Will the SFWoA Purchase Affect CP Operations?

I decided to start a new thread specifically on this topic, as it is more specific than the news.

What I would be interested in knowing is how the purchase of SFWoA will affect Cedar Point, as it is very close, and the park will probably take away many qualified Cedar Point silver tags duing the transitional period.

Will the transition from SFWoA back to Geauga Lake eat up some of Cedar Point's resources?

I know this isn't a question that we can now answer, but something interesting to ponder over.

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Avalanche Run - My first Roller Coaster.
Magnum XL-200 - The BEST Roller Coaster!

Cedar Fair is much more than just Cedar Point, they have many 'Silver Tags' to choose from. And CF makes so much money, it's not going to put a hurt on anything. Remember CF bought SFWoA, not CP, so any buisness that goes to Geauga Lake, goes right into CF's pocket, not losing a single penny.

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'04 TL Power Tower
'03 WT crew/ATL Sky Ride
'02 WT crew

Each park is its own entity. The purchase will have zero effect on capital improvement plans for Cedar Point.

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway

However, I can envision most CP operation managers pulling a sort of double duty in the short term to get GL up to speed to the Cedar Fair standards for daily operation (ie - capacity, capacity, capacity). They did it with MA, they'll most certainly do it here. Heck, they've already announced that Bill Spehn will be the new GM.

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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Walt,

I didn't mean in terms of capital. I meant in terms of people, mainly. With Cedar Point being so close, I couldn't help but think that at least some people, during this transitional period, would be shifted to Geauga Lake, until the park can do well on its own. This question is only short term.

-Sam

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Avalanche Run - My first Roller Coaster.
Magnum XL-200 - The BEST Roller Coaster!

*nightmares of the blue employee bus making runs from CP commons to GL will now haunt my dreams*

(and yes, I know that's not going to happen)

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Rides 2001
Guest Services 2002
www.veronicaspreciousgifts.com

Well, CP loses Bill Spehn, who I gather has been pretty positive in his role as VP of operations. Though there are clearly some very qualified people to fill his shoes.

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Jeff - Webmaster - GTTP - My Blog
Blogs, photo albums - CampusFish
What time does the water show start?

I think Bill will probably be the main factor in helping the transition from SFWOA to GL. ALthough there were some things he did I did not really like, but of course, I wasn't in the office with him when he made the decision so I don't know the deciding factors. he really had a good handle on things.

I don't know if anyone else remembers, but when things weren't quite working sometimes on TTD, he was up there with the crew working with them on the trains. I remember walking past. Station full of people. He's up there pushing a TTD train just to get the ride going.

He also walked around the midways and watched all the crews to make sure every employee was working just as hard as the employees at the next crew.

Basically, nothing gets done, unless it's done right and on time, and for reiteration, properly. I think he is a great executive because of that. He is a great asset to Cedar Fair, and probably will be extremely helpful in making GL a great park. From personal experience, he's the last person you want to come up when your ride is broken down and ask "What's Wrong?" Not that the crew was in trouble, just that for the maintenance men, they would almost immediatly kick it up a notch. Bill and Monty worked together very well.

I can imagine them sending at least 1 person who was a supervisor in each department last year to be a Manager at GL. So I'm predicting very little if any other moves from CP to GL.
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- Chris -

I understand Jack Falfas might be coming out from California (if he hasn't already) to help with the transition...at least in the short term. He better than anyone should have a pretty firm handle on converting a park to a Cedar Fair property since he did so at Knott's not too long ago.

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"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."

According to the Cedar Fair conference call, Kinzel remarked that at least initially one Cedar Fair employee (Bill S) would go to GL and oversee the current six flag woa management team.

I'm sure there will be others. If they can give them a place to live (a hotel room that they now own), I say get a group of seasonal area supervisors from last year and put them to work. They're the front lines, they know the standards.

CP will lose some good people, but I'm sure there will be others there to keep up.

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Jeff - Webmaster - GTTP - My Blog
Blogs, photo albums - CampusFish
What time does the water show start?

I don't think that too much stuff on the West Side will be affected by the operations on the East Side. The CP has all kinds of people who are good at what they do that can step up and fill in as necessary.

The only thing that may come from this shifting of leadership on the West Side might be some fresh ideas and ways of running things. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

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- John
I Snap Flyers

I personally would like to stay where I am at but if they wanted me to go there I wouldn't say no.

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'04 TL Speed Zone
'03 Speed Freaks (Hats n Such)
TTD 72 rides (2 nonpaid rollbacks, 5 paid rollbacks)
TaeKwon-Do First Degree Black Belt. (1st dan)