News: Kings Island had more visitors, Cedar Point more income in '05

http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=948

Won by a demon drop? -facedesk-

Michael Darling said:
Won by a demon drop? -facedesk-

Oh didn't you hear? KI wanted to keep Demon Drop an Ohio Landmark so Paramount made sure KI got it. Now Cedar Fair will retain it as they will own KI. ;) (By the way that is just a made up story for all you gullable people reading)

I want to know what that line means besides the obvious beat the crap out of KI in income.

The last paragraph is very telling of the plans CF has for the PPs:

* Reduce number of concerts at parks
* Eliminate duplicate business practices
* Bulk buying
* Adjust wages

So, right now they're saying "we're going to cut the number of concerts at our parks, and possibly pay our employees less."

I would imagine that concerts were a big draw for cash. Guess not.

Does anyone know how much KI employees get paid now? I think I tried to look it up a few weeks ago, but never actually found the answer.

*** Edited 6/20/2006 3:51:49 PM UTC by DBCP***

It's amazing how much of a difference hotels make. Cedar Point, Soak City, and the hotels brought in $210 million, and Kings Island only brought in $108 million. That's incredible. I guess Kings Island is not really a 2 day park, so therefore, hotels are not needed. It will be interesting to see if Cedar Fair intends to turn PKI into a resort like Cedar Point is. Perhaps even more interesting as a resort would be Carowinds, which is in a somewhat warmer climate than Ohio. Carowinds could be a huge money maker for the company in a few years.

I would say that King's Island is a two-day park, since the water park is included with admission. I know there is a hotel right near the park called the King's Island Resort and Convention Center, though I'm not certain if the park owns it or not. I do see King's Island getting several resorts in the near future, however.

Figuring in the water park, I too would call KI a 2-day park.

Either way I guess Cedar Fair now has the best of both worlds, eh? Good for them.

MonsterMan said:

I want to know what that line means besides the obvious beat the crap out of KI in income.

You know, originally I thought it meant they beat KI by the amount that Demon Drop is selling for, then I realized that Demon Drop was selling for $250,000 not $102 million. Gotta love "fuzzy math". :)

So really, CP beat PKI by an Expedition Everest, and not a Demon Drop.

;)

Well, according to the figures given, CF includes the income from the park, water park, and the resort Hotels in the CP grand total. What you are seeing for Kings Island is just the income from the park operations itself.

Kings island, nor any of the other Paramount Parks, own any Hotels on the property. Kings Dominion and Carowinds do own and operate campgrounds on their respective properties. Matter of fact, Carowinds just renovated/expanded their campground for 2006. I don't have info for Canada's Wonderland and Great America concerning campgrounds. I think kings Island removed their campground to make way for the Great Wolf Lodge.

All Paramount Parks have water parks that are included in the park admission. They are not separate gated attractions.

Does Cedar Fair break down that amount into separate catagories? How much did Cedar Point amusement park earn in and of itself? That would be a fair comparison to Kings Island.

I'm not sure how much Cedar Fair think's they are going to save on reducing concerts at the Paramount Parks. Currently Kings Dominion has a Christian concert weekend and maybe one other concert and that is it. The heyday of having 6 to 8 concerts a season died away long ago (like 15 years ago).

I think this shows how popular and well run KI is. As much money as Cedar Fair has put into Cedar Point (resort hotels, mega coasters, etc...) they still come up 200,000 visitors short of KI in 2005. Maybe Cedar Fair should take a look at what PKI is doing and take a hint. A larger percentage of park goers want an well balance park experience not just concrete and steel coasters. The coasters are great, but so is theming, dark rides and family attractions.

You can't really judge any one metric by itself though. More visitors but a lower per cap doesn't mean more money. They also didn't say what percentage of those visits are season pass visits, which would make a huge difference.

Judging by the way PKI unloads their season passes like they're going out of style I'm willing to bet they have a higher percentage of SP guests than pay-per-visit guests.