The year 2000 was the last one for SeaWorld of Ohio. The SeaWorld corporation was changing. In 1999, SeaWorld (the company) rebranded itself as SeaWorld “Adventure” Parks. The parks would now emphasize rides and feature roller coasters. SeaWorld Ohio had continued to expand through the 1990s, but was heavily restricted in adding rides due to its non-compete arrangement with neighboring Geauga Lake. It had built a large 4-D theater and also introduced a stationary simulator ride. These would not be enough.
One the of the misconceptions about the end of SeaWorld of Ohio is that the park’s short operating season made it expensive to operate, and the park was in some kind of decline. Puzzling, since SeaWorld’s biggest expense just like any other theme park is salaries of its employees, who weren’t paid in the off-season.
What is more likely the case is that SeaWorld Ohio wasn’t growing in attendance. Across from SeaWorld in Ohio, Geauga Lake was expanding and adding rides. Busch Entertainment Corporation itself was seeing competition from all sides. In Orlando Florida, Disney had added its Animal Kingdom park in 1998 and Universal added the Islands of Adventure theme park in 1999. While Disney, Universal, and Busch all had larger core businesses, investors tend to compare growth among similar product lines. This means that even a large and profitable company can be a bad investment if it isn’t growing. It was easy to see that as other theme parks expanded, this would strip away attendance days from SeaWorld (this is what actually happened in hindsight).
In 2000, Busch Entertainment Corporation made a bold move. It offered to buy the now renamed Six Flags Ohio (formerly Geauga Lake) from Premier Parks. There’s no record of that offer, but Premier Parks had purchased Geauga Lake from Funtime along with other parks just five years before for $60 million. Selling wasn’t part of Premier Parks plan however. Tapping into what seems to have been a near limitless supply of cash, Premier Parks (now renamed Six Flags) counter offered. Busch Entertainment Corporation accepted and SeaWorld of Ohio was sold to it’s neighbor across the lake for $110 million dollars. SeaWorld would keep it’s orcas, but the rest of its assets, animals, and staff were turned over.
The former SeaWorld of Ohio park would be part of something very different, starting in summer 2001.
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