Cedar Fair to buy SFWoA

Pat: There aren't a lot of other reasons to ever be around the park unless you live there. Indeed, hotels have to live by the park's success. If that weren't true, the area around Sandusky wouldn't have any hotels.

Most hotels, anyway. There's a big hotel down the road a bit more, I forget what it's called, that does a lot of conference stuff. We had an off-site retreat there a couple of years ago when I worked at Penton Media.

Jeff,

Are you talking about Sawmill Creek with the golf course?

If I were the hotel operators I wouldn't be worried about closing the wildlife side this season so much as I would worry about the future and whether or not Cedar Fair will build more hotels of its own. THAT is where the money is at for Cedar Fair.

While the local hotel owners may not be able to market the park itself as a reason to stay overnight I think they COULD market the park, Aurora Farms, the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation area, etc which make for a complete vacation.

No, Sawmill Creek could certainly exist on its own. I'm talking about the dozens of places between CP and the turnpike. Without the park, there'd be little reason for any of those places to exist. The islands now, that's a different story.

In some ways, I would think that Cedar Fair's effort to return to a family amusement park could restore an image that better fits with the other attractions in the area you mention. However, that kind of got trashed when they put all that crap across the street from the GL lot. Not to mention it used to be a wetland (as Steph frequently reminds me).

Wahoo: that's what I was thinking, which is why the conference call should have been viewed as *good* news to the hotel operators, not bad news. Kinzel as much as said that (a) CF did not plan on building more rooms and (b) CF would operate the Inn open only seasonally.

Do a lot of the snadusky hotels close for the off-season though? The whole idea is that they play off the point.

Even if that's the case with the Aurora hotels, they still shouldn't be so reliant on SFWOA sending them business, they should be finding the business SFWOA creates. Is that better wording of what I'm thinking?

Sounds to me (especially with the 80% one) that it's been pretty much a free ride the last season or two and now someone might actually have to work at getting some business.

The same opportunities for occupancy will be there, you'll just have to go get it instead of it being handed to you. In that aspect, it came off as 'whiny' to me.

Same with the "we already printed promotional material" - what was Kinzel supposed to say to that?

"Sh*t happens, next time we'll be sure to work our multi-million dollar aquisitions around your little hotel's printing schedule"

Maybe I'm cynical.

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While the local hotel owners may not be able to market the park itself as a reason to stay overnight I think they COULD market the park, Aurora Farms, the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation area, etc which make for a complete vacation.

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Exactly! Now that's thinking like a proactive hotelier.

I also see no reason they couldn't market cleveland too. It's close enough. In the winter season in Allentown, my wife did Pocono ski packages and the Poconos were 40 miles away. That was mostly responsible for covering the slow winter when Dorney was closed.

*** Edited 3/12/2004 4:20:59 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

I don't think it was a free ride; I think the hotels paid a substantial sum to be a "preferred lodging partner." In effect, that *was* their advertising budget.

A free ride in the sense of finding people to fill the hotel.

Oh god, now I'm being Danny, huh? ;) (kidding Danny!)

I'm talking on a personal level. I'm assuming the callers were directly from the hotels in question (GM's, Sales Coordinators, etc) and not the higher up corporate guys.

It still sounded to me more like "Now I have to put some effort into hitting those budget numbers, rather than throwing some cash Six Flags' way and having them hand me the business"

EDIT - Let me put it another way. I still haven't replayed the call so this is all memory again. But wasn't the call something along the lines of (paraphrasing):

"We already printed materials and now we have to make new promo items." Kinzel is left hanging thinking "WTF?" He repeated it, then ended with "How soon can we expect GL info so we can make new promotional material"

A much better way to ask the same question:

"We're really excited about this new opportunity and look forward to working with the park. I think this will be great for everyone involved. How soon can we expect the GL information so we can get started on making promotional materials?"

Better verbage, less whine.

*** Edited 3/12/2004 4:38:44 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

That's EXACTLY the impression I got, too, Gonchar. It seemed like he was expecting Kinzel and friends, with all the details of their deal needing attention, to give a crap that he already printed a bunch of brochures with the old name.

:) Gonch.

I picked up Koaster King about 3 years ago at a rest stop near SFWOA actually. It's a rare personality disease that affects the core of the body, usually passed on to other public restrooms, where random fits of outrage, cluelessness, and negative reactions are released. Maybe that passed on to SFWOA that season? Luckily, that's cleared up... And the rash too. ;)

Anyways, I say cynical can be fun and you can really claim it if you're wiling to powerride SOB, SLCs, Boomerangs, and Viper at GAdv like yours truly. Rob Willi and I get into that mode when preparing for SOB while the rest of the group is padding themselves with pillows and alcohol the night before. Might as well enjoy it while my back and neck are still fully functional, lol.

+Danny, get it? =D

All this debate about the wildlife side.....my pipe dreaming self wishes CF would sell the side back to Busch, they can bring it back to it's former glory, etc :) I would love Sea WOrld on one side of the lake, and a CF operated Geauga Lake on the other! :)

I'm looking forward to round wheels on BKF with maybe (GASP!) all three trains running!

The best was getting an email on the 9th from Six Flags promoting Worlds of Adventure and having a special column on penguins! Did anyone else get that one? Anyways, there's a new article in today's Plain Dealer about this switchover and animal exodus.

I really don't think that SeaWorld was a sustainable business anymore. Open your gates five months out of the year and feed the animals year-round. Busch was desperate to get bodies into the park, as your single-day ticket in the last year was like a season pass for the rest of the year.

Abslolutely, and since the original lease had a provision about thrill rides, they were very limited in their expansion options. Nonetheless, I still wish it was there :)

To be fair, the Busch parks are still doing that at their year-round properties today. A single-day Sea World Orlando ticket is $54. A calendar-year pass is $60.

But, people are in the parks year round spending money on food, merchandise, etc. They weren't doing that in Ohio.

I agree Jeff (Peabody).

(Not directed to anyone in particular) I don't know why you're not allowed to say you like something without it having to be related with how good of a business it was or whatever. It doesn't matter if you're the only person in the world that likes it. My ex-girlfriend liked peanut butter on spam... It doesn't mean she's wrong for liking that if it sounds gross, is gross to you, or wouldn't be a popular choice for a lot of people to do.

Who cares if it would have been successful or not? Liking SFWOA, SWOhio, the original Jazzland, Idora Park, or any business does not mean it worked for everyone or that it was a good business. It just means that you liked it and it's not really harder than that. Don't complicate things.

P's, y'all. :)

Danny

^^Are you the artist formerly known as Koasterking??

TAFKAKK! Woohoo more acronyms! I love acronyms!
(and the light goes on as to why in the hell I chose engineering ... )

Yay for TPFKASFWoA! Yay for TCFKAS:UE! ... ok, I'm done now and yes it has been a VERY slow day at the office ...

-- Brett (TAFKAPD)

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Jeff said:
Most hotels, anyway. There's a big hotel down the road a bit more, I forget what it's called, that does a lot of conference stuff. We had an off-site retreat there a couple of years ago when I worked at Penton Media.

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The Bertram Inn (I think)? We stayed there for two nights last year and were looking forward to returning this year as well. True 4 star hotel in Aurora. Nice.

Plans have changed now. We drove the six hours from Chicago for the variety that WoA offered. We did a day on the Rides side, a day on the Life side and another in the waterpark. Good times.

In fact, cut a day off of our scheudled visit to CP to extand at WoA. Plans for this year included skipping CP entirely, opting instead for another three day stay SFAurora.

My first and, well, last visit to WoA last August was amazing. I had the Danny experience that so many others here didn't. Too bad. How much did I like the park? Been to maybe 30 - 35 in my lifetime and it took over the number 1 spot on my all time fave list.

Me? I'm gonna miss the park I enjoyed so much in 2003.

Kinda, sorta. I explained it on the last page I think. That character has been retired.

+Danny