Herschend to acquire Palace Entertainment

Matt Ouimet has some thoughts on this, and appears to throw in that Cedar Fair once entertained an attempt to acquire SeaWorld Entertainment.

It almost feels like Matt is saying in code what most of us assumed, that he wasn’t in favor of the FUN and SIX merger. Clearly he hints at this by stating that short-term focus on quarterly results and all the other negatives of being a publicly traded business would hurt the entire new company given the significant issues at legacy SIX when his belief is in long-term goals and a focus on people and culture which is what FUN had become, and sadly has now totally lost. Zimmerman & Co. can’t even promote a new GM/VP at flagship park Cedar Point when they’ve had a beyond qualified candidate ready-in-waiting currently in the Assistant GM role, what does that say about the “new SIX” corporate leadership? To me it says what is whispered amongst staff, no respect for “people” and no job security which hurts morale.

My reaction upon reading this was how fortunate those parks and their employees will be, working for a company with significant resources and a long-proven commitment to quality, family entertainment. I am certain a brighter future is ahead for them.

There was no reference to cost synergies or profitability targets. The substance of the release focused on the skills and talents they can bring to bear to protect and grow the legacies of the acquired parks.

I love this.

The people are what make everything happen, you can focus on costs all you want, but that will only result in a cheapened subpar product. For some reason everyone forgets this, either because they are circling the drain and have gotten caught in a cost cutting feedback loop, or because they are interested in stripping the worth out the the business for shareholder gain.

i can say without doubt that my people loved me as a manager because I put them above everything else, however the directors and upper leadership hated me, because I would push back on business decisions that hurt the people and did nothing to enrich our customer experience. I don’t miss that life at all, good people typically do not succeed in business.

A lot of my career has been the same. I question everything, and do my best to protect my team so they have the room to do their best work. I think a lot of corporate mediocrity is caused by middle managers who tell people what they want to hear and senior leaders that don't listen to the ones that are honest.

It’s the first year since 2001 that I don’t have a season pass anywhere. I’ll be going to a lot of parks while traveling, but I am not sure I’ll visit my local Six Flags (DK) or Cedar Flags (CGA). It’s just a so-so experience.

I had a Cedar Fair season pass last year, but I didn't get to use it even once. I went to BGW last spring, then got very ill over the summer- Acute appendicitis that turned into an E. coli infection. It took me until Winter to fully recover enough that I felt well enough to ride any coasters.

I haven't renewed my pass yet. I'm going to just because I miss making videos.

I haven't had the desire to visit Kennywood for a while now, because of all the bad press the park keeps getting. Now that Steel Curtain is opening back up, I might go. It's probably going to take a few years for Herschend to get Kennywood back in order, so I might wait...

Kennywood has been in decent shape from a guest perspective for a couple of years now. There's certainly room for improvement, but I don't think there's a reason to actively avoid it. My understanding is that a lot of the problems have been behind the scenes so I'm sure the employees are looking forward to the change.