Legoland Windsor Resort

Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:06 pm

So about this new woodie and all sorts, could this mean more money ect being spent?

Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:10 pm

This is nothing but GOOD news for Alton Towers. Tis new compainy won't be money grabbing, they'll invest heavily into the park.

I am SOOOOO HAPPY this is happened. We can now expect many changes around Tussauds parks. Hopefully big ones.

I was so happy about this when I found out at school, I ran around cheering!

Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:12 pm

[quote=""Lauren""]So about this new woodie and all sorts, could this mean more money ect being spent?[/quote]

Doesnt mean anything really yet

Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:17 pm

I was so happy about this when I found out at school, I ran around cheering! Embarassed

Coo Dude 8)

This is good news i believe, i think that Alton now have far more "Theme Park Based" experience behind them, and lego land/gardaland have some excellent theming, do they have their own studios?

I think this could be the start of a beautiful relationship!

So now it goes :

Merlin : Legoland, Sea Life, Garda Land
/
Tussauds : Tussauds Studios, Alton Towers, Madame Tussauds, London Eye, Thorpe Park etc
/
Alton Towers : Theme Park, 2 Hotels, Water Park
/
Theme Park

Wonder if this will have an affect on plans that were originally put in place by the park? 2008 etc?

Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:18 pm

here is hoping we get a new addition to the good ole annual pass

Nick · Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:22 pm

With added price tag no doubt, but at least an increase will be justified this time

Crofty · Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:34 pm

I'm not excited by this news ATM Another investment company taking over doesn't mean they will be flooding anywhere with new attractions. Most investment companys just want to squeeze as much money out of the business before they sell it on just like DIC and the guys that owned Tussauds before them I believe.
I hope this company are here to stay for the long term, If they aint we will see very little change.

Joel · Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:54 pm

[quote=""Titler""]
So now it goes :

Merlin : Legoland, Sea Life, Garda Land
/
Tussauds : Tussauds Studios, Alton Towers, Madame Tussauds, London Eye, Thorpe Park etc
[/quote]

No - after re-reading this a few times and on different sources, it suggests they are merging Tussauds into Merlin Entertainments - so Tussauds will no longer exist in theory, with just Merlin Entertainments in charge of everything instead and being the brand for the 'new' company (which DIC will own 20% of)

e.g.

Blackstone -> Merlin Entertainments -> Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, London Eye, LegoLand, Sealife etc etc

I guess we'll have to wait for the exact clarification of how its going to work though.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:58 pm

[quote=""Crofty""]I'm not excited by this news ATM Another investment company taking over doesn't mean they will be flooding anywhere with new attractions. Most investment companys just want to squeeze as much money out of the business before they sell it on just like DIC and the guys that owned Tussauds before them I believe.
I hope this company are here to stay for the long term, If they aint we will see very little change.

[/quote]

I'd have to agree with that and go a bit further.
Am I the only one to see this as bad news?

The Blackstone Group are in if for the money just as the DIC were, except from my point of view, it looked like the DIC had the ability to put huge investment into the parks with it's oil revenues. The more attractions that get put into the same pot will probably mean less imagination for all of them, tighter budgets and tougher targets.

It works well at Disney because they have a united brand - what are they going to do here? There are so many differences across the whole company that I feel there will still be no more increase of quality or investment into every single park. It would be terrible to brand everything Merlin - the mark of quality they appear to possess is low imo.

Plus, Merlin seem to have very little experience at all - they were only formed in 1999 and have only had the Legoland Theme Parks under their control for just over a year and a half.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:00 pm

They may leave Tussards as the 'owners' because people are familiar with it. Tussards will be owned by Merlin entertainment, so it wouldn't be an expansion as such, but just left as Tussards as people recognise it. Thats how Myspace.com works anyeway. Fox owns it, yet it is owned by the 'news corporation', which is owned by Fox, as people recognise the news corporation. I'm probably wrong though haha!

Off to do headboy speech at opening evening

Joel · Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:06 pm

[quote=""Liam""]The Blackstone Group are in if for the money just as the DIC were[/quote]

I hate to say it - but any business is 'in it for the money' - thats the nature of businesses. They will ensure that theres enough funding put in to keep the business viable, attractive and profitible.

As to the little experience - there are members of ex-Tussauds joining the new company, so some experience of running parks will still be there. I would highly doubt Blackstone would let Merlin run their investments into the ground purely because they didnt have the experience either

Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:11 pm

I think this is nothing but good news? DIC wern't experience with theme parks, they didn't invest enough into the attractions and wouldn't care less. This was obvious from the cuts around the parks and lack of investment in new attractions/

Merlin on the other hand have had experience in running attractions. Seeing the Tussauds attractions they take on will be bigger than anything they own in the UK, im sure they won't just take this fact for granted.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:29 pm

[quote=""Joel""]I hate to say it - but any business is 'in it for the money' - thats the nature of businesses. They will ensure that theres enough funding put in to keep the business viable, attractive and profitible. [/quote]
Yeah Joel, that's what I meant. Blackstone are no better than the DIC in my eyes. For example a while ago the group bought part of Six Flags and sold it again after 2 years, sound familiar? lol I wouldn't expect any change for the better as far as more investment and new rides is concerned, they'll just want to make sure the parks continue to make the profit and instead of investing heavily in them, will want to expand and build more parks elsewhere. More Legolands are already planned.

My point about the managers was that wouldn't it have been more logical to put the existing Tussauds bosses in charge of Legoland(s) and the Sealife centres rather than the other way around. I'm pretty sure Merlin was the smaller company of the two by 1:2.

[quote=""Muggins""]DIC wern't experience with theme parks, they didn't invest enough into the attractions and wouldn't care less. This was obvious from the cuts around the parks and lack of investment in new attractions/ [/quote]
They currently have more experience than Merlin do. Merlin have only just got to grips with any theme park in the last year or so. And the cuts around the park I don't think were a direct result of the DIC's takeover.

And the DIC still have their owe in, taking a still rather large stake in it all.
It does all make perfect sense in business terms, but in my view nothing will improve in terms of the individual parks.

I know I'm going against the grain, but just because something is new or has changed doesn't mean it will be any better.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:30 pm

I guess it depends entirelly on the amount of money Merlin are willing to put forth to Alton Towers, and the ideas they expect, ect. Alton Towers are capable of producing some very good plans (and sometimes not so, as we've seen with Rita, Charlie and Spinball).

I think it's unfair to blame the DIC for some of Alton Towers latest failures. I mean, Charlie had the budget to be a world-class dark ride, 8mill is a lot of money, but they wasted it on Rahl contracts and not so impressive 'Bluescreen' technology (I'm yet to see what's so revolutionary about the lifts). Yet the plans we've seen from Alton Towers for such things as Towers Street rethemes, Alton Woods, and their work towards the Driving School have all been very good. I can't get my head round how they missed the nail so blatantly with Charlie when all the money and themeing potential was there

.

'tis a tricky business. I don't think there's anything strongly depicting what the quality of future attractions will be. Good budgets from Tussauds come and go. Good concept plans from Alton Towers come and go. Why the latter haven't combined to make a exceptional quality attraction in the past 3 years bemusses me, and it's quite scary to think what the future of Alton will be if this quality continues TBH.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:35 pm

hmm...

Yeah, it looks like the Tussauds name and branding is going to remain, at least for the time being (so the people currently putting the finishing touches to TussaudsTimes can breathe a sigh of relief..!).

I think this will be a good thing in terms of the resources that can be shared - such as development resources for new rides and attractions, marketing resources etc. It may mean we'll see even more 'cloned' rides appearing in more than one park at the same time (such as we have seen amongst the Tussauds parks).

It means the group will be even more dominant in the UK theme park market - less competition can mean higher prices, etc, but can also lead to cost savings.

I don't think we'll see any drastic changes in the short term though.

Merlin's website says:

"Merlin Entertainments Group is a leading name in location based, family entertainment. Its aim is to deliver unique, memorable and rewarding experiences to millions of visitors across its growing estate, and it achieves this objective largely thanks to the commitment and passion of its managers and employees. Merlin’s brands, while being household names, will never fail to be distinctive, challenging and innovative. They will, in short, have attitude! They will deliver the best financial returns in the sector and demonstrate a record of growth in market share that will be unrivalled. In every respect and to every group of stakeholders Merlin will always be an exciting company to be involved with."

All that points to a good future for Alton Towers, long term, and now Alton Towers is owned by Merlin, maybe we'll see the 'magic' return...? :P

Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:50 pm

What a very interesting, yet unexpected move.

I would be very interested to see what happens next with the Tussauds brand.

In many cases when a company is taken over the new owners have to cease use of the original brand. Now, this never seems to have happened before with Tussuads and its several owners recently but who knows what the future can hold.

From a business, and customer awareness point of view using the Tussuads brand over the Merlin name would be a much wiser decision as this a fully established UK brand, where as Merlin, yes a very succesful company is a pretty much unknown brand in the public forums.

Imagine adding the name Tussuads to things like the Sealife Centre, or LegoLand and instantly it gets wider recognition.

Or, the companies could continue to operate as individual enterties which is most likely the case with DIC retaining a fairly large share.

Big Dave · Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:11 pm

Couldnt be bothered to read all the posts above but from what Im hearing, it seems like it is a merger and that the Tussauds group in effect wont exist. So it would say something like "Alton Towers - A division of the Merlin Entertainments group".

I also want to point out the Merlin Entertainment own more than just Legoland. They own all the sealife centres and have a few parks abroad. I also believe they have television connections but might be wrong (will check on that).

Joel · Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:22 pm

Yeah, it looks like the Tussauds name and branding is going to remain, at least for the time being (so the people currently putting the finishing touches to TussaudsTimes can breathe a sigh of relief..!).

That hasn't (from the news I've seen) been confirmed or even mentioned in press releases though yet - in fact no name has been decided for the new group?

So wheres that come from now?

It wouldn't suprise me if Merlin want to get their name on things - I'd actually be suprised if Tussauds does keep its name as "the ownership/operating company" - only remaining as references on objects that won't be updated yet.

A lot of people outside of these type of forums don't know what Tussauds do - I've had hundreds of discussions with people at my workplace about the "Tussauds Annual Pass", to which most people thought it was a pass to get into Madame Tussauds, not Alton Towers or the likes etc - so I don't think the Tussauds brand is that synonymous with the brands it owns by that many people.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:29 pm

After reading a number of the news reports. The impression I get is that the Tussauds group will be merged into Merlin, however the Tussuads brand will remain.

For example, Merlin Entertainment, trading as Tussuads. The company name is officially Merlin, but the public brand perception will remain with much familiar Tussuads name.

Though I could be wrong, and until the sale is actually authorised and completes we won't know.

Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:15 pm

My point about the managers was that wouldn't it have been more logical to put the existing Tussauds bosses in charge of Legoland(s) and the Sealife centres rather than the other way around. I'm pretty sure Merlin was the smaller company of the two by 1:2.

I don’t think you understand nothing in the Tussauds chain will change as of get. The current managers aren’t going to be laid off, the brand name isn’t going to change, it will all say the same. The only difference is that the overall targets and finance will be overseen by Merlin/Blackstone. The Tussauds name will also not be laid off, it will simply come under the name of Merlin Entertainment which in turn comes under the name of Merlin/Blackstone.

May I also view my opinions on the people who are going “There only in it for the money” and smirk at them. These people simply do not understand the workings of a business. Who ever take over Tussauds aim is going to be to maximise the total revenue, they don’t do it for fun do they? Businesses are there to make money therefore you can’t slate one for doing just that. That’s just totally pointless.

Another thing a few of you are talking about is that now they own so many parks they aren’t going to be given individual attention. This is not true, the Alton managers and executives are still going to have full control over what is installed, where, by who and when. The power and investment capital will remain within the Alton bank accounts and it will be up to them how this is spent. This means that they are still going to be able to make quality attractions with the much needed detail.

Personally I think this take over is a good thing; all it means is that they are going to throw money at the parks and invest in them heavily in an attempt to boost attendance and profits. No doubt once this goal has been reached and the park looks great on paper Tussauds will once again be sold off.

Please, also remember DIC are not totally out of the picture. They own a 20% stake and that’s a large percentage. Their voice is still going to be heard!

Thank you and goodnight,
Kaz

Just thought, wouldn’t it be funny if Tussuads became Merlin Entertainment, Adams much loved site TussaudsTimes would be rendered useless!