Covering the business of fun
By Flickr user Stig Nygaard
Hostile takeovers. Proxy fights. Bankruptcy, debt and lawsuits.
Welcome to the business of fun!
The amusement industry is like a giant smorgasbord for business journalists, and now is a great time to check out what’s going on at the attractions in your region.
Theme parks, water parks, carnivals – even small attractions like go-kart tracks and paintball courses – can be fodder for picturesque, pithy financial stories to which readers can easily relate. So whether your backyard includes Disney or just a 1950s-vintage “mystery spot,” get on it!
One of the most interesting trade journals I’ve ever followed is Amusement Today. It delivers a free daily e-mail newsletter that is chock full of the dollars and cents of the amusement industry, from the just-collapsed buyout of Cedar Fair by a private equity firm to obits of theme-park pioneers to sidebars on places like the National Roller Coaster museum.
And here’s a dated but informative piece from The Motley Fool about the publicly traded regional amusement-park operators. It will give you an idea of theme park financial metrics and what to ask companies in your area. Be sure to ask about hiring and job fairs, as well.
And here is a Yahoo! directory of amusements ranging from rides to boardwalks to miniature golf, to help you track down local parks. This really useful guide also includes menu items ranging from trade groups to vendors to accident info and the physics of amusement park rides.
Traveling carnivals – the kind that set up in shopping center parking lots or appear alongside melon festivals and country fairs — are most likely inspected and regulated by your state. Here’s a directory of state inspectors from the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Readers love infographics and stories about ride safety – or lack thereof.
Traveling carnivals are a strange business; some are family-owned while others are more professionally operated but the traditions and tales of the “carnies” nomadic workforce would make for an interesting business feature about pay and conditions. Some sleep in special truck or RV bunkhouses, for example, with molded pods giving each employee a molded plastic berth and storage space – as many as 10 or more to a truck. I’ve never forgotten the trade paper ad that sought an electrician who “Must get up sober in the morning!”
Note that there also are people advertising themselves on the Web as carnival ride expert witnesses. I see a careers story there, as with the inspectors or really just about any of the specialized jobs involved in creating, building, maintaining this heavy equipment that people entrust with their lives day in, day out.
Roller coaster designers usually get the attention – here’s a design-it-yourself Web site that would make a fun online sidebar – but really there are so many interesting jobs at a fun park, from catering to event planning to purchasing to acting and performing and maintaining equipment. Here’s a Bureau of Labor Statistics channel that you can mine for statistics and outlook about jobs in the amusement industry.
From a financial point of view, mergers, bankruptcies and debt are big problems in an industry that may have overextended itself during boom years earlier this decade.
Also of interest are ancillary businesses, suppliers, effect on regional tourism (for good or ill) and even the history of theme parks – many date back to the turn of the 20th century and historic knickknacks, ephemera and other items are big business on eBay. Casinos, which have exploded nationwide in the past decade, are a new threat to regional theme parks.
You could do a whole consumer piece on what goes in to the cost of an all-day ticket, how to ferret out amusement park bargains, safety issues and the like.
