We Bought A Zoo? What Would You Buy?

I’m looking forward to watching “We Bought a Zoo?” today. I think it’s a really neat idea about a real family that actually bought a zoo. What would you buy? I have a couple of ideas of what I would buy that’s sort of in the same family as a zoo.

I think I’d buy a minor league baseball team. The baseball is not always great (but some people like seeing the stars of tomorrow), so the teams needs to do something extra for the fans. I love the cheeky emblems on the baseball caps and the crazy mascots running around hugging and having photo ops with children. And the games are half sporting event, half carnival. They need to do this and more so they will attract fans.

A museum. Not necessarily the Museum of Natural History, but some museum that caters to a more specific and esoteric (that may be putting lipstick on a pig) type of museum. What about the Museum of Sex? Naturally, that would need to be in Las Vegas. Actually, I bet there is already this museum. Yep! The Museum of Sex, or MoSex is located in Manhattan. I guess New York City is nearly as depraved as Las Vegas. Another type of museum I’d like to have is electronics. That would be relatively easy to run, as you could probably pick up museum pieces at garage sales and junk yards. Any other museums you’d run?

An amusement park. You might be able to pick up a defunct amusement park (Lakeside might see that fate soon). An amusement park like Lakeside would have the charm of small time ownership, which would contrast the big corporate feel Elitch’s. You’d need to do a lot to marketing with a place like that and every day would be a challenge. Much like having a minor league baseball, there would need to be a lot of promotions and giveaways, like free straw cups. You’d need to do some PR also, because when I grew up we were always told Lakeside was dirty. You’d have to say “Lakeside: No puke, no trash, no gross people. And what about a dress code. No tank tops, not too tight shorts and no black socks with white pants.

I guess the only other idea I can think of is a ski resort. I don’t ski, so it would be rather like a dude who can’t swim running a fishing boat (well sort of). I saw a Disney movie when I was a kid about a guy who bought a ski resort and it probably would be a similar comedy of errors.