Yeah i get that. In a way it's kind of the worst of both worlds rather than the best.
This is basically the dilemma.
BPB, traditionally speaking, would and should not need to compete with Merlin. The Blackpool Pleasure Beach Group, up until the late 90's had the likes of Southport Pleasureland and Frontierland in its arsenal (BPB being the flagship, of course). They didn't have a reason to directly compete with parks south of Manchester.
The Thompsons had a monopoly up in the North West. Camelot was the only outside contender up here, and they did not have the financial might of the Thompsons, nor the exclusive location at one of Britain's most popular seaside resorts.
As BPB and Tussauds decided to investment in bigger and more groundbreaking rides, it placed them in direct competition with one another. We all know about 1994 so no need to go into that.
With the exception of, say, Valhalla, BPB couldn't really follow-up on The Big One whilst Towers continued to splurge on exciting (and expensive) new concepts like Oblivion, Air & Rita (yes, Rita did draw interest at the time). Meanwhile, the Thompsons sacrificed the sister parks to save the golden goose.
Many years later, and I feel that some of Geoffrey's earlier financial decisions are still affecting the park to this day. These are exacerbated by Amanda's apparent lack of knowledge or deep passion for the amusement park as a whole.
What doesn't help is that we've lost quite a lot of small - mid range family parks since the heydays of the 90's, and of course the average family has a lot less disposable income, which means now you'll have more potential customers directly comparing the likes of AT and BPB in terms of ride offering, price, opening hours etc in order to decide which option suits them best for a day out.
On the flip side, you have the casual punter who either lives or is visiting Blackpool and wants to tag BPB into their itinerary but may not want to spend X amount of money or spend a full day there.
BPB aren't really catering to this audience, and the model they have currently means that they will continue to be directly compared to AT, Thorpe when it isn't necessarily a fair comparison.
They've literally had 1 new coaster since The Big One (we're not counting Infusion). And to be honest, a LOT of people don't even know about that 1 new coaster.
To put it into context, Nemesis (a ride now being retracked for a new generation of riders) is the same age as BPB's 2nd newest coaster (3rd if you want to be extremely generous). Since that time, Alton Towers have added 2 more B&Ms, a Maurer Spinner, an Intamin Accelerator, Intamin Multi Dimension, Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster & a GCI Woodie and we're already hearing murmurs of the next major attraction.
BPB have added Icon.
So, they need to take a look at their pricing structure and bring it in line with what's on offer. They also need to recognise that they have a lot of potential customers that are excluded because they do not have the same level of commitment as someone driving to the arse end of nowhere especially to visit a park like Towers.
More deals and more flexibility pls.
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