Cedar Fair maintains quarterly distribution

"I still don't get why they're building such an expensive ride at Canada's Wonderland. . .how do you justify it when the park is doing exceptionally well without it? Will the ROI really be there?"

Mathmatically, if you assume an average admission charge of $30 and per cap expendiatures of another $40 that is $70 per guest per trip.

$21m divided by $70 means they need 300,000 visits to pay off the thing--not counting operating expenses. So they need 300,000 new visitors this year, or 100,000 per year for 3 years, or some combination in between. Again, not counting operating expenses.

That's not nearly as bad as I thought

"Don't they at least catch a break this year with the weakening of the dollar vs. the loonie? Or do I have that backwards?"

Depends. It would be more expensive for US residents to go to CW and cheaper for Canadian residents to visit a US park

However, if they have the same number of visitors it would look as higher revenue on the accounting statements. (Example: 1m guests at $70 CAN per guest = $70m CAN. $70m CAN at 90 cents to the US dollar = $63m US. Assuming the loonie rises to 99 cents $70m CAN = $69.3m US)
*** This post was edited by Captain Hawkeye 1/28/2008 8:36:43 PM ***

^ I was thinking more along the lines of construction materials and labor costs with the weakening dollar.

Isn't per cap simply the total amount of revenue divided by the total attendance-- and includes admission, food, souvenirs, parking, etc.? I don't think total spending is a per cap plus admission. Even though "regular" admission exceeds $40, don't forget those numbers get diluted by season passes, discounts, junior, senior, and twilight admissions.