Shady GoFundMe for Big Dipper at Geauga Lake

^^Which I believe is the truth.

Heartless as it sounds, if I were Cedar Fair, I would just get in there and 'doze the thing at this point. The small PR hit they might take in Northeast Ohio and the coaster community would quickly be offset with Valravn in two months. And at this point, outside of the butthurt folks, does anyone locally still care? I still wonder if they regret not just bulldozing it as soon as the auction was over and that whole shady deal with Apex fell through.

I also wonder if the ride had just been torn down way back then after the closure, would these butthurt folks still be clamoring to save the park? Or is the fact that the coaster is still (barely) standing giving them a sense of false hope?

Jeff's Trump comment was hilarious but also frighteningly accurate. Get some of these Geauga Lake folks together and I can see the Trump style hats now... "MAKE GEAUGA LAKE GREAT AGAIN"

They wouldn't sell it before and I would bet they won't sell it now. I called years ago when it was first offered for sale but they said I was not an "approved buyer" and laughed at me. They never even asked my name or anything about me, they were that quick to dismiss a buyer - that they didn't even know!

They are letting enough time pass so most people either forget about or eventually think "oh it's all old and rotten now, lets get rid of it and put something else there!"

They can't sell it now. They don't own it. It was bought at the auction by someone representing an unnamed buyer.

If I recall correctly, the original terms of the auction was that you had to remove the entire structure within a certain number of days. Looks like their "approved buyer" wasn't able to do that!

There weren't any companies willing to move the structure at the cost he was asking for. If I recall correctly, various companies estimated it would cost around $1,000,000; he wanted to pay a few hundred thousand.

Doesn't what the terms of the deal were. That guy owns it. Cedar Fair doesn't. So there it sits.

Absent any movement on the sale of the Geauga property -- is there still a potential sale to Meijer for an Aurora store in the works?

Meijer is still in the picture I believe.

And I also think at some point ownership of Big Dipper went back to Cedar Fair. The ride is not for sale and I believe the land it sits on has a non-entertainment clause in the sale. Which is why the GFM is so ridiculous.

Hmm... I did a lot of research into the park for an article about the park I wrote for ACE's magazine, and didn't come across any information that the ride had reverted to Cedar Fair.

If anyone is suffering from the Monday night blahs you can get a chuckle by some of the comments between Faith and those who asked her questions in the comments section. My favorite, when asked for clarification on something is "You know Joe, we have explained ourselves fine, and what we intend to do, if it is not good enough for you, oh well."

It's the Trump mentality here. MAKE GEAUGA LAKE GREAT AGAIN

slithernoggin said:

Hmm... I did a lot of research into the park for an article about the park I wrote for ACE's magazine, and didn't come across any information that the ride had reverted to Cedar Fair.

I could be wrong. I just thought I remembered a Cleveland news article at one point stating there was a statute of limitations on the sale way back in 2010/2011 that if the ride wasn't removed from the property by a certain time the sale was void and ownership returned to CF. But I could be wrong. Or it could have been one of the "facts" I read on one of the GL sites.

I actually spoke to the guy involved with all of that, and according to him, it did indeed revert back to CF. I think it was "move it before this point in time, or you'll owe us for storage fees...or we get it back"

Well, where were you when I writing the article! :-)

If Cedar Fair owns it I honestly wonder what the purpose of keeping it is at this point. Wolf Bobs sat idle for years, but it was carefully deconstructed several summers ago now. Surely they have to be paying high insurance costs on that property to begin with, but I'm sure having that structure still standing only increases it. Do they still see potential value in a possible sale/refurbishment on site at some point with the new leadership structure? Based on the pictures and drone footage from the last few years, it is hardly in salvageable condition at this stage of the game. It was my first roller coaster and will always hold a very special place in my heart, but nine years later even I say just taer it down!!11

I'm thinking if CF still owns it, they would've brought in the bulldozers by now. What do they have to gain by leaving it standing? And I think the ride is beyond repair at this point. If you wanted to save it, you would have to build an exact replica elsewhere.

Isn't it possible that it's cheaper to leave it up than demolish it?

Yeah, why pay to demolish it if they can sell the land and let the next people worry about it.

Speaking of the next people, is Meijer pronounced "Major" or "Meyer"? Or something completely different?

"Meyer".

And their slogan when I shopped there was "WHY PAY MORE!"

...Without a question mark. I always got a kick out of that.

In Ohio we say "The Mahrs".

^^ That seems like what they would call it in Pittsburgh.

slithernoggin said:
Well, where were you when I writing the article! :-)

LOL, it was such a random thing. He came to my work place, I didn't know him from Adam, but he had a shirt in that I immediately knew he was an enthusiast of some degree. This was just last spring.