More People at PKI than CP?

CP's blaming it all on the weather of course!

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2704647 *** Edited 12/19/2004 12:30:55 AM UTC by Fastball84***

Why? In the past five years, Cedar Point has been the top attended seasonal park just once (last year). Also in the past five years, Cedar Point has beat out Kings Island in attendance only twice.

-Nate

You're right. I messed up and thought I read that CP's been on top for a decade. Read wrong.

Cedar Point and Kings Island have traded that top seasonal attendance spot back and forth for decades. Kings Island has the added numerical advantage of having an integrated water park. Cedar Point has the advantage of being Cedar Point. :)

For 2004, Kings Island got a new waterpark (a very nice one, I might add), although they didn't exactly get the best weather for it. Even at that, it was warmer in Cincinnati than it was in Sandusky.

For 2004, Cedar Point got a massive resort expansion, an expansion to the waterpark, and Geauga Lake, none of which is going to do much to drag bodies through the gates at Cedar Point, although it may increase length of stay.

For 2005, I expect Kings Island will once again lightly trounce Cedar Point in the seasonal attendance category: Kings Island is adding a new, highly marketable steel coaster. Cedar Point is adding an excellent, but slightly harder to promote, iron ride.

I guess we'll see what happens come next fall!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Actually, SFGAdv held the top seasonal attendance spot for a long time until 2002. PKI and CP have always been vying for the second-place spot.

-Nate

Have I mentioned the AB numbers aren't entirely accurate? (Which is not to say that PKI didn't have more peeps than CP... I'm sure they did. But word around the campfire is that neither number was entirely accurate.)

PKI has a way longer operating season than CP and PKI seems to have a much bigger Season Pass attendance figure.

Now if you want to talk Income, Im betting CP blows PKI out of the water with it's resort buisness and packages.

Chuck *** Edited 12/19/2004 2:27:25 AM UTC by Charles Nungester***

HAHAHA! For all of you Six Flags haters-Cedar Fair lovers, take that!

(Note: Though I am loyal to my Six Flags homepark, I too think its absurd to blame the weather every year).

When I went to the Point this year, it rained both days, and I sure didn't mind, low crowds, a really, really intense ride on Millennium Force with rain pelting your face at 90+ mph, and I wasn't wasting my time in line for Dragster 'cause it was closed... what a trip this past summer!

CF must have inherited that storm cloud that lingered over SFWOA in 2002 and 2003. Too bad two dulls don't make a fun. No one needs a campfire to know many of AB's figures are probably off, but we can pretend you fixed the puzzle with all the pieces face down. Good job.

!Danny

I'm more amazed at how bad the attendance as Geauga Lake was! Yikes down from "2 million" to 700,000. That's pretty bad. Can't say that I didn't expect it though.

You're pretty clever, Danny. Don't hate the player, hate the game for always picking you last.

Even assuming for a moment that 3.2 million is "bad" for the park, May sucked for rain. May and bonus weekends are the difference between a record year and an average year, which is why they've steadily been opening earlier and closing later for the past six or seven years.

Besides... it's not at all like Six Flags when you consider they report a 1.5% decline in attendance with a 3% increase in revenue (not counting Geauga Lake of course, for a year-to-year comparison).

3.2 million for any seasonal park is impressive and I'm extremely happy for them for the fantastic increase in revenue and I hope the CP resort is really successful in 2005 with Castaway Bay and the new Giant Frisbee. I highly respect CF and CP.

I don't know anyone that can say GL's season wasn't disappointing though (the reference in my dull/fun comment) even with all factors in consideration. I haven't researched, but I'm pretty sure that's their lowest attendance since before SF (before flagging, etc.) has *owned* them and proves that the Cedar Point connection wasn't enough to get them where they wanted to be this season and that maybe the wildlife side was more important than they/we thought.

+Danny

Oh Danny Hush. You're just mad because you aren't a Cedar Point Fan Boy and nobody pays attention to you...;)

-clint, wondering if Danny's head flew up and looked around when I said his name just now, b.

I'm sure one of them did ;)

What Cedar Point connection? If you lived in the Cleveland market, you saw a chubby guy and his family in a VW saying the "fun" was back. That campaign lasted maybe through the end of June at most. That was the bulk of their marketing message. It certainly wasn't enough to get me in the gate.

Shame Shame Matthew! And you weren't even there for that particular *inside* joke...;)

ya'll so nasty :)

Yes Miss Jackson.

Do I really need to link you all the sites, news articles, radio stations, television stations, etc. that referenced the purchase of Geauga Lake by Cedar Fair (owner and operator of Cedar Point almost always noted)? I didn't think so. Clevelanders knew about it and probably didn't care that much. That's what happens when you remove half a park, well-known characters (Batman, Superman, Looney Tunes, etc.), charm and great atmosphere (imho), and still have people who work there that couldn't care less... "The fun was never here"... "No, you can't have the front seat now. They're going to reride"... "Intamin? Oh, you mean the same company that made that piece of ****?" *points to Steel Venom*... "Went to restroom. Be back in 5-10 minutes"...

What park markets itself as being owned by the same company that owns another park anyways? That wouldn't make sense this season either... "Opening in May 2005... From the owners of such award-winning parks as Cedar Point and Knott's Berry Farm comes the second operating season under new control of the park everyone has been waiting for... Cedar Fair's Geauga Lake... Starring Snoopy and Wildwater Kingdom, named after the acclaimed waterpark at Dorney" Blech!

=^o at Clint and Moosh! ;) 'thew- The Shins are on Austin City Limits tonight, so don't miss it... I'm still jealous you saw them live a couple weeks ago.

+Danny

Oh...and let's not forget the free publicity they gave themselves before the season started...

"Hello schoolkids! We're the new park owners and guess where you can stick your free tickets?"

You can't possibly buy enough air time to wash away a first impression like that.

-'Playa