Once upon a time, Ken Ham was enthusiastically bragging about anticipated attendance figures for his Ark Park.
Over the years, secularists launched vicious attacks against the museum. They will increase, as the full-size Noah’s Ark, when it opens in 2016, is estimated to attract up to 2 million visitors a year…
Unfortunately for his glee, Dan Phelps got the actual attendance figures from a Kentucky Open Records Act query: for 2017-2018, the Big Wooden Box got 862,471 visitors. Not bad, but less than half of what he was expecting.
I wonder if Ham inadvertently revealed one of the reasons for the shortfall.
According to our research, around 60% of those visiting the Ark will be unchurched!
So he was predicting that over half the visitors would be unbelievers — you know, people like me, who visited once to gawk and point and laugh. We were there for the spectacle and the absurdity, not for religious instruction. And people like that are not likely to make repeat visits.
When I read the headline, I thought the Ark was actually physically leaking…. But this is almost as good
My vicious attacks were based on a few smirks, one side-eye, and not visiting. (I couldn’t muster a B-17G squadron in time.) Looks like others were more effective.
I presume the link to Hemant Mehta’s post referring to Dan Phelps’ checking, which poopyhead seems to have omitted, is It’s Official: Ark Encounter Had 862,491 Paying Customers In Its Second Year. I also assume poopyhead’s 862,471 is a typo, albeit I have not checked the cited source’s math.
That post, and others at the same blog, point out of ken “piglet rapist” ham’s excuses is the safety fee surcharge only applies to bought tickets. Free admissions are exempt, and it is that difference — of c.250,000 or more (depending on which ham lie you refer to) — which explains the discrepancy.
The mildly deranged penguin has a stock of Brooklyn Bridges available at a discount it you believe that…
I suppose he could always sell it to a builder and make condos out of it. I can see it now: “The Arkane Mews”
The information we don’t know:
Is the Ark Park making or losing money?
If they are running net positive, then they can keep going forever.
(They may or not be able to pay off their bonds though.) Which is no big deal.
The bonds were highly risky anyway.)
I have no idea.
Since the Big Box doesn’t actually do anything, they might not require much revenue to break even.
People walk in, look at static displays that never change, and then leave.
Regardless of this sideshow’s success, keep in mind that Ham’s supposedly scientific organization has put more effort into building an amusement park than they have into actual research.
I’m fascinated by the word ‘unchurched’.
It speaks volumes.
My source was direct email from Dan Phelps — the number was copied right out of that.
@willj, #4
We could forcibly confine deranged theocrats to the apartments and call it the Ark’em Asylum.
Unchurched is not quite the same as unbeliever, is it ?
It would be extraordinarily optimistic to assume the Ark would attract 1 million unbelievers a year.
Re: xmp999 @ #1….
I was going to ask if you were getting them built at Willow Run (aka “Will it run?”), but that plant turned out B-24 Liberators, not B-17s.
Fark the Ark!