Sesame Workshop (the company behind Sesame Street) has sued United Parks & Resorts (parent of SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens) over unpaid royalties. Sesame Workshop file in federal court in New York on March 12, 2026 and is seeking to end its licensing agreement with United Parks & Resorts. United Parks & Resorts operates full themed park lands around the Sesame Street IP with rides, shows and parades and for many locations it is the centerpiece of their kid’s area. In addition to unpaid royalties Sesame Place also alleges plans for a 3rd Sesame Place theme park were shelved and that United shortened seasons or completely closed Sesame Street themed lands without proper notice.

The lawsuit may be more technical than just United blatantly not paying Sesame Workshop. In the past couple of years United has reduced the operating schedule of their Sesame Place San Diego park and replaced a Sesame Street themed land at SeaWorld San Antonio with a generic Rescue Jr. area with sea rescue-themed rides. SeaWorld San Diego had undergone a similar retheming to Rescu Jr. back in 2023. With the San Diego and San Antonio removals this only leaves the 3 themed lands at Busch Gardens Tampa, Busch Gardens Williamsburg and SeaWorld Orlando along with the two Sesame Place parks. It would be plausible that changes like these might lead to disputes about the amount of royalties owed.

Sesame Street is somewhat recent to United Parks & Resorts (formerly SeaWorld) with the exception of Sesame Place outside Philadelphia which opened in 1980. Sesame Place in San Diego was a former Aquatica that was rethemed in 2022 to a Sesame Place. Sesame Street Land at SeaWorld Orlando opened in 2019 ad Sesame Street Bay of play opened in 2011 at SeaWorld San Antonio. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay transformed their Land of the Dragons to Sesame Street Safari of Fun in 2010 and Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened Sesame Street Forest of Fun in 2009, but retained its Land of the Dragons.

Retheming a kid’s area is not the end of the world from a cost or time perspective as demonstrated by Sea World San Antonio who accomplished it in a few months with Rescue Jr. Some paint, new signs and perhaps some new custom fiberglass ride vehicles for some flat rides from someone like Zamperla and you’re there. Grover’s Roundup becomes the Ocean Rescue Carousel. Big Bird’s Spinning Reef and Elmo’s Dolphin Dive just becomes Spinning Reef and Dolphin Dive. Abby Cadabby’s Rockin’ Wave becomes Tide Pool Tumbler. Change the theme of a parade and pizza buffet, add the new Seabird Swing ride and the new Beach Rescue Racer kiddie roller coaster to replace Super Grover’s Box Car Derby and you have a brand new refreshed and energized themed area.

Other parks could be nearly as simple. At Busch Garden’s Tampa Bay much of the Land of the Dragons infrastructure remains, so it’s really just ride rethemes like in San Antonio. They could also completely demolish Sesame Street Safari of Fun as it was largely replicated with the new Wild Oasis area. SeaWorld Orlando has some infrastructure with its recreation of actual Sesame Street, but with the removal of signage these could become a generic town. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is perhaps my favorite in that they kept their Land of the Dragons and built a separate Sesame Street area. Upon seeing the Land of the Dragons for the first time I was actually sad that Tampa had ever done away with this land. The flat rides in Sesame Place Forests of Fun could easily be relocated here, opening up a new piece of real estate for expansion as it would still retain a kid’s area (the two Busch Parks each having multiple kid areas is not common anyways). The Sesame Place San Diego could potentially revert to an Aquatica that also has some flat rides, leaving just the original Sesame Place as a difficult conversion or potential liquidation opportunity.

If Sesame Place is successful in cancelling their contract with United Parks & Resorts it could leave them with a very limited theme park footprint. Universal Studios Japan, who licenses the Sesame Street IP in that region, has recently announced that they will close their Sesame Street Fun World area on May 10th to make way for new experiences. Sesame Street may not be the IP it once was with new episodes moving to HBO for a number of years and recently back to PBS along with Netflix and YouTube. Still there is a tremendous amount of nostalgia in the Sesame Street characters and families are big theme park business.

Who knows where this goes in the end. This could merely be a strategy by Sesame Place to get a better deal from United Parks than the felt they were getting through negotiation. However, there’s also a chance a settlement may not be reached and we may have some new theming coming to the children’s areas of Busch Gardens and SeaWorld with the Sesame Place parks being more complicated. United Parks & Resorts seems to be in a cost control mode currently, so my money is on more homegrown IP like Rescue Jr. coming to Orlando as well or a return to the Land of Dragons at Busch Gardens Tampa where they don’t have to pay a 3rd party. Hopefully Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Oscar and Grover find a theme park home where these characters can be enjoyed by fans young and old, it may just no longer be at United Parks & Resorts.