Cedar Fair entertains 12.6 million guests, loses Camp Snoopy contract
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Cedar Fair's total attendance was up 3% from 2003 to 12.6 million. Excluding Geauga Lake, attendance was down 1% at the company's amusement parks, and more at its water parks. The company also announced that the new general partner for Mall of America has decided not to renew Cedar Fair's management contract for Camp Snoopy, but that it would not have a "material financial affect" on the company.
Read the press release from Cedar Fair.
Link: PointBuzz
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It sure makes it easy to report good findings next year now. As long as the others peform near the same level, and GL has attendance comparable to pre-CF, they will get another nice increase in overall attendance. Things investors like to hear.
So, is the park in MOA called "Knotts Camp Snoopy" or just "Camp Snoopy"? I guess either way with CF's contract not being renewed it would obviously bring an end to CS or KCS, whichever the case may be. However, if the 'new company' decides to purchase the rights to the Peanuts characters, as I would suspect they would, then they could maybe change it to "Snoopy's Camp" for example, if they chose to do so and the contract was worked out in that manner. Who knows what will happen, but it will be interesting to see what they do with the character branding that already exists. It costs a lot of dough to rebrand all of the merchandise, etc, which surprises me that in this time of parks being very sensitive to the bottom line, it doesn't seem like a risk worthy of exploring. That is, unless they think they have something better up their sleeves.??!
*** This post was edited by coasterfreaky 1/7/2005 12:55:01 PM ***
Paramount is responsible for the distribution of all of the Peanuts movies and television specials. I bet you didn't know that there are over 70 Peanuts television specials!
The park was called Knott's Camp Snoopy Mall of America. However, when I was there this past September, it was mostly referred to a Camp Snoopy, though in places, such as on some remaining merchandise and such it still had the Knott's name on it. I don't know when the Knott's name was dropped, if it was after Cedar Fair began adding Camp Snoopy to their parks, or if it was more recent than that.
I assume too that the MOA parent company might want to keep the Peanuts characters, but to my understanding, only Knott's Berry Farm could grant that due to the rights they had from Charles Schulz. Remember, Schulz was very chummy with the Knott family, and I believe his daughter still is the one who works on the Snoopy on Ice shows at the park. When the Knott family sold the park, those rights were transferred to Cedar Fair.
What I am lamely attempting to suggest is that I think Cedar Fair has the right to determine if MOA continues to use the Camp Snoopy name and Peanuts characters in a THEME PARK SETTING, since that is how the contact was worded, from my understanding. Irrespective of what the MOA want. Ie.: No Cedar Fair management contract=no peanuts characters.
It would make more sense then for Cedar Fair to add a Camp Snoopy to Valleyfair!, buy up any merchandise...........a lot of the merchandise was the same as stuff in other CF parks, merely saying CAMP SNOOPY and not "Cedar Point", "Knott's" or "Mall of America." MOA would keep all rides and attractions and call the park something else. Perhaps even the same park name used in their other property in Edmonton, which they would then use the same logo, merchandise; etc.
Of course, I am just speculating. I'm more curious, as in my initial post, if the name will change. It was my understanding that those rights were transferred to Cedar Fair when the Knott family sold the park, hence Cedar Fair obtaining the management contract at MOA in the first place.
Nope--I had no idea there were that many! (I can name maybe ten...tops.)
I heard that a complete, multi-volume anthology of every single Peanuts strip ever done was expected to be published soon. (Including, some daily strips that were never previously published.)
This is a guess too, but I'm not sure about if the Shulz / Knotts agreement was to be in perpetuity or not. I'm a little weary about saying that Knotts would forever and ever have the rights to use Peanuts. I don't think it would have been a wise decision (or in line with other decisions they have made re: Peanuts - they're fairly conservative compared to Loony Tunes for example)on the part of the Shulz's to give it up like that. But I could be completely wrong and unless I was privy to that information I have no idea whatsoever as to the terms of the contract and what provisions it included. So, you could be right about CF allowing the use of Peanuts at MOA, it just depends on the agreement struck and how that agreement transferred (or not) to CF when they aquired Knotts.
Was a timeframe given as to when CF would hand over management? We will definitely know more then.
1. Camp Snoopy at Knott's opened in 1983. I believe the Schultz agreement was announced in 1982, when the plans were announced.
2. When Cedar Fair acquired Knott's, it was stated publically that Cedar Fair also acquired the rights to use the Peanuts characters at their other parks, part of the reason for the $270 plus million purchase price, as Knott's certainly was not worth that at the time in the state it was in.
3. I believe KCS MOA opened in 1994 or 1995.......easy to check, just see when the mail opened. The management agreement was either for 10 or 15 years. 10 years would be up now........I have this info in a prior Cedar Fair earnings report, or annual report, somewhere.
And I agree with your comments about making the merchandise non park specific to save money, reduce cost and order in bulk. Seeing that Knott's here in California still sells post cards for rides that have been gone for 5 years or longer, I have no doubt that they would rather sell the merchandise than clear it away.
I bet you didn't know that there are over 70 Peanuts television specials!
"Happy Arbor Day, Charlie Brown!"
anyone?
anyone?
<crickets>
Assuming that CF owns the rights to the "Camp Snoopy" moniker, keep in mind that Dick Kinzel stated that this change would not affect the partnership financially.
Perhaps MOA is going to do the management in-house (It seems easier for logistics reasons, though I could be wrong), and license the name 'Camp Snoopy' from Cedar Fair for a fee that would help their bottom line without drastically hurting Cedar Fair's bottom line.
Separately, I did find a quote in Harrison Buzz Price's book that does state that the Schulz family did sign an exclusive clause for (parks only) the Knott family to use the characters in Knott's and later MOA.
The new management really means nothing as far as the park continuing to operate or not. It also doesn't effect the Snoopy brand in the park. The park OWNERS are responsible for maintaining and obtaining that, not the management company. The owners are not changing.
Paramount sells the rights to thier films. The fact that they are showing the Sponge Bob name does not mean that Paramount had a hand in the park. However, with thier stand alone Bubba Gumps resturant in the mall, I wouldn't be SHOCKED to see them pick up the contract.
The park opened with the snoopy brand, and without Cedar Fair. (1992) I really don't believe that this split with CF means anything for the park branding. United Feature Syndicate (sp?) controls Snoopy. While Cedar Fair may control the Knotts name, it really doesn't matter, because the park is no longer offically Knotts, even though some signs still say it.
I hope this helps people understand.
" Jim Mc Carthy, our project leader, trumpeted strongly that they sorely needed some kind of character identity.
Marion Knott, Virginia's younger sister, responded with a home run. Together with Knott's new president, Terry Van Gorder, they closed a deal with Charles Schulz for park rights to Snoopy. Schulz had been reluctant about park involvement but he liked the Knott's laid back pioneer American philosophy and presentation. As a first act, he (Terry Van Gorder) produced a $12 million Camp Snoopy park addition, which was extremely well received by the public.
Later on, the Snoopy ID was expanded to a $65 million dollar, free standing indoor park addition as the special center court attraction for the Mall of America in Minneapolis.......Our study for the new Camp Snoopy hit its first year revenue with 10 percent. They beat our attendance target (1.8 million)."
The chapter goes on, but summarizes at the time that Knott's philosophy was to expand their 'product' in other areas...........MOA being the first (and ended up being the only.)
As I stated before, Cedar Fair acquired the rights to use the Peanuts characters in the parks when they purchased KBF. I am not saying they own the Peanuts characters, or that UFS does not own the character rights. I am only saying that Knott's had the rights for X amount of years to have the Peanuts character in their U.S. park, and, Paramount say, could not use them, in the same way that Knott's won't be able to use Bugs Bunny; etc.
"Camp Snoopy is owned and operated by Cedar Fair, L.P., a publicly traded limited partnership that is listed on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FUN.” In addition to Camp Snoopy, Cedar Fair owns and operates six other amusement parks and five water parks."
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