Please Let Cedar Fair Know They Cannot Take Away NE Ohio's Last Amusement Park

It seems that GL is destined to be deconstucted piece by piece no matter what we say, but our anger is pretty limited to this forums. However, it is impossible to say what would happen if we were able to get a much larger group behind the cause to save the park or AT LEAST the Big Dipper; because, like some members have said, Cedar Point itself faced a similar extinction and was saved by a mass public outcry. Even though this seems to be lost cause to some, I want to suggest that we need to hold out hope and, if we are all truly concerned about the future of the park, to do all we can to save it.

1. Make paper petitions and circulate them around your work place or classrooms or wherever it is legal as this will get the news out. Please also visit this link and fill out the petition:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/geaugalake/index.html

(You can opt out of the recommended donation by closing out.)

2. Send mass e-mails to everyone you know (who can stand chain letters) about the ultimate loss this will pose to Cleveland. This park has a lot of memories for a lot of people, regardless of what its somewhat depressing reputation has been for the past decade.

3. Contact NAPHA and ask them what we can do. They fight for causes exactly like this and if there's anything they can do, they'll do it I imagine. Offer your support to them as well.

4. Contact Cleveland Plus. They have been lauding the fact we have both GL and CP. To lose one would run counterintuitive to their cause to reinvigorate Cleveland (do we really want another micro mall or lame housing complex in Aurora??). Their e-mail is < info@clevelandplus.com >.

5. Contact other trade magazines and websites--Theme Park Insider, Amusement Today, IAAPA, ACE, The City of Aurora, City of Solon, Geauga County, Governor Ted Strickland, Mayor Frank Jackson, Cedar Fair (of course!), Kennywood, Anheuser-Busch, news channels, The Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com, The Akron Beacon Journal, The Medina Gazette, The Sun Times, Western Reserve Historical Society, Aurora Historical Society...ANYONE! If you protest, call the local news channels and papers. They love intrigues and the more attention this gets, the better.

6. Lastly, e-mail, write letters to, and call Cedar Fair. Let them know how disappointed you are with the closure of Geauga Lake, their handling of it (not letting customers know in advance), and their ultimate mismanagement of not only GL but also CP (IF you are like me and think they have been mismanaging CP). And if you feel up to it, which many at GeaugaLakeToday have, tell them you'll take your business elsewhere.

*** addresses removed ***

While none of this may work and we might still have to face the death of this beloved park, at least we will know we did everything we could to try to save it. Please help keep another national treasure from going extinct! *** Edited 9/24/2007 1:58:42 PM UTC by Jeff***

Geauga Lake = Cedar Fair's Astroworld

...and their ultimate mismanagement of not only GL but also CP.

Not a good idea. Any petition, letter, email, or phone call made regarding Geauga's closing should focus squarely exactly that.

Let's not encourage people to start annoying Cedar Fair employees.

A petition isn't going to do anything at this point. People had the opportunity to "vote" in a way that actually has significance to Cedar Fair, and that was visiting the park. The number of people who did that wasn't enough for Cedar Fair to consider the park to be profitable, so a bunch of names on a piece of paper isn't going to change their minds.

PhantomTails said:
People had the opportunity to "vote" in a way that actually has significance to Cedar Fair, and that was visiting the park.

Amen. Vote with your dollars people.

-Geewhzz

This isn't a t.v. show where people have sometimes succeeded in bringing back a show on the brink of death.

I've seen countless peition requests about amusement parks and they have never generated any results. I don't think it's wrong to care that the park is going away, but plans are in motion already (for example the Dominator relocation) and you're not going to stop whatever heavy construction equipment eventually shows up to dismantle it and anything else they want to move out of there.

You mention that a lot of people have memories of the park. Does the existing park even remotely resemble those memories? Nostalgia does not pay bills.

SkyRider7, I'd say your analogy is pretty bad. People were given notice that Astroworld was closing. The history also did not go as far back. And while Six Flags failed to get the money they wanted for the former Astroworld, I think Cedar Fair could fetch a pretty penny for waterfront property.

PhantomTails said:
A petition isn't going to do anything at this point. People had the opportunity to "vote" in a way that actually has significance to Cedar Fair, and that was visiting the park. The number of people who did that wasn't enough for Cedar Fair to consider the park to be profitable, so a bunch of names on a piece of paper isn't going to change their minds.

I agree that a petition isn't going to do much, but writing actual letters to the company might help... if anything, to show them what we think of this. Claiming that people could have voted with their wallets is total b.s. Cedar Fair should have given people a reason to visit the park in the first place aside from empty promises. Not a thing was done to create a park that people would want to visit, so enough with this "the park wasn't profitable sh**" already. It's an excuse, and a lame one at that.

"Not a thing was done to create a park that people would want to visit, so enough with this "the park wasn't profitable sh**" already. It's an excuse, and a lame one at that."

Not to argue, but they did re-tracking on coasters, and never took away the ones that were "GL originals", such as Big Dipper. Obviously it just wasn't working. Everyone wanted to see this as a smaller park with it's own niche, and they made it smaller, which didn't bring in crowds like they thought. They didn't remove any of the family attractions aside from the Monorail, and they kept the theatre attractions with new movies. I have to say I don't see this working, it didn't for parks like Whalom.

*** Edited 9/24/2007 7:29:49 AM UTC by P18***

No amount of outrage is going to force a corperation to keep opperating a park that is losing money. The park was in trouble even before Six Flags bought it. I would suggest trying to find out what, if any plans Cedar Fair has for the Big Dipper and try to save that. It likely still won't work though. This seems like a huge waste of time.

This petition is not going to do a thing. Everyone here knows that. These plans for Geauga Lake were finalized months ago, not on a sudden whim. No upset letters from enthusiasts and a petition is going to reverse that.

No online petition, no matter how many hundreds sign it is going to make a large profit-geared company to change their plans because some people got emotional about their business decision.

Many of the rides at Geauga Lake have already secured new homes at a number of the other Cedar Fair parks and some of these attractions, as we speak, are currently in the first phases of removal. The train left the station MONTHS ago.

By the time any of these few hundred letters are actually glanced over, and this petition big enough to be finally submitted, most of the rides section at Geauga Lake will have already been taken out.

Deal with it people. It's done with. Accept that. Label me an insensitive asshole, fine, I don't care. I'm just telling you as it is. Reality calling...and Geauga Lake is over and out.

i will help save gl. if anyone love this prak will do the same. i think we all need to do something fast plz everyone hlep out

richard

If people wanted to save GL they should of been going there in droves ever since CF took it over in 2004. On the other hand maybe this is what CF had in mind all together. CP could finally get rid of there competition.

I loveD (past-tense) this park when it became Worlds of Adventure... because it had everything you could ask for.

Even last year, it still had just about everything in the beginning, but just needed a little TLC from the areas that were being transformed... but now, it's a lost cause.

They already ridded of two top-attractions [at the time], X-Flight & Superman. Those combined with Knight Flight were worth the price of admission alone at the time... but it's just not worthy anymore.

All photos I've got of the park will be cherished... all trips travelling 170 miles there & 170 miles back will be remembered... but let's face it... nothing is going to change Cedar Fair's mind. They scrapped a good handful of rides already, so they're left with a large gap with nothing to fill it in with. The gap of no-rides would only increase since they still have that 700+ acres to deal with...

Farewell... Farewell... no on-line petition will save the park...

...but I do hope the rides all find a nice home, even if sold to a non-CF park.

The way I am going to cast my vote is to not give Cedar Fair anymore of my money.

kRaXLeRidAh said:
Deal with it people. It's done with. Accept that.

Dude, is that your ONLY way to argue? "Deal with it"? "Get over it"? Wow, you sure put everyone in their place with those statements.

Label me an insensitive asshole, fine, I don't care.

Well since you don't care, you're an insensitive asshole.

Nothing personal... just business.

Ray P.

i think that guy need to get or it or get out this is about gl not cp. so i will not get over it to i get done with it !!!! am in

richard

I'll vote for Geauga Lake by going to Kennywoods frightfest instead of CP's, which we've done for years.

Sure, the four hundred plus we spend at CP's frightfest doesn't mean that much to them, but take a bunch of groups like that...

Business decisions are all fine and good, but they could've made an announcment while the park was still open.

Great Lakes Brewery Patron...

-Mark

What the hell is wrong with you? You don't post someone's home address for something like this!

Your little petition isn't going to change the financial reality of the situation.

Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog

Closed topic.