Busch Gardens to keep name after sale; Clydesdales to depart SeaWorld
Anheuser-Busch’s sale of SeaWorld and Busch Gardens to the Blackstone Group for $2.7 billion should have little to no impact on the operation of the theme parks, officials said.
The Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, Fla., and Williamsburg, Va., will retain the Busch name as part of the deal, said Jim Atchison, president and chief executive of Busch Entertainment.
The Clydesdale horses stabled at SeaWorld parks in Orlando, Fla., San Antonio and San Diego eventually will be redeployed to other Budweiser marketing initiatives, Atchison said.
All the parks will continue to serve Anheuser-Busch InBev beers, with the option to switch to other brands in the future.
Blackstone, which owns Legoland parent Merlin Entertainment and half of Universal Studios theme parks, will operate the former Busch parks as a discrete stand-alone entity.
Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland. Follow Funland on Twitter and Facebook.
— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer
Photo: Shamu at SeaWorld. Credit: Associated Press
5 Comments on “Busch Gardens to keep name after sale; Clydesdales to depart SeaWorld”
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October 7th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Can’t the Clydesdales stay in Busch gardens Virginia? They are my favorite part! I hope you will keep all of the other animals, too!
October 8th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Oh Great lets see how long it takes for Blackstone to outsource most of the jobs to India or better yet try and bring them here to work in the parks instead of Americans.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Hey, maybe it will be a good thing. Because the changes that the new owners have wrought haven’t been very good. The music is WAY too loud and no longer fits the theme of the park. Maybe if we’re lucky Blackstone will bring that back. This year Busch Gardens was too…um…King’s Dominion-y for my taste.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I’m hoping the new owners will have the sense to consider retiring the older, wild-caught orcas and dolphins from shows and bring at least a LITTLE education to the stupid, flashy dolphin shows (including Shamu shows). Currently they spat off how long the orcas are, what they weigh, and how much they eat. OH BIG WHOOP. How about mentioning that the orcas only live to a max of 40 years in captivity if they’re lucky, where as wild ones can live to be 70-90? People leave the park with a bubbly feeling, and amazed at what tricks dolphins can do, but learn nothing about the animals.
I think it was time for new management, although Busch was ten times better than the original owners- they still dumped education for entertainment instead of balancing it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:06 am
We go to Va, Busch Gardens, every year with our grandchildren and children…I was a little disappointed this year, the music was different and way too loud…..then I heard people talking about the last time the clydesdales were going to be there, that is one of the best parts of the old country…Very disappointing………..