Cedar Fair investing $50 million at Carowinds over three years

OK, I'll be the first cricket killer.

50 million is a big number and expansion is a great thing. This all sounds fine and dandy.

The lack of details doesn't give Buzzers anything to gripe about. Also, the release doesn't contain the word 'coaster' and after all this is CoasterBuzz. :-)

It's a giga! It'll take 3 years to build!

~Rob

Interesting how Carowinds has become such a core park in the Cedar Fair chain. It's one of my absolute favorite parks to visit.

Those are some serious staffing increases as well. It'll be cool to see what the breakdown is as far as what the investment will entail.

$50 million? Yawn. How about those Camp Snoopy improvements at CP? :)

Actually, both announcements are very cool. Although Knott's attendance took a small dip this year, I feel the recent changes are far sighted and will pay off in the long run. These improvements are along the same vein.

"Record-breaking attractions" sounds like a coaster or two to me.

I'd say maybe a (major) coaster. Of love to see a new woodie. While $50 mil over 3 years is a good number, I see lots more infrastructure, a small flat ride expansion and potential sprucing up of an area a la Knotts and CPs newer additions, the aforementioned waterpark expansion, and maybe a sprucing up of the front gate as there are already a lot of utility markers out that way currently.

I can tell you that it's been all over the news in Charlotte. And on radio. I see a hotel coming sooner too. All jokes aside, their marketing person confirmed they were looking at adding one a couple years ago at CoasterStock.

I'm excited. A waterpark expansion, some atmosphere, and some flats will thrill me. I also want a nite time show like CP has.

Some definites are kind of easy to figure out, mainly a major revamp of the water park much like Kings Island experienced. Another B&M will probably pop-up. I think the bigger surprise will be how the park ends up being reconfigured, especially parking which I think will move more to the North in front of the main gate. I also wouldn't be shocked to see the current South gate removed and a new "water park" gate built ala Kings Island. Kind of excited to hear the first announcement of improvements, the park definitely has a lot of potential.

Tekwardo said:

I can tell you that it's been all over the news in Charlotte. And on radio. I see a hotel coming sooner too.

I don't even have to say it. Quoting is enough

Carowinds doesn't need a hotel - if you want 6-8 hours of sleep, just get in line for StealthBorgHawk, and wait....and wait....

Yeah, but what a crappy way to wake up.

At least you're lying down when you wake up. It's not like they make you stand up after all that waiting on roller coa...

Never-mind.

sirloindude said:

Interesting how Carowinds has become such a core park in the Cedar Fair chain. It's one of my absolute favorite parks to visit.

Charlotte's one of the fastest growing cities in the country, it makes perfect sense that Cedar Point would prioritize Carowinds in this manner. Frankly I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner. I really think a lot of the money will go into improving the water park. They are, however, one of the last remaining CF parks to not have a GCI/modern wooden coaster.

I'm glad for it. If I could live anywhere in the US, it'd be Charlotte. I think I'm just taking note of this because it seemed like Carowinds was a second-tier park during the Paramount days and I seem to remember even hearing a few years ago that Carowinds was a big winner for Cedar Fair.

^I don't think the explosive growth in the region started until the late 90s. But you're right, Paramount didn't seem to do much except build kiddie lands.

I struggle with that part of the country. On one hand, it's really quite beautiful and full of kind and wonderful people, and on the other hand, it's politically as screwed up as Ohio, if not more.

Investment in Carowinds makes a lot of sense. I always viewed one of the primary goals of the Paramount acquisition as expanding the Cedar Fair footprint to areas of the country with more population growth and thus more growth potential for the business.

^especially because Ohio and Michigan are the rustiest rustbelt states and Cleveland is hemorrhaging population. Carowinds might end up Cedar Point South fifty years from now.

That's bogus information. It is true that Cuyahoga County (the county of which Cleveland is the seat) did lose nearly 5,000 people from 2011 to 2012, the second biggest loss of population of any county in the nation. But as a percentage of the county's population, it did better than 1,100 counties across the country--or fully a third of all counties. So that's not exactly 'hemorrhaging'; it might qualify as a slow leak.

Cleveland metro area and Ohio overall have pretty much been treading water in terms of population growth over the past 10+ years. Charlotte metro area and North Carolina have been growing over that time period. Relative to the rest of the country, Ohio has been losing population (just look at US House seats) for several decades.