Bye bye Astroworld!

Additionally, I failed to mention that I'm traveling there for the weekend of October 8-9.

Kevin

Hopefully things will work out for everybody down there. The trip is already set, so no turning back. If Astroworld doesn't work out, hopefully I can salvage the trip with SFFT and SFoT. Until recently, I never realized how close Houston was to the Gulf. I always thought it was further inland.

Astroworld did indeed flood quite a bit when Tropical Storm Allison hit, so you'll definitely want to wait a week before making any flight reservations.

Speaking of Hurricane Rita, a short ways from Astroworld is a boarded up townhouse with the message "Ride Rita: Queen of Speed" ;)

According to the Six Flags website: AW is

Closed this weekend, Sept 24 & 25, due to Hurricane Rita

At least the assets(ie rides) from SFAW will be redistributed to other parks in the chain,or so the spokesperson for SF says.

That's assuming they survive hurricane Rita of course....this one appears to be a monster & heaven help those who are unfortunate enough to be in it's path....let's all wish them well & hope there are few if any casualties,we've already seen enough death & destruction with Katrina.

"I think SFA needs a hurricane!"-BATWING FAN SFA

Is everyone losing sight of something that was mentioned earlier in an Astroworld-related thread?

Most of the death and destruction to New Orleans was *NOT* the [direct] cause of hurricane Katrina. It was the levees breaking and flooding a city that was built below sea level.

That doesn't make it any less catastrophic, and we shouldn't take anything for granted, but I think it's made people overly sensitive and paranoid to Hurricanes, and people are making decisions based on that misconception.

I hope cedar fair is going to buy astroworld cuz i can't see a park that been their for 30 something years to just fall apart to nothing:(.

I would call first, but I do believe Astroworld will be open this upcoming weekend. Houston was spared this time and the biggest problems were electricity outages and gas shortages.

Everything should be back to normal in a few days.

But again, I would call first to make sure.

http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2005/09/19/story7.html?page=2

Interesting article that I found regarding the decision to actually close the park was made by Six Flags in June.

Excerpt:

Six Flags would not release financial information on individual parks, but Dannhauser says AstroWorld's revenue is roughly 15 percent lower than it was five years ago. The firm would have had to invest $50 million on infrastructure improvements, roller coasters, new show areas, additional shade and misting fans to bring AstroWorld back up to an appropriate level, he says.

Really makes you wanna punch some faces in.

That's really a shame to lose the Texas Cyclone - the story says it's expected to be torn down.

Hmm... according to the story, they decided in June.. that would have given them ample time to say "yep, Sky Swatter is going to GAdv" ;)

WHY NOT ..... INSTEAD? SFGADV GETS EVERYTHING AND MY PARK GETS ______ ON!

Fill in the dots with any six flags park that is neglected and the _____ with a four letter word for fecal matter.

been there done that...

lol

I couldn't care less where SWAT goes. The ride when running never had a line because it simply wasn't very popular. In fact, it was very uncomfortable. Everyone seems so fixated on this crappy prototype flat ride. I'd have rather kept Texas Tornado/Zonga even with the reprofiled drops and loops over this thing.

15 percent decline in revenue (due to a comparable drop in attendance*) is pretty laughable as a condemnation for the park - pretty much every single Six Flags has had a similar drop in attendance in that period, even the parks they pumped big capital into. And Astroworld's percentage of "per cap" spending didn't vary much either*. Furthermore, if the company had bothered to add (vs remove) any attractions the three years 2000, 2001, and 2002 maybe there wouldn't have been as much of a slide - though maybe not - Six Flags customer service, park cleanliness, and all that other stuff which is a problem at the parks which DID receive new attractions suffered just the same. Meanwhile attendance is just fine at other parks in other chains...

Though Dick Kinzel and some other Cedar types were spotted in recent weeks checking the place out, I'm a lot less optimistic CF or any other operator might buy the place from Six Flags if they were truly intending to sell since the beginning of summer and no one has stepped forth. Texas Cyclone seems fated for the lumber pile.

* (are you happy, pedantic moron?)

*** Edited 10/9/2005 12:46:25 AM UTC by Fierce Pancake***

It wasn't a 15% drop in attendance, it was a 15% drop in revenue. Big difference.

Not really, revenue comes with attendance. It's mostly a linear correlation. Attendance didn't stay the same and people came in spending less.

Actually, revenue is no where even close to linear.

Case in point: Cedar Fair has shown a drop in attendance while revenue is up. The reason is because of higher in-park spending.

Attendance is not as high of a percentage of revenue as you would think. For example: A Person pays $50 to get into a park, and then spends $30 on lunch and dinner, drops $10 in the arcade, $20 for on-ride photos, and $40 on souvenirs for loved ones. That's pretty reasonable for an "average" estimate.. doing the math, the person spent $150 - that's all revenue. only 33% is from attendance.

Now, let's assume 1,000,000 guests, that's $150,000,000 in revenue based on my example. Now let's assume a decrease of 20% per capita on in-park spending (people don't want on-ride photos of stuff that they've ridden, and nothing new has been added).. that's $80 in-park per person (down from $100). Adding ticket price, $130/person instead of $150/person. Doing the math, a 15% decrease in revenue would be $127,500,000. at $130/person, that would take 980,770 people (rounding up to the nearest whole person). it's easy to see that it amounts to less than a 2% drop in attendance, not 15%. Sparing the math, you'd only need a 22.5% drop in in-park spending on my estimates to have a 15% drop in revenue while not having any attendance drop at all.

Business isn't about how many customers you have - it's about how much money you make. The attendance drops chain-wide have been similar, yes, but not revenue drops. Great Adventure has seen attendance drops, but is a profitable park.

---

dannerman said:
Attendance is not as high of a percentage of revenue as you would think. For example: A Person pays $50 to get into a park, and then spends $30 on lunch and dinner, drops $10 in the arcade, $20 for on-ride photos, and $40 on souvenirs for loved ones. That's pretty reasonable for an "average" estimate.. doing the math, the person spent $150 - that's all revenue. only 33% is from attendance.

---

$15 per meal per person? $40 in souvenirs per person? You've been an enthusiast too long to think that's an average estimate of all parkgoers ;)