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The Ship Is Sinking: Ark Encounter Sold Fewer Tickets This July Than Last July

 
 
 
Bronzeage said:
What Hamm was trying to create was the distinctly non-Protestant experience known in other religions as the "pilgrimage". No one goes to Lourdes or Guadaloupe to go down a water slide.

It will take a miracle to save the Ark, by which I mean a real miracle, the kind where someone rides in on a handicapped scooter and walks out on their own feet. In this day, there will be video of those first trembling steps, as a middle aged woman gets to relive her toddlerhood. It only takes one.

I actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. It seems obvious.
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That's pretty smart. Hambone needs something miraculous that will bring in the stupids. You should open up a consulting business that advises religious enterprises. He should take a lesson from Lourdes and Fatima.
 
I could tell them how to boost those numbers. But would they listen? Prob'ly not. It's so obvious: an adults-only annex called Sexy Noah Encounter, where re-enactors play out Genesis 9:20-8, where Noah sleeps off a drunk and Ham checks out his wedding tackle. Seriously, who doesn't wanna see a naked 600-year-old man? I get warm just thinking about it. But this post isn't about me.
 
Lion IRC said:
Seriously, for what it is and where it is, that seems like a huge number.
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They expected 2 million visitors annually before it opened, if I remember correctly.

One other problem they have is that much of the initial construction costs was done through sales of charter memberships that entitle members to unlimited visits. Obviously those visitors will not buy tickets and thus do not contribute to paying to ongoing operating costs. I wonder what their balance sheet looks like.
 
ideologyhunter said:
I could tell them how to boost those numbers. But would they listen? Prob'ly not. It's so obvious: an adults-only annex called Sexy Noah Encounter, where re-enactors play out Genesis 9:20-8, where Noah sleeps off a drunk and Ham checks out his wedding tackle. Seriously, who doesn't wanna see a naked 600-year-old man? I get warm just thinking about it. But this post isn't about me.
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Lot and his daughters would be better. They could hire Ron Jeremy to perform as Lot.
Or, since they plan to make a pre-Flood walled city and supposedly antediluvian society was a hive of debauchery, a working antediluvian brothel would bring in a bunch of cash I am sure. ;)
 
And the AUgust 2018 numbers are down again....98,106 paying visitors this past August. That’s less than the 106,161 of august 2017.

Good news, but not declining fast enough.
 
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVaVbn7eIFs[/YOUTUBE]

Or, if you don't want to take the time for that-

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4onkWL4ULu8[/YOUTUBE]
 
It costs a family a small fortune to visit the Ignoramus Encounter. It's not something you're going to do every weekend each summer, even if you're an ignoramus.

The other thing is there's no excitement involved, no rides even for the kids, just walk around and spend another small fortune to eat something.

And that animated Noah is creepy. At least it should take a penny to tell you your fortune or a joke.

There's a Noah's Ark ride at a local Amusement Park that you get to walk into through the whale's mouth. Then things like floors shake and at the end it's like you're escaping a flooding room. That's what people spend their money for.

I had planned to stop in one day just to witness the gigantic stupidity, but it doesn't seem worth the money now.
 
I don't think that's tantamount to claiming they will sell the same number of tickets
 
My father was a poor man. As the son of an immigrant from eastern Europe he was closely associated with his religion. He grew up in a time when many ethnic churches and their parochial schools were being built. He attended one of those schools, as did I, the same one, taught and operated by Vincentian Nuns. I was not alive when that church and school were being built but he was. And he lived to see the school torn down and the church condemned and sold off.

You don't just build a church unless you have a money stream. The people that built his church were remembered in the stained glass windows. They were the wealthy contributors, not people like my dad. They were people who had money.

Mt point is, what was Ham attempting to do? He wasn't building a church or school so he could carry on and preserve the traditions of a closely knit community. Was he trying to emulate capitalist Disneyland? Apparently so. And so it looks like he will ultimately fail, not because of demographics, but because he made a bet based on stupidity.

Ham let his fantasies get the best of him, and managed to sell his fiasco to the surrounding communities. I think Hambone watched too many movies replete with miracles and was able to persuade gullible, greedy officials that his plan would work. But it was all based on faith, not reality.

I hope I live to see this Ignoramus Encounter be condemned, but I don't think that will happen. When push comes to shove he'll get his money to carry on from the same people who built the Crystal Cathedral.

Sad.
 
Ark Encounter Sold Fewer Tickets This September Than Last September

The good news of the shrinkage of this travesty continues....

Here’s a quick update on the latest Ark Encounter attendance numbers, this time for the month of September.
Keep in mind that while school is now in sessions, September is still a relatively busy month for all tourist attractions. Creationist Ken Ham bragged repeatedly about the “thousands of visitors” visiting the boat and how it was boosting the local economy.
So with all that, you’d expect that September drew in even more people than the same month last year, right?
Well, we have the answer, courtesy of a public record request by local paleontologist Dan Phelps, and you can read more background about how it’s calculated here.
The bottom line? Ark Encounter had 69,207 paying visitors this past September. That’s less than the 83,330 they had last September.
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http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/...r-tickets-this-september-than-last-september/
 
I admit that Ken Ham disgracefully lets little kids and poor old people get in for free in a shameless attempt to artificially boost attendance numbers. Can you believe that guy!!!!

But 862,491 paying customers - thats 86% of 1 million - makes it quite reasonable to think that Ken Ham was spot on with his attendance forecast.

...but sure, you go right on ahead quibbling over whether Ken should have added a fine print disclaimer footnote about the definition of "visitor".
 
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