Attendence

Consulate · Post by **Consulate** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 2:14 pm

Recently I have been sort of curious with the attendence figures the parks have gotten over the years. I know on this site I saw an article saying that the gurnee park had 2.75 million in '78. This year with the new water park there was a newpaper article saying that the park would get back up to 3 million like it use to be. Does anyone have more detail as to yearly attendence figures for both parks, it would be interesting to see the differences that different years had made. I find it strange that from 1978 to 2005 with all the changes, the gurnee numbers have virtually remained the same. It would also be interesting to see the route that Santa Clara took over the years. Any help is great thanks!

Post by **steven** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 11:46 pm

I think that the publication Amusement Business prints attendance figures each year. I don't have easy access to back issues right now. Maybe someone can look this up for us!

Steven

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:49 am

I dont know much about annual attendence, but I know that the parks capacity was considered 50,000. I believe that Hurricane Harbor is around 7,000.

m_force_4_ever · Post by **m_force_4_ever** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:37 pm

^Hurricane Harbor has a capacity of 7100 but they usually let 7500 in. and Six Flags announced in the confrence call that attendence was up 28% at SFGAm due to HH. hope that helps a little

MGA1 · Post by **MGA1** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:16 pm

I know this is an old post but since nobody replied with actual numbers, I figured I'd chime in. During Marriott's ownership, the Gurnee park always beat the Santa Clara park in attendance despite having a much shorter operating season. The Santa Clara park was open 150 days/year while the Gurnee park was only open 120 days/year.

Years ago, I did a case study in grad school about the Marriott theme parks. Here are the combined attendance figures (Gurnee & Santa Clara) that were reported in the old Marriott Corporation annual reports:

Year | Attendance | #Employees
1976 | 4.7 million | 7,860
1977 | 4.9 million | 6,500
1978 | 5.0 million | 7,500
1979 | 5.1 million | 7,500
1980 | 4.7 million | 7,500
1981 | 5.1 million | 7,500
1982 | 4.0 million | 7,400
1983 | 4.4 million | 6,400
1984 | 2.0 million | 3,200 (Santa Clara only)

I do remember that the Gurnee park alone exceeded 3.1 million guests in 1981 (the year the American Eagle opened). I later worked at the Santa Clara park (under Kings Entertainment management) in '90 and '91. The Santa Clara park had just under 2.0 million visitors each of those years.

By the way, I found the park admission price in 1976 and 1977 was $8.95 for adults. By 1984, the admission price had risen slightly to $12.95.