Herschend to acquire Palace Entertainment

This will be great for the employees, first and foremost.
I do expect more emphasis on guest service given Herschend's reputation and alignment to values.
Hard to say what this means for the coaster nerds. Their park in Georgia is not a hotbed of ride capital investment.

But KK is, probably because it has a larger population it can draw from. I suspect Kennywood will continue to get investments given its draw.

My wife's idea:

Sweet potato fries with cinnamon sugar topping and optional cinnamon roll icing either drizzled or for dipping.

If New SF is looking to sell any parks soon this just made it harder to find a buyer.

Castle Park and Dutch Wonderland have gotten some good love by Palace, will be interesting to see Herschend adjust to thier portfolio.

That being said the CF impact at SF over GA looks way quicker then expected on opening day.

Excellent point, not only did one operator exit the market completely, another one will be taking on a huge burden by nearly doubling in size. They also become unavailable to play ball. I suspect Six was waiting for Herschend to make a move, one way or the other.

So who is left to buy?

SEAS initially tried to buy Cedar, pivoted to hotel development, but recently have downplayed that interest too. I'd say they are one of the only players left.

Wild Adventure might not have been shown a lot of coaster love, but Dollywood sure has. SDC hasn't been on the same trajectory, but every several years something was added.

Looks to me like prudent growth.

Dollywood I believe is a special case as it’s my understanding that the partnership agreement requires a major new investment every 2 years.

Herschend Gardens Tampa Bay would get me to go back

A lot of the company's success can be attributed to Dolly. Just thinking about all she has done...

Thankfully Dolly has never been limp, soggy or unseasoned. 😝

tservo:

RIP Giant Taco Stand

I love that some OG members remember the dumbest news.

Anyway, this is amazing news. I don't think any operator has built as consistent of a reputation as Herschend. And a lot of these parks are classics that need the right touch.

Mary Lou was shown the door after that, so extra bad memory for her…

Seeing that was over 17 years ago makes me want some Tequila, and am glad someone remembered that reference.

Taking this as good news though.

2007... Jeez.

One plus point is they are privately owned, so they don’t have shareholders or annual report bs to worry about. Obviously they just added a boat load of debit, but I hope like new SF the cap ex lending and cash flow bump can accelerate improvements.

SDC and DW have been well run, but they only just this year started fixing KK, and Wild Adventures has not gotten much. I haven’t been to any of the solo waterparks, so others will have to comment.

It’s great news for Compounce cause it has all the potential, and biggish market. Kennywood has been getting alot work already, just needs finished.

Dolly and Kenny reunited.

Well, tender love is blind and it requires a dedication.

Wow, good news for the parks involved. I hope they preserve Thunderbolt (edit - and Tornado and the other woodies), but whatever they do will be good.

Kennywood has always done a fantastic job keeping their rides in great shape. Guest service and landscaping/general upkeep are the two areas that had fallen significantly in the past decade. Fortunately Herschend has a great reputation for these things.

Maybe we can finally get a B&M to dive down the hillside at Kennywood.