Attendance drops and losses mount at United Parks
SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parent company United Parks this morning reported another dismal quarter of earnings.
Attendance and revenue were down and losses continued for the first three months of 2026, compared with the same period one year ago. The company's parks welcomed 3.2 million visitors in the quarter, down 5 percent from 2025. Revenue was down 3 percent, to $278.3 million. Earnings dropped 14.1%, with an Adjusted EBITDA of $58 million. And the company's net loss for the quarter more than doubled, to $34.1 million.
Longtime Theme Park Insider readers probably can guess what the company blamed for the poor performance. But let's let United Parks & Resorts Inc. CEO Marc Swanson say it anyway.
"First quarter results fell short of our expectations primarily due to unfavorable weather (including unfavorable weather in San Diego and Florida in January and February, and again in Florida and Texas during their peak Spring Break periods) and a decline in international attendance," Swanson said. "Attendance in the first quarter was negatively impacted by approximately 140,000 guests due to weather and approximately 80,000 guests due to declines in international visitation. Adjusting for these impacts, attendance would have increased more than 1% for the quarter."
Ah, yes. If it weren't for fewer people visiting, attendance would have gone up. Of course.
United Parks did point to an increase in in-park per capita spending, which was up 5.3% to a record $40.62. So higher prices in the parks helped offset the lower attendance and a 0.5 percent drop in admission per capita.
Yay?
So how did United Parks management respond to the company's ongoing challenges? Did it order up even more new rides and park improvements to help attraction new visitors? Nope. Here's Swanson, again:
"We continue to strongly believe our stock is materially undervalued and, as such, continued to repurchase shares in the first quarter buying approximately 2.6 million shares for nearly $93 million," the CEO said. "This action emphasizes the strong cash flow generation of this company, our long-standing commitment to returning excess cash to our shareholders and our belief that our shares are materially undervalued."
To be fair, United Parks this year is opening a new dark ride at SeaWorld and a refreshed Shark Encounter and new summer drone show in San Diego. San Antonio opened a new family coaster earlier this year, and Williamsburg is opening a revamped version of its Verbolten roller coaster. But it's hard not to think that spending $93 million on a well-designed new coaster or thrill ride somewhere wouldn't have helped United Parks' underlying financials better than yet another quarter of stock buy-backs.
But what do I know?
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Replies (14)
The mentioned factors (read: excuses) didn't impact Disney, Universal, or even Six Flags as much during the same period. Blame the weather, international tourism, or macroeconomic factors are you want. United Parks is sending a stark signal: "We can't compete."
Or maybe they can use that stock buyback money to try and mend the relationship with Sesame Workshop before that bridge is completely severed and United loses its one merchandise driver.
It's just dying a slow death.
If it were really the weather, they should be investing in more indoor/weather-proof rides and attractions, right? Not really? Oh.
@Velocicaosterfan - To be fair, that's exactly what they're doing with SeaQuest in Orlando(indoor suspended dark ride), Shark Encounter renovation in San Diego, and Verbolten: Forbidden Turn. Certainly they need to do more to "weather-proof" their parks, but it's not like they're ignoring it.
If it truly is the weather, we’d see similar trends at the other Florida parks. I’m presuming we don’t?
It's a tale as old as time... United Parks blaming the weather. Good grief, I know they are just gaslighting at this point, but it is comical that their Comms team continues to find new ways to blame the weather. When I worked at Wet 'n Wild, we were required to budget and schedule as though ten days/month (even in the summer months) would be a washout and we were on skeleton crew. Every other entertainment/seasonal/destination company has found a way to budget effectively, so what they are saying is that they cannot budget the way every other company does because they are incompetent and are prioritizing stock buybacks. This company is a shell of it's once proud existence. It's too bad another company won't come in and save it, but I fear that it may be too far gone.
Russel- the only one of those things that will actually improve capacity and be available during bad weather is seaQuest, which I will admit is kind of a step in the right direction. But more indoor coasters there and at BGT should fix their problems with the "weather". What a joke.
I feel like there is an Allen Iverson parody done by Ted Lasso that would be perfect. "I mean listen, we talkin' 'bout weather. Not performance, not performance, not performance. We talkin' about weather."
I did my part and let my pass expire / did not renew. At this point going to Sea World and Busch Gardens is just sad.
Ummm ... Is the weather in San Diego ever bad?
@the_man26 So on point. Even my 14 y/o is no longer interested in going.
I will say that in Virginia, the weather has not been kind to BGW during the Mardi Gras Event and the Spring so far.
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If United thinks it's so undervalued, why not just de-list, and become a private company?
Oh right, they don't actually have positive cashflow, so they can't build anything new or pay for routine maintenance without investor capital.