How to Calculate High-Throughput Attractions

If you own an FEC or Park, you want high throughput attractions. These are attractions that put many people through per hour. These rides and attractions are your money-makers. Consistent evaluations throughout the year will help you decide which attractions to keep and which ones to get rid of and replace with something newer or more exciting for your guests.?

Calculation

There are many different ways to calculate high-throughput attractions. The best way is a simple review per each attraction, ride, and game. Various factors in this equation usually consist of how many people it takes to put it at maximum capacity, per ride, per hour.

Here's an example:

Let's say you have a rock climbing wall. You might have 4 to 10 guests per hour to climb the wall. However, if you have a go-kart racing track you might have 20 to 100 guests per hour enjoying that attraction. This is the “throughput” for these particular attractions.

If you have attractions, rides, and games that are not high throughput, you will have a choice to make. You can charge more in order to cover labor, profit margin, overhead, and equipment cost per hour, week, or month. Or, you can decide to eliminate the ride, attraction, or game. In this case, you are making room for new high-throughput items that your guests can enjoy. These are the only two realistic ways to make the items worth having in your park or FEC.?

Let's try some more examples:

1. If you have a batting cage, it only has five to ten stalls that can be used for a certain period of time. In this case, we will say that you can put 6-8 people through every hour for 20 minutes a piece. That would mean 3 people every hour in each available stall or a total of 18 to 24 people per hour.?
2. If you have a miniature golf course that can cycle 80 to 100 guests per hour.
3. A go-kart track that runs 20 go-karts every 10 minutes can potentially cycle through six races at 60 to 120 people per hour.?
4. Your laser tag sessions may be set up to allow 20 to 24 people into a game every 10 minutes, that would mean 120 to 144 people per hour.?
5. Perhaps, if you have a teacup ride, you will likely only have four seats per car and 6 cup cars. This makes 24 potential seats. However, it can only run 4-5 times per hour because you have to factor in loading and unloading guests. This means that you may have between 96 to 120 people every hour.?

• 18-24 people - Batting Cages
• 60-120 people – Go-Karts
• 80-100 people – Miniature Golf Course
• 96-120 people – TeaCups Ride
• 120-144 people – Laser Tag Game??

Calculating the high throughput on these aforementioned rides and attractions is based on how many people go through that attraction at maximum capacity each hour.?

In order to calculate efficiently, you'll need to look at how many people can go through and what you can reasonably charge to understand the revenue that it will actually create.??

• $3-$6 per guest - Batting Cages
• $12-$25 per guest – Go-Karts
• $10-$15 per guest – Miniature Golf Course
• $8-$12 per guest – Tea-Cups Ride
• $10-$15 per guest – Laser Tag Game

Revenue at maximum capacity would be:

$54-$144 per hour – Batting Cages

$720-$3,000 per hour – Go Karts

$800-$1,500 per hour – Miniature Golf Course

$768-$1,440 per hour – Tea-Cups Ride

$1,200-$2,160 per hour – Laser Tag Game

When you are doing the calculations, there isn't really a right or wrong answer. But what you want is high throughput attractions. You want the higher-paying attractions to create the most profitability (not including labor, repairs & maintenance, inspections, permitting, etc. in this example).?

Things to Keep In Mind

It is important to remember that the term “high throughput” is not synonymous with profitability. I know that may seem confusing. Here's another example: Let's say you have an attraction, ride, or game that is high throughput and it costs more labor and operating expenses to maintain and run that attraction. This high throughput may “not” be worth having if it costs much more to run and maintain it. But, the same can be said about low throughput attractions as well.?

High throughput is absolutely essential for long-term rides, attractions, and games to be the most successful and profitable for your park or FEC. It must have its ROI calculated based on the costs. In order to verify if a new attraction, ride, or game provides a good ROI (or a bad ROI) it’s typically based on the attraction’s throughput.?

Tim Murphy is CEO of APX Operating Company, dba Boomers Parks, under the ownership of Cerberus private equity ($55B assets). Boomers Parks owns six family entertainment centers and two water parks with locations in California, Florida, and New Jersey.

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As CEO of Boomers Parks since 2020, Tim took these eight parks from bankruptcy to profitability in just a year – in the middle of a global pandemic. When Boomers acquired these parks, they were operating at a $10 million loss. Tim transformed the customer experience and added new revenue streams to generate a 180% increase in revenue in 2021 (and on track to be a 250% increase in 2022).

Tim launched his 35+ year career at Walt Disney World and has since served more than 150 entertainment, restaurant, and food & beverage brands across more than 10,000 locations in C-suite and senior positions.

Additionally, Tim is a Board Director with Coney Park, Happy City and YuKids - Family Entertainment & Amusement Parks, part of The Carlyle Group ($275B assets), a private equity firm that operates 150+ family entertainment centers and amusement parks in Latin America.?

Tim has worked with top-tier entertainment and restaurant brands including Disney, Rebounderz Trampoline Parks, Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, etc.), Red Lobster, Jimmy John’s, Applebee’s, Sonny’s Bar-B-Q, Denny’s, El Pollo Loco, Hardee’s, Golden Corral, and Firehouse Subs.

Tim has overseen more than 35 purchase transactions involving over 1,200 restaurants, stores, and park locations.? With extensive experience in buying and selling businesses, handling negotiations with buyers and sellers, and creating strategic partnerships to build strong brands, Tim has facilitated deals ranging from $11 million to $350 million+.

Tim is a member of IAAPA, CAPA, FAA, AAMA & WWA. He is a licensed commercial real estate broker in the State of Florida. Tim earned a BS/BA in Accounting from the University of Central Florida and an MBA in Finance from Orlando College.