Ken Ham Continues to Lower First Year Attendance Estimates for Ark Encounter

[NeoGreen]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/06/25/ken-ham-continues-to-lower-first-year-attendance-estimates-for-ark-encounter/

Ken Ham Continues to Lower First Year Attendance Estimates for Ark Encounter
June 25, 2017 by Hemant Mehta

I swear, every time Ken Ham gives updates on the attendance numbers for Ark Encounter, they keep getting lower. And as the first anniversary of the Ark approaches, it’s worth looking at how many people are visiting the $100 million attraction.

(snip)

We won’t get “official” numbers until this summer, when the state of Kentucky is supposed to give Ark Encounter the first “rebate” check for bringing in tourism to the state. That will be publicly available information and it should give us the first attendance count that isn’t coming from someone on Ark Encounter’s payroll. Until then, these estimates are all we have.

Anecdotes, however, haven’t made the Ark look any better. We’ve seen drone footage from the parking lot showing lots of open spaces relative to the capacity, even in the middle of the day. People who have visited the Ark at peak times have been surprised to find it relatively empty.

Maybe that explains why, last September, in a puff piece for WLWT TV in Cincinnati, Ham offered a much lower projection than any number he had given before.

(snip)

Ken Ham wants to blame atheists for all the negative press, but a lot of the information we’re using is coming straight from his mouth. He keeps lowering attendance estimates, passing each off as the new high benchmark. You can’t take anything he says at face value because he’s more interested in promoting his parks and worldview than being honest about his group’s struggles.

My guess? The final attendance number for Year One will come in at just under a million people. But even if it was twice that much, the reality is that people in the community aren’t any better off because this attraction is in their backyard.

If city and county leaders had taken the cash they threw at Ham and invested it in real education for the kids in the community, the return on their investment would’ve been far greater down the line.