Hold the Presses…SeaWorld Attendance Blamed on Bad Weather?!

Rain, rain, go away…so I can still go to SeaWorld another day. Or at least this is the mindset that SeaWorld envisioned was behind the four percent drop in attendance for its Florida parks. A report in the LA Times, shows that in the park year, attendance at theme parks writ-large actually increased by 5 percent, effectively seeing a drop in the other direction in the case of SeaWorld.

SeaWorld is in the center of a literal media storm, shaming the establishment for their poor treatment of captive animals and unwillingness to openly and honestly address the public about their practices. Perhaps this is the exact storm that has been causing “bad weather” for Florida parks, because I can’t imagine that the prospect of getting wet would keep people away from an amusement park called SeaWorld…

I mean, people just love wearing ponchos there:

SeaWorld even sells their own novelty ponchos expressly for this reason! So, blame it on the weather, or perhaps the spike in ticket prices, but the moral of this story is that people just plain don’t want to visit an establishment that ignores basic science, compromising the health of its animals.

Since the release of “Blackfish,” public awareness has grown exponentially and, in turn, attendance in SeaWorld has dropped. Call your former patrons fair-weather fans perhaps, but certainly don’t look to the weather as the cause of poor attendance, that’s just not fair to rain.

Image source:Yathin S Krishnappa/Wikimedia Commons