I mentioned yesterday how the Ark Park attendance is falling short of the exaggerated promises Ken Ham made for it. Dan Phelps provides more details, and also presents Ken Ham’s excuse: it’s because they’re counting all the people, like children under 5, that they let in for free.
Therefore, Mr. Ham is claiming that almost 14% of people visiting the Ark are getting in for free. He is also saying that more people visited in the second year. Although possible, Ham’s apologetics for Ark attendance does not sound convincing. In any case, the Ark is not getting even half of the 2 million projected by Ham in the past. This was especially hurtful to the City of Williamstown, which bent over backwards (and apparently forwards) to the Ark with property tax breaks and selling the Ark nearly 100 acres of land for $2 (not to mention Grant County Development giving the Ark nearly $200,000 cash for locating there). Williamstown and Grant County were sold a bill of goods by AiG when they claimed that the Ark would be the panacea for the City and County’s financial woes.
So even if we accept his explanation (I’m willing), he has still fallen far short of the 2 million predicted visitors, and also, it’s a bit of a bait-and-switch. They begged for tax subsidies and community cash on the basis of bringing in all this tourist revenue with millions of paying visitors who would then contribute to the local economy. You don’t get to pad your numbers with all the people with no money that you’re letting attend for free.
Phelps is also not optimistic that the Ark will sink soon. I agree. Ham has money flowing in, even if it’s less than promised and it’s all going to his organization, rather than the community. He’s doing fine. He’s also planning to expand, because one lesson for grifting is that when you’ve got a lot of plates spinning in the air, it’s best to toss up another one, rather than letting one fall.
and
I made an attempt to estimate his gross revenue.
862,471 paying visitors. Assume half children and teenagers. Average ticket price 34 USD.
29,000,000 USD
Parking is $10. Assume 3 per car.
3,000,000 USD
Add 1 million for net of food and merchandise sales
Total gross
33,000,000 USD
So can Ark Park run cash flow positive on $33 million?
Without knowing their expenses, anything is just a guess based on little information.
I would guess they could.
How much does it cost to staff a static display?
Probably not much.
People go in, look at static displays that never change because the bible hasn’t changed (much) in 2,000 years, maybe buy some stuff and eat something, and then leave.
If science disappeared from human memory, we’d soon be living in caves again. If religion disappeared from memory, no one would notice.
Re: corvi @ #2….
I’m afraid we would notice if religion disappeared. First, there would be a whole bunch of out of work grifters with probably no recourse to survive except to engage in actual crime. Second, there’d be a lot more money in peoples hands, and in government coffers without all those tax-exempt properties.
I have commented before on how expensive the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum are.
By way of contrast, the Met Museum in NYC is $25 for adults, for a three day pass to the Met as well as its branches (Breur and the Cloisters). MOMA is also $25 for adults, and the Museum of Natural History is $23. There are senior and student discounts at all of them, and students from NY, NJ and CT can pay whatever they like to get into the Met (that used to be a universal policy, which I appreciated when I visited NY on a restricted budget in the past).
King’s Island, which is very close to the Ark and Creation museums, is $40 for adults online. And they have, you know, rides and pools and stuff. Kentucky Kingdom, also relatively close by, costs $45 for adults.
@1, raven
Jeez…at those prices I wouldn’t go even to just gawk. You can get an all access pass to the Field museum (which includes all general and special exhibits as well as a 3D movie) and still have money left over for the price of one of those adult tickets.
You know what baffles me? Why any place would be so eager to have Kenny-boy set up his little fundamentalist gift shop with attached extremely-specific-Biblical-literalist apologetics machine in their city that they’d give him land for nothing plus a massive tax break. Williamstown is now the laughing-stock of the United States because people associate it with creationist nonsense. Is all of that money they sacrificed actually being repaid by people who contribute to the Williamstown economy on their trip to see Ken’s big wooden box? And even if it is and they’re somehow breaking even or financially benefitting in some small way, is it worth it? Is it, on balance, a good thing when you are seen as a town that was so desperate to have something in the way of a tourist attraction, that you agreed to let Ham build his farcical, moronic “boat” in your municipality? I just don’t get it.
@Raven#1
I suspect the park employs a lot of volunteers during the peak summer months, and parks like this have all kinds of ways of keeping costs down. Disney, for example, partners with colleges and universities around the world to employ thousands of students in their parks for “work experience” in exchange for some token online classes that might be loosely related to their college degree. Their salaries cover accommodation and living expenses, and that’s just about it. No doubt, Disney gets a nice tax break as well.
raven
28 July 2018 at 10:17 am
Ham has money flowing in, even if it’s less than promised and it’s all going to his organization, rather than the community.
Oh my goodness what a racket.
@2 wcorvi, cc @3
FTFY