Cedar Fair puts 2007 attendance at 22 million

And what numbers are missing? Same park basis, regardless of whether or not they owned the parks. What was, for example, Kings Island's full-year attendance year over year? It doesn't matter who owned it.

Leaving things out of these kinds of releases is starting to annoy.

I'd love to know the figures for Geauga Lake.

Jeff, I agree. I always thought their reports were a little conflicting, like 'attendance before Geauga Lake vs. after Geauga Lake', which leads to this one....how do they report attendance at GL?

Will it be with the new GL 'with rides or without rides'?

I couldn't agree more. This release is about as useful as the release to the Register that they are studying the viability of a new office building.

How is that information reported of any use to an investor or a potential investor?

I guess it would be a little embarassing to report that the numbers were up at Geauga Lake even though they decided to close it. (If that is the case.)

So, who is the release targeted to? A potential buyer?*** This post was edited by wahoo skipper 1/9/2008 4:56:38 PM ***

Here:

"Kinzel concluded by noting that the Company plans to issue a news release and host a conference call with analysts on Thursday, February 7, 2008 to discuss 2007 fourth quarter and full year earnings results for Cedar Fair."

So if I remember correctly, the last full year of Paramount:

PKI just under 3 m
PCW right at 3 m
PC, PGA and PKD average around 2 m each

Being conservative, the P-Parks were about 11 million guests.

So the former Paramount Parks are over half of the attendance of the combined company?

Also, I agree with Jeff, I would bet that once again they are comparing a partial year in 2006 to a full year in 2007.

The goal of all of this is stated in the purchase documents (see the Cedar Fair website). They are trying to pump the value of the stock back up, so they can sell more shares, (diluting the value of the existing shares) and use that to finance part of their humongous debt.

It will be interesting to see if the loan payments were interest only.

I doubt very much that they'll sell more units. There would be a revolt for sure if that happened.

it was stated as part of the intended financing during the purchase. The only reason they didn't pursue it, is the unit price dropped 20% as soon as they announced the deal.

No, it was never "intended." They filed a shelf issue in 2004 so they would have the option to do so in a hurry if they so desired, at any point in the first two years. I don't recall them filing another since.

I know this is a couple years old, but you guys were wondering about park to park attendance figures.

In a Plain Dealer article from 5-23-2006 talking about the Paramount aquisition, it lists all the parks 2005 attendance figures. It says the source of the info is Cedar Fair.

Great America - 1,800,00

Knotts - 3,600,000 plus 755,000 at the 3 Soak Cities

Worlds of Fun & Oceans of Fun - 1,100,000

Michigan's Adventure - 550,000

Valleyfair - 986,000

Kings Island - 3,100,000

Cedar Point - 3,500,000

Geauga Lake & Wild Water Kingdom - 700,000

Canada's Wonderland - 3,300,000

Dorney Park & Wild Water Kingdom - 1,500,000

Kings Dominion - 2,100,000

If I added that up right you get a total of 24,891,000

I'm wondering if these numbers are really accurate. It seems unlikely that they'd drop from almost 25 million to 19 million in 1 season. That would not have gone over well with unitholders.*** This post was edited by Jason Hammond 1/13/2008 12:26:13 PM ***

Those numbers are way off. CP has not done 3.5 million in a very long time. If it wasn't in 2000, it was 1994.

Judging by the inflated numbers, I wonder if they ever would break away and give a 'hard report' vs a 'soft report', which is cash paying per admission vs season pass repeats.

Jeff is correct, Cedar Point just can't hit 3 million. They hit that number in the late 80's, and Magnum put them over to stay.

However, they are visited in cycles, such as Pittsburghers visit every 3 years on the average. Detroit gets them every 2 years, and so on. Thats just industry estimates. You can't count the coaster enthusiast rebuttle I am sure to see to read later today on how "I visit them every year, like 8 times".

Rule of thumb in the industry was that Paramount release pretty accurate figures, being they were a public company. PKI was always eager to release better numbers than CP. Now, KI will always be second banana for eternity. Always look for CP to win. Always.

Here is a no brainer. When figures are released next winter, CP will have a 'substantial increase', citing 'new kiddie play area', and closing of nearby Geauga Lake's rides. They will post the 15% one time increase.

Geauga Lake will post about 275,000, citing lack of dry rides, but strong revenue to the bottom line. Then, you will see the decline in 2009 and 2010.

If I owned a sustantial amount of shares of Cedar Fair, which I do not, I would hire Jeff to be the media watchdog, since he is more aware of the changes up there than any manager I have stumbled across lately.

^I don't own any shares either. I have units though. ;) I'm not sure why they're not called shares.*** This post was edited by Jason Hammond 1/14/2008 2:19:21 PM ***