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Busch Gardens Williamsburg | Pantheon | Intamin LSM Coaster | 2022

Clarimeister

Roller Poster
Does anyone know what is the status of Pantheon? Is it ready to be opened with the park on July 6? Have heard surprisingly little about it over the past month...
Where did you hear July 6th for the park opening? I can't seem to find anything other than recent news that they weren't going to reopen unless they get at least a 5000-capacity limit from the state.
 

Peter Immelmann

Mega Poster
Where did you hear July 6th for the park opening? I can't seem to find anything other than recent news that they weren't going to reopen unless they get at least a 5000-capacity limit from the state.

Ok, that may be. I didn't hear anything about it, I just went to the park's website:
 

Clarimeister

Roller Poster
Ok, that may be. I didn't hear anything about it, I just went to the park's website:
It looks like maybe their intention was to open on July 6th after Virginia entered into Phase 3 on July 1st. However, since the governor confirmed a hard cap on 1000 people for venues, BGW said they won't open until it gets at least a 5000-person capacity. They probably just haven't adjusted it on the website. Unless something else changes of course.
 

i305_zack

Mega Poster
Does anyone know what is the status of Pantheon? Is it ready to be opened with the park on July 6? Have heard surprisingly little about it over the past month...
Pantheon will probably be one of the rides that won’t open in 2020. It is actually looking like seaworld may file for bankruptcy as their largest investor is pushing them to do so, they are doing this because investors are not happy with seaworld and all the liens that have been put onto the new attractions. If you don’t know what a lien is it is just when the company that built the rides files for something claiming that the new rides is owned by them until seaworld starts to make the unfinished payments on it
 

Matt N

CF Legend
SeaWorld apparently has enough cash to last them through to the end of 2021, so I’d suggest bankruptcy won’t be necessary!
 

Trax

Hyper Poster
Probably to reduce the outgoing Cashflow. If they are able to delay payments in some way they‘d be stupid not to do so, as new money won’t come in that quick and a bank loan will most likely be quite expensive for a business that relies on customers during COVID 19.
 

Rupert

Mega Poster
Still such a dick move though. Every supplier will have further smaller suppliers, some potentially small businesses already struggling with this pretty awful economic environment. For a company with multi-million dollar turnover to withhold payments at this time I think is a very low move.

Notice also it’s seemingly only Seaworld resorting to this, none of the other majors think this is ok.
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
I would not be surprised to learn that Six Flags parks might be in a similar situation, but for whatever reason their possible liens are not publicized. SeaWorld already has the bad press from blackfish still lingering so I wouldn't be surprised about a possible media bias.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Yes, it is unfortunate for both RMC and SeaWorld that these documents are public, but liens are nothing new and nothing special. They happen ALL THE TIME in the construction industry - particularly during tough economic times.

They can lead to more serious things, but generally they're just a basis of record keeping should it need to be escalated.

RMC always 'own' the coaster until it's handed over to the client - same with any construction project, the contractor has ownership of the site as building/asset until it is handed over, otherwise the client would be responsible for the site (which they rarely want to do) - the lien is basically just a formal way of RMC saying that they're not signing it over until they get paid, and that the 'planned' payment/handover schedule has been compromised.

SeaWorld do, of course, have plenty of work to do to hold up their end of the agreement, and they're definitely the ones at fault - but RMC haven't sued them yet, which tells you everything.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
For those of you who are worried about SeaWorld’s finances, here is a really interesting article from Behind the Thrills that should hopefully clear up any doubts and reassure people:
The basic gist is; SeaWorld has enough cash to last them until the end of 2021 even with all the parks closed (which they aren’t; the Florida parks are open again, as well as SeaWorld San Antonio. I’m not 100% sure about the others) due to the measures they have taken. They will be fine.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
The basic gist is; SeaWorld has enough cash to last them until the end of 2021 even with all the parks closed (which they aren’t; the Florida parks are open again, as well as SeaWorld San Antonio. I’m not 100% sure about the others) due to the measures they have taken. They will be fine.
For now. ;)

But yes, you're right. I think this is a blip rather than the end-of-times for SeaWorld.
 
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