world class Universal theme park resort at the rate things have been going in the past decade or so, even if Alton Towers becoming as empty and stripped down as Oakwood is still extremely unlikely (but they share the problem of being in the middle of rural hinterland, with Oakwood being one park out of many for a multisector global company, and Oakwood arguably getting torpedoed by unlikely competition in the form of Emerald Park).

 

[rob666]

Alton is half an hour from the two main motorways of the country.
Oakwood isn't.
Alton has had massive investment over the last decade, Oakwood hasn't.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Alton is half an hour from the two main motorways of the country.
Oakwood isn't.
Alton has had massive investment over the last decade, Oakwood hasn't.

To further this: Paulton's Park is also yet to "massively expand", and Universal still haven't confirmed their intention with the proposed development.

 

[Matt N]

I don’t think Alton’s “rural hinterland” location is vaguely comparable to Oakwood’s “rural hinterland” location.

Alton Towers, while rural in immediate area, is actually very central and within driveable distance of many of the big population centres in the UK. Certainly, most of the main ones in the Midlands and North (I’m thinking of Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham) are probably within a 2 hour drive. Admittedly, the population powerhouse that is London is a bit far away, though.

Oakwood, on the other hand, is miles from pretty much everywhere outside of South Wales, Mid Wales (very sparsely populated) and a very small belt of the South West of England. I live only 6 miles from the South Wales border at Chepstow, and even I don’t live within a 2 hour drive of it; it’s 123 miles, and probably a solid 2h 15m from me on a good run (and with the M4 around Newport being like it is, a “good run” is far from guaranteed). Even Newport and Cardiff, which aren’t overly big cities on the national scale, are the better part of 2 hours from Oakwood, and the only vaguely major population centre that’s pretty close by is Swansea.

Both parks may be rural, but I don’t think they’re vaguely comparable in terms of wider draw.

 

[DiogoJ42]

It's not on the tube.
It may as well be on Titan.

 

[BarryZola]

There's a chance that Merlin as a company goes public again sometime soon. Basically Blackstone are looking at floating some of their bigger recent acquisitions on the stock market soon as they see the equity markets as pretty bullish at the moment. It's only a possibility though, it could be any number of companies that get chosen. According to this article. Only found it by chance as I was looking to possibly invest in something like Blackstone. It's not paywalled on my phone. Apologies if it is for you

Blackstone plans to list some of its largest investments

Sluggish asset sales hit third-quarter profits at world’s biggest private capital group

www.ft.com

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Paywall removed link:

https://archive.is/BNxXK

Whilst floating Merlin Entertainments would give it a huge cash injection again, there's no guarantee that it would end up in the parks.

Freakonomics published a rather interesting podcast episode last year, about private equity firms and how they treat the companies they invest in. It also covers what happens to investments that eventually float. If anyone is interested in a potential scenario of Merlin floating again, it might be of interest to them.

Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy? - Freakonomics

Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy? - Freakonomics

freakonomics.com