Gas prices

I wonder how much gas prices will effect attendance this year…This is even worse than the gas prices from the summer of 2008.

If you're considering not driving to the park because it costs you an extra $20 (assuming you actually burn 20 gallons round trip), I think you're doing life wrong.

Maybe that is why CP removed the antique cars, cost to much to run.... LOL! :)

I don't know that the gas prices themselves will but the effect gas prices have on the price of everything else in addition to the inflation may. Or with the amount of passes sold people may stop doing other things and go to the park more often because it's "free" other than the gas to get there and they no longer have the money to do other things. We're just entering a new phase of the twilight zone so it's hard to tell what we're in for.

CPkid77 said:

This is even worse than the gas prices from the summer of 2008.

No, it's about as bad, but not yet worse. The inflation adjusted price of gas was $4.52 in 2008, and we just hit that in the last week or so.

Back in 2008-09, when folks in the US were racing to get their hands on fuel efficient cars, I recall wondering how long people's memories would be when it came to gas prices. Turns out, pretty damn short, since practically all that people buy now are enormous SUVs and trucks. And those same people complain about paying $100+ to fill their tanks. So, so dumb, but here we are.

It was predictable. Also, I still pay about 12 to 13 cents per kWh to drive.

I swear we just had a thread on this, though I think I might just be misremembering discussion from one of the preseason threads. Either way, I'm very skeptical that the gas prices will have any discernable effect on park attendance this year, both for the reasons that Jeff already mentioned and because I feel like we're still at the point where people will kvetch about it but not actually change their spending habits.

I've heard a lot of folks around me (the kind of folks that really want everybody to know how much they watch CNBC or read the Motley Fool) say that the money crunch for most people isn't going to be felt until the holiday season, but even then I still doubt it's going to affect CP much at all.

The thing is, wages are also up, unemployment is down. Supply and demand are out of whack, especially for cars and houses. And if you see someone blame a president, any president, for gas prices, smack them for being stupid.

Even though I haven't been to CP yet this season (1st planned visit is Coastermania), my round trip for CP is 150 miles. Travelling on I90/Rt2 I get 38mpg so 4 gallons per CP visit.

Inflation is highest it has been in 40 years (was in March anyways). April it was "down" to 8.3% (0.2% off the 40 year high). Inflation adjusted earnings down about 2.5%. So its not just the cost of gas (directly and indirectly) that puts pressure on spending for many people/families. Its the increased cost of pretty much everything. Won't be true for everyone but expect that it will impact some people in terms of trips to the Point (and other entertainment).

Have seen increased gas prices leading to people wanting fuel efficient vehicles multiple times in my adult life. I agree that its typically the same though: people are just looking for the OK sign to buy big, gas guzzlers again.

I think the cost of everything will actually increase attendance at Cedar Point (or at least keep it steady). I don't get the argument of the opposite at all. Cedar Point is an inexpensive summer vacation with unlimited access for an entire summer for less than a pair of running shoes. Outside of Fast Lane and (from a certain point of view) food in the park, it's cheap. as. hell.

If a family struggling for $$ is sitting around trying to figure out fun "on the cheap" for the summer, Cedar Point is where it's at.

If the park actually priced itself according to its worth, then yes, attendance may be impacted negatively. This is not the case.

Conventional wisdom is that while yes, higher gas prices may cause a loss of some visitors, higher prices will also cause other people to switch to close-in vacations instead of long driving trips. As a result, in the final analysis, it's a wash.

Yeah, I believe they alluded to that in a recent earnings call - while current economics might price folks out of coming to the park, those same economics will price others out of more expensive vacations and into the park.

Jeff said:

And if you see someone blame a president, any president, for gas prices, smack them for being stupid.

I disagree but respect your opinion none the less. CP needs to distract us from all the garbage going on in DC!!

That people think a President controls gas prices, and also chooses to raise gas prices (thus harming their and their party's electoral prospects), demonstrates the utter dearth of critical thinking ability in the electorate.

djDaemon said:

That people think a President controls gas prices, and also chooses to raise gas prices (thus harming their and their party's electoral prospects), demonstrates the utter dearth of critical thinking ability in the electorate.

In a way he does when he/she closes critical gas supply lines and stops drilling on our own land. He/she is not the only cause but they do not help the cause when they do things like this.

Nope.

There are many factors at play in the steady climb in gas prices since Biden took office, including increased demand after pandemic lockdowns ended, inflation and, now, the war in Ukraine. But lower oil production in the U.S. isn’t one of them.

America produced 11.185 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2021, compared with 11.283 million a year earlier under Trump. The amount produced in Biden’s first year exceeds the average daily amount produced under Trump from 2017 to 2018, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Nope, cont.

The economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic is “the main culprit for why we have a supply crunch,” Abhi Rajendran, head of global oil/downstream markets, North America Energy Research at Energy Intelligence, told us in an interview.

The price collapse in early 2020 led to “a massive reduction” in capital expenditures, with companies going into a “fetal position” to “weather the downturn,” he said, and there has been only “a very modest recovery” since in terms of capital spending. It dropped about 25% from 2019 to 2020, and went up by only 3% to 4% in 2021, compared with 2020, he said.

It will take time for supply to increase, he said, due to the pandemic’s impact on “the whole ecosystem”: labor, oilfield service supply, equipment supply issues. And in the meantime, demand is back up to pre-pandemic levels.

U.S. crude oil production dropped 8% from 2019 to 2020, and another 1.1% in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration.

I could go on, but you get the idea. There are many factors, but the primary driver of current prices is that, during the pandemic, oil producers drastically reduced production because demand plummeted. And now, with demand meeting or exceeding pre-pandemic levels, those same companies, having not made as much profit during the pandemic, have little incentive to drastically increase production, since keeping artificially production low leads to record profit. Though, to be fair, ramping up production isn't exactly flipping a switch. But in any case, this isn't the fault of any president.

Several of the world's largest oil companies reported first-quarter earnings in recent weeks, giving investors new detail as to how sky-high gas prices are bolstering firms' bottom lines. Performance, in a word, was stellar. ExxonMobil reported a net profit of $5.5 billion, more than doubling its earnings from the year-ago period. Shell notched its strongest quarterly profit ever, and Chevron posted its best earnings quarter in nearly a decade.

A new analysis from the Center for American Progress examined five major oil companies — Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips — as gas prices soar.

The authors of the Center for American Progress post wrote that, in the first quarter of 2022, these companies "brought in more than 300 percent more in profits than in the first quarter of 2021. That is a total of more than $35 billion in profits in just three months."

Understanding of basic economics is worse than horrible for far too many people. But it doesn't help that politicians take credit for everything good under the economic sun during their time in office and blame the other team for everything bad under the economic sun. Better understanding of basic economics would definitely limit the ability of them to take that credit/lay that blame though.

Politically speaking the current state of the country certainly is very bad news for Democrats. Regardless of where the fault really lies just about everyone I talk to has such a grim outlook right now. From the gas prices, inflation, sinking stock market, border issues, rise in crime and increasing division in our country; mostly coinciding with the Dems taking charge, unless there are some drastic changes it appears they will be hurting at the polls come November. I personally am not saying all the blame lies with them for sure but I'm just pointing out what appears obvious to most people.

^I'm certainly not riding hard for the current administration, but I'm pretty sure the "most people" you referred to really just means the people you are around and/or agree with.