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Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, and a planned amusement park in Dubai, owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, a division of Blackstone. One of the parks is in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the other is in Tampa, Florida. Both parks were renamed at the start of the 2006 season to reflect the themes used throughout the parks. There was also previously a Busch Gardens park in Pasadena, California (1905-1937), Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California from (1964-1979)[1] and Houston, Texas (1971-1973) [2]. The Busch Gardens old logo (from March 1, 1977-July 12, 2003) is not shown on images.
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Acquisition by Blackstone Group
On October 7, 2009 it was announced that Inbev had sold all Busch Properties to The Blackstone Group for $2.7 billion. This sale will include all Busch Entertainment properties. One of the deals in the contract was that the Clydesdales at Busch Gardens Africa will be removed from the park.
December 3, 2009
At this point in time, Blackstone offically owns ALL Busch Entertainment Corporation parks and renamed them SeaWorld & Entertainment. This is also happening during their first ChristmasTown event!
Locations
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay opened on March 31, 1959, and has an African theme. The park was originally tagged "The Dark Continent".[3] The theme park is one of America's largest zoological institutions, with more than 2,700 animals. Attractions include: Rhino Rally, Montu, Kumba, Scorpion, Gwazi, Edge of Africa, and SheiKra, a vertical dive coaster which opened in 2005. The theme park is some distance away from downtown, in central Tampa, near the limits of the City of Temple Terrace at the east of Tampa.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened May 5, 1975. With its European theme, the park was originally tagged "The Old Country." Attractions at this park include Curse of DarKastle, Alpengeist, Escape from Pompeii, Apollo's Chariot, Loch Ness Monster, and Griffon. Added in 2007, the Griffon coaster has bragging rights as the tallest dive coaster in the world. The park is divided into seven sections, each themed to a different European country. On July 25, 2009, Busch Gardens announced that the Big Bad Wolf roller coaster would be retired Sept. 7, 2009, after 25 years of operation due to its "meeting the end of its service life". Also newly added in 2009 is Christmastown a christmas attraction with many christmas themed attractions and shows.
Busch Gardens Dubai
Busch Entertainment Corporation was to open a new park in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2012.[4] It was to be placed on a man-made island shaped like Shamu in Dubai with SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, and Aquatica also being built on that island. The Dubai park would have added on a 3rd park to the Busch Gardens brand. The plans are now shelved because of financial issues, but the project will be visited again in the summer.[5]
Former Properties
Busch Gardens in California
Long before the Busch Gardens in Van Nuys, Adolphus Busch, cofounder of Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser beer, had his winter home in Pasadena, California (1904). The wealthy easterner took advantage of the area’s mild climate and established the first of a series of Busch Gardens in 1906. When Busch died at his Pasadena estate in 1913, his wife offered the property to the city of Pasadena as a park, which the city refused.
In the 1930s, the 36-acre (150,000 m2) land was subdivided. A number of films were made at the park, including Frankenstein, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Gone With the Wind.
In 1954, a new brewery was opened in Van Nuys. The company opened a more modern version of Busch Gardens at this site in 1966 that included boat rides, a monorail and free beer. The 17-acre (69,000 m2) amusement park was renamed Busch Bird Sanctuary in 1977 and closed two years later.
Houston
Houston’s Busch Gardens opened in May 1971 and was closed within two years. It was located adjacent to the Anheuser-Busch brewery, which opened in 1966. The 40-acre park had an Asian theme except for an ice cave with a temperature controlled environment for several varieties of penguins, polar bears and sea lions.[2]
Free beer
SeaWorld and Busch Gardens owner Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that the long tradition of offering free beer samples in their Hospitality Centers and Brewmaster Clubs would come to an end in the parks.[6] Beer will continue to be sold in the parks. Reports speculate that the change was made to make the parks more attractive to buyers.[7] Also announced was that workers will not get two cases of Beer a month for free, which they would receive under old parent; Anheuser-Busch.[8]
See also
Anheuser-Busch owns several other parks:
- The SeaWorld parks in San Diego, California, San Antonio, Texas and Orlando, Florida
- SeaWorld Orlando
- SeaWorld San Diego
- SeaWorld San Antonio
- A fourth SeaWorld formerly operated in Ohio
- Discovery Cove, an exclusive, reservation-only park in Orlando
- Sesame Place, a children's play park themed after the long-running public broadcasting show Sesame Street, near Philadelphia.
- A second Sesame Place formerly operated in Texas.
- Water Parks: Adventure Island (waterpark) in Tampa, Florida; Water Country USA in York County, Virginia; and Aquatica in Orlando, Florida.
- Grant's Farm, an animal reserve park in St. Louis, Missouri, on land formerly owned by Ulysses S. Grant. Home to some of the Budweiser Clydesdales.
References
- ^ Anheuser-Busch has deep ties to Southern California
- ^ a b http://houstorian.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/busch-gardens-1971-1973/
- ^ . The Milwaukee Sentinel. January 23, 1984. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GHwWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PxIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2642,4272132&dq=busch+gardens+africa. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
- ^ Albright, Mark (February 28 2008). "Busch plans four parks in Dubai". St. Petersburg Times. http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/02/busch-plans-fou.html. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ^ Kassab, Beth (February 4 2009). "No Busch Gardens, SeaWorld for Dubai". Orlando Sentinel. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/orl-kassab0409feb04,0,2251456.column. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ^ Garcia, Jason (January 6 2009). "Last call for free beer tasting at SeaWorld, Busch Gardens". Orlando Sentinel. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/orl-busch0609jan06,0,6489446.story. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
- ^ Volkmann, Kelsey (January 5 2009). "No more free beer at Busch theme parks". St. Louis Business Journal. http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/01/05/daily5.html. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
- ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/01/05/daily16.html
External links
- Official website
- Official website of the Busch Entertainment Corporation
- History timeline from the Anheuser-Busch website
- Fan websites:
- Roller coaster database entries for Tampa and Williamsburg
- Busch Gardens Escape (unofficial fansite)
- Busch Gardens Tampa Guide (unofficial fansite)
- BGWFans.com (unofficial fansite)
- History of Busch Gardens, The Beginning
- History of Busch Gardens, Tampa
- History of Busch Gardens, Williamsburg
- Busch Gardens Van Nuys Site photos
- An Enchanted Park: Celebrating the Centennial of Busch Gardens, a Pasadena Museum of History exhibit on the original Busch Gardens in Pasadena, California
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