Amusement Business: Mergers, Acquisitions,and Sales, Oh My! By Jessica Downey LEGOLAND’s Newest Master and Commander With just 2,000 Legos and 45 minutes to make a masterpiece, hundreds of would-be master builders came out from cities across the country to prove their skills and become Legoland California’s seventh master builder. After months of searching in nine cities across the United States for the ultimate master builder to fill the coveted vacant spot at Legoland California, the tournament commenced in an ultimate build-off on January 23. When the competition ends, one of the contestants will be named the master of the Lego builder universe. The first national Master Builder contest was open to anyone 18 or older who dreamed of becoming a master builder at the Lego park. The six current members of the Lego builders team are a diverse group, ranging in age from 18 to 40 and coming from all over the world. The tour kicked off in Washington, D.C., on November 12, despite plans to start in Carlsbad, Calif., Legoland headquarters. Those plans were postponed due to the fires that ravaged the San Diego area. The contest was straightforward, says Stacy Slingerland, public relations for Legoland. “All the contestants built around the same theme: We’d say ‘build a fox,’ and they had to be creative,” she says. “We’d have anywhere between 20 to 40 people at a time, and when they were done, the judges went around and viewed the models.” Contests in New York City, Charlotte, N.C., Boston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County, Calif., followed in November and December, bringing the total number of finalists to 27, Slingerland says. Although the turnout was exceptional at each venue, Slingerland says they knew it was going to be a success when they had 9,000 hits four days after launching the Master Builder web site. She says she wasn’t surprised because for many people being a builder at Legoland is a dream job. “They need to be able to think in 3D, and some people just have a brain that thinks that way,” Slingerland says. “Once they get in here to the model shop, they love their job.” Five Years, Five New Attractions Representing the facility’s largest capital investment since its opening, Legoland California unveiled five new attractions to mark its fifth year in operation. Set to debut in 2004 at the Carlsbad park are a Block of Fame in Miniland, featuring Lego busts of famous people; Dino Island, with its Coastersaurus (from Gerstlauer) and sand digging attraction; the Fun Town Fire Academy interactive firefighting attraction; and Miniland USA-Florida. Panorama Park Gets in Grévin’s Picture Grévin & Cie, a French company that accelerated faster in 2003 than Top Thrill Dragster, followed last year’s acquisition of Fort Fun in Western Germany with the recent purchase of nearby Panorama Park. The 40-year-old family amusement park attracts about a quarter of a million guests each year, mostly from the nearby urban centers of Cologne and Düsseldorf. Last year the park posted 4.4 million euros in profit. The fact that the attractions are close to each other is not a coincidence, says Grévin & Cie Chairman and CEO Olivier de Bosredon. “The Panorama Park/Fort Fun grouping gives Grévin & Cie a fine commercial presence in the Ruhr and the Cologne/Düsseldorf region. Panorama Park is magnificent—a very legitimate attraction in its environment.” Panorama Park opened as an animal farm on the site of a hunting lodge and garden center, and it eventually evolved into a family amusement park, holding local events, shows, and contests. Panorama Park still features animals from the surrounding forests, and all of the buildings are in the traditional local style, although the park has added two roller coasters throughout the years to entertain older kids and teenagers. The park includes a safari route, shops, eating places, and even a small hotel. Panorama Park holds special events during the summer, including the autograph hours with actors from daily soaps like Forbidden Love. De Bosredon says Panorama Park has the kind of atmosphere that Grévin & Cie wants on its resume, to give it a well-rounded, family culture. The company now manages 12 entertainment facilities in four European countries—France, The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland—attracting nearly 5 million people a year. “With this acquisition, we will now welcome four visitors out of every 10 outside France,” de Bosredon says. Parc Asterix, outside Paris, was Grévin & Cie’s first acquisition in 1990, and the company has since purchased and managed sea centers and aquariums and theme parks. It has no plans to slow down anytime soon. For more information, be sure to visit www.grevinetcie.com. Merlin Makes More Magic In case you don’t get enough beheadings and mass murderers on the evening news, all the gory details of Jack the Ripper, the Great Plague, and torture chambers come to life on the latest Merlin creation, a dark ride at the London Dungeon to debut in 2004. Local vampire legends are reenacted in chilling style at the Edinburgh and York Dungeons, while visitors to the Hamburg Dungeon face the prospect of getting lost in a horror maze. Merlin’s second new attraction, a Seahorse Breeding and Conservation Centre at the National Sea Life Centre, in Birmingham, is a much more serene attraction, combining a pioneering breeding program for endangered species with strong educational elements. Although seahorses are not officially endangered, they are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, which indicates that the species is dwindling due to its popularity in the hobby trade and traditional medicines. Merlin, which also operates 17 other sealife centers throughout Europe, will introduce a seahorse breeding education program at the facilities in Speyer, Germany, and Blankenberge, Belgium, as well as at the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary in Oban. At the Brighton Sealife Centre, an aquarium that uses multimedia high-tech edutainment, Merlin will introduce a new exhibit called Octopus Genius, featuring the octopus and their close relatives, cuttlefish. The Great Yarmouth center is introducing a spotlight series on jellyfish, one of the most primitive and most complex of marine creatures in the sea. For more information visit www.thedungeons.com. Vivendi Universal Makes a Deal Vivendi Universal has sold 1,800 acres once envisioned as a site for a third Universal theme park in Orange County, Calif., reportedly reaching a deal at the end of 2003 to sell the property near Universal Boulevard to a Georgia developer—Thomas Enterprises, Inc.—for $70 million. Universal originally purchased the land along Sand Lake Road from Lockheed Martin in 1998. Plans filed with Orange County showed the company was considering a third park, 10,000 hotel rooms, 700 time-share units, two 18-hole golf courses, and more than 2 million square feet of retail space. The sale comes on the heels of Vivendi Universal closing a deal to merge Universal Studios’ film operations and cable TV channels, including the USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel, with General Electric’s NBC, which is expected to happen during the first half of 2004. At the time of this writing, the land purchase deal had not been publically announced. Merlion Legend Comes to Life The Merlion: half fish, half lion, is the legendary creature that guards Singapore’s Marina Bay. Also the symbol of Singapore tourism, Sentosa Island’s Merlion will revive the legend in a new interactive walk-through attraction. The main theater showcases Singapore’s own sea mystery—the storm that threatened Prince Sang Nila Utama in the thirteenth century. Each of the stories will be animated with theatrical effects that put the audience into the heart of the action. After the show, visitors to the attraction get the chance to see whether they have been touched by the luck of the Merlion. Sentosa Island, Singapore’s answer to Island Paradise, also offers travelers a chance to swim with the dolphins or receive a Balinese massage. For more information, visit www.sentosa.com.sg. Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship During the 2003 IAAPA Trade Show, officials from Everland in South Korea and Europa-Park in Germany signed an agreement at the Mack booth (Europa-Park’s owner and ride manufacturer). Everland and Europa-Park formed an alliance in which the parks will share staff, information, and ideas. Specifically, the relationship focuses on several issues to improve the quality and productivity of both parks. Those areas of concern include design and landscaping, special events, retail, content, merchandising, and sponsorships. Although this is its first partnership with an Asian theme park, Europa-Park has similar relationships with several major theme parks in Europe. The alliance marks the first for Everland. Both parks are considered trendsetters around the world. Everland, the largest theme resort in Korea, set the world’s fastest growth rate in attendance for the past three years. Europa-Park is Germany’s largest leisure park. With 3.55 million visitors each year and 2,500 employees, Europa-Park is also the biggest seasonal leisure park in the world. Europa-Park’s managing director, Roland Mack, was recently awarded for outstanding entrepreneurial achievements and named “Entrepreneur of the Year 2003” by Ernst & Young. For more information, visit www.everland.com or www.europa-park.de. Cypress Gardens in Season Although the Orlando area is wrought with heavyweight theme parks and attractions, the closure of Cypress Gardens, in Winter Haven, Fla., last April was disappointing to fans who had affinity for the beautiful and old-fashioned park, which was the area’s oldest theme park and botanical gardens. However, the owner of Wild Adventures in Georgia believes he can resurrect Cypress Gardens by appealing to a young crowd with roller coasters and other thrill rides, which were not part of the park’s offerings in the past. The Trust for Public Land, which secured an option to buy Cypress Gardens in September, is now finalizing a deal with owner Kent Buescher, Greg Chelius, the trust’s Florida director, told Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet recently. Under the deal, Buescher would pay $7 million for 120 acres, and Polk County and Winter Haven would kick in $2.5 million for the 30-acre botanical gardens that have been the focus of growing preservation efforts. The state, meanwhile, would ante up $11 million for the development rights. “We are very pleased that an agreement has been reached,” says Gov. Jeb Bush. “Cypress Gardens is a state treasure, and we look forward to seeing the gardens open again.” Talk to the Hand Parks interested in saving money on telephone software, hardware, and maintenance might want to consider IP telephony. To those of us who are technophobic, that means using the telephone through your computer. Here’s how it works: The same technology that companies use to view web sites can also be used to carry a voice, simultaneously. This saves money on having a separate phone jack, and separate phone bill, and it eliminates the hassle of changing phone numbers when moving from desk to desk, or even during travel. For example, a park owner who occasionally works from another office in another city can just bring his or her computer and IP telephony headset, plug it in, and instantaneously be logged into the same phone number and IP address as he or she used back at the office. Another benefit for parks is that the technology has an extensive caller ID mechanism whereby, if parks so choose, customer information can pop up on the computer screen when a call comes through. This technology can enable a park to determine whether or not a customer is a season pass holder. Maintenance is also streamlined, according to CEO Richard Tworek. Once the technology is implemented, the proprietary software provided by Qovia lets the IT manager know immediately if there’s a problem, where the problem is, and how to fix it. “The one IT manager can monitor all of the phones in the park, so you wouldn’t need as many people to deal with the phone system,” he says. For more information visit www.qovia.com.