Conneaut and Kennywood

I wonder if Kennywood had any thoughts to buying Conneaut?

I had wondered that but I think if they had they probably realized that the park was a moneypit. They seem to buy only stable profitable parks from my outsiders viewpoint.

It's common sense. The point of acquiring parks is to make more money--what money is to be had in a park that is millions in debt and doesn't get enough visitors to sustain itself?

You guys are right,the number of visitors wouldnt justify the cost,but could you imagine what Kennywood could do to this place?

Its nice to dream..

If I hit the powerball,maybe I'll buy it :)

I would look at Waldameer as a possible KW buyout if Mr. Nelson dies and the heirs don't want to run a park. That would prevent this park from going the way of WVP and CLP.

Waldameer appears to be profitable at this time and should only get better with RF2. The location at the entrance to Presque Isle should help them attract more tourists and the locals remain supportive of this park.

KW could be counted on to take good care of the park, especially RF2, Comet and the darkrides.

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Arthur Bahl said:
I would look at Waldameer as a possible KW buyout if Mr. Nelson dies and the heirs don't want to run a park.

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For what he has done with that park, it would be an absolute travesty for one of his family members not to take over.

If not one of his family members, than a person that he has hand picked that has as much love for that park as he has had.

I do not think KW is interested in CLP primarily because of the way that the land footprint is structured. You have a unique mix of private cottages interspersed throughout the park and making any major modifications would be ridiculously expensive. Keeping the park basically as it is with minor modifications is the only possible way to keep it open.

Waldameer would be a sensible fit if were to be available. I bet others would covet it as well.

I thought KW might have been interested in Williams Grove with lots of room to grow and being located between Pgh and Lake Compounce it would have made geographic sense, but I am guessing they did not want to try and compete with Hershey being that close.

Whatever KW does decide it usually works out well.

The public stewards involved with CLP will eventually need to decide if the land is to be sold off or retained for public use. That to me needs to be the next step. Either way it will be a contentious affair and could lead to the amusements on site sitting unused for years. The state of Pennsylvania needs to step up and prevent this with a grant to keep the park going. 2008 will be the absolute final chance and we will know the result by May 1, 2008.

LC was not a stable park when KW invested in it. What made it desirable was the lack of major amusement parks in Connecticut, with tiny Quassy being the only other amusement park in the state. Besides Quassy, LCs competition came mostly from Riverside Park (now SFNE) and Rye Playland.

When Riverside metamorphasized into a megapark, that left a niche for LC to fit into. It also helped that the park was historic (the oldest amusement park in North America) and had some infrastructure improvements left over from the ill-fated Hershey renovations.

In addition to all of the above, KW has pretty much filled the niche of each type of park-goer without competing with itself.

Traditional park/thrill rides = KW

Idlewild aims mostly at the kiddieland market... "family" park at its best , with neat themes and side attractions for the non-riders of the family.

Sandcastle is the water park.

What would KW turn Conneaut into? If they fixed the place up a bit, the most it would equal to is Idlewild without the story book forest/Mister Rogers land. Not that its a bad thing.. just a thing that KW would probably not invest in, especially since they already have that, plus the added family attractions at Idlewild.

What Conneaut needs is to be taken over by someone like Del Grosso's. But who the heck wants to absorb that kind of debt???

:(

If anyone bought it there is quite a bit of land to expand,you would have to fill in the water where the Jungle Cruise use to be,that land right now is doing nothing.