Conneaut Lake losses "accelerate year after year"

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

A public meeting was held Sunday to discuss the future of the now 115 year-old Conneaut Lake Park. The park is now over two million dollars in debt. They were forced to take out a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar loan last year just to open the facility. A financial advisor said, "The amount that it's losing seems to be accelerating from year to year."

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Conneaut Lake

Might as well repeat my forum comments here:

No idea what the park can do. I do think it's the area the park is in that's dying more than the park itself.

Location, location, location!

And the location of CLP seems to me to be a dying, seasonal, very localized, weekend getaway style town - the built-in, summer-long, audience of vacationers doesn't exist anymore. (at least not on the level it used to)

But what do I know. I'm not a resident Pennsylvanian anymore, so I have no business making such accusations, I suppose.

I'd say Lord Gonchar is right. It is definitely in a bad location and if I'm not mistaken, a lot of people actually think the park already closed. There have been so many news articles floating around over the past few years. They're bound to confuse people.

I randomly had the opportunity to visit the park this summer by luck. I took advantage knowing it could close any year. I guess this is kind of a Wal Mart vs small business war. Wal Mart always wins. The larger parks are more appealing.

When I visited in '98, I got the feeling it was once a thriving vacation spot that lost its appeal in recent years. Not sure how they could fix the situation.

You would think that a classic hotel with a neighboring park on a busy lake would still appeal to summer vacationers.

How does Indiana Beach stay busy? It's sort of the same scenero.

IB is the only game in town....unless you count the one coaster at the Indy zoo, there ain't squat for a 3-hour drive, amusements-wise. Plus, they've got Indianapolis. Conneaut has some population in the vicinity, but FAR too much competition.

"Competition + population centers" is the SAME discussion we continue to have about SF. When you're the ONLY game in town, you've got something that's hard to match. Add that in with the facts: IB is *superb*, and continues to invest and re-invest. The scenarios, IMO, couldn't be MORE different.

"Competition + population centers" is the SAME discussion we continue to have about SF.

I'm glad you see the parallels. Now go over to the CLP thread in the forums and explain it. :)

i do hope they open this year. i was finally going to make it out there and waldameer along with kennywood this summer. support your local parks people, they are fast disappearing and its sad. it's not all about six flags!
*** This post was edited by robert mosley 2/1/2007 12:24:27 AM ***

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