Place your bets. SFGAm beats out CP,PKI,SFGADv.

In attendance. Whatever that publishing company reveals the attendance stats, I feel SFGAm will outdue CP, PKI, and SFGADv in attendance figures this year. If not, it will be very close.

Having a 23% attendance increase is mighty impressive for any park.

/\ Nice try. SURE, a 23% increase in attendance is quite a jump in numbers. But Great America won't surpass those other parks you mentioned in attendance figures. You are forgetting that Six Flags Great America on average, statistically pulls in between 2 - 2.3 million guests annually. Just by doing simple elementary school math, we immediately find out that although with this 23% attendance increase (increase in attendance by 530,000/half a million guests), Six Flags Great America attendance STILL falls short of attendance averages at Cedar Point (avg. 3.3 million), Kings Island (avg. 3.5 million), Six Flags Great Adventure (avg. 3 million).

Nobody said the park's 23% increase in attendance was not impressive, nor was it not acknowledged...

I thought SFGAdv. was usually at the top. I thought it usually beat out CP and PKI.

I believe PKI was the seasonal park with highest attendance last year, but I could be wrong. I would suspect that PKI will pull farther ahead of CP this year---Italian Job seemed to be popular this year, so it seems possible that their attendance increased further. On the other hand CP is openly talking about reducing the gate price, so their year could not have been all that great.

In any event, it looks like SFGAm's ROI for the new waterpark is clear.

DollyWood will smash all of them in a couple of years. :)

PCW had a 30% increase last year. Not sure about this year. Anyways I think SFGAm will beat them out, the others will be either the same or very close figures in attendance.

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Brian Noble said:In any event, it looks like SFGAm's ROI for the new waterpark is clear.

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....as predicted... ;)

'Playa had *better* be happy...LOL! :)

No.... be prepared for Paramount Canada's Wonderland to be one of, if not THE, frontrunner in attendance this year.

Shaggy

Most of my SFGAM Stalkettes and other peeps were actually rather POed about HH. They need more slides, pronto! A park with regular 2 million plus attendance shouldn't have a complimentary waterpark with a slide count that rivals Mt. Olympus.

But otherwise--do I really need to say anything?

-'Playa

*** Edited 10/31/2005 4:18:19 PM UTC by CoastaPlaya***

Find me a waterpark with *sufficient* capacity outside of New Braunfels....

Go ahead, try....good luck! ;)

On the positive side, virtually everyone with a waterpark is busting butt to get capacity to a decent range...the Security Officer at Dorney was REALLY excited to tell me ALL about their new wavepool...

I'd like to see more waterparks utilize *park stuff* to help out...for instance:

Shoot-the-Chutes
Supa Saturators
Top Spins with water features (a la KK at KW)

...and, thanks to Frank for reminding me of one of the greatest non-ride attractions going, that *amazing* interactive play structure at SDC. Every park, amusement or water, should have something that strives to match THAT place..."Geyser Gulch"... :)

Man, it looks like it will be a toss up this year. With Great America seeing record crowds, Great Adventure TR's with complaints of overcrowding, and PCW just coming up outa nowhere as Paramounts top attended park, I have no idea who will nab the top spot. My bet goes for Great America though. . . and well deserved.

PCW and PKI have tended to float around the top of overall seasonal parks and Paramount Parks except for SARS/power outage year, correct? With Italian Job being pretty popular at both parks this year, I bet both of them will be fighting for the top spot.. And Paramount's probably pretty thrilled either way. I wonder if Winterfest will play any part of attendance for 2005 though for PKI (and then PC)?

+Danny

I spend a LOT of time at Gadv and it was extremely easy to see the increase this season (yes, even during Ka's lengthy down time). I'm going to predict close to 1 million additional visitors at Gadv this season compared to last. Keep in mind that last year sucked big time so 1 million more would really only put them back where they were 5 years ago. This could be enough to make them the top seasonal park again.

You got to factor in their new bonus weekends for PCW. They never did have a Halloween themed weekends. I think they closed at the end of September... so add in about 9 to 12 bonus days, and you've got a little boost in attendance there that might push them over the edge in the top 5 seasonal parks.

I find it nothing short of amazing that PKI and PCW continue to dominate the field, in terms of gate attendance figures. While PKI remains my "home park," there is a point where the park is virtually untenable to negotiate at high summer. Yes, hats off to the PR Team that produced the stellar ad campaign for ITALIAN STUNT JOB which must have undoubtedly pulled them in by the droves. What a shame the ride is so unabashedly lame as to be virtually forgettable 5 minutes later. But Paramount is sticking to what works for them: tricked-up, glossy movie tie-in "attractions" (as opposed to rides or coasters) that dazzle and bejewel the public into thinking that they are on the GREATEST RIDE EVER!!!

When in reality, they have swallowed the PR bait.

Barry J.

Funny, I thought much the same about MF sans the lift hill. To each gimmick-loving chain, their own.

-CO

Hold the phone... are you saying MF is a gimmick?

No, he's saying everything but the lift hill on MF was a gimmick.

Wow.

A comment like that doesn't even warrant a response.

I'm saying it didn't qualify as GREATEST RIDE EVER!!! Not even close. But like Paramount with the theming, records are their thing and that's what they do.

Look at SkyHawk and it's Midwestern near-twin. Both have the same specs that count (speed, capacity, maximum swing height) but CP will add a little trim / nail an Oompaloompa by its feet at the top and voila. Tallest ON THE PLANET. Ya know?

-CO