re: #128 lawhawk

Calling what they’re proposing municipal bonds is an insult to even Kentucky investors. It’s junk bonds, and not even good ones at that. There’s no market for them, which means that the bondholders would be screwed and they wouldn’t bite on the offering.

Religious themed amusement parks haven’t done well in the US. Those that have run in the past have closed with declining visitors, like Holy Land USA (in CT).

Heritage USA likewise is shuttered (in SC).

What does this say about Americans? Perhaps it’s that they like their religion, but it can’t hold a candle to Mickey Mouse or Six Flags. Or that religious-themed amusement parks are a misnomer since they don’t offer a reason to come back year-after-year (stuck firmly in Biblical times).

It’s not like they’re going to install water rides like The Deluge, or Escape from Sodom (a roller coaster).

It doesn’t help that superficially, the business model is “Christians will spend their money here because they like wholesome fun” but in practice it’s “an incredibly narrow band of mega-church nutters will spend their money here because they value the rituals of reaffirming their tribal beliefs.” And the latter will come once.

Because they’re not amusement parks first. they ideological touchstones for a very particular theology that not a whole lot of people are invested in. Young Earth Creationist, social conservative, on its face, and with a bitter aftertaste of all the other politics that Ken Ham vomits…you’ve chopped out a giant chunk of your client base right there.

Though I personally question whether Ark Encounter was ever supposed to succeed. I look at the bond issue and wonder if we just watching an affiliation scam play out.