Conneaut Lake opening contingent on land sale

Wow, that's really bad news. Every year the park looks for ways to find money just to operate. They can't keep going on like this. Selling land is a one-time deal, and you decrease the value of the property when you do it. Without profit, that money just disappears.

^Agreed.
It seems like every year the Meadville Trib runs the same story about a shaky opening date. I'll hopefully be camping there for a weekend this summer.
If it doesn't open, there will be a few angry people that purchased those 100 dollar bricks.

Forget the Medville Tribune. It will all be better.

Oh no…it is the final kiss of death for the park. …an Agent Johnson assurance of “no worries!” :-)

Just last July you (AJ) thought Libertyland was “do”ing “fine” too.

http://coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=42580

I mean this in good humor AJ! I only remembered your screen name because I thought your Libertyland optimism was 180 degrees from my experience at the park.

While I appreciate optimism and indeed hope CLP finds a way to keep afloat, there is no way to look at this situation and see a lot of hope! Absent divine intervention this place is history. These small parks that only maintain (I use this term lightly) current attractions without investment capabilities cannot compete.

While I love the “atmosphere” of the small park and would indeed choose most picnic parks over the regionalized themer…I realize that my personal choices due not mesh with economic realities!

…as always I advise those of you who enjoy small parks to visit them while you still can! William’s Grove, Libertyland, and possibly Conneaut could fail in one calendar year. It does not take a genius to read the writing on the wall!

*** This post was edited by Jeffrey R Smith 4/25/2006 3:10:50 PM ***

I am slightly confused

If they sell a chunck of the land, then the park is out of the red. Correct? or close to it? And this is bad?

If the park keeps the land than it will continue to get deeper and deeper in the hole unless there happens to be some kind of miracle, right?

I believe that the park has no choic but too seel a chunk of the property?

So in turn this move could actually give the park a future, right?

At the moment, if nothing happens (meaning if the land is not sold) than the park will continue to be in serious trouble correct?

This might be the only move the park has to secure a future, lets face it, this might be the only way to get out of the hole. Yes they will loose land and property value, but the park isn't generating much money per season. I believe that the park has lost money over the past couple of seasons?

Tell me whay you guys think.

No, if they need the money to open, then this isn't about paying off debt, it's about having the funds to operate.

The fact is that its the most valuable piece of land thats undeveloped in the facility.

I guess selling off land is only a good thing if you're 2 BILLION in debt.

I love Conneaut Lake but I think the small town politics will get a strangle hold on this park. I support GM Deshner but I have a bad feeling about "court appointed custodian" Leroy Sterns. Something about selling land and developers. You give an inch they want a foot.

The land there is not work $600k per acre, the idea of paying off their entire debt is a fantasy.

In my opinion they should lease the park to a private operator, perhaps retired park managers from the region. The current crew has a conflict of interest.

Cabins and houses are cheap in that area.
I've checked realtor . com. it's like, the closer you get to the park, the cheaper they are.
By Contrast, the Chippewa lake area has roughly the same size houses and are 3x as much. Most of the houses around there look real bad.