Top 50 attendance parks.

I guess we'll find out this year how CP will handle a fully-functional Dragster. I don't think they'll get a rise, but I bet they'll maintain similar numbers.

It was actually the New Jersey park that got the bad flying coaster review if I remember correctly.

No, it was SFGAm's version that got the less-than-stellar review of SUF from some coaster enthusiass that was pissed he didn't get to go to Dragster's Media Day and instead only got SUF. Gotta love it.

Anyhoot, damn, SFGAm makes me sad...weren't they at 3M+ when Batman was new and the few years that followed? How can you lose almost a half million guests? That's insane.

BTW, Shane Denmark, 500,000 guests in a single season is a rather large difference between SFWoA and SFDL. :)

You might be right Jeff (about both items, although Joe confirmed there was one- possibly in the Tribune- about SFGAm's version), but do you think a bad review from one paper would really do much to negatively impact attendance? I'm questioning my own original remark, because I really don't know if that would be much of an issue with guests planning to go to a park. It's probably possible. If I heard a review (and that being the only review I had heard of it) of X-Flight at SFWOA being a barely intense, meandering bore, I might reconsider even going that year. I guess it would also depend on how popular and trusted the paper was.

Do you know if the attendance numbers for CP and KBF include each Soak City park or not? I wouldn't think they would since they're separate admission, but I didn't know how that worked out.

I agree about the attendance difference Joe. 500,000 more people would be enormous to a park like Holiday World or Michigan's Adventure and would even be incredible for parks as big as Disney. 500,000 in the opposite direction for a park would be a hugely bad deal as well.

-Danny *** Edited 12/22/2003 2:39:18 AM UTC by Koaster King***

Yeah, I remember that review which I believe was on WGN. Regardless though, one bad review shouldn't persuade people to not visit the park. S:UF got alot of positive reviews from the press as well.

Since SF doesn't release their individual park attendance numbers, SFGAm could very well be near 3 mil this year.

The weather did play a role in the early part of the season around Chicago as Jeff said happened in the Cleveland area. Attendance was down in May and June but picked up dramatically for the remainder of the season.

The economy was still shaky when the park season started so I am sure that played a role as well. *** Edited 12/22/2003 3:42:53 AM UTC by Chitown***

The review I read was by an east coast travel writer, not an enthusiass, but now that you describe it, the Chicago story does sound familiar.

The review was on the front page of the Friday section of the Chicago Tribune. The reviewer essentially complained that the ride was slow and boring. At one point, he casually identified himself as a coaster enthusiast, and later compared the ride unfavorably to Raging Bull and American Eagle.

Actually, fall weather in Ohio was great. After Labor Day, Ohio weekends were quite nice. In fact, CP and PKI had record days in October if I remember correctly.

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ShaneDenmark said:
Anyone think SFNE will have significant growth next year with their S:RoS being named the #1 steel coaster? I think they could use that to their advantage if they were to advertise it.

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I was at SFNE in 2002 and they were advertising it then...at the main gate even.

I doubt their approach will change and I doubt it will change their numbers much.

Exactly. It's been rated "the #1 steel coaster" for four years now. Why would they suddenly see an attendance increase next year because of it?

-Nate

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Legendary said:

Anyhoot, damn, SFGAm makes me sad...weren't they at 3M+ when Batman was new and the few years that followed? How can you lose almost a half million guests? That's insane.

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Can't explain all of it, of course...but I'm sure a huge chunk of it was a drop in corporate bookings.

-'Playa *** Edited 12/22/2003 5:03:09 AM UTC by CoastaPlaya***

I could definitely see weather being a factor for SFGAm... anyone living in the Chicago area might remember how something crazy like half the days in July had thunderstorms - I certainly remember *several* thunderstorms passing through the area on a daily basis for weeks, it was pretty freaking annoying!

I'm not so sure though....I mean, is the weather really *deteriorating* each and every year...I mean, by now I should be living in Gator's Ark or something...but yet, every year passes and we hear attendance has been hampered by bad weather. On peak years, is the weather perfect all summer? ;)

I would rather suggest that attendance increases and decreases are more highly correlated to the area population, the effective *competition* for area theme parks for consumers' entertainment dollars (including any other parks in the region), the success of advertising/marketing efforts, and the ability of the park to create an atmosphere that patrons WANT to return to (and recommend to others). Do all those things right FIRST, cause there ain't jack squat you can DO about the weather....my guess is at the end of your operating season, you won't be making excuses, but handing out credit and praise to everyone that makes your park successful....;)

Around the end of the year in Ohio, Cleveland and Akron papers do a good job at still advertising the parks being open for Halloween. The last story I remember was being in the Beacon Journal. They had some great FULL page pics in the paper of SFWoA decorations, but they also took there last small stab at TTD and comparing it to "Jason."

Here's the Article

I think that was posted the week before the REALLY BIG attendance booms for all Ohio Parks. I wonder how many people did in that one Saturday compared to all of May or June ;)

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com
*** Edited 12/22/2003 12:06:05 PM UTC by RollerCoasterGod***

Legendary sttd:

"BTW, Shane Denmark, 500,000 guests in a single season is a rather large difference between SFWoA and SFDL".

I think Shanes point was that SFWOA is a lot larger and a major park in Six Flags chain of parks. SFDL isn't a major park but continues to put up pretty good #'s for a park that size, Shane is correct for SFWOA to be the size that it is and has the attractions that they have to only be ahead of SFDL by a half A million shows just because a park has a ton of roller coasters doesn't mean that is what attracts people to your park.

Good clean parks and cust serv shows in the numbers.

That is a good point.. Weather in Ohio wasnt' that bad the second half of the season.

How can 2 parks get a gain in attendance and a third take a hit and still blame it on "weather". :)

As far as the #1 ranking, actually Millennuim Force had the rank last year and Magnum before that if I remember, could be wrong, I'm sure someone out there still has a copy of past years.

.. and talking to a couple hundred peopel who canceld thier trips?? Wow.. you must be more popular than the Lemon Chill guy to know that many people who wouldn't go because one ride in 68 wasn't working. (The TTD downtime had little or no effect on CP's #'s. If it did, then how did they post an increase??)

Thank you Darien Lake fan... That's exactly my point. SFWoA has a lot in terms of not only new rides, but new types of rides. A flyer, a floorless, an impulse, and an actually decent woodie. All built in the last few years. Granted SFDL's hyper is a great coaster, but still... Throw in SFWoA's wildlife side, and their HUGE waterpark, half a million guests all of a sudden doesn't seem like as big a difference in terms of return on investment. I can only imagine what SFDL would do with a new impulse or an S&S combo tower or (gasp!) maybe even a smaller rocket aka Xcellerator. The park would be hoppin'! I hear from people all the time here in Rochester that they don't go to SFDL because there is nothing new there (yes I know they have Shipwreck Falls and Twister) but c'mon Six Flags, we're due for a new coaster here! SFMM, SFGAdv, and the other big parks are gonna draw crowds regardless. Put a little money into the smaller ones, see if you can grow their business a little.

On another note, I too thought MF was ranked #1 the past few years and Magnum before that, which is what I based my post on about SFNE advertising the new #1 coaster. My mistake if I was wrong.

Dragster may have had some impact on CP's numbers, but I really doubt it was something you could measure. I think MF brought in a 3% gain too, and it more or less worked every day. While incredible to see, it's not a ride that everyone rides anyway.

I still think that 3.3 million people is their ceiling. I doubt they'll ever get much higher unless the summer some how gets longer.

I also agree with the above points about SFWoA. I think it's supposed to be on the same level as SFGAdv and SFGAm. So why is it doing a third less business? And who was it earlier this year that said they were having a better year? Attendance numbers aren't golf scores. ;)

Is SFGAm supposed to be one of Six Flags top tier parks? I'm not asking to bash the park, I've never been there and I guess just didn't ever think of it as such. And if it is, is SFOG also a top tier park? Those two seem to have more than a few rides in common...

It sure is, especially considering the size of the metropolitan area it serves (over 9 million people). SFGAm in the 80's definitely resembled a middle-tier park. But then they added a stand-up (90), an inverted (92), an excellent woodie (95), a hyper (99), a GIB and an Impulse (01), and a flyer (03).

Of course, you look at SFMM in the 80's and there's not a lot to talk about, either. Not compared to today.

What shocks and perplexes me is that the numbers for the parks aren't significantly higher. At the 50th spot, you are talking barely over a million in attendance. Why, the Puyallup FAIR ( www.thefair.com ) draws over a million in a 17 day period! Is the fair just that good, or do these parks just squeak by? Sheesh! Granted, the park is only open a little more than 2 weeks, so the impetus is to GO NOW, but man, the same thing can be said in that it IS only open 2 weeks.

Weird.