We are the 1%

[tp41190]

So whil I was at the bar with some friends tonight and after a few drinks I realized how this "Occupy" protest sort of relates with the amusement industry and coaster enthusiasts. If you think about the number of coaster enthusiasts compared to the number of park guests, the enthusiasts really are about 1% of the attendance and profit of the park.

Enthusiasts are the ones who walk to Burger King, get cups of ice water, bring friends in free on certain days, know about all the discounts, go to more then their home six flags park, and most of go more days then any other Season Pass holder. So why would parks want to cater to the enthusiasts?

While the outcome is the complete opposite of what is going on in the politics I thought it was kind of a interesting reference.

I'm sorryh if this makes no sense when I log back on in the morning.

BYE!

[monsterfan99]

So why would parks want to cater to the enthusiasts?

I just picked this part out as it seemed to be the main point. The reason they should and do via events is the free PR they get. This applies to the Holiday Worlds of the world. The butter up the enthusiast with food, ERT and management acting like they care. They get their yellow foil ticket and plaster it everywhere. Cable networks think the voting is legit and enthusiasts are great judges (they are the worst) and go from there. Get their name out there, people come and money is made. All off events they make money off of.

All that said, when it comes to things like rides, shows and improvements at a major park the enthusiasts mean nothing. I imagine the talk after an event is "I'm glad they are gone for another year."

[FParker185]

Actually coaster enthusiasts I'd estimate would be well under 1% of amusement park attendees, more like 0.1% tops, at least club affiliated enthusiasts.

Actually just did the math, and figure there are roughly 10,000 club affiliated enthusiasts. Assume every single one went to SFGAm which of course doesn't happen and SFGAm was right around 3,000,000 visitors that comes up with 0.3%, if you divide the 10,000 into the total number of amusement park visits in a year (10's of millions), I don't think a regular off the shelf calculator would be able to give you anything other than all zeroes

But yeah, it's all about getting any award that they can market in any way shape or form.

[tribar]

Enthusiasts are the ones who walk to Burger King, get cups of ice water, bring friends in free on certain days,

I really don't think we are the only ones to do these

[Ilovthevu']

Maybe so, there are the less than 1% of enthusiasts that go online and are really into the hobby along being in clubs. However, I feel that there are even more people that do really enjoy the parks, but they aren't constantly looking up coaster stuff, or browsing Screamscape. If no one cared for the rides in the park, they wouldn't be selling Raging Bull shirts, American Eagle mugs, and basically a ton of those stores would be shutdown in the parks.

I think the same can be said for any hobby. Some people are really into it, but others really really enjoy it. There are gamers who constantly buy video games, and beat them, and than there are the people that think games are okay, but eventually the games are going to get boring, and maybe they will do something else.

I guess another example would be Zoo people. There are enthusiasts of people who really like the zoo. They even sell season passes for the zoo. These people must go once a month, or twice a month, or something. Maybe, they try to visit 2 new zoos a year. They are really into it. They probably even know the names of the animal. You and I will call a Giraffe, a Giraffe, but they will call the Giraffe Susie which is the Giraffe's real name. Whenever a new exhibit opens, or maybe when a new baby is born, I would imagine a person really into zoos would want to visit. It's like a Six Flags Great America enthusiast wanting to ride a new ride so badly. I looked at a zoo forum one time, and it was sort of funny and interesting at the same time. One topic was like stupid things the general public says, and one of their comments was like they called this animal a Tiger, and it was really a Lion. It's hilarious. It's just like coaster enthusiasts will say about coasters in regards to height, speed, etc.

Really, we (enthusiasts) are just like everyone else in the world even though that's our hobby - amusement parks. You could even say that watching baseball and visiting different stadiums is a hobby. Some people are really into sports a ton, and that's why they have these Fantasy type of stuff. Oh, I have to watch over my player and see how many yards, homeruns, triples, baskets, etc. he gets. It's really the same thing. I wonder how many people are Fantasy baseball people there are compared to how many people just enjoy the game of baseball, and aren't really that obsessed over it. I would imagine the people really, really, really into it has to be in the 1%. Same thing with movies, etc.