The greatest show on earth gone

[wayne robson]

All because elephants want and need peace-----i agree

[wildthing]

Do you think SeaWorld will close without Shamu?

[Arizona_928]

Communists!

Errr I mean liberals

[widebody911]

Meh, I don't miss it. My parents took me to the circus once when I was a kid and I thought it was lame back then.

[look 171]

Took the kids to Ringling bros. a few years ago. It was lame, just a few animals but a bunch of people jumping around.

I have not been to sea world in more then 30 years. The Shamu show was the attraction and it was good. Brought my kids there last year. All the whale did was swim around and splash the crowd. Nothing like before. Sad.

Yes, I am a little selffish.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I had the privilege recently to attend a dinner lecture, in which the guest speaker was a professor of circus history at the University of Virginia. Although I'm not a huge fan of the circus ( I liked those motorcycles in the spinning cage- that was about it), his presentation on the history of the circus in America was fascinating.
He discussed the parent company, FELD entertainment as the owner, who dropped Ringling due to decreasing revenue. FELD is a huge company which manages (I think) Disney on Ice as well as the monster truck events, and I think even some indoor motorcycle racing (I could be wrong). The presenter mentioned that the circus was simply not as profitable as some of the other (ie- monster truck) events. At the time of the lecture, there was still hope some of the smaller non-related circus companies would buy the ringling assets (train, equipment, etc. over.)
What was interesting was that he mentioned ringling had (two? at least) trains going around the country simultaneously, and that there were many other smaller (non ringling) circus shows that were thriving and growing. He stated there was an incredibly huge facility in florida that housed all of the different feld shows, but that the logistics of ringling was too much without the ROI the company was getting from the ice shows and monster trucks. I think he mentioned that shows that were small enough to hit smaller towns in the midwest, without the large city/crowd draws needed by a show the size of ringling were having a resurgence.
In relation to the other thread here about the Dancing/other degree- He also stated that interest in students studying circus performing has been increasing lately!

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by AZ_porschekid

Communists!
Errr I mean liberals

More like Socialists / tree huggers.
That said, it was all about the money. They couldn't compete with IMAX 3-D, video games and digital home media... The kids weren't thrilled by the fact that it was live and real.

[JD159]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

More like Socialists / tree huggers.
That said, it was all about the money. They couldn't compete with IMAX 3-D, video games and digital home media... The kids weren't thrilled by the fact that it was live and real.

Lol that's BS. I see kids at baseball games, hockey games, monster trucks etc. They couldn't compete because it stunk.

[Por_sha911]

Kids love sports, cars... because they can relate.
The circus is all about wow. Special effects took that away. They've had declining ticket sales for years. The animal rights wackos only sped up the process of the circus' eventual demise.

[URY914]

It's all about the money. Can you image how much of a PITA moving that show around and putting up with all the crap?

You should go to the FELD website. The building they use is the second largest building in Florida. The first is over at the Cape.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Honestly it's sucked since I was a kid. We do a bunch of different stuff with my kids, but even I think the circus is lame.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Honestly it's sucked since I was a kid. We do a bunch of different stuff with my kids, but even I think the circus is lame.

+1. Around 15 years ago we took our son to a big name circus. We left early and were happy to get out of the tent.

When I was in college I was a bartender. An older waiter I worked with had a history working as a musician in a large traveling circus. He personally knows of two workers that were dispatched in a rolled up rug that ended up in a landfill.

An paid attraction that is, thankfully, sunsetting into oblivion.

[widgeon13]

the circus seems more abusive to the workers than the animals. I never enjoyed them anyway.