Kansas City to get Aquarium in Crown Center Complex (Union: house, tenant)

[xenokc]

BizJournal quote says they are seeking a 3rd attraction after aquarium/legoland...

Lucas said Crown Center is eyeing one or two more entertainment draws, but the urban mixed-use center will focus on launching and establishing the Merlin attractions first. “We will be on the lookout,” he said. “We have thoughts for a potential third attraction. Our immediate concern is to maximize the use of our hotels and get the Sea Life and Legoland Discovery Centers as successful as they can be.”

Legoland Discovery Center is planned for Kansas City?s Crown Center | Kansas City Business Journal

[RjRobb2]

I have heard from a couple of people at City Hall that Crown Center is working on becoming more of an activity destination scattered with a few shops more than shops scattered with some attractions. I think it would be cool to assemble several attractions with a few shops and restaurants that supplement the attractions.

[xenokc]

Is expected to open April 6. Sounds like the design might be a bit better than SeaLife's other sites, but 28K sq ft is not very big.

Several hundred species, from seahorses to colorful Nemo-like clown fish, will occupy 30 tanks and displays. The largest tank, with 130,000 gallons, features three tunnels allowing visitors to watch the sharks and rays glide overhead.

http://media.kansascity.com/smedia/2012/01/24/12/52/10PQgA.Em.81.jpg (broken link)

Sharks and rays to arrive for Crown Center aquarium - KansasCity.com

[xenokc]

Ticket prices have been set, can now order online...

https://secure.merlinentertainmentsg...oductId=148601

Type
Walk Up price
Online price

Adult 13+ yrs (includes sales tax)
$20.46
$15.08

Child 3-12 yrs (includes sales tax)
$16.16
$11.77

Annual pass is $60 for one or $226 for family of 4.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by xenokc

Ticket prices have been set, can now order online...

https://secure.merlinentertainmentsg...oductId=148601

Type
Walk Up price
Online price

Adult 13+ yrs (includes sales tax)
$20.46
$15.08

Child 3-12 yrs (includes sales tax)
$16.16
$11.77

Annual pass is $60 for one or $226 for family of 4.

for that tiny place??? I knew it would be high but wow.

We are members of the Balt Aquarium. It's 250,000 sq ft and 2.2 million gallons. Membership is like $160 and daily is $20-25 and you can spend an entire day in that place easily. (and people complain that it's expensive).

http://news.aqua.org/fact-sheets/baltimore/

I don't know if those prices are sustainable. I guess they are if they are going to charge a lot for a few visitors. Most people in KC will go once and probably never go back though at those prices, so it just becomes a tourist trap for those that really don't know any better.

Yet another reason KC needs regional funding to build first class subsidized attractions rather than depending on admission fees alone (see Science City)

[xenokc]

I was thinking $12 would be the lowest they would go so am surprised to see online price is under $12 for kids.

As far as a regionally funded aquarium, not a good idea. Would much rather see the metro do other things regionally funded before a larger aquarium that is _extremely_ expensive to maintain.

It doesn't have to be a major attraction. For an extra thing to do in Crown Center the online pricing doesn't seem too unreasonable, but $10 per person would probably get more repeat visits.

[kcmo]

I think it's a cool attraction for Crown Center. But I would have put the prices at 5-8 bucks for kids and maybe 10-12 dollars for adults. I have never paid to go into one of these types of aquariums. But 20-30 dollars will typically get you into a pretty nice aquarium. The CC aquarium will very small and it might disappoint a lot of people for those prices.

Especially after they just spent a similar amount of money at Legoland or Science City. You quickly start to price yourself out of a nice weekend vacation for a typical family. I can't see a family spending a grand at Crown Center for a weekend vacation. But it might work, who knows.

Those prices may be part of the marketing plan to sell combined tickets for legoland and the aquarium for like 27 dollars.

It all just seems high to me. I mean you can go to a real legoland theme park in FL or CA or a major aquarium, but I guess you have to get there first. KC is a city where people complain about 4-6 dollars to park and $12 tickets to a MLB game and people are going to pay $100 dollars to take a family to an aquarium smaller than a borders book store? Not so sure.

I agree with you that an aquarium is not a top priority for kc, but KC could easily do one with a regional tax because there is no other regional tax in place. Then again, sales taxes are already very high in kc, so maybe those days are long gone now.

I'm excited for Crown Center. I want it to do well. It just seems like these prices are not sustainable. I said the same thing about Science City when they first announced prices and pretty much nailed the outcome. (first year was okay with about 75% of what they expected and after they they never hit 50% of what they expected).

This brings up a thing I noticed about KC. KC needs a "CITY PASS". Almost every city has them (or something similar) and that would really help all the major attractions in KC (WWI Museum, Science City, NLBM, Steamboat Arabia, Aquarium etc).

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by kcmo

I think it's a cool attraction for Crown Center. But I would have put the prices at 5-8 bucks for kids and maybe 10-12 dollars for adults. I have never paid to go into one of these types of aquariums. But 20-30 dollars will typically get you into a pretty nice aquarium. The CC aquarium will very small and it might disappoint a lot of people for those prices.

Especially after they just spent a similar amount of money at Legoland or Science City. You quickly start to price yourself out of a nice weekend vacation for a typical family. I can't see a family spending a grand at Crown Center for a weekend vacation. But it might work, who knows.

Those prices may be part of the marketing plan to sell combined tickets for legoland and the aquarium for like 27 dollars.

It all just seems high to me. I mean you can go to a real legoland theme park in FL or CA or a major aquarium, but I guess you have to get there first.

I agree with you that an aquarium is not a top priority for kc, but KC could easily do one with a regional tax because there is no other regional tax in place. Then again, sales taxes are already very high in kc, so maybe those days are long gone now.

I'm excited for Crown Center. I want it to do well. It just seems like these prices are not sustainable. I said the same thing about Science City when they first announced prices and pretty much nailed the outcome. (first year was okay with about 75% of what they expected and after they they never hit 50% of what they expected).

This brings up a thing I noticed about KC. KC needs a "CITY PASS". Almost every city has them (or something similar) and that would really help all the major attractions in KC (WWI Museum, Science City, NLBM, Steamboat Arabia, Aquarium etc).

Thats exactly what I was thinking. Shedd is one of the largest aquariums in the world and it's amazing and it's only $30 for adults. I can't imagine a small family spending $50+ for what will probably take an hour to go through at most.

[xenokc]

Walkup price at the Minneapolis SeaLife (same operator) is a bit higher...

https://secure.merlinentertainmentsg...oductId=114101

Did anyone really think they'd do it for $10? Now that would've been surprising.

It will be interesting to see how the entire experience is produced. Indie films with tiny budgets can often/usually provide something a big budget film cannot. Bigger is better size queens and those who eat in minutes w/out setting fork down will automatically hate it, that's a given. Those who would accept a story from KC streams, to MO River to MS River to the Gulf to the rest of the oceans might appreciate this Crown Center mini mall aqua diversion. Granted, the hoi polloi (especially those who tend to find a way to rant w/out even seeing it) probably won't.

[aragx6]

^That's silly -- you commented initially on it's very small size. I can absolutely see someone liking it; I can't see people returning with any frequency. I think that's the only real point kcmo was trying to make. I hope their numbers are great, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're not. The addition of more attractions at CC and a discounted pass to get into them all would be a really good start towards making this successful over the long haul.

I'm not sure the MN prices are at all relevant given that the place is more than twice as large (70,000 sq/ft) and in the Mall of America; a place that alreeady draws in an incredible amount of tourists on its own.