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[chittlins]

He couldn't right the ship after stepping into a mishandled situation with the backlash from a biased, overly slanted hit piece that CNN had a financial stake in promoting.

[shavethewhales]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/02/27/seaworld-ceo-joel-manby/376136002/

Seems like a knee-jerk reaction to a difficult situation. I don't know what Manby could have done differently. The parks are shifting away from animal shows and towards more rides as the market dictates. It's simply going to take time to shove off the bad PR drama. I feel like the parks are heading in the right direction and attendance is slowly ticking back up.

Wonder if Manby regrets stepping into that crapshow. Was it a step up for his career? Seems like HFEC, while being a smaller company, had so much more potential for him. DW and SDC are growing like weeds, and there are tons of other properties to acquire and grow.

The good thing about Manby is that he actually spent a decent amount of time with Jack and Pete and seemed to understand their vision for the parks, whether or not he always followed it. I've heard he's a bit of a shark, but that's what you expect from high-profile CEO's.

I wonder where he'll land next...

[sdcfan88]

Would it be bad if he by chance came back to HFEC?

[Swoosh]

Manby was an idiot to kill the orca breeding program.  I know he thought that that was the only issue SeaWorld had at the time but all it did was alienate the park loyalists.  At this point they might as well just go full marine zoological park with thrill rides because they've completely ruined the show side - which is why people came to the park in the first place.  Yeah Yeah "animal rights and stuff" - give it a rest.  Until you go completely vegan don't even start.

[History Buff]

Manby was an idiot to kill the orca breeding program.  I know he thought that that was the only issue SeaWorld had at the time but all it did was alienate the park loyalists.  At this point they might as well just go full marine zoological park with thrill rides because they've completely ruined the show side - which is why people came to the park in the first place.  Yeah Yeah "animal rights and stuff" - give it a rest.  Until you go completely vegan don't even start.

I'll agree.  I didn't go to SeaWorld to see Cirque-style shows and dog acts - though that was going before Manby was involved.  I don't really see that he did much for SDC either - except appear on a very staged Boss episode.  His reign set into motion much of the generic appearance and modernization that we continue to see in SDC's improvements.

[Swoosh]

The "start of the fall" was moving the HFEC HQ to Atlanta.  Should never have left Branson

[History Buff]

The “start of the fall” was moving the HFEC HQ to Atlanta.  Should never have left Branson

Yup.

[shavethewhales]

The "start of the fall" was moving the HFEC HQ to Atlanta.  Should never have left Branson

Definitely agree on that. The thing is, it's not just Manby that set all that, and the "modernization" into motion. It was just basic economics and the fact that HFEC is now a giant multi-headed monster. It wasn't going to stay a little "down home" company forever. I wish they had stayed in Branson to keep a little closer to their roots, but they were always going to modernize the parks to stay in business.

As for the Orca stuff, I don't know if Seaworld would stay in business without taking some kind of bold action on it. I'm not close enough to the parks to know much about their patrons, but the steady flow of negative news was hell for investors. I understood the plan was indeed to turn them into full fledged amusement parks with a few animal attractions and theme.

[Swoosh]

Never should have gone public.  They should have remained a private company

[chittlins]

Never should have gone public.  They should have remained a private company

The best thing that could happen to SeaWorld Inc. is a reorganizing Chap 11 and bought out by a  private entity. You say it should have stayed private but Blackstone is about the only time it was truly private and that was to squeeze it and then take it public. Blackfish really nailed that. It was owned by AB that was publically traded for a long time prior and unloaded by Inbev after the takeover.

They do need to ditch all the look at us saving turtles stuff for a while and advertise having some fun at parks. And for gosh sakes, get a high end, sea themed hotel on property. Aquarium rooms for 500 a nite anyone?

I noticed that they are starting a nice night time dinner at Dolphin Cove. You'd never know outside of a single email.

I'll be there and at Discovery Cove in 2 weeks.

[Gilligan]

I'll agree.  I didn't go to SeaWorld to see Cirque-style shows and dog acts - though that was going before Manby was involved.  I don't really see that he did much for SDC either - except appear on a very staged Boss episode.  His reign set into motion much of the generic appearance and modernization that we continue to see in SDC's improvements.

I have to agree with you on that one.  I never understood the hype about what an asset he was to the City. 

[sirwillow]

Manby was an idiot to kill the orca breeding program.  I know he thought that that was the only issue SeaWorld had at the time but all it did was alienate the park loyalists.  At this point they might as well just go full marine zoological park with thrill rides because they've completely ruined the show side - which is why people came to the park in the first place.  Yeah Yeah "animal rights and stuff" - give it a rest.  Until you go completely vegan don't even start.

Have to agree with you.  I never understood why Sea World never took a bold loud stand on all of the inaccuracies and plain stupidity that was in Blackfish. instead they seemed to quietly roll over and just take it, which I always thought was a huge mistake.  It could have been easily refuted, and it wasn't.

And under Manby the parks have lost focus on what they were, or are, or are becoming.  They really seem almost adrift and lost, which is sad as they are wonderful parks.

There were a lot of mixed feelings about him at SDC as well.  Some who knew him really liked him, but as far as company leadership there was a lot of disagreement with a number of things he did and/or oversaw.

In any case, I'm sure he'll land somewhere soon.

[HumphreyHawk]

Blackfish was a joke.....anyone with common sense should see through its lies.  But since common sense isn't common these days....it did a great job pulling the hearts strings of the public about how a "big bad" corporate operation was "using" animals with a pretty slickly produced movie.

I agree with most of you comments....When I visited SeaWorld Orlando 6-7 years ago the sea animal shows where easily the best part of the park....rides where just a bonus.  I'm sure those Orca's where treated better than most other animals sitting in zoo's right now.  It amazes me how people can put themselves up on such a high horse over issues like this while their are plenty of more important human issues all around them they really should be seeing (not to mention other 'animal rights' issues).  It just different world views....animals are not humans....thats not an excuse to treat them poorly but quit acting like they have the same rights as humans.

[chittlins]

Blackfish was a joke.....anyone with common sense should see through its lies.  But since common sense isn't common these days....it did a great job pulling the hearts strings of the public about how a "big bad" corporate operation was "using" animals with a pretty slickly produced movie.

I agree with most of you comments....When I visited SeaWorld Orlando 6-7 years ago the sea animal shows where easily the best part of the park....rides where just a bonus.  I'm sure those Orca's where treated better than most other animals sitting in zoo's right now.  It amazes me how people can put themselves up on such a high horse over issues like this while their are plenty of more important human issues all around them they really should be seeing (not to mention other 'animal rights' issues).  It just different world views....animals are not humans....thats not an excuse to treat them poorly but quit acting like they have the same rights as humans.

Soccer moms and millenials that are still 25 and living at home with purple and pink hair.

Those Orcas have it better than 30 percent of the kids growing up in Memphis. There is a whole bunch of misplaced priorities and too much virtue signaling going on going on in North America and Western Europe. I guess this is what happens to western civilizations when there' s been a prolonged lack of war and true struggle on our home turf.

Don't worry though, Russia, China and the UAE will fill the Orca show gap and likely be less loving as well.

[Swoosh]

Remember when I said above that they never should have gone public. Yeah all of those tree huggers bought stocks in SEAS and that put some additional pressure to do away with the shows.  If they had their way the animals would be gone all together