Cedar Fair to buy SFWoA

You are wrong KoasterKing...SF was looking for a buyer and knew CF would take it based on D. Kinzel's previous stated remarks about missing out the first time. SF thought they could plop down a few new rides and the crowds would flock to the park.
Give CF a break...instead of trying to duplicate the initail flop SFWOA had when Sea World was purchased, they stepped back and will evaluate what to do with the "WildSide".
Yes, I was at the park in 2003, and truly, won't miss anything from that side. If I want to see animals I'll visit a zoo. A very SMALL percentage of last year's attendance only came to SFWOA because of the "WILDSIDE". Even if all of them do not return this year, I am sure attendance will be higher because the general public PRECEIVES it will be a better park because of the reputation of CF.
Don't believe me? Just watch the local news in Cleveland and see the comments from the "locals" who are thrilled CF has taken over the park. CF has a reputation of being a winner and the expections are high for what GL can be. *** Edited 3/11/2004 8:37:19 PM UTC by The One The Only Coaster God***

I think Walt's referring to the word "Gee", not just a phonetic phrase.

I don't know why SF said they weren't going to sell any of their parks awhile back then if they were actually looking for a buyer. I *guess* that if CF actually kept the wildlife side, it wouldn't be as profitable as the rides side alone anyways. I know what you're saying and would like to see this survey that found only a small percentage of people wanted to go to WOA last year due to the Wildlife side, but I still would have liked to see someone buy the park that would take it in the same direction WOA was going. Business-wise, it's probably not a great idea for anyone to try besides Disney, Universal, or Busch though if the wildlife side was kept open.

-Danny

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Koaster King said:
I mean, I doubt SF was just looking for someone to buy the park. Don't you think CF was the one that approached them?

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So it's just a fabulous coincidence that they announced the sale of all the European parks in the same day? I think not.

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Try the G in Guess for example

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OK, but that's "guess." I'm talking "gee." I understand that English is not phonetic. But in this specific case, I think the point was made.

*** Edited 3/11/2004 8:52:37 PM UTC by Gemini***

Good point Jeff, but didn't they say at the same time that they were looking to focus more on the American parks awhile back?

SF had more parks with much lower attendance and bigger decreases last year than WOA, but if I owned SF and thought I needed to sell one of the parks, WOA would have been it for me as well. It's just odd that they didn't add much in 2002 and 2003 yet people thought their attendance needed to raise like a park that just added two major coasters to be a success. SFWOA's biggest problem was trying to turn a nice-sized traditional park into a megapark in two years. It has taken CP, PKI, SFMM, and SFGAm years to do that in the way of seasonal parks.

-Danny *** Edited 3/11/2004 8:57:39 PM UTC by Koaster King***

Walt-What about like in McGee? Or does English just suck?! :)

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If Six Flags didn't want to sell the park and could of done with out selling their park they wouldn't of sold it for a lost of 70 million dollars. Just saying hopefully that doesn't sound harsh..I remember hearing that too KoasterKing but the park didn't perform like expected. *** Edited 3/11/2004 9:07:38 PM UTC by Maynard*** *** Edited 3/11/2004 9:08:50 PM UTC by Maynard***

You can't sell a park for the same value you purchased everything for at the beginning. Most things like rides go down in value and you can take out the cost of the animals as well since they will be going elsewhere.

-Danny

The key difference between WoA and most other SF parks is the presence of competition. In most of their other markets, there isn't a serious competitor right nearby. The one other I can think of is SFMM, and when last I checked, every other SoCal park out-draws it.

US attendance rank for 2003 (from AB):
2) Disneyland 12.7M
8) DCA 5.3M
10) Universal Hollywood 4.5M
13) Sea World SD 4.0M
14) Knott's 3.4M
19) SFMM 3.0M

Granted, SFMM is only open weekends during the offseason, but perhaps that's an effect, not a cause.

"McGee" does not equal "Gee" :)

Gee is an English word. It's only pronunciation is 'jE. If he had asked for proper pronunciation, I would have put in accents, syllables, and such. I don't think there was any "am-b&-'gyü-&-tE in my answer. :)

SFMM is more out of the way for the people visiting Disney and the major areas in LA from what I've heard. I wouldn't expect a SF park to do as well as a Disney or Universal park no matter what the location and Knott's has the advantage of being down the street from Disney. All of the SeaWorld parks are extremely popular too, but all of these parks have more of a family draw than SFMM. Adventure City, Legoland, Pacific Park, Scandia, Castle, Pharoahs Lost Kingdom, Belmont, etc. are in SoCal too with lower attendance. Of course, I wouldn't expect these parks to have attendance as high as a SF park anywhere close either.

-Danny

Disclaimer: I am not trying to continue the SF=bad service issue.

Hubby and I went to WoA in 2001. We'd been to CP just two weeks before. I loved GL & CP as a kid and had nothing but great memories of both parks. WoA was a huge let down for me when we got there, we couldn't believe how different (in a negative way) WoA was. And that was before we started comparing CP & WoA. At that point we decided our amusement park bucks were going to be better spent at CP, but I'll gladly support CF's effort at GL this summer. Ever since, I have commented to friends and family that there were two redeeming things about WoA: Batman Knight Flight and (to a lesser degree) X-Flight.

After hearing that CF bought WoA, I started getting really excited. CP season pass accepted or not, I really want to go this year. GL probably won't live up to the expectations that I envision for 2005, but I want to be pleased to see a difference in the park from the last dirty, painful (in the back from poor ride maintenance), and disappointing overall feel of the park from 2001.

I think that CF has a really good idea in trying to keep the old GL feel to the park. I don't want to see the two parks compete directly (yes, I do realize that they kind of will). I want to be able to enjoy the parks because they are different and enjoyable because of their respective atmospheres and histories.

I go to amusement parks for the rides, atmosphere, and just a place that leaves the troubles at home. Sea World was great, but I'd rather there be no animals and let CF do what they do best. I'm just grateful that I won't see another park where I have great memories eventually fall into the same fate as Idora Park, Meyers Lake, and many of the other small amusement parks around Northeastern Ohio.

Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

Laura

edited for a grammar correction *** Edited 3/11/2004 9:51:30 PM UTC by Raptorgirl***

I won't claim I loved the park in 2001 or 2002, so you can have those arguements with someone else from now on. 2003 is when it really shined. I can't comment on 2001 especially though because I don't remember much affecting me one way or the other. I know I wasn't impressed with them at first though, especially the wildlife part.

-Danny

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Koaster King said:
I don't know Gonch. I mean, I doubt SF was just looking for someone to buy the park. Don't you think CF was the one that approached them?

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I suspect Six Flags made the first move. Why would Cedar Fair buy the park unless it was OFFERED it? It's not like they were worried about shutting down the competition. WHAT competition? Worlds of Adventure was being trounced by Cedar Point (this coming from someone who LIKED Worlds of Adventure, BTW).

So will Happy Harbor be open this year?

The play area, flats, Mission: Bermuda Triangle, and the Pirates 3d movie, will all of those be open? I haven't heard anything on that yet. I know the whole Wild Life side will be closed, but is that technically a part of the Wild Life side anyway? It'd be smart if they opened just that part, don't you think?

It was mentioned during the conference call that the Enterprise ride would probably be the only ride not operating this year.

What are people actually expecting CF to do here that SF didn't? They might add another train to a couple of the coasters. They might have 1 more ride open (Texas Tornado) that wasn't consistantly open last year. They don't think Silver Bullet will be ready at first. They scrapped the wildlife side, so they have one less major thing to deal with. Is everyone saying that SF couldn't do with the Wild Rides side if they never bought the Wildlife side what CF can do? Is that what all the hooray, hooray hoopla is about? SF was daring in trying to operate all of those attractions and dealing with all of those things. SFWOA probably had the biggest staff and number of attractions of the entire chain and was getting a lower attendance than GAdv, GAm, MM, and SFOG. Now those parks also had the advantage of not doubling its size in a couple years, so there were definitely some mistakes in deciding what to do with the park.

-Danny

The Monterey Aquarium has a torus-shaped tank that guests can stand in the middle of by going up a stairway. The tank has a left-to-right current. Almost every fish in the tank swims with the current, except one. He always swims in the opposite direction. We've always referred to him as the "I gotta be me" fish.

I've been thinking about that fish nearly all day.

Who knew sheep and lemmings swam? ;)

Either the Six Flags or Understanding-Respect-Tolerance train doesn't stop here anymore. Either way, this thread is *closed* to me and I'll wait until I hear CF's plans before I pass any other thoughts on. It's not like we can go back now and it doesn't really matter if you guys liked it or not. I had the good times and am still kind of jealous some people have enjoyed other parks in the past more than I have. I like SOB and Viper at GAdv though and look forward to Vekoma creations when they're announced, so I make a good arguments with myself that I have absolutely no room to talk. ;)

-Danny