Now what happens to Geauga Lake?

I haven't seen a thread on this, and maybe I missed it, but does anybody else think CF's purchase of Paramount Parks throw a huge wrinkle into the question of GL's future? With ownership of all three Ohio biggies, it seems to me GL becomes redundant. I'm not saying Cedar Fair is going to shut it down next year, but doesn't it become more expendable, especially if it's still losing money and attendance?

Why is it thought that CF is going to run its parks like SF did? All of CF's parks are ran separatly under one parent company. They don't brand things such as "Cedar Fair Geauga Lake" or "Cedar Fair Kings Island". They want each park to be unique.

Dick Kinzel: Hey, Bill. We just bought King's Island down south of you.

Bill Spehn: Okay, sounds good, so do you know want me to run my park into the ground?

Dick: Yup, three parks in one state is too many, we need you to run the park down, close it, and be the director of our new set of condos over there.

Bill: Your the boss Dick.

Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

I think GL will be fine. I think CF is going to strive to make it a unique park from both CP and PKI. It's not as if they bought multiple parks in Sandusky or something. GL serves a different market (even if not by much) than CP and especially in regards to PKI.

Granted, if anybody can make GL work, it's CF. But millions upon millions in investment have been thrown into both sides of the lake in all sorts of corporate incarnations, and except for a short uptic the year it was rebranded Six Flags, it's shown steadily declining attendance. Having visited twice this year already, I'm not sure that even CF can stop the hemorrhaging. I went the Tuesday after Memorial Day and was shocked at the number of concessions, shops and food stalls that were shuttered. Even for a week day in late May, SF never had so many sites closed that I ever saw. (Though to be fair and in true CF fashion, every single ride was operating.) And I'm far from an SF fan -- do they exist?

What I'm worried about is that the combination of CF's failure to rapidly turn things around and the mammoth Paramount purchase will lead CF to backburner GL for some time, while they focus on digesting five signature parks. That would be a recipe for disaster. The fact that they've downsized phase II improvements suggests this could already be a trend.

There are some schools that are not out yet for a full staffed park.

GL will be fine. As hard as they've worked to get that park beyond the SF ownership days, to me it's unthinkable that they'd close it down.

It has it's faithful, and it's getting more and more attention these days. Plus, Ohio is more than capable of handling three major amusement parks, and being so close to Pennsylvania doesn't hurt either.

I personally would rather visit GL any day over PKI. But I'm biased in that PKI is my homepark and I'm just sick of it anymore. IMO, CP has got a lot of work ahead of them, but if anybody can handle it, CP can.

GL is not there to attract people to the rides or even the ride side for that matter.

It's sole purpose is to serve as a water park. You won't see much money going into the ride side for a long while.

THe layout of the rides as well as the shops around them is horrible at best. The fact that they have 10 coasters is only due to SF dumping the cash into it. Another thing that tells me CF is less than concerned about the rides there is that on Memorial Day weekend they didn't even have Grizzly Run operational. I guess they're waiting on a circuit board that was blown while the ride was reprogrammed...Intamin again....imagine that. ;)

Fastball: You left out the part of moving Dominator to Cedar Point.

Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, Sea World, and Kings Island all ran profitably for years in Ohio. There is no reason that Cedar Point, Kings Island, and the expanded Geauga Lake can't run profitably. Just because they will be owned by the same company doesn't mean that people will stop going to the parks. In the case of Geauga Lake, I expect that you will see slow, well thought out expansion. Cedar Fair has only owned them for one year and I'm sure that turning around a business like that will take longer. You probably won't see a lot of rides added right away because Six Flags added so many while they were in ownership. There are plenty of coasters there for right now.

Actually when I look at all that Geauga Lake has been through lately, I can't help but think of my old Roller Coaster Tycoon games when I would build up a park then tear it down and build a new one.

I hope Michigan's Adventure is the next park to get a steel coaster. It's long overdue.

MrScott

Cedar Fair has always been very good about reinvesting what they get out of a park back into the park. That's something that Cedar Fair has always believed in, and something I don't see changing very soon.

Loopy said:
GL is not there to attract people to the rides or even the ride side for that matter.

It's sole purpose is to serve as a water park. You won't see much money going into the ride side for a long while.

THe layout of the rides as well as the shops around them is horrible at best. The fact that they have 10 coasters is only due to SF dumping the cash into it. Another thing that tells me CF is less than concerned about the rides there is that on Memorial Day weekend they didn't even have Grizzly Run operational. I guess they're waiting on a circuit board that was blown while the ride was reprogrammed...Intamin again....imagine that. ;)

I forgot about Grizzly Run. I seldom ride the water rides so I don't usually think about them. I liked the log ride better before they put in the sprays at the end. It used to be you could enjoy the ambience of the ride and only get a little misted at the end. Now you have to wear a poncho if you don't want to get soaked. Another reason to miss WWL.

Michigan's Adventure has like an 18% growth last year in attendance. I know the water park is a big draw, but I love to see more steel.

MrScott

The way they've managed MiA is to keep the park clean, looking nice, and advertise it (also known by Mr. Kinzel as "Cedar Fair standards"). I think GL is finally at the point where the updates on the park are where they want them and will slow and let the park grow as word spreads. The longer the park's name is there without the Six Flags name, the more people that will realize the park is actually nice and not a disaster.

MrScott said:
Michigan's Adventure has like an 18% growth last year in attendance. I know the water park is a big draw, but I love to see more steel.

MrScott

We're adding to the attendance for this year over the weekend of the 4th.

Staying from the 1st to the 3rd...woohoo!!

It'll be our 1st time at the park, can't wait to see how different 2 major CF parks are. Although we'll get to see that next week at Dorney. :) *** Edited 6/5/2006 11:03:09 AM UTC by Loopy***

Loopy,

Michigan's Adventure is MUCH smaller than CP. But Shivering Timbers is worth the visit. The other woodies are good, too. Corky is not bad either.

Where are you staying in West Michigan?

MrScott

For GL to survive it has to get profitable. That means shutting down high-cost attractions that don't draw many people, like the ferry boats or Mr. Hyde's Nasty fall. I wouldn't be surprised to see more concessions mothballed or removed completely, either.

Seems to me GL will need to differentiate itself from other Cedar Fair properties. If CP gets the steelies and CFKI (ahem) gets the woodies, where does that leave GL? This could actually be quite interesting the way they play it out. I suspect they'll be looking for lower cost attractions that people can't get close by. How about dueling, spinning mice? A new dark ride? We might see more prototypes and one-offs. That would be cool.

MrScott said:
Loopy,

Michigan's Adventure is MUCH smaller than CP. But Shivering Timbers is worth the visit. The other woodies are good, too. Corky is not bad either.

Where are you staying in West Michigan?

MrScott

Lake Sch-Nepp-A-Ho Family Campgrounds

http://www.michigan-campgrounds.com/

You mean Lake Sch-Lapp-A-Ho? ;)

Drive past the place every time we go (since that's the expressway exit). I always laugh at the sign and re-imagine it.