Video: Register interview with John Hildebrandt

Video here

Actual interview starts well into the program, at roughly 49:30.

Good stuff. It would have been better with an interviewer who actually knew something about the park. Parts of it were really painful.

That guy is terrible. My God, at least get some background and know who you're talking to before you start.

On the other hand, this is one of the examples of why I think John is probably one of the best people on the planet to be the GM at Cedar Point. I think he's pretty solid in terms of operations and he really gets the business (he did come from marketing, after all), but he also cares and knows about the park at such a deep level. He really is a steward of the park for our time. I suspect he'll be an even better GM a year from now, when, hopefully, he has more autonomy.

I think "steward of the park" is a great description and he's the perfect person to be that steward.

I believe you can often judge a man by his children and John raised some good kids. (A couple of them worked for me for a while.) And yes, I'd like to see what the GMs could do (all of them) without the heavy hand of corporate.

*Well...almost all of them. There is one that needs to be looking for another line of work come the winter.

Although it would be interesting to see how that one does without the protective hand of daddy.

I have got to believe that "that one" has very little support in the company outside of the top guy. His history is so well known that it really defies any logic as to why he is in that position...other than the obvious.

That might be one of the first "decisions" and I'm not even discounting the idea that he may actually resign when the time comes, avoiding the inevitable.