Honestly, I believe Cedar Fair bought Geauga Lake for the purpose of closing it. I heard and saw too much to believe that they tried to keep the park going. Obviously they had the intention of keeping the waterpark for the long haul, otherwise they wouldn't have built Wildwater Kingdom. Cedar Fair had a great return on investment with this deal. They killed one of their biggest competitors, continued to make a profit before closing the park, and got a ton of rides to market at other parks as "new" attractions. The Illions carousel was worth millions alone. On top of that there was a top notch B&M floorless and three other steel coasters that have found new homes around the country. Cedar Point got Planet Snoopy out of the deal and the other flats have been thrown all over the place. I don't think there's a single Cedar Fair park in the US that doesn't have a piece of Geauga Lake. Cedar Fair definitely made back more than they had spent to purchase the park. I'm sorry, but there's no way the park was failing as badly as they claimed it was. Cedar Fair cited stagnant attendance figures as a major factor in closing the park, assuming they were the actual attendance figures. I personally think it was impressive the figures stayed stagnant and didn't decrease. Operating costs decreased due to attraction removals and shortened operating seasons. These two measures are exactly the kind of things that would potentially drive down attendance, but they didn't. Therefore, net profit for the park should have increased each year under Cedar Fair management. Proportionally, attendance would have increased as well considering the seasons were shorter. Based on what I witnessed in the park, I also believe that the attendance figures were manufactured. What this all comes down to is that closing the park was an extreme measure. TOO extreme, I believe. This is simply my opinion and I respect those with varying opinions. The fact of the matter is that we will never entirely understand for sure what caused the ruin of the park. I personally think that Six Flags sold it too soon, but that's delving even further into the unknown. What I am sure of is that the Cleveland area is really missing a local amusement park, specifically Geauga Lake.