Geauga Lake write up

Good afternoon all.Sorry I didnt post this earlier but been busy at work.

A few days ago while returning home from Chicago I was reading the Chicago Tribune ( the day was Tuesday October 21st).In the front section on the 4th page was an article about the decision from Cedar Fair to close the ride section.It also mentioned how MANY people are outradged and disappointed in their decision and how it was just a ploy to get rid of the Cedar Point competition(I know it is two seperate markets and will not get into that discussion).

Also had two black and white photos of the dismantleing of the Thunderhawk rollercoaster.

Here is the link to the news story minus the pictured though.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=geauga+lake&sortby=display_time+descending&subheader-search-button=Go&target=article
*** Edited 10/26/2007 7:41:21 PM UTC by causewaycruiser***
*** Edited 10/26/2007 7:41:36 PM UTC by causewaycruiser***

I cant find the pictures.

causewaycruiser said:

Also had two black and white photos of the dismantleing of the Thunderhawk rollercoaster.

Here is the link to the news story minus the pictured though.

They've already got this at www.Coasterbuzz.com.

Personally, I think its pretty telling that the market just isn't there when this article is written in Chicago, and the Cleveland papers don't seem to care too much.

And "many" is not a very accurate "number". Sure, 100 people could be upset, and that sounds like many. But when you count it against the population of the Cleveland Metropolitan area (about 2 mil), you're really not talking about a lot of people.

There are 3 groups of people here:
1 - Those who think businesses that operate for profit are evil and that parks should be immune to the market.

2 - Those that are sad that another park closed, but realize that **** happens and there are bigger things in life to be worried about.

3 - Everyone Else.

And the demographic distribution of the 3 groups is probably something like this:

Group 1 - .5%

Group 2 - 9.5%

Group 3 - 90%

You give too much credit to groups 1 and 2 Pete.

I'd put it at more like

1 - .001

2 - .010

3 - 99.89

Given the overwhelmingly reaction of apathy, even glee, at Geauga Lake's closing here, maybe it should be removed as a subject of interest from the site. What do you think, Jeff? Save you one more headache, I should think.

Its not glee.

Its a lack of belief in some 4 year conspiracy to ruin a handful of peoples lives.

Trust me, I can understand why you're upset, especially since no announcement was made prior to the end of the season, but the vitriol displayed by some people is down-right asinine.

In all fairness John, your list wasn't very accurate. I don't think the people upset with the park closing think all businesses are evil if they make money. I think the majority of people upset with the situation think Cedar Fair made a lengthy string of bad decisions and/or didn't really care about the park. For the most part, I think most people are beyond the "they bought it to close it" theory. It's just very hard to look at the history of their ownership and see many good decisions made at that park. By the way, that's not an opinion because if they weren't bad decisions the park wouldn't have closed.

Plus, closing the park without notice reflects poorly on the business. You can say "caring" shouldn't be in the business world, but that's an opinion as well. I say caring about your product creates a stronger product.

But when every time you make a decision that you think is the right one (like trying to rightsize the park) and you keep seeing less attendance at the park, what else can you do?

I do think the decision to not announce the closing earlier was a bad one. If closing the park was an option and needed board approval, they should have sought to have the vote (or at least a preliminary vote) early enough that they could do a proper closing.

I've said it way too many times, but I still think they could have done a better job removing the rides. Remove the rides and don't leave a huge gash in the park. That's how you try to minimize the effects of the removals. But, they didn't do that. Also, I still think they should have removed the coasters first, and built the "new" water park where the coasters once were. To me, that would have made more sense than building a new water park so far away. People wouldn't have noticed the removal of X-Flight, Steel Venom, Mr Hydes or the Monorail as much if there was a huge new water park in their place.

I know its easy to say that now. But, I don't think anyone feels Cedar Fair made the best decisions anyways. Otherwise, the park would still be working.

I don't know Tim. I really think after Six Flags the park was pretty much a sinking ship. They just would have bailed the water faster.

I went to GL one time this season. I live 30 miles from CP anyway so thats where I would go.

Ensign Smith said:
Given the overwhelmingly reaction of apathy, even glee, at Geauga Lake's closing here, maybe it should be removed as a subject of interest from the site. What do you think, Jeff? Save you one more headache, I should think.

We'll kill this forum when we get around to re-launching the site. There is no time table, though Walt has some designs already, so I mostly need to just get CB done.

I don't see any glee. Apathy, yes, but that's about it.

I was kind of wondering if that was the game plan. Makes sense. There's plenty of discussion on GL over at Coasterbuzz. And once the smoke clears on the closing in a few weeks, it probably won't even get that much talk over there.

To think that GLP "failed" because of the market is a false statement. Even with "only" 700k the park can be run in such a way as to make a tidy profit. It was for years. If the park closed because they were loosing money than it was their own damn fault for not managing it properly.

While it wasn't some big conspiracy, it seems clear to me that it was CF's plan all along to buy the park and kill it. They made no actual improvements to the park in any substative way. They let run for a few years and let it die away all the while proclaiming their commitment to bringing back the fun. What a crock of ****.

Was anything done other than to weaken the park? Please someone. Tell me all of the great things the mightly Cedar Fair did to try to save the park? Zero effort went in and the general public wasn't fooled. They just stopped caring because the product was not improving in any significant way.

I was blind and wishing for the best not to see it coming sooner.

And I know that few people feel as strongly as I do; but most people I mention the subject to are far more upset over GLP than when they heard about Sea World. But it seems that at this time people aren't upset enough to apply any pressure to CF for making a short sighted decision. And yes i said shortsighted since the potential revenue stream that is generated by 700k visitors a season is a hell of a lot of money to throw away.

I understand that companies exist for only one reason. And that reason is what our country's economy is based on. Greed is good right? But don't try to blow smoke up my rear when I know from personal experience that this park and all parks can be operated with a profit when the staff is competent and motivated enough to do so. There are only two real options to explain this 1) Cedar Fair is incompetent. or 2) It was the plan all along.
*** Edited 11/17/2007 3:15:45 AM UTC by gener***

Man, I hope that dead horse stopped feeling this a long time ago. But I can't help it.

Six Flags put in more coasters than the park could support, and then killed the attendance with poor service.

That was followed up with Sea World leaving. 1/2 of the big draw was gone. Even with a Six Flags name attached, it only took people one or two trips to find that what they loved (SW) was gone and what they hated (bad service) was in its place.

The economy in the northern mid-west took a down turn. If the people don't have money to begin with, they aren't going to spend it on things they don't deem worthwhile.

Every attempt Cedar Fair made to right-size and turn the park resulted in seeming bad-press and dropping attendance. Are there things they could have done better? Sure. Did they have some magic wand that would allow them to fix it all for free and with no regard for bottom lines? Nope. The GP didn't care before CF took over, and they didn't care afterwards. They weren't paying attention enough for Cedar Fair to have anyone to fool.

And yes, they threw away supposedly 700k visitors (although, I would bet many are return SP holders) but when the park with 700k visitors has an infrastructure for 2 million, it doesn't take long to realize that its not going to work.

You forgot 3) they had the option to buy a park for dirt cheap. If they could repair the damage caused by years of mis-management and bad luck, great. If not, they just got a handful of coasters for dirt cheap.

Bad press? Sure. But is that being caused by a measureable number of people? Not really. Even 100,000 really upset people is only .003% of the US population.

If it was not a money maker, it should be closed. Two major league parks in the same market does not make sense.