Geauga Lake, future of the wild life side.

(just dreaming....) I wish CF would sell it back to Busch! (never gonna happen!) I would love Sea World on one side and a CF run Geauga Lake on the other....they would have that nice mutually benificial relationship they used to have!

Peabody, I totally agree!

But we still don't know why Busch sold

>?!?!

There wasn't really any growth potential for Busch at Sea World. They were buying up nearby homes as often as they could but it was a slow process.

We know why they sold....the lease prevented them from building rides unlike the other parks, it was the least profitable and had the most expense (caring for the animals when the park was closed.) Busch was happy to get rid of it.

Jeff,

When Six Flags bought Sea World Ohio, they released an OFFICIAL press release that they would add a dark ride, extend the monorail, new coasters, an interactive volvano, a 4-D, etc. This was from the park itself and was on their website even. In other words, these were not mere rumors made up by enthusiasts.

Sea World was NEVER closed...they had continous visits from schools on field trips! That sounds just like the people that said Shamu is gone, but they forgot about Shouka , the dolphins, an all the other animals...I should move out of this area, because I am growing more irate with the idioticies of the people in Ohio.

Zar: Show it to me. A park doesn't announce detailed cap ex several years out. That's like telling your competition, "Hey, here's what we'll do, so Cedar Point, you might want to adjust your plans accordingly."

midwave: The off-season education programs conducted by SeaWorld were a PR gesture, part of the company's conservation effort as a good corporate citizens that sells beer as their primary business. That was not a revenue source. Even Busch knew the long-term viability of running a park there was not good. If that wasn't true, they wouldn't have sold.

As for the "idioticies..." well, there's too much irony there to know where to begin. *** Edited 3/12/2004 7:04:07 PM UTC by Jeff***

Midwave, it occurs to me that you may not be easy to have a conversation with but I'll try.

Do you think for one minute that Sea World made any kind of a profit during the off season? They tried a few times with different winter events (in high schoold I once sang to a crowd of about 7 people...thanks mom...in one of their restaurants during a winter event) but they were never successful.

I don't know about any kind of interactive volvano but companies always announce big ideas when they move in and most don't pan out.

That monorail couldn't be extended. The company that built it went out of business years ago and any replacement parts have to be built by hand which is no easy task.

All of the other plans were put out there I'm sure with the caveat that they would not be bleeding money as bad as they were.

Jeff- URC Press release

When I find the NCC thread, I'll post the cool things they were planning for 2004 as well. Of course, they probably were just cool to me, but I'll post them nonetheless.

+Danny
-link edited to shorten it. -J *** Edited 3/12/2004 7:54:14 PM UTC by Jeff***

So where's the part about the 4-D or a hyper? It's not there. The park went on record with planning folks once saying they wanted to build a 200-foot tall attraction over there, and that was it.

Jeff,

The article that Danny has posted is the same one that had been on Six Flags' official website for a couple years after the purchase and in subsequent newspaper articles there were further references to a planned hyper coaster (including a rezoning agreement to address resident complaints and one article that even featured a picture of the hyper's layout!) as well as discussion of this whole Lost World area. So, now you can believe it.

By 4-D, I'm referencing the Dinosaur Spectacular thing that they never added, not the rollercoaster of the type. *** Edited 3/12/2004 8:02:54 PM UTC by Zar***

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Jeff said:
Even Busch knew the long-term viability of running a park there was not good. If that wasn't true, they wouldn't have sold.

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I don't think Busch was viable in the long term as operators of SeaWorld Ohio, and they prob. were looking to get out when the right opportunity came up. SFI came in and offered a virtual king's ransom for the place, and Busch problably laughed themselves all the way to the bank (and back again) with the money they got from that deal...

Of course, what do *I* know, I thought SF stood a good chance of denting the northern Ohio CP monopoly....but I assumed better leadership...(which only PROVES how little I really know, LOL)....:)

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Zar said:
Jeff,

When Six Flags bought Sea World Ohio, they released an OFFICIAL press release that they would add a dark ride, extend the monorail, new coasters, an interactive volvano, a 4-D, etc. This was from the park itself and was on their website even. In other words, these were not mere rumors made up by enthusiasts.

---

Read carefully in that press release "Six Flags is exploring several innovative concepts for this park including:..." That doesn't mean they were going to build, they were just thoughts.

I do remember the things that Zar says being mentioned a few years back, but I don't believe that they were ever any more than possible future expansion ideas. SFWOA could have been a nice park if Six Flags hadn't been so bull headed and intent on expanding so fast. They wanted to instantly take over the Northern Ohio market and in the process added too much too fast. The place wasn't ready for all the new rides and attractions and that resulted in the bad customer service which has been discussed by many. The bad customer service lead to people not going back to the park and that lead to Six Flags not being able to recoup the enormous debt that they had run up.

I remember thinking and discussing that Six Flags was making a huge mistake with their huge expansion plans. That mistake has been made all over the country and world and has put Six Flags into a very bad position. Six Flags didn't give up on Worlds of Adventure, they were put in a position where debt was crippling them and not letting them expand anymore and the guests were gone because of bad experiences that they had. Six Flags had no choice but to sell some parks (and lose money on them in the process) It is too bad though, I think that Six Flags did have a nice park in mind for SFWOA and if they had taken their time and built slowly, they probably would have had a serious rival for CP. What I truly don't understand is how a bunch of business people didn't realize the trouble they were creating.

I think that CF will be very successful in this market. Past history of the area has shown that it is capable of supporting this type of entertainment complex. CF has a history of expanding slowly and concentrating on ROI. By doing this and making the park different but compatable with CP, they should have a great vacation destination. *** Edited 3/12/2004 9:56:31 PM UTC by Natas***

Loriu - we may have good local bands, but the big punk/rock clubs were Laga and Metropol and occasionally Rock Jungle. Rock Jungle's gone, Metrolpol closed for the 90th time, and Laga has been forced out by rezoning of Forbes Ave for housing in the most absolutely heinous crime against music ever to be committed by this city. I would be willing to bet good money that a lot of that praise came directly from Laga which was really coming on as an incredible place to hear mid-popularity music, while not paying an arm and a leg. And by the end of the month, it'll be some crappy apartment some crackhead will get shot in and noone will want to live there anymore ... ok I'm done now =)

But I did have something to contribute to the topic - ok, we know that CF is closing the Wild Life side. Nothing has been definitely said about razing all the structures over there. Now, what about, as has been suggested, bringing in some "Experts"? Hasn't the Columbus Zoo tried to add rides before? Maybe in a year or two once the old Geauga Lake side of the park is back under control and making money, they could contract out Columbus Zoo to run the facilities on the other side of the park? Crazy idea, probably, but everyone else is going way out in left field too ...

CF and SF pulled this out of left field, so I guess everyone else feels welcome to do the same thing Brett. Your idea is about as crazy (and as good and likely) as the rest of them out now, so I guess the old crazy is the new average. ;)

+Danny

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Zar said:
The article that Danny has posted is the same one that had been on Six Flags' official website...

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Your point? I'm still looking for where they said they'd be building a hyper. *** Edited 3/13/2004 12:34:28 AM UTC by Jeff***

..."said at No Coaster Con."?

From redman822's No Coaster Con Notes:
Six Flags Worlds of Adventure
- adding more bleachers and shade structure in dolphin area
- instituting new training and rewards program for employees
- expanding greeter program
- adding more signage and benches
- rwb and big dipper rehab
- adding dolphin discovery - pre-reg needed - in water w/ dolphins $150.00 or 50 observer fee (before park opens)
- capuchin monkeys, anteaters, porcuipines,south american raccoons upclose encounters
- no plan to bring rocket ride back
- coaster height variance approved of 210ft on Wild Life side - no plans for it in 2004

That doesn't sound like a park that doesn't care about improving its guest service and adding things to increase positive customer experience. Again, if it was hurting SF, I'm glad they got out, but I was kind of interested in what the future would have been if they did hold onto the reigns. Maybe it would have been brighter and maybe not. But I liked having a major CF park, SF park, and Paramount park in Ohio.

I'm probably the only one that thinks its cool for an amusement park to do things like expand its greeter program, add cool animals like the monkeys and anteaters, doing rehab on two wooden coasters, and seeing a new employee training program come in since their service has been complained about by so many before. I think *I* feel like the failure here and I'm not sure why. :\

+Danny *** Edited 3/12/2004 11:50:49 PM UTC by +Danny***

Hi all, As reading the posts, its not as hard as it seems. Why not keep both parks running both with new attratctions to attract guests to northern Ohio they could travel and visit both parks and attractions. Cedar Fair made a good choice to buy the park. It is the ultimate profit for them. Not to mention since the "Sea World Side or Wildlife Side" is being torn they have the ultimate expansion area! They could build rides and maybe a certain section could contain shops that stay open all the time. It is a fantasy come to life! The Geauga Lake name will finally live up to what it was origanally. Cedar Point won't have to worry about anything, its huge! In my opinion, both parks will be just as successfull with each other and will cooperate just fine. With the money they make from both parks anything is possible! Oh the possibilities! If you read this just think about it. *** Edited 3/12/2004 11:17:33 PM UTC by DC2Beltz3***

We already have a zoo in Cleveland, and it's $6 including the Rain Forest. Six Flags was never going to be able to compete with that.

And Danny... what difference does it make what the park's intentions were? Too little, too late. Your defense of the prior management doesn't change the fact that it was a miserable failure.