Business is typically booming at theme parks over the summer. This year, the weather has consistently put a damper on operations.
As a result, it’s driving down traffic at popular theme parks around the country. Unfortunately, with Tropical Storm Hilary bringing heavy rain and the possibility of significant flooding to California and Nevada, these theme park operators might not be out of the woods just yet.
Bad conditions, from excessive rainfall, high temperatures and smoke deriving from the Canadian wildfires, was a “clear driver of traffic weakness” for Six Flags Entertainment, SeaWorld Entertainment and Cedar Fair during the second quarter, according to research note from Macquarie analysts Paul Golding and Emma Liang.
During a recent earnings call, Six Flags Entertainment CEO Selim Bassoul said the company lost “almost 400,000 in attendance.”
CFO Gary Mick added that the company’s attendance growth fell short of expectations due to challenging weather, which consisted of “unusually high rainfall in the Northeast, combined with a record heat wave in the South.”
Mick further noted that it’s “hard to make up for the lost revenue in the first half.” In fact, moving forward, Mick said the company needs “to have fairly good weather to collect what was hampered by the weather in the first half.”
The company, according to Mick, has plans to look at adding more indoor venues, more air-conditioned venues and more air-conditioned restaurants.
Bassoul also noted that the company is still seeing “promising trends despite weather challenges.” Pass sales are strong, and attendance trends are improving, he said.
Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman said unprecedented rainfall and extreme temperatures had plagued its East Coast parks as well as California parks earlier in the season.
“The persistent rainfall meaningfully disrupted demand over the first half of the year as well as sales of 2023 passes, which will continue to be a headwind on attendance over the balance of the year,” Zimmerman said.
The chief executive also noted that cooler-than-normal temperatures had a major impact on attendance at four of the company’s stand-alone water parks in Texas, including Cedar Point Shores, Knott’s Soak City and two Schlitterbahn water parks.
He also said attendance was hurt at Canada’s Wonderland and several of other U.S. parks due to “public health concerns over poor air quality caused by the ongoing Canadian wildfires.”
Still, the company noted that “while demand challenges have been persistent in certain key markets, most notably in California, our solid performance at parks operating under normal conditions underscores the resilience of our business model,” he added.
SeaWorld CEO Marc Swanson said the combination of unusually hot and cold weather, rain and the fallout from Canadian wildfires “impacted most of our markets during the quarter.”
CFO Jim Forrester said revenue in the quarter fell 1.7 percent to $496 million when compared to the same period a year ago, which he attributes to the “decrease in attendance of 2 percent.”
That said, Swanson reported that the company is “planning new initiatives for the balance of this year and next year that will make us an even stronger, more profitable and more resilient business.”
“We have high confidence in the plans we are executing on today and for the future and in our ability to deliver substantial operational and financial improvements that will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value,” he said.
Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ has passed and he’s due to sign it into law on Independence Day. Mark Stone and David Blevins discuss how the bill will supercharge his presidency, despite its critics.
They also chat Gaza and Ukraine, as Donald Trump meets with freed Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander and talks to Vladimir Putin.
If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.
Image: Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk. Pic: Reuters
Image: Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. Pic: PA
Jota, 28, leaves behind his wife of only 11 days, Rute Cardoso, and three young children.
His younger brother, 25, was an attacking midfielder for Penafiel in the second tier of Portuguese football.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot, captain Virgil Van Dijk and teammates including Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez were seen at the service.
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Former teammates Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho were also there.
Van Dijk carried a red wreath with Jota’s number 20, while Robertson had a wreath featuring number 30, Silva’s number at Penafiel.
Image: Manchester United and Portugal player Bruno Fernandes. Pic: PA
Image: Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool’s player Andrew Robertson. Pic: Reuters
Some of Jota’s teammates in the Portuguese national side also attended, including Bruno Fernandes, of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, of Manchester City, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga, of Chelsea, Nelson Semedo, from Wolves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio.
Ruben Neves was one of the pallbearers after flying in from Florida where he played for Al Hilal in the Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday night.
‘More than a friend’
In a post published on Instagram before the service, he told Jota he had been “more than a friend, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that way just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!”
Jota’s fellow Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, said on Instagram: “I can’t believe it. I’ll always remember your smiles, your anger, your intelligence, your camaraderie, and everything that made you a person. It hurts so much; we’ll miss you. Rest in peace, dear Diogo.”
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Porto FC president Andre Villas-Boas and Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez were also in attendance.
‘With us forever’
Speaking after the ceremony, Martinez said the period since their deaths had been “really, really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we showed we are a large, close family.
“Their spirit will be with us forever.”
The service was private, but the words spoken by the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, were broadcast to those standing outside the church.
He told Jota’s children, who were not at the service, that he was praying for them specifically, as well as their mother and grandparents.
“There are no words, but there are feelings,” he said, adding: “We also suffer a lot and we are with you emotionally.”
The brothers died after a Lamborghini they were travelling in burst into flames following a suspected tyre blowout in the early hours of Thursday morning.
No other vehicles are said to have been involved in the incident.
Liverpool have delayed the return of their players for pre-season following Jota’s death and players past and present paid tribute to him and his brother on social media.
Hidden among the majestic canyons of the Utah desert, about 7 miles from the nearest town, is a small research facility meant to prepare humans for life on Mars.
The Mars Society, a nonprofit organization that runs the Mars Desert Research Station, or MDRS, invited CNBC to shadow one of its analog crews on a recent mission.
“MDRS is the best analog astronaut environment,” said Urban Koi, who served as health and safety officer for Crew 315. “The terrain is extremely similar to the Mars terrain and the protocols, research, science and engineering that occurs here is very similar to what we would do if we were to travel to Mars.”
SpaceX CEO and Mars advocate Elon Musk has said his company can get humans to Mars as early as 2029.
The 5-person Crew 315 spent two weeks living at the research station following the same procedures that they would on Mars.
David Laude, who served as the crew’s commander, described a typical day.
“So we all gather around by 7 a.m. around a common table in the upper deck and we have breakfast,” he said. “Around 8:00 we have our first meeting of the day where we plan out the day. And then in the morning, we usually have an EVA of two or three people and usually another one in the afternoon.”
An EVA refers to extravehicular activity. In NASA speak, EVAs refer to spacewalks, when astronauts leave the pressurized space station and must wear spacesuits to survive in space.
“I think the most challenging thing about these analog missions is just getting into a rhythm. … Although here the risk is lower, on Mars performing those daily tasks are what keeps us alive,” said Michael Andrews, the engineer for Crew 315.