What is the big event in the amusment industry?

Cedar Fair is going to buy Bushkill Park. Mark my words. ;)

That's mean Rob. I wouldn't wish that on *anybody* Certainly not poor Bushkill Park.

Well, I do think Geauga Lake is in better LONG TERM shape with CF at the helm. If Six Flags still had the park, they would have driven it so far into the ground that it would have been sold to developers by now. That's not saying the same won't happen with CF, but I'm betting they eventually do something great with the place.

Jeff was playing mini-golf at the Firelands charity event when he connected the dots, or so he said.

Nah, Rob, you're wrong. The big chains are going to have a Battle Royale (Pay per view of course). Winner becomes the new management team of Williams Grove. For a consolation prize, the losers get a jar of DelGrosso's pasta sauce.

Is the pasta sauce that bad? ;)

I like it, but what do I know about pasta sauce?

What do you know about anything? ;)

You just got yourself banned from Ripple Rock's media day. ;)

The "big event" is that DelGrosso's is getting a spaghetti bowl... ;)

Mmmmmm spaghetti.

And who cares about Ripple Rock's media day? I'll probably be able to download the podcast at some point, right?

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Rob Ascough said:
Well, I do think Geauga Lake is in better LONG TERM shape with CF at the helm. If Six Flags still had the park, they would have driven it so far into the ground that it would have been sold to developers by now. That's not saying the same won't happen with CF, but I'm betting they eventually do something great with the place.

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Perhaps the old regime would have. However, GL is just the type of park Mark Shapiro could have really sunk his teeth into.

Perhaps. I could see him having some good ideas for the place. But I don't think the park would have survived this long under the Burke regime- the land is ripe for development and I think the allure of that money would have killed it by now.

For the record, DelGrosso's sauce is great. Pasta Wednesdays at DelGrosso's. Yummmmmm. Less expensive and better quality than all of the corporate reddish-orange sludge in a jar. (Hmmm, sense a theme here?) It was just the only park related "consolation prize" I could think of.

I know the old game shows used to give away a lifetime supply of macaroni, but I couldn't fit that in to this thread. :)

SF just did *exactly* the wrong things with GL. Instead of drawing business away from CP by DIVERSIFYING and moving *away* from the market demographics of CP, the old SF regime decided to try and beat CP at CP's game.

If SF had really WORKED the 3-parks-in-one angle, promoted the daylights out of the park, offered some nightly fireworks, gone more towards company outings and birthdays and such, priced themselves accordingly, they could have made a profit at GL by being everything CP is not...and it could have been done WAYYY cheaper than building 4 coasters in one year (not that *I* didn't enjoy them, just that it really was the WRONG business decision).

If the *big event* IS indeed Ripple Rock media day, I need to get some press credentials.. :)

Actually showing people a good time in the ride and water park portions of the place would've been a good start too. :)

^ Oh, you mean Customer Service? I figured I'd already beaten that horse beyond the grave... ;)

just wondering... did anyone foresee CF buying SFWoA and call it "something big"?

Because i recall it being huge news the morning that it came out. were people in the know and didnt tell or did jeff just decide to tease us for a while this time?

The notion that CF was going to buy Geauga Lake had been around for a long long time. I would say SF buying out Sea World was a much bigger shocker.

But it certainly was a big deal. I don't think many people saw it coming after the SF purchase of the park originally. *** Edited 5/16/2006 8:56:39 PM UTC by matt.*** *** Edited 5/16/2006 9:03:31 PM UTC by matt.***

Well, whatever this news is going to be, I hope it's for the better and not something like: insurance rates going so high that every mom and pop park has to close or....... a country-wide regulation bill that won't allow parks to build rides over 30mph or...... a stop to building wood coasters due to environmental concerns.