Dick Kinzel

Will Kinzel fire John Hildebrandt and then replace him with his son-in-law like he did to the General Manager at Carowinds? I just heard that Bart Kinzel was named General Manager.

Oh, for the love of all that is good please tell me this is wild speculation and not a fact. Was Greg Scheid still the GM at Carowinds? If Dick put him on the street in favor of Bart Kinzel...a man, relative or not, that has screwed up at just about every location he has been moved to...then I have lost any respect for Dick that I had left.

It is moves like this one that have driven off a lot of experienced, faithful, outstanding full time personnel in the company and that loss of experience shows every time I go back to the park.

I am hopeful this is just a bad rumor. I really, really am.

Ok...maybe I've got Greg at the wrong place. But, I don't think "the new guy" would be competent enough to replace anyone as GM at any property...unless the goal was to close said property.

Scheid is at Kings Island, I thought. And yeah, if he put his kid in a GM spot, frankly, I think he would be a ripe target for a wrongful termination suit, and just asking for Bart's track record to be dragged out into public.

Stupid.

I asked around, and it sounds like everything mentioned above is true. From what I gather, Shamrock has been with the company a very long time.

That's completely messed up. I hope the guy sues. Agreed, whatever small shred of respect I had for Kinzel is gone. That's not how you run a public company.

I don't think words exist that can describe this decision....

Well, I don't know the GM that lost his job but I could name a number of other people within the company (and outside the company for that matter) that would be FAR superior to Bart as the replacement.

Frankly, it is a miracle that the company hasn't been sued as a result of the actions or inactions of the new GM in the last decade. This is a disaster of unparalleled proportions.

You know, I love my son. And I guess it is easy to say I would "do anything" for him. But, no...I wouldn't do ANYTHING. The kid isn't going to be a star athlete. I woudn't force him to try out for a varsity sport or bribe the coach into putting him on the team because I would know he would be WAY out of his league and likely embarass or even hurt himself.

I get that Dick wants to take care of his family. And, I'm going to avoid going REALLY personal which I and countless others COULD do because a lot of it is pretty public knowledge. But, there are ways he could take care of his family without doing damage to the company. Heck, they have money. Start a trust and put Bart in charge of it.

If the Board of Directors lets this stand then they should all be thrown out. And, I am not being overly dramatic. Now I know why many of the folks I use to work with are either gone or wishing they could be gone. Imagine you are a hard working, loyal employee within the company who knows ALL of the dirt. And, imagine further that you were watching Dick hand pick family members for key corporate positions. Would you have ANY motivation at all?

I've held on to my limited units for a long time because I have had an emotional connection to Cedar Fair. Frankly, this is a blatant disregard of not only common business practices....but common sense. If the leaders of this company think this is a wise move then I have no more trust in the company.

I'm reading back on my thoughts and I find that the language isn't really doing my thoughts justice. Wow...it is like I'm in opposite world.

Does anybody know why he was fired? From what I could tell he was a great GM and really a nice guy!

Since I don't know they guy I can't argue or comment on his firing. I'm specifically interested in the replacement.

Oh my!

It sounds like the "oh my" moments are only just beginning.

All I have to say is "whoa!"

Really? No, Really? No, no, no, Really?

Well, this is how they do things in North Korea and it's worked out pretty well for them . . . ::sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm::

Chief Wahoo said:

If the Board of Directors lets this stand then they should all be thrown out. And, I am not being overly dramatic. Now I know why many of the folks I use to work with are either gone or wishing they could be gone. Imagine you are a hard working, loyal employee within the company who knows ALL of the dirt. And, imagine further that you were watching Dick hand pick family members for key corporate positions. Would you have ANY motivation at all?

I've held on to my limited units for a long time because I have had an emotional connection to Cedar Fair. Frankly, this is a blatant disregard of not only common business practices....but common sense. If the leaders of this company think this is a wise move then I have no more trust in the company.

I agree with you Chief. My first thoughts were for the guy who they canned and his family that had just moved from Minnesota and Valleyfair a couple years before to take that job. I guess I don't know what kind of job he's done. I suppose there's a chance he deserved to be fired, but seeing as how other GMs in the chain are powerless even to give seasonals the 25 cent raise that they were promised, I doubt he really had all that much to do with any shortcomings that Carowinds might or might not have experienced.

Secondly, I think of anyone else in the company that gives their life (literally) working long hours in crappy conditions for poor pay, moving all over the place in hopes that they will one day get into a position (like GM) where they can finally be rewarded for their service. Then they see something like this happen - something that is more in line with the operation of a traveling carnival than a publicly traded company. No wonder CF can never hold on to their talent! Imagine being a worker of any kind at Carowinds and your new boss's daddy is CEO of the company. That's an uncomfortable position to be in even if he's totally competent. I don't want to get into the DIRT that I've heard on Kinzel's son, but I strongly believe that because of incidents in the past, he would not even have a job with the company today if it weren't for his daddy. I suspect this is where Jeff is going when he talks about his record being dragged out into public.

And finally I thought of the investors. This would make me very uncomfortable as an investor. Cedar Fair has a long history of promoting from within, but c'mon, this guy was a foods supervisor just a couple years ago. He is leaping dozens of people with more diverse experience, brains, and years of service with the company because of who his daddy is. It's really that simple. But he will be another hand picked "yes man" in a high position. Corporate governance my ass.

You are right on the money Matt. There are other Kinzel kids out there doing fine on their own. I can respect that.

But, then you've got the son-in-law who was fast tracked and then this one that defies all logic, all common business practices and...well...it is downright absurd.

My only HOPE is that the people of Carowinds don't know his history. That would be absolutely demoralizing. It is going to be bad enough when he gets there...even if he comes untainted in their eyes.

I'm not saying a CEOs son can't work for a company. It isn't easy, even in the best case scenario. This is a LONG way from a best case scenario.

Again, the only folks who can really put a stop to this are the Board of Directors. It is time they finally earn their status. They've skated by far too long and this could have real, fiscal, legal and PR consequences for the entire company.

Mr. Wahoo.............please do tell what Bart's track record is for those of us who don't know. Then we will have a better perspective for what you are saying about him. Thank you......Tony

I'm not going to go into details on this or any website. This isn't about Bart...per se. This is about Dick's woefully negligent and short sighted decision.

Let's put it this way...there is enough out there to know he wouldn't make a good manager...let alone a General Manager.

Maybe they're planning on closing Carowinds... seems to me they move old Bart-y Boy to the parks that they're going to close.

Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be a good place to look for the curious.

What? Dick's planning on closing Carowinds, really? No, really?