HISTORY

BRAND HISTORY

1964

SeaWorld® opened its gates for the first time in 1964, founded by George Millay, Milt Shedd, Ken Norris and David DeMott.

1975

A third location, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, opened on May 16, 1975 next to their brewery in James City County, Virginia.

Today, there are two Busch Gardens parks: the original Tampa, Fla. location and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Va. which opened in 1975.

1980

Meanwhile in July 1980, the Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, jointly planned with the Children’s Television Workshop and based on Sesame Street, opened.

What began as a 3-acre theme park in 1980 has grown to 55 acres with more than 4-dozen rides, play areas, shows, distinctive experiences and events.

1966

A second modern Garden theme park and tropical reserve, was built in 1966 next to the Van Nuys brewery.

1979

The Busch Garden division was incorporated in 1979 as Busch Entertainment Corporation to support its growth.

1989

In September 1989, Busch Entertainment purchased Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Park Group which including Boardwalk and Baseball, Cypress Gardens and SeaWorld theme park chain.Street, opened.

1992

Busch Entertainment announced in November 1992 its joint venture with Grand Tibidabo to build Tibi Gardens in Salou, Catalonia, Spain with other adjunct developments.

Busch acquired a tenth park, Water Country USA in 1992, which was near its existing Williamsburg location.

1995

By the park’s May 1, 1995 opening, Grand Tibidabo was replaced by Tussauds Group, Fecsa and La Caixa as partners and renamed Port Aventura.

In 1995, Cypress Gardens was sold to the park’s management.

1999

In 1999, close to 200 acres of rural land was purchased by Busch Gardens Tampa so that animals could be relocated while a new hotel that was never built.

1993

In 1993, the company hit its record high attendance for all its parks with over 19 million people with a record setting year for Tampa Busch Gardens.

1998

Universal Parks & Resorts purchase some share in 1998. 2000

The company’s marketing program of a regional Florida Fun Cards season pass was launched in 2000.

2001

The additional marketing the database allowed plus the two program, local pass and reward card, allowed them to stay afloat during the economic downturn that started in 2001.

In early 2001, the company sold the Aurora SeaWorld to Six Flags, while the first reservations-only park, Discovery Cove, opened next to Orlando SeaWorld.

2008

In Dubai, the company in February 2008 signed a licensing and management deal for Busch’s Worlds of Discovery, a four theme park development, with Nakheel Properties, an arm of the Dubai government.

Sesame Street Bay of Play opened in 2008 at SeaWorld San Diego.

2011

The division first release was Turtle: The Incredible Journey in June 2011.

In mid-2011, the company started the SeaWorld Pictures division with Scott Helmstedter as chief creative officer.

2007

Beginning November 9, 2007, the parks collectively became known as Worlds of Discovery.

2009

However, the global financial crisis had prompted both Nakheel and Busch Entertainment to suspend development indefinitely in February 2009, although both sides expected at the time to move forward when the financial climate improves.

2012

SeaWorld Entertainment agreed in January 2012 to a multi-year licensing deal with Ruckus Media, a Connecticutbased app developer, for the SeaWorld’s animal based digital story books for ages three to eight.

SeaWorld and Nelvana Enterprises agreed in December 2012 to included Franklin and Friends with the SeaWorld Kids brand.

2014

The property was announced in March 2014 as Billy Green Builds!

SeaWorld said in August 2014 that the film had hurt revenues at its San Diego, California park.

2016

SeaWorld Parks formed its Resort Development Group on February 1, 2016 with the appointment of the Vice President of Resort Development Steve Iandolo.

2020

On April 6, 2020, Rivera resigned as CEO with chief financial officer Marc Swanson appointed as interim CEO.

2015

By November 2015, SeaWorld and Evans Hotels formed a partnership to explore the development for a Mission Bay SeaWorld-branded resort hotel connected to the San Diego park.

2019

The company appointed Carnival Cruise chief operating officer Gus Antorcha as Seaworld CEO in February 2019 with Reilly stepping down to be COO and eventually leaving the company one month later.

In May 2019, Zhonghong Group defaulted on its loans which were secured by Seaworld common stock.

2021

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