CoasterEXT Q&A - Cutbacks and Cost Cutting is the Future

The Halloween event is something I absolutely loved at Geauga Lake. The one thing I never understood, however, is why the park opened every Friday night. Staffing was poor and a lot of attractions didn't open. Being from the Cleveland area, I know how popular high school football is here, I guess management didn't. When I visited on Saturdays and Sundays it seemed like the park was just as busy as days during the summer. The Halloween event was, unfortunately, another casualty of the park's cost-cutting.

I was driving past Geauga Lake on my way home from work today and I had a few more thoughts about the park. Even if we forget the argument about whether or not the removal of the two coasters directly impacts attendance, consider the unintended consequences. The thousands of people that drive past the park on Route 43 every day see a disgusting, abandoned water park, a roller coaster in the process of being dismantled, an empty, weed invested plot of dirt where a roller coaster used to stand, and a huge parking lot rarely more than a quarter of the way full. Combine this with Geauga Lake's advertising cutbacks and it does not surprise me one bit that people think the park is closed or getting torn down.

Maybe Geauga Lake should throw up a billboard in that old waterpark and let everyone driving by know that the park is open for the summer. It isn't much but at least it will let the locals know that the park is still open for business.