Michigan's Adventure,... Ticket price increase.

Jrruillo? Really?

I don't think you know what's really going on at that park, and why GL closed down. The differences between the two are great.

GL closed because they grew faster than they could handle. Six Flags added three(?) new coasters and many new attractions to the park in one year. Once they added the Sea World side to the park, the park was too large to sustain itself. They thought that the business would grow to suport the new size of the park, but it didn't

And that's exactly what MA is NOT doing. MA is growing very slowly.

I understand that the park seems like it could use a few new attractions here and there, and if it were my home park, I would probably be disappointed that I didn't have anything new to look forward to each year. I get it, but if you stick around here long enough, you'll start to understand they whys and hows. You'll stop seeing things through the naive perspective of a customer, and look at it from the perspective of those who run the business.

CoasterBuzz is quite enlightening, when I think about it.

LostKause said:

You'll stop seeing things through the naive perspective of a customer, and look at it from the perspective of those who run the business.

I would have went with "entitled perspective" (unreasonable and unrealistic would also be acceptable) instead of naive and "enthusiast" instead of customer.

But other than that...

The funny thing is that in these discussions there's usually three angles. The business reality, what customers perceive and the enthusiast perspective.

I find that one of those three is usually far and away more removed from reasonable opinion and the reality of the situation than the other two.

People that enjoy this site and contribute and do well around here are usually able to keep that in check.

And the only time the business reality was really out of whack was when Six Flags combined the gates at GL, and the morons at Hard Rock Park thought high prices and word-of-mouth meant boundless profit. The enthusiast angle does not have a good track record.

Jeff said:

The enthusiast angle does not have a good track record.

Yeah, that was my point.

I was trying to let the reader connect the dots.

Business generally knows what it's doing. Customers continue to pay and enjoy the product.

Enthusiasts (in general) lack any sense of realistic perspective.

It was a veiled slam against those that enjoy our hobby a little too much and still wonk about GL.

I'd like to add to the part about businesses usually knowing what they are doing that they have all the information to make the decisions. They have the numbers. Cedar Fair parks practically worships the information collected on a daily basis, such as how many guests entered the park, how many riders a particular ride had during each hour, ect.

Enthusiasts do not have that information, and therefore can not fully back up their opinions about such topics.

LostKause said:

Enthusiasts do not have that information, and therefore can not fully back up their opinions about such topics.

And when it comes to customers, enthusiasts tend to have different expectations as well.

So you end up with a group that's quite enthusiast and vocal about their hobby, yet for the most part doesn't know what's going on behind the closed boardroom doors and has completely different expectations than the targeted customer base.

It doesn't take much work to do that math.

But seriously from what I understand Cedar fair really doesn't care about MIA

Based on what?

Lord Gonchar said:

Based on what?

Based on the fact that Michigan's Adventure hasn't received a coaster since Thunderhawk, 6 years ago. The last GOOD coaster MA received was Shivering Timbers, 16 years ago. So i won't be surprised seeing MA getting a show for 2015.

No, it only proves they don't care about the same things you do.

You walked right into exactly what my last few posts were about.

I'm sure they care greatly about the park and it's customer base.

What they don't care about is the personal interests of a minor subset of vocal guests.

Then if they care about the park, when will you expect them to get a good ride like an impulse coaster or possibly a hyper coaster.

He said "But seriously" in his post. That means he has to be correct.

It's amazing, and very disappointing, that we have had this exact same discussion dozens of times over the years. The arguments remain valid and unchanged. The only thing that changes is the name of the latest entitled fanboy.

Jrrullo said:

Then if they care about the park, when will you expect them to get a good ride like an impulse coaster or possibly a hyper coaster.

When it can clearly exhibit return on investment. It's not more complicated than that. Just your choice of words seems to overlook that. A park doesn't "receive" something... they intentionally install something because they believe it will result in additional income or help sustain existing income.

I'm amused that no one ever brings up what a dump the place was before Cedar Fair bought it. It desperately needed paint and landscaping at the very least.

True, and to hear a certain enthusiast describe the place you'd think the "previous" park was the wonderland of his childhood dreams. And now that I think about it, perhaps his memory is over compensating. I wonder what he'd be saying if it was still his beloved deer park with a Scrambler, a ferris wheel, and a free picnic area? You just HAVE to look at that park and know it's in better hands.

I thought the park was really nice, it reminded me of a shorter version of Valleyfair in many ways. In spite of a rather weird layout and setting, which CF is doing their best with, I thought it was about right for the area.

LostKause said:

Six Flags added three(?) new coasters and many new attractions to the park in one year.

In 2000, when Geauga Lake became Six Flags Ohio, SF spent $40 million adding twenty rides to the park.

Four of those were coasters: Road Runner Express (Zierer Tivoli), Villain (Custom Coasters wood out and back), Batman Knight Flight (B&M floorless) and Superman Ultimate Escape (Intamin Impulse).

So, according to the logic above, Six Flags cared very deeply about Geauga Lake. And we know where that got them....

One could even argue that Cedar Fair cares deeply about Michigan's Adventure and doesn't want to make the same mistakes Six Flags did WITH Geauga Lake.

Or we could argue that CF hates babies and every year they don't add a shiny new coaster, but still raise prices, many kittens die in horrible ways*

Or not.

*Most likely used to light the cigars of CF corporate suits as they chuckle about how much they don't care about Michigan's Adventure...or those stupid babies.

High five!

Jeff said:
Just your choice of words seems to overlook that. A park doesn't "receive" something...

That's something that always fascinates me, here and over on Pointbuzz. The idea that a park -- a business -- "receives" or "deserves" something rather than have investments made with an eye to increasing profits or attendance, etc. Sometimes I wonder if there are folks who learned everything they know about how businesses operate by watching Alexis Carrington Colby on Dynasty reruns.

It's a mindset I just can't understand.