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Karen Irwin, the COO and President of Universal Studios Hollywood, gave a statement regarding the guidelines that California put in pace for theme parks to reopen.
These statements are from the California Attractions and Parks Association live stream conference event today. Universal, Disney, Legoland, Knotts, and many more large theme park officials participated in the conference.
Related: Universal Hollywood Claps Back at Newsom’s Reopening Guidelines
“I also think it’s a little bit disingenuous for the state to say they collaborated with parks on these guidelines,” Irwin stated.
She continued on to say that the California guidelines that mandate ticketing reservations and require theme parks to contact ticket holders within 24 hours of their visit to the park is impossible for some parks in California.
Related: CA Parks Say Newsom’s Plan is ‘Unfair & Unreasonable’
Karen Irwin continued to say that the biggest challenge is guidelines placed in tier 4 behind businesses that already reopened “It makes no sense,” she said, noting that parks are controlled, primarily outdoor business.
She shared, “Parks should be in tier 3 along with other industries that have proven they can also open responsibly.”
“Obviously our primary concern above and beyond everything else is how to bring our team members back to work. We have so many employees that are not getting paid right now, and so that’s certainly top of mind in everything we do.,” Irwin said. “We have explored doing a reopening with some of the businesses on our site — whether that’s food and beverage or retail — unfortunately that’s only going to allow us to bring a fraction of our team back.”
She says that their main goal though is to reopen entirely and bring back all team members, and they want that to happen in Tier 3.
What do you think about the statements coming from Karen Irwin, COO of Universal Hollywood?