The owners of Sesame Street have won a multi-million-dollar judgment against the owners of the SeaWorld theme parks.
A federal judge has ordered SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, now operating as United Parks and Resorts, to pay Sesame Workshop $11.4 million. U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron upheld an arbitration ruling that the Sesame Place, SeaWorld, and Busch Gardens parks owed millions in unpaid licensing fees from earlier this decade.
Sesame Workshop sued SeaWorld Parks last year for the money, which the theme park chain said it did not owe due to pandemic park closures. An arbitration panel rejected that argument and now the judge has orders SeaWorld to pay. The court order was first reported by Florida Politics.
United Parks operates two Sesame Street-themed parks, in Chula Vista, California and Langhorne, Pennsylvania. [See A Visitor's Guide to the New Sesame Place San Diego.] The chain also offers Sesame Street-themed lands and attractions at its SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks.
Beyond the Sesame Street dispute, United Parks also is facing legal action in Southern California, where the City of San Diego is suing over unpaid rent for SeaWorld San Diego. In addition, a Florida woman is seeking class-action status for a lawsuit against United Parks over 5% surcharges on purchases made at the parks.
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I agree the_man7. I'm not sure what United Parks thought they could gain by withholding licensing fees during the Pandemic. It was an incredibly flimsy legal argument, and is telling how shrewd and moneygrubbing United Parks management has become. I always thought the rise and fall of Six Flags would be a mandatory case study for all business management students, but what United Parks has done with one of the most well respected theme park chains in the US is borderline criminal, and worth of a detailed analysis, particularly how the company handled the challenges created by the Pandemic.
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This story should be getting more traction than it is because it shows how shortsighted United Parks management is. Sesame Street is a money printing machine for the company, I would even say its the most successful thing they've had going for them, and 4 years of arbitration/court battle (that they lose) over such a small amount of money? Why sour that relationship? Especially when they announced to their investors at an earnings call that they are doing a $500 million stock buyback. So stupid.