Cedar Fair announces Geauga Lake will be water park only
Posted
Cedar Fair Entertainment Company announced today that Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora, Ohio, will become exclusively a water park attraction beginning with the 2008 season.
“After four years of operating Geauga Lake as a combined water park/amusement park attraction, we have concluded that its future should be entirely as a water park,” said Dick Kinzel, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. “Visiting Geauga Lake is a 119-year-old tradition in northeastern Ohio. That tradition will continue, but in a new and exciting way.”
“Geauga Lake’s Wildwater Kingdom has been recognized as one of the finest water parks in the country,” Kinzel said. “Over the past three seasons, we have invested approximately $25 million to create and develop the premiere water park in northeastern Ohio. Since its opening in 2005, Wildwater Kingdom has been the park’s highest rated attribute.”
Geauga Lake’s Wildwater Kingdom attractions will include Tidal Wave Bay, a 30,000 square-foot wave pool featuring seven different types of wave patterns; Liquid Lightning, a 60-foot-tall tornado slide; Thunder Falls, Ohio’s tallest water slide complex; an activity pool; an action river; and a multi-story play structure. The park will also provide a catering facility and picnic pavilions for group outings and poolside cabanas will be made available for daily rental.
Read the full press release from Cedar Fair.
Related parks
Look at the bright side. The waterpark is very nice and as long as they keep adding to it, I can see it as a very nice LARGE waterpark.
I'm the original CoasterBuzz conspiracy theorist and as much as I want to accuse CF of buying the park only to destroy the competition, I can't for one main reason. Why operate the park for Three years before closing it if that was the ultimate goal? Why would they not have closed it the very day they bought it?
*** This post was edited by dexter 9/22/2007 11:56:36 PM ***
Why not do a big 'last hurrah'? Because Geauga Lake isn't closing. They will be operating next year as a waterpark. It's probably not real smart for 2008's buisiness to have a big 'farewell' in 2007.
Although I totally agree, from the business perspective -- and I know you're all business so I don't fault you for not agreeing with my flip side point -- which is that as far as I (and probably most who grew up with/naer the park) am concerned, Geauga Lake IS closing. What will be open is "that new water park they put where Sea World used to be."
I think I said this above, so apologies for redundancy... but when I was there a few weeks ago, although the waterpark was super-nice, it was NOT Geauga Lake. So honestly -- I think they may have done better having a big 'farewell' and then re-branding WWK and selling it as a 'new' park via promotions, marketing, etc. As it stands now, everything is being promoted as 'Geauga Lake is closing,' with an 'oh yeah the waterpark will stay' footnote -- perhaps allowing that goodbye would have gotten the 'new waterpark direction' out there better. Because as it stands right now, fundamentally for the locals, GL *is* closing.
I'm really interested to what my (Cleveland-area local) parents have to say the next time I talk to them -- guarantee this will get brought up. Should be interesting to have a GP take on it.
ETA: RideMan, I'd LOVE to see the Dipper at Zoomwhatever -- maybe we should call Jack Hanna and see if he can make it happen. Ha ha.*** This post was edited by CarrieR 9/22/2007 7:25:03 PM ***
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/D8RO0AP01.htm
I don't see why everyone loves Kennywood so much. It's a nice park but it's not really that special."...Pretty sure years ago Kennywood even let everyone know in advance when the Laser Loop was going to be taken out so they could get their last rides on it."
Two words: Gold Rusher.
There's a huge difference between Kennywood taking out one small attraction, and Cedar Fair eliminating a whole side of an amusement park. Since you've been to KW, you know that property is scarce to build on. It's the nature of KW to remove rides and put new ones in. This year they removed the Flying Carpet to put in the Zamperla MegaDisko called Cosmic Chaos.
Gold Rusher may not have had a public closing, but DAFE (Dark and Funhouse Enthusiasts) was invited to tour the ride one last time. Gold Rusher was fun and mostly relaxing, but it wasn't a blockbuster attraction. The Garfield-themed Olde Mill will pick up the slack for those who want something to chill-out on. I'm sure whatever they're replacing Gold Rusher with will be just as fun or better.
You ask why everyone loves KW so much? I happen to be one of the many KW-lovers and I live 3-1/2 hours east so maybe I can explain: 1) a beautifully landscaped park 2) the coasters 3) great mix of classic and modern flatrides 4) Noah's Ark 5) cheap admission 6) the atmosphere
One of the common themes I've read over and over again is "I wish they had given us one last chance to get on the rides on the dry side." It's sad to say, but I'm guessing a lot of those people weren't visiting in the first place. Nostalgia doesn't pay bills.
Geagua Lake was boring, and has been since Sea World left.
If you want to point a finger, point it at Six Flags for attempting to turn it into something it isn't.
CarrieR:
...as far as I (and probably most who grew up with/naer the park) am concerned, Geauga Lake IS closing. What will be open is "that new water park they put where Sea World used to be."
Yeah, but in that sense Geauga Lake has been gone since SF came in and slapped down 5 coasters in two years. SFO/SFWOA was not Geauga Lake.
Geauga Lake isn't going anywhere - it's been gone a long time.
What a loss. What a loss for the Cleveland market, what a loss for the families who visited be for, and what a loss for the amusement park loving community.
While others threw the idea of Geauga Lake only being a water park around in the past, I never dreamed it would be the case. I had faith in Cedar Fair. Minor improvements such as paint jobs on this coaster and that, rehabilitation on numerous rides, and the apparent interest of Cedar Fair in the park led me to believe it was here to stay.
The removals started with Mr. Hyde's Nasty Fall, then X-Flight and Steel Venom, then Belaire Express. That, combined with the remains of Hurricane Harbor for numerous years, convinces me that Cedar Fair never had any interest in this park except for closing it.
The park had decent attendance, and was doing much better this year. It had more attendance than Michigan's Adventure, significantly so, and yet somehow that park is still in the chain. The lack of interest in Geauga Lake, combined with its sudden closure, really proves that all CF wanted to do was make people like the park enough so that a slow and painful shut down could be done without losing too much money.
This makes me question CF. It shows that they are completely unconcerned with the happiness of their guests, untrustworthy when it comes to public communication, and yes, nothing more than a business.
The thing that bothers me the most is that they lied to us every step of the way with their constant "We have no intention of closing.... We have no intention of removing... At this point in time X-Flight has no plans for revoal". Come on Cedar Fair, stop lying. That is so Six Flags... The public deserved to know the future, or lack there of, of Geauga Lake before the park closed for the season.
Its extremely, extremely disappointing, and still this feels like a dream.
_________________
Also, I don't know how successful it will be just as a water park. I think they really should have had a compromise. Maybe toss out Raging Wolf Bobs and Head Spin and some flats and Grizzly Run, but I think a small amusement park with a water park would have had more success.
In any event, if you feel like Cedar Fair handled Geauga Lake wrong, please check out my petition. Please be aware this is more to raise awareness with CF that numerous actions they took weren't at the level you would hope from CF.
I've been going to the park since I was 2 years old," said Christina Altman, 19, an employee of Sirna's Market & Deli across the street from the park's entrance. "That was the only thing we had for kids in this community."Despite her fond memories, Altman stayed away in recent years because of steep ticket prices, expensive food and fewer big attractions. It's a problem that the park's previous owners had and Cedar Fair was unable to fix."
There you have it. Anecdotal evidence for why people were not going: 1) prices 2) food 3) NO NEW attractions. I honestly don't believe the general public was unwise to the removal of all the attractions over the years - despite what defenders of Cedar Fair claim.
""I wished they'd told us at the beginning of the year," Altman said. "We would have loved to have gone, just one last time.""
It also looks like enthusiasts aren't the only ones upset about Cedar Fair's totally unclassy move to wait until after the season to announce the park's closing. Here is a comment someone posted on the cleveland.com website:
To Cedar Point:
Thanks so much for giving us the respect and letting our families say goodbye to what was left of Geauga Lake. If you had atleast said let the community know that this would be the last season you would have gotten your big bucks that you have been waiting for! Not to mention what a slap in the face to the town that has supported the park for over 100 years .I know our family wasn't the only locals to grow up in the park. I can honestly say, I WILL NEVER VISIT CEDAR POINT, not after this blow. Hope business does you better elsewhere.
It really does look like this is getting perceived outside of the enthusiast community; and not in a good way.
As for Dick Kinzel and Peter Crage's (the company's CFO) large stock purchases this week... There probably isn't anyone here with the ability or authority to decide what occurred was unethical, illegal, or whatever. But if you still feel strongly about the issue you should probably contact the Securities and Exchanges Commission (www.sec.gov) and request an investigation.
*** This post was edited by Paul Blackstone 9/22/2007 11:40:28 PM ***
I still don't believe WWK will remain open for long, it will be interesting to see what they will be adding for 2008. If there are no major additions announced, then I think it will be safe to say that they are only holding onto WWK long enough to recoup some return on their initial investment. One thing many folks never seem to mention is that although they picked up GL for a steal, they sunk lots of cash into WWK. Seeing how things are playing out, probably not the wisest application of funds on CF's part.
Good ole Dick purchased those 10,000 shares of stock @ $24.14 Friday, September 14. And then when you go through the filings for the past month, Dick also purchased another 10,000 stocks on August 17 for $20.60. I'm no genius at business and stocks and all that mumbo jumbo, but this sounds worse than Martha Stewart to me.
Paul B, your selective quoting is astounding, do you too work for the Republican National Committee? Let's take your quote:
"Despite her fond memories, Altman stayed away in recent years because of steep ticket prices, expensive food and fewer big attractions. It's a problem that the park's previous owners had and Cedar Fair was unable to fix.""
Now, you chose to draw attention to points 1-3 while COMPLETELY IGNORING point #4 ... which is acknowledgment by a complete outsider, an industry layperson, that this was NOT Cedar Fair's fault, that ALL THREE problems were existing conditions PRIOR to Cedar Fair's purchase of the park, and that Cedar Fair at least made an EFFORT to fix the mess that was created by A-B, Premier and SF.
Way to choose a quote that totally disproves your own childlike, illogical and pointless argument.
*** This post was edited by Lurker 9/23/2007 12:23:14 AM ***
Paul Blackstone:
There are a few critical things from that Plain Dealer article that really sum things up:I've been going to the park since I was 2 years old," said Christina Altman, 19, an employee of Sirna's Market & Deli across the street from the park's entrance. "That was the only thing we had for kids in this community."
Despite her fond memories, Altman stayed away in recent years because of steep ticket prices, expensive food and fewer big attractions. It's a problem that the park's previous owners had and Cedar Fair was unable to fix.
There you have it. Anecdotal evidence for why people were not going...
Heh. The best part is that you're serious, aren't you? :)
Note which part of that is an actual quote from the girl and which part is the writer's words.
Suddenly it's not even anecdotal...unless you're willing to let a reporter looking for a story and putting words into a teenager's mouth be representative of what the public thinks.
I am mad at myself for not going to GL last weekend. My daughter and I planned on going there after CP trip but my daughter was too tired to go. I guess it was not meant to be. I will miss you Big Dipper, Villain and Dominator.
My daugher basically grew up in Sea World. Even though we moved out of NE Ohio, she still remembers Sea World and Geauga Lake. I remember how the park was busy with people in May 2001. What a contrast with my last visit last year: an empty park with not so friendly staff. I may be a minority in this belief. I thought the park had far more "warmth" under SF than CF. The atmosphere was far better before SF came around. Under CF, it was hard to find.
Look at the bright side. The waterpark is very nice and as long as they keep adding to it, I can see it as a very nice LARGE waterpark.
Keep adding to it? CF has never added to it since they built it. The cutPhase II before starting on it.
Kinzel in the podcasts pointed out how stand alone waterparks fail unless you get them cheap. CF is not getting this waterpark on the cheap. Six Flags unloaded their waterparks despite them being good draws. Since people don't carry wallets in their swim trunks, the percap spending isn't there. And that's according to Kinzel.
At this point GL is a huge blotch on Kinzel's record: it cost $140 mil plus a $25 mil waterpark. If they can sell the land for what Astroword went for--$77 mil--and valuing the relocated rides at $60 mil, Kinzel is looking at a negative ROI from a park he could have bought for less than a quarter what he paid for it ten years earlier when Funtime was willing to sell him GL and Darien for $60 mil total. He's not sinking ANY $$$ into there. He doesn't sink $$$ into MiA and that is at least has a positive ROI. He just wants GL to go away.
Another statement in that article really scares me, and should start to scare others... that the water park section was clearly the highest attendance portion of the park... NO DUH!!!!Look at Idlewild Soak Zone, Hershey's Boardwalk section, Del Grosso's water park section, ect.... if numbers talk (in business, of course they do) this is going to mean more eating away at the traditional park sections if not total elimination. They ALL have higher numbers in the water section.
How many more parks are going to see the numbers in the water section skyrocket as the park section deminishes? Then how many more properties are going to switch to "exclusive water parks"?????
Again, until people carry wallets in their swim trunks, none. The percap spending just isn't there at a waterpark. SF sold their waterparks and kept their combo parks. The water park is a draw for land parks to draw out some percap spending.
I'm still waiting to hear how MiA is more viable than GL despite drawing 100,000+ per year less. My guess--it isn't. It's just that if they can get a couple hundred thou of GL's visitors to CP, CP's numbers go up, and GL's costs go away. If MiA was close enough to Sandusky for their visitors to reasonably go to CP, MiA would be water park only or gone by now, too. Certainly MiA's growth potential is way less than GL's--just look at MiA's potential market vs GL's. And, as Jeff points out, CF isn't exactly investing $$$ up their as it is.
Soak City, as Jeff pointed out I commented on, will not stay the same. There will be attractions, and they will compliment the hotel end of CP, not the park itself. One insurance policy on GL success is the ability to get folks to visit CP, and GL for the waterslide fix. Lets see, GL did that with Boardwalk Shores in the 1980's, and the price to get in was about $12.95.
Kennywood hit the nail on the head with the Sandcastle/Kennywood combo pass. It actually damaged GL's business from Pittsburghers.
Here are some 100% true industry facts. Most were touched on. GL grew under Sea World's arriving. Sea World Ohio was the world's largest marine park for several years until SW Florida opened. That was a huge marketing tool, and it gave them 40%-50% business from Pittsburgh. That worked like textbook marketing. As Busch Entertainment 'tolerated' Sea World's expenses, life was good. However, August Busch IV, well he likes the brew, not the coasters. Days were numbered. Yes, by them taking Shamu, Namu, Kandu, and Porky the Penguin, away went the Pittsburgh market. And the dollars.
Six Flags biggest screw up was making GL bigger than it could be. I sat with an owner at Kennywood, while coaster after coaster was going by on the turnpike, and they called it. Making GL a superpark was not the thing to do. Its not that people have to pay $4 for Pepsi, its the fact they have to wait in line 45 minutes for one. Its not that fact your bathrooms look like the Valley Forge service plaza on the PA Turnpike eastbound after rush hour, its the fact you had to wait 20 minutes to realize you have no toilet paper. Parking? No, GL never had enough. See 1985's load the car for $25 promotion. Nuff said.
GL was on the right path after Premier. Why? In my college days, I did a master plan for GL in 1991, that sent the Corkscrew to Wyandot Lake, and placed a Boomerang over the lake just off ther Boardwalk Shores area. I also sent the flume to WL, and added a Shoot the Chutes in its place. Where Batman was built, I added a rapids ride, so not to disturb the view of the lake, which was its biggest asset....line of sight to Sea World. I guess my master plan after all never hit Gary Story's desk.
Now, Premier did what I did, add off the shelf rides, but when the SF Ohio started, the automatic blunder, as stated many times, was changing the name. Boom, groups started declining, which was GL's bread and butter, along with ticket packages with Sea World. Once Sea World was closed, GL was cut off at its knees.
Now, forced to market, people came from afar to kick the tires of a Six Flags, since none of them market in western PA. Again, lines for bathrooms, parking, Pepsi, and longer lines for these new coasters, which none set the world on fire, and well, we may as well go to Cedar Point, since that is what we have doing since the Corkscrew and Gemini made their appearance, and CP let Pittsburgh know steel was better than wood.
Enter 2006 and 2007. All the Pittsburgh business and dollars still are lost. Groups are now heading to Waldameer, Pioneer Waterland, now to Kennywood. What is GL's mission to Cedar Fair? it was only purchased as a defensive measure, so it didn't fall into Kennywood's hands, which, would have downsized the park also to manage it better.
GL could have been a crown jewel in the portfolio. A classic park, with the God's gift to infrastructure. 2 parking lots, 2 gates, and separate group sales area, a 3000 seat lakeside theatre, all the bathrooms they needs, catering, food prep areas, warehouses, and on and on. But CF is a different company that what it was 2 years ago. The CF exec's never saw GL as competition, and now have their hearts set on Paramount's empire. They started the ball rolling on the WWK master plan, and flipped the autopilot switch. However, when the debt loads are knocking at the door, the reality sets in. Instead of removing Hercules or the Orient Express, its the whole ride package.
This really stings many people, and once this gets out in the region, CF again will have their hands full trying to explain how they tanked a 119 yr old park. Sorry, Jeff, we in the business know it was Busch by closing Sea World and SF's unability to be patient with ride additions, but the general public only remembers 'the last mission'. In this case, CF failed.
If Kinzel is smart, he will pull John Hildebrandt from Cedar Point, and have him pull his marketing miracles and begin damage control on this asap. Allowing a last shot visit this fall is a start. And, for the love of God, do not demolish the coasters. The Villian will end up in Worlds of Fun, and the Boomerang and Beaverland coaster will also find a home. Thinking about it, I would like to see CF get Cypress Gardens. Plenty of rides to fill the space.
If the Dipper, Double Loop, and Wolf Bobs all see the wrecking ball, that is too much to bear for Clevelenders, still smarting from Euclid Beach, which was a great park in its day. People will remember that. If CF does not offer every single ride for sale, that will be haunting. Period.
To all of you reading this, don't worry. Spehn, Kinzel, Falfas, and company will have all have a similar and professional story to tell by IAAPA, since only about 4000-5000 people will bombard them with questions. I am sure the hostility will die down. Hopefully.
People look up to Cedar Fair. However, the bottom line is that closing a park is last resort.
You must be logged in to post
