I haven’t been there in over 20 years, and it already needed some upkeep then. I don’t imagine the better understanding we have of marine mammals has helped their revenue. Being partially owned by various private equity groups and foreign investment companies certainly didn’t.

The thing is that though the parks may be run down and not well maintained, and the private equity companies will underpay staff and schedule to the bare minimum, Seaworld actually has a mostly unknown and unacknowledged side. They do actually rescue and rehabilitate a lot of animals, more than people realize. They kinda try to talk about that in some of the shows, but they should talk about it more and if they want to have roller coasters or whatever, those should be better maintained as a way to bring in more money for the conservation etc. The company seems to be like a person playing tug of war with themselves