From the top of the Sky Tower at Sea World, San Diegans and twice as many visitors appreciate the full majesty of what nature and humanity have accomplished. From the Cuyamacas to Mexico's Coronado Islands, from Mount Soledad to the Downtown San Diego skyline, the region is planted lushly between sparkling bays, river and ocean. From this vantage, one realizes that Sea World is not a world onto itself, like Disneyland; rather it is part of a larger theme park, Mission Bay, with its ribbons of broadways looking more fun than Disney's Autopia and it aquatic recreations more varied and inviting than perhaps anyplace on earth. After a Bud Light or two, one muses that the real theme park is all of San Diego. Shall we do Presidio Park tomorrow? No wonder tourists love this place.
    But back to business. Sea World is the largest for-profit economic generator on land owned by the city of San Diego. It did about $100 million of business last year and paid the city more than $5.2 million in rent based on various percentages of various revenue sources. It paid $2.17 million in property taxes. In fact, it paid about $35 million in all forms of taxes and fees to the public — city, county, schools, state and federal governments last year. In the eight years St. Louis-based Anheuser Busch has owned the park, it has spent $250 million on leasehold improvements. It employs 1,500 people year-round, another 2,000-or-so seasonally. About 30 percent of its visitors are locals, which means, more significantly, that 70 percent are from elsewhere, and we like the elsies because they spend way more money, especially when they stay overnight. (And then they leave the place to the locals most of the year.)
    CIC Research estimates the economic impact of Sea World is about $1 billion annually to the San Diego region. That includes a multiplier so no one forgets the pizza guy and the dry cleaner who Sea World employees keep busy when they take their paychecks home to Tierrasanta or Chula Vista.
    "Sea World's importance stretches beyond San Diego’s boundaries to the entire region," says Bill Evans. "It’s a major destination draw for all of Southern California... The San Diego Zoo is not enough reason to come to San Diego. I think the zoo believes that. A big reason there is so much attendance at the zoo is Sea World and vice versa. You can come to San Diego and do a couple of things.
    "Keep in mind the only way Mission Bay was funded was a unique public-private partnership of leases, the first time it was done successfully. Those leaseholds paid for the improvements of Mission Bay Park. Without the success of Sea World and the ongoing reinvestment into Sea World, there would never have been the expansion of the hotel base on Mission Bay Park and never the ability to generate the revenue that the park does. There wouldn't have been a convention center without Sea World. There wouldn't be enough draw to the city of San Diego. Think of the number of people who worked there over the years, who've developed life skills by the regimentation and adherence to dress codes, the training of young employees. There are so many different positive parts of Sea World that reach into the hearts and souls of San Diego."
    Geez. Please excuse Evans if he gets a little excited. Sea World is his bread and butter. His family owns the Bahia Hotel on city tidelands, and the Catamaran, also on Mission Bay but mostly on private property, and the Evans family is preparing to finance a major redevelopment of the Bahia, the success of which depends largely on the continuing success of Sea World. Evans, whose family probably has spent more money than any other on making Mission Bay more attractive, also chairs the Mission Bay Lessees Association, which is squarely behind Sea World's proposal pending at City Hall.
    Harry Mathis' City Council committee is scheduled March 25 to consider Sea World's request to add 16.5 acres immediately east of its existing 150-acre leasehold, and extend the lease from its remaining 35 years to a full 50-year term. Most of that land was a city dump in the 1940s and '50s, so all but about five acres of the expansion is planned for parking. That will free up some existing parking near Shamu Stadium to develop additional attractions, the details of which have not been determined, says Bill Davis, the new general manager of Sea World.
    Mathis' committee is expected to approve the deal, allowing the full council to pass judgment in April. It looks like a fine transaction, keeping Sea World's rent in excess of 5 percent of revenue.
    Two Mission Bay area residents have suggested that Sea World pay 13.5 percent or 20 percent of its revenue to the city in rent, as Raging Waters pays Los Angeles County or Yosemite's new operator pays the federal government, respectively. But upon analysis, the apples and oranges become obvious. Half of the Raging Waters' rent is designated to be put back into the amusement in capital improvements. In Yosemite's case, the federal government actually is receiving no dollars; the lessee uses the designated 20 percent of revenue to acquire existing assets.
    To help compare, consider that the $250 million Anheuser Busch has put into Sea World improvements in the last eight years averages $31.25 million annually, or 31 percent of Sea World's 1997 revenue, on top of the 5-percent-plus it paid in rent. L.A. County and the federal government should be so lucky.
    At some point, even a skeptical landlord has to conclude such a superior tenant has dealt in good faith. If this landlord happens to be City Hall, those elected to pass judgment should recognize and then forgive two citizens who've drifted beyond skepticism into a foggy world of misguided cynicism. Somebody has to.

Aye, we once knew a whale
Who was smarter than two
Mission Bay cynics.
His name is Shamu.