BAD Decision by Cedar Fair!

They're moving east, Conneaut is next, they won't even have to change the name on the Blue Streak.

Uhhh, I don't think Cedar Fair could afford Kings Island nor would they know what to do with themselves if they witnessed real theming. ;)

Not to mention, why would Viacom want to sell one of their most successful pieces? Have you seen how Paramount Pictures is doing lately at the theatre? It's not really pretty.

+Danny, who would rather see it be the other way around (Paramount buying CF parks :D) *** Edited 3/14/2004 8:11:44 PM UTC by +Danny***

Well, Danny, in my perfect world, Viacom's park division would buy out Tussauds, the overseas Six Flags that were just sold, Cedar Fair, and Universal, then I'd be happy(thats my opinion, and I'm stickin to it!!)

I think the park will do good, esp. if they go the Kennywood route. The one evening I spent there was probably my most enjoyable(though cold) park experiences. They could make it a nice Amusement park with their already decent rides, and decide to either expand into the Wildlife side, or scrape that and do a resort.

They wouldn't have made the decision if they weren't intent on making it work, looked too risky to me.

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Thrillerman said:

My main concern will be how they treat my beloved Big Dipper and it's classic trains.

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Chances are they'll probably add seatbelts to the trains. Bye-bye airtime :(

As said before, it's probably a bad decision in the short run but in the long run, it'll be a great decision for Cedar Fair. Now, competition with Kennywood would be interesting to see.

IMHO, As a basic investment the land and existing infrastructure at todays value is a bargain @ $145 m. If the park averages a profit of just $16 m annually the intial investment will be covered in 9 years. More importantly, the intial $145 m investment will be worth sustansially more. Possibly even as much as double the intial investment.

The most optimistic part about it is that given the excellent reputation and existing experience that CF already has in the surrounding market, increasing that $16 m average annual profit should be a relatively simple task.

It really just seems like common sense to me for CF to do this deal, almost as much as it makes sense for SF to relinquish the company of this park. It's almost like a wound that won't stop bleeding for them.

The opinions expressed above are just that. Merely opinions. As many others have already stated, only time will tell if CF made the right decision for them. And even if the park takes off and becomes a very successful and profitable money maker, that does not mean that SF made the wrong decision. *** Edited 3/15/2004 2:24:04 AM UTC by HardRider***

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+Danny said:
Danny, who would rather see it be the other way around (Paramount buying CF parks :D)

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I wouldn't mind it either, Danny... but CF parks tend to be a little cleaner. Forgive me, but I sort like the sterility of CP. There are two things I don't like about PKI and one of them is cleanlieness. Now, it's not a dirty park, but when you're used to CP's midways and you go to PKI... it's different.

While they won't be paying for employees or animal care on the WL side, CF now owns a fairly large chunk of land on that side that will not be used (in the park and that huge parking lot) - at least not right away. I'd imagine they will be paying a pretty penny in property taxes for that land.

Anyone have a clue how much SF paid in property taxes?

Im pretty sure CF isnt expecting 3 million guests a season just yet. Maybe in years if they develop the south side to what they want. This season with only have a park compared to last 1.5 would be good. Its what GL always pulled in.

Think about this...CF doesn't necessarily have to do the same attandance or even higher that SF had done with SFWOA, they just need to keep expenses down in relation to the revenues that they generate. More attendance does not necessarily mean higher profits. That's CF's key...be profitible. $145 million is not a great deal of money and doesn't put CF in that much debt. CF doesn't have to worry about the high debt payments that SF is worring about and CF doesn't have that much in annual interest payments even with this purchase.

Sure, Cedar Point does well over 3 million and does pretty well. CF isn't going to be looking to get that in attendance at Geauga. Just look at the other parks CF owns...much smaller in attendance, but still very profitible. Otherwise, CF wouldn't be paying dividends all of these years.

If CF does this right, they could sell off land as they improve the park and end up being able to use that money from the land sales to pay back some of their purchase price.

GL isn't meant to become a copy of CP and people shouldn't expect that at all. It will be a better run operation and CF will be able to better concentrate on the quality of the operation more than SF did (does). It is easier to focus on a handfull of parks from the corporate side than having to deal with as many as SF.

This whole thing is probably the most positive thing to happen in our industry in quite some time. It will be good for parks, suppliers, guests and enthusiasts.

Shawn said it pretty well, Cedar Fair only has a handful of parks to manage, as opposed to Six Flags 39 (38?) in the U.S, plus those parks in other countries. This will help the new GL be better managed both in a macro and micro sense. Being able to focus moreso on overall guest experience, landscaping, and guest services will probably be the start, and it will probably have a steady year. Getting the park back on its feet should be the main focus, and once its new reputation is established, expansions and rides should be introduced, IMHO.

Turbo.

After the sale of SFWoA and its European parks, I believe they are down to 31 parks.

Even though Karien Burke stated they were done selling off anymore SF properties, I believe this isn't finished yet.

Seems like Burke is the ONLY one saying SFI is done selling off properties...;)

....not saying he doesn't know, or isn't *in the know*, just that he's working awful hard to convince people....and failing...;)

I can't think offhand of any other SF properties that seem as "ripe" as SFWoA was to be sold off...the smaller properties seem to be in pretty desireable locations, and the other big properties generate enough revenue to merit keeping them...of course, there's probably bits and pieces of *undeveloped land* in the SF portfolio where they thought they MIGHT build eventually, and those could/should be sold off (much like Old Indiana was)...

CF made a really GOOD decision, IMO, and based on their business model to date, I anticipate a much more *relaxed* atmosphere at CF:GL that at CP, and a "diversification" in terms of attractions...and at $145M, the investment should yield a decent ROI from the beginning.
*** Edited 3/15/2004 6:04:38 PM UTC by rollergator***