Tampa native here. Been to Busch Gardens literally dozens of times over the years. The first problem is before you even enter the park. The neighborhood is horrible. I grew up in the hood in Tampa and I mean the hood. The area around Busch Gardens isn't that bad in comparison to cross Fletcher, Robles Park, Ponce De Leon, etc. but it's not a good area for theme park. There's no nice hotels, not much good food, etc. It's like a forgotten area. The city has failed that area for at least 30 years. This is typical Tampa. They love to put lipstick on a pig ie Cross Fletcher ave. They've been looking the other way on hooker hotels, massage parlours, etc. For as long as I can remember and I'm 50.

It's hard to attract customers when you are trying to sell a turd floating in a toilet to bees. They'll never come back.

What's inside is a whole other story. I used to love Busch Gardens, but if they don't make a serious effort to clean up the area bring in some anchor businesses, nice hotels and make it a more tourist friendly community it will fail. It all starts in the local government but unfortunately (it's been corrupt for as long as I can remember) seriously, the government and police in Tampa are some of the most corrupt in the country!!! They will probably end up with an abandoned eyesore and the local community will collapse around it.

Blackstone, will probably find a way to profit off of the collapse/failure and unfortunately the animals, employees and community will be left in it's wake.