Raising the sails
For its 10 years, the Florida Aquarium has had rough sailing. Now, managers say the holes in the concept are plugged. It's time to begin ...
By STEVE HUETTEL
Published March 28, 2005
TAMPA - It's a picture perfect Monday morning for the Florida Aquarium.
Cloudy skies hold the promise of rain - and of tourists who might otherwise visit the beach or some other outdoor attraction. Kids splash through fountains at the Explore-a-Shore play area, a welcome activity for parents on the first day of public school spring break.
Stephanie Pawlowski has run her two sons through the indoor marine exhibits, hit the gift shop and is drying off 3-year-old Nathan for the trip home to Plant City. "We make it a half-day event," says Pawlowski, who recently renewed her family's annual membership.
Days like this have helped bolster the aquarium, which opened 10 years ago this Thursday and abruptly ran headlong into a fiscal crisis.
Built on a mountain of overly optimistic assumptions, the attraction never came close to hitting the initial target of 1.8-million annual visitors.
Officials poured money into advertising, lowered ticket prices and cut its budget. But as finances kept souring, the city of Tampa took over the attraction in 1996 from a nonprofit foundation that built it.
The aquarium loses money. Tampa taxpayers pay $4-million to $7-million a year, based on varying interest rates, to finance the construction. The aquarium has reported small operating profits - after counting an annual city subsidy that totals $750,000.
But board members and Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio like where the attraction is headed under Thom Stork, a former Busch Gardens and Sea World marketing executive who took over as chief executive nearly three years ago.
Annual attendance for the year ending Sept. 30 cleared the 600,000 mark for the first time since 2001. Revenues are rising because of higher ticket prices, surging annual memberships and more selective discounting.
Explore-A-Shore, the aquarium's first physical expansion since opening, has been a big hit. Stork and his staff hope to complete a master plan this year that will map out new attractions over the next decade.
Stork says more than a few staffers had apprehensions about his theme park background, wondering when he'd put up the first roller coaster. That's not happening, but the aquarium has loosened up considerably from the early days. Officials once sniffed at suggestions to give nicknames to featured animals, saying that would detract from the aquarium's mission as a scientific education center.
But last football season, an otter named Penny made its pick before each Tampa Bay Buccaneers game for a local television news show by tapping on the picture of either team's helmet. People can pay $150 to dive into the shark tank or $75 for a swim in the coral reef exhibit.
While the aquarium's original managers took "a very highbrow approach," Stork says, he's committed to the educational mission as well.
"I don't want to go the way of jumping fish," he says. "I'm not trying to create a Sea World here. I want to entertain, and I want to educate people about the Florida environment."
The new Florida Aquarium debuted with a big splash on March 31, 1995.
A crowd of media and supporters crammed the plaza outside as 350 children waved Mylar fish balloons. NBC's Today show broadcast live as aquarium president John Racanelli presented weatherman Willard Scott a pair of black boxer shorts adorned with tropical fish. Scott pulled them over his head. Confetti shot from the aquarium's upper deck.
But even then there were signs of trouble. Some exhibits were empty despite last-minute efforts to stock them. Water in the feature coral reef tank was murky because of medication used to combat a marine parasite brought in by some of the fish.
Within months, aquarium officials acknowledged they weren't hitting attendance projections and were operating at a loss. There was plenty of blame to go around.
Consultants who estimated 1.8-million visitors a year made bad assumptions. For example, they anticipated that the Channel District would be a tourist destination with five cruise ships when the aquarium opened, said former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman.
But the attraction stood alone in the old warehouse district where some staffers felt safe only if they were escorted to their cars at night. The Channelside entertainment complex and a parade of cruise ships were years away.
Consultants also underestimated competition from major attractions such as Busch Gardens and Sea World. The aquarium's Florida-centered educational theme - following a drop of water from an underground spring to the open sea - made the aquarium that much harder to sell.
"We've living in the No. 1 tourist destination in the country . . . with attractions down the street that have better appeal to that audience," says Stork, who was at Busch Gardens at the time.
Management at the aquarium was a problem. An embattled Racanelli left in 1997. When successor Jeff Swanagan arrived the next year, he heard about aquarium executives not returning phone calls or bothering to thank donors.
"Everyone wanted to tell me what was wrong," says Swanagan, director of the Georgia Aquarium under construction in Atlanta. "The aquarium was not connected with the community. All I had to do was listen and get everyone calmed down a bit."
He focused on small successes. Swanagan cut the price of family year-round memberships and added benefits such as a free month at Lowry Park Zoo and the Museum of Science and Industry. Membership doubled from 6,800 to 14,000 families.
Attendance began exceeding projections and continued growing with the opening of exhibits, such as "frights of the forest" and leafy sea dragons from Australia.
"Jeff stabilized the enterprise," says Chase Stockon, chairman of the aquarium board. "We had to fix the holes in the bottom of the boat before we could raise the sails."
The next step won't be easy.
Stork wants the aquarium to follow the competitive strategy of big theme parks with deep pockets: build a gee-whiz attraction every two or three years to keep customers coming back. "We need to grow as this whole area grows," he says.
The master plan will likely include improvements to existing exhibits, says Stockon, such as the ray "touch tank" in the lobby, and expansion into the parking lot or space behind the aquarium.
Stork is vague about possible exhibits. But marque critters - dolphins, manatees, sea lions and big sharks - are always on top of must-see lists, he says. The hard part will be finding $20-million or more in private donations and educational grants to pay the bills.
Iorio endorses the idea. But Stork should plan on doing it without more financial help from the city, Iorio says. She wants to see the city's operating subsidy eventually disappear.
"They need to be as entrepreneurial as possible, bearing in mind there will be no city funds available for expansion," Iorio says.
Stork likes to point out ways the aquarium has mined new revenue opportunities, from fundraisers like a New Year's party and "sushi showdown" to hosting more than 150 events last year.
Private donors bankrolled the $2-million Explore-a-Shore play area, the water park where kids fire water cannons and climb cargo nets and models of sea animals.
The expansion has paid off handsomely, Stork says. The aquarium raised ticket prices - $2 for adults and $1 for seniors and kids - when Explore-a-Shore opened in March 2004. Memberships jumped last year by 2,200 to more than 16,000, largely because of the exhibit.
Explore-a-Shore doubled the average length of stay to four hours among "moms with strollers," a target audience so important that officials meet regularly with a focus group, Stork says.
"We've become the summer country club for moms," he says. "The food and beverage sales have been good all summer. At the store, we've sold a lot of towels and sunscreen."
Researcher Kathy Wos contributed to this report. Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.