Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 52

TT COVER STORY mm II Once a new roller coaster gave Busch Gardens an attendance boost But no longer, thanks to so much competition in central Florida. With a renovated 29-acre animal habitat nearing completion and a hotel and ride being planned, Busch" is trying to make the most of its role as nimble underdog. oi i By MARK ALBRIGHT Tlirm Staff Writer -4. WTW Carson remembers a fnciis arm A look at the parks TAMPA HTN usch Gardens boss Robin i Havenuas and not inmmo in iqqq Larson bounded onto the I stage in boxing gloves and a I J11 satin robe as the theme I front Rockv blared ovpr thp I il I I mi neio UUVVII CU nPNIOUOOI-DUSUM 5 Busch Entertainment but both were a fraction of the brewing giants in revenues and in net income in 1999. usch Entertainment operates four SeaWorlds, Busch Gardens in Tampa and Williamsburg, two water parks and Sesame Place, a children park near Philadelphia.

This summer it opens a 1 0th Dark Discovery Cove In Orlando. 'fn speakers. It was her way of reminding employees at a pep rally that they work for the scrappy underdog among eight theme parks in Central Florida "We work like dogs, but we've got to have fun. too." said Carson, thp 44- that reminded her that today's video game generation has a soft spot for the nostalgic and natural. Busch's creative team interviewed kids from the hard-toplease Generation to see what ride theme was "cooL" The creative group hoped to confirm a concept for a ride themed around something creepy, crawly or icky.

These kids told us, "Forget it' she said. "What they realty wanted was an old wooden roller coaster." Thafs how the notion was bom for Busch Gardens' first wooden coaster, Gwazi, which opened in June. A theme park is bom Busch Gardens began as a small bird garden that opened in 1959 next to the Tampa Anheuser-Busch brew-eiy. Admission was free, part of a plant tour that included unlimited free beer samples. It crew into a mainr attrartinn -1' 1 A If 1 4 tl l-lri ii a VI S500 Lli- 1997 1998 1999 1997 1998 1999 5- 1999 attendance at the nation's biggest theme paries Many students at the nearby University nf Smith Flnrifta rnnclrl.

1 G5I -ni rime photo PHASER HALE Glenn Young, vice president of zoological operations for Bush Gardens, feeds a giraffe. year-old executive vice president and general manager of Busch Gardens. "Given all the new competition, we have to think outside the box" No kidding. In the past decade Busch Gardens in Tampa slipped from sixth to ninth in attendance among the nation's theme parks. As Orlando rivals Universal Studios Escape and Walt Disney World lavished more than $4-billion between them upgrading rides and opening two new parks, Busch Gardens attendance stayed flat for two years, then dropped 7 percent to in 1999.

Even among tourists staying in the Tampa Bay area, Busch Gardens, the market's biggest tourist attraction behind the beaches, has slipped, according to surveys commissioned by county convention and visitors bureaus. Among Pinellas County visitors in 1998, 26 percent spent a day at Busch Gardens, down (mm 31 nor. Lake Buena Vista 15.2-million V'J Robin Carson -3 -5 -5 Anaheim, Lake Buena Vista 13.5-million 10.1 -million 'l has replaced has replace vjj six of 10 managers i '-Kr kit; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Disneyland EpcotatWalt Disney World DisneyMGM Studios at Wait Disney World Disney's Animal Kingdom at Wait Disney World Universal Studios Florida Lak8 Buena Vista 8.7-million -8 aiiiue aiiivmy to run the parkin 1997. Lake Buena Vista i Orlando Universal City, Calif. uaft 1 A cent in 1996.

Among Hillsborough County visitors, Busch Gardens drew 43 percent, down from 54 percent in 1996. Carson, who took over in 1997, assembled 8.6- million 8.1 -million 5.1 -million 4.7- million 3.9-million 3.8- million 43 -9 Flat -4 -7 11 Orlando Universal Studios Hollywood SeaWorld Orlando Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Six Flags Great Adventure a 4 Tampa Jackson, N.J. ered the ready jobs and free beer a side benefit until Busch limited samples to three cups. Then came a flume ride and finally a theme park once it became clear Walt Disney Co. was building Walt Disney World 60 miles away.

Today more than 500 of 1,200 full-time Busch Gardens employees are or were USF students. So are many of the 1300 part-timers used for peak times. By the late 1960s the beer company made the theme park business a profit center. The second Busch Gardens opened in 1975 next to a new brewery outside Williamsburg, Va. Busch bought the four SeaWorlds, Cypress Gardens and the defunct Boardwalk and Baseball near Haines City for in 1989.

Other small Busch Gardens parks that sprouted by breweries in Los Angeles and Houston were closed because there was no room for expansion. Years of neglected maintenance, however, had left the four SeaWorld parks in sad shape. Anheuser-Busch has spent more than since 1991 bringing them up to Busch stan-. dards. Boardwalk and Baseball was closed within two years, although Busch still owns the spring training baseball stadium there.

Tampa's Busch brewery, the company's smallest was torn down to make room for more theme park. Cypress Gardens, known in the company as corporate chairman August Busch Hi's person-' al favorite, was sold to its managers after years of losses. August Busch HI, who has a winter home in Lakeland, is a monthly visitor at his company's two Florida parks. He's a stickler about park cleanliness. Gum on the sidewalks or Knott's Berry Farm Buena Park, Calif, 3.6-million 6 coasters, and last year's attendance fell despite the opening of Busch's fifth coaster.

Disney copied Busch Garden's zoo-like motif with its Animal Kingdom. It has 2,000 fewer animals than Busch Gardens yet outdrew the Tampa park 2-to-l its inaugural year. Disney designed and started building a hotel next to Animal Kingdom in less time than it has taken Busch to get this close to a groundbreaking for its hotel despite a two-year head start And Busch Gardens' parent, Anheuser-Busch which also owns SeaWorld in Orlando, continues to spend only a fraction as much on advertising and new attractions as Disney and Universal In fact, Busch spent $162-miHion last year on capital improvements spread over its collection of nine parks in six states. That may have been a record for Busch but if about what Universal spent on the two latest attractions at Universal Studios Orlando. "We do things first class, but we're not into $100-million attractions like the other paries," said Vic Abbey, the new president and chief executive of Busch Entertainment Corp.

"We're using a different business modeL" Faced with the high-stakes Hollywood spending by competitors, Busch is trying to make the most of its role as nimble underdog. At SeaWorld in Orlando, Busch's answer to its rivals' recent building binge opens in June. Ifs Discovery Cove, a tiny 35-acre park some experts say could change the bigger-is-better theme park business. For $179 a day, Discovery Cove on attractions, won't say how much it is spending on this one. The old Serengeti was flat, dusty and sprawling.

The replacement is landscaped with 700 trees and 32 types of edible grasses. Ifs set in a hilfy, three-tiered terrain that looks more like the animals' natural homes in Africa Busch uses several techniques to coax the animals closer to visitors. Cool shade, water misters and food are strategically placed near the edge of enclosures dose to the railroad tracks. "We are blurring the line between the animal space and people space," said Mark Rose, Busch's vice president of planning and development The animals, most of them products of captive breeding, have been conditioned by trainers since birth to be less fearful of humans. Most of them were trucked off to the Busch Outpost in Pasco County a year ago for mating and conditioning.

"Getting people closer to the animals is what ifs all about" said Glenn Young, vice president of zoological operations who arrived last year from SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas. So Busch Gardens is staking its future on tweaking the time-tested formula that put the park on the map: a mixture of amusement park rides, a state-of-the-art zoo and live shows. "If the mix of the components that makes Busch Gardens unique," Abbey said. "On the way to a ride there is an animal exhibit or a show that breaks up your walk. You can rest not just go from ride line to ride line.

When people leave they say they've had a whole day of good experiences." SeaWorld California San Dieqo 3.6-million -3 AITS- V. i i 3.4-million NA 3.3-million -2 Islands of Adventure Orlando Paramount's Kings island Kings Island Ohio Moray's Piers Wildwood, N.J. Cedar Point Sandusky, Ohio will offer one-on-one encounters with dolphins and other sea creatures to only 1,000 people each day. While other parks try to cut down their two-hour ride lines, guest service at Discovery Cove will be like a four-star hotel featuring salmon pate at an elegant buffet lunch. But Discovery Cove is costing only a fraction of the $l-biflion or more Disney and Universal pour into new parks.

Disney and Universal try to invent over-the-top rides using the latest technology and special effects. The latest buzzword among ride designers is "interactivity." That means attractions that simulate a fantasy (such as Universale Spiderman), engage all of the riders' senses (such as Disney's Alien Encounter) or make them participants who control the outcome (such as Unhrersal's new Men in Black.) By contrast, Busch defines interactivity as rare experiences: feeding a giraffe, petting a snake or seeing hippos tiptoe across a river bottom. The new Serengeti, for example, will use a train to take visitors closer to the park's huge herd of hoofed stock zebra, gazelle, bongo, unpala, giraffe, rhinoceros, to name a few than its 30-year-old predecessor did. Busch, which has been spending $10miIlion to $20-million 3.3-million 3.3-million 10 -3 'First full year to reinvigorate the Tampa park that had been run by the same group of managers for more than 25 years. She replaced six of the park's 10 top executives with talent from other Busch parks.

They've made some bold marketing moves, such as the current offer of free admission until the end of the year to Florida residents who buy a single day, fufl-price ticket In June they will open the park's biggest new animal habitat in 30 years, a 29-acre home for more than 300 animals on the rebuilt Serengeti Plain. They're promising a new blockbuster nde for 2001 but are keeping it under wraps like a state secret A long-delayed 800-room hotel on the park's edge, overlooking the ani-mal-nlled veldt, finally may be built in thenextyear. Still the road for Busch Gardens gets no smoother. The park once could get a big attendance bounce by opening a new roller coaster. Now most parks in Central Florida have 'Opened in May 1999 Source: Anheuser-Busch Amusement Business Tlmei art cracked beams in wooden planters are cardinal sins.

And he's a fanatic about colorful flower beds. While the employee areas "backstage" at Disney and Universal are spartan blacktop with break rooms housed in mobile homes, Busch insists the backstage at his company's parks looks as good as the public areas. "If his way of telling employees we're veiy serious about quality," said Abbey, me Busch Entertainment president "How can you expect them to believe they should deliver high quality standards to guests if we dont provide the same for them?" Anheuser-Busch does not break out the performance of its nine paries, which include Busch Gardens in Tampa and Williamsburg, four Please see PARK 10E From front Edwin Toy, M.C. Grace and Clemente Heredia install an irrigation system on Busch Gardens Serengeti Plain under the watchful eye of Jumatano, a 5-year-old rhino. BE TIMES MONDAY APRIL 10, 2000 TIMES MONDAY APRIL 10, 2000 9E.