Zoo faces pandemic challenges, including replacing Zoobilee with Zoobilee To Go

The Sedgwick County Zoo, the state’s top attraction, has taken a triple hit from the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s taken a very drastic hit,” said executive director Jeff Ettling.

The zoo’s operating budget is down $1.5 million; it had to halt the final phase of its renovation fundraising campaign with $1.7 million still to go; and now it’s canceling its signature fundraiser, the popular Zoobilee event, which raises more than $1 million each September.

Yet Ettling is optimistic. Part of it is his nature, he said, and part of it is the way his staff is rallying with ideas.

“There’s nothing crazy,” Ettling said he’s told his employees while brainstorming.

One result: Zoobilee To Go, a virtual fundraiser instead of the traditional one at the zoo, which usually has more than 3,000 people standing shoulder-to-shoulder while in line for food or dancing at various music stages.

Instead, there could be an arrangement to have deals at area restaurants that would benefit the zoo or online auctions that could raise money. Ettling said discussions are only beginning.

More details will be forthcoming ahead of the September event.

Ettling said zoo employees are re-examining events and attractions the zoo has had for decades.

“Do we still need to do them that way or do them at all?” he said.

“It’s been a good time to bring everybody together and build for the future.”

Below budget

Two chief things happened at the zoo when COVID-19 hit Kansas. First was the hit to the operating budget.

“At this point, we’re about 280,000 visitors below our projected 2020 budget,” Ettling said.

The zoo, which was closed because of the pandemic from March 13 through May 21, is looking at a $1.5 million loss in revenue as a result.

“You wouldn’t think that eight weeks would make that much of a difference, but it does,” Ettling said.

To him, it “seems like a year to me, being closed that long.”

“It added up very quickly based on the lack of attendance.”

In addition to a lack of entry fees, the zoo lost money it would have made from its store and from concessions.

“The expenses were still there. We just didn’t have the revenue coming in to offset that.”

The two places Ettling said he would not make cuts were animal care and security.

“We’ve had to make reductions just about everywhere else.”

Nationally, he said most zoos have cut travel from their budgets.

“We’ve made some hard decisions like that, too.”

The second big hit was that the zoo had to stop fundraising for the final phase of the $15 .1 million campaign to raise money for a new entry complex and leopard exhibit.

“We were just getting ready to launch into that final phase,” Ettling said.

It’s the first part of the 25-year master plan the zoo announced in 2018.

Ettling said he had no choice but to put the brakes on fundraising.

“You think about a pandemic hitting and all these people were losing jobs.”

He said the zoo couldn’t ask for money when people were worried about getting their next paychecks.

The new entry is still on schedule to open in time for Memorial Day next year, which will be in conjunction with the zoo’s 50th anniversary.

The design is almost done for the leopard exhibit. Construction will start late this summer and be done by late summer 2021.

When the zoo opened in 1971, Ettling said, the entrance was designed to accommodate 100,000 people a year.

“We’re drawing over half a million people a year to the zoo.”

He said the entrance also isn’t reflective of what the zoo has become. Since the current entrance doesn’t allow people to see into the zoo, a lot of people comment that they had no idea the zoo is expansive.

“The new entrance is going to be much more inviting.”

There also will be a new zoo store there and an administration complex. Ettling said the existing one is in a former manufacturing building and was meant to be temporary space.

“And here it is 49 years later, and we’re still living in this building.”

Community impact

Ettling said his priorities have not changed throughout the pandemic, and they are to keep the zoo’s animals, employees and guests safe.

When the zoo reopened last month, it implemented an online, timed ticketing procedure to let in 1,000 people over the course of a day. It gradually raised that to 2,000 people a day.

Ettling said the zoo’s 115 developed acres and more than 20,000 feet of linear paths allow for social distancing and permit the zoo’s new cap of 3,300 people a day.

Still, that’s down from 4,000 or 5,000 people on nice weekend days in the past.

“It does have an impact,” Ettling said.

He said he’s buoyed to see people returning.

“We’ve been selling out. Even the 95-degree days we’re selling out.”

He said part of it is people who have been stuck at home are eager to get out.

However, Ettling also said that just as the zoo loves the community, “We know the community loves the zoo.”

He said visitors, many of whom are the ones who have supported the zoo through the years, will help offset the losses.

Now, Ettling is making an appeal to them to come visit.

“Come out and visit us often this summer.”

Next year, he said there are plans to have Zoobilee back on site and to make it “bigger and better than ever.”

Ettling said the zoo has the benefit of being able to be open now unlike other zoos nationally that still remain closed due to more stringent restrictions related to the coronavirus.

“It’s going to be a much different situation for them.”

Sedgwick County Zoo had been on a great trajectory, Ettling said.

“We were just moving right along.”

Some things may now take longer, such as a 5-year plan maybe becoming a 5-to-10-year plan. But Ettling said that’s doable.

Though he said “the next couple years may be bumpy,” Ettling is confident about the zoo’s future.

“I’m optimistic we’ll get back to where we need to be.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 1:38 PM.