Clementon Lake sold to former Six Flags executives

I submitted this to news just so that I could add...

"Well, here we go again!"

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

New for Clementon in '12: 7 brand new cutting-edge steel coasters!

They could certainly use ONE.

I've only been there once. Hellcat is a very good, if way too short, wood coaster. The flume is one of the better ones I've been on, and the waterpark has potential.

"...Ring of Fire, a 60-foot looping roller coaster..."

ROFL! :)

^Would you look at who the cat dragged in.....hi Rob!

Apparently it's CPG home week! :)

edit: When we rode Tsunami (it wasn't politically incorrect to call it that back in the Stone Age of coasters), it was a simply fabulous ride. By almost all accounts, it has gone downhill....and added brakes, IIRC. The layout was just NOT conducive to easy upkeep - mid-ride helices being a pretty major no-no in my book.

Vater said:
New for Clementon in '12: 7 brand new cutting-edge steel coasters!

New for Clementon in '13: Norton Auction!

Assuming that they (Story & Burke) are purchasing these parks with outside investment money, I can't imagine that there are actually people out there who will actually invest their hard earned money in these two, and their long history of overcapitalizing their properties.

Is there no such thing as due dilligance anymore?

I imagine anything those two guys do with amusement parks they do to satisfy their own ego. These guys are not what I'd describe as success stories in the industry.

They are great of borrowing money, not great at paying it back.

Jeff, I think you've nailed it. Watching what they did with Premier, I am convinced that many of the decisions made were solely based on Burke's ego. Case in point: I'm fairly certain that the reason AstroWorld was closed in a hurry just as the company was being taken over was because the guy doing the taking over had said that he wouldn't do it. Even a better example would be the Six Flags purchase: he lost the SFOT management contract and responded by coming around two days later and buying the whole company. To me this doesn't sound like entirely rational business practices; it sounds like somebody who can't stand to lose.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Can anyone really screw up Clementon park? It's been run badly for decades

Funny thing about Clementon (the only one time) when I was there in 2006; in retrospect the place kinda reminded me of Camden except with no rides (but one VERY rough S&S woodie). Or maybe it reminds me of Camden (which I LOOOOOVE) b/c it starts with a C and ends with an N.

^^^Decision making based on ego was my impression of Story as well. I don't know how factual this is but apparently Gary Story worked at SFSL many moons ago. Shortly after Premier bought Six Flags, supposedly Story personally went and axed or pushed out a couple of the management folks he'd clashed with that were still in the company. Again, I don't know for certain if it's true but it doesn't sound too far out of character.

billb7581 said:
Can anyone really screw up Clementon park? It's been run badly for decades

Get back with us when they've pushed this and a few other small parks they'll inevitably purchase to closure/bankruptcy. I give it not more than 10 years, if even that.

Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't gone after the New Orleans park. Even they must recognize that's a truly lost cause if they haven't.

...supposedly Story personally went and axed or pushed out a couple of the management folks he'd clashed with that were still in the company.

That's not an issue of ego, that's just normal human behavior.

CoasterDemon said:
Funny thing about Clementon (the only one time) when I was there in 2006; in retrospect the place kinda reminded me of Camden except with no rides (but one VERY rough S&S woodie). Or maybe it reminds me of Camden (which I LOOOOOVE) b/c it starts with a C and ends with an N.

Even funnier, so does your handle-- start with a C and end with an N.

Jeff said:
That's not an issue of ego, that's just normal human behavior.

Holding a grudge for over 30 years seems creepy to me. It was back in the '70s when he worked there.

This reminds me of their decision to buy Wyandot Lake - an old, very small traditional park off the beaten path, with a few rides and a modest size waterpark. Main business decisions were likely the extremely low operating costs allow for big potential profits. Large city populations nearby to draw from, but local repeat customer market is their target audience. Get them in the gate cheap, then nickle and dime every last bit of their money on games, food, merchandise, parking, locker rentals, inner tube and cabana rentals, yada yada

They didn't buy Wyandot Lake. They bought Funtime, and got the Wyandot contract an some of the hardware as part of the package.

It did turn out to be a nice cash cow, though. Consistent performance from the drop off crowd, and virtually no reinvestment in the park...rumor has it they had the best per cap profit of any park in the chain, and most years they didn't even sell park T-shirts!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.