John Peck

^ Remember, Louisville population grew 189.2% from 2000 to 2010 and the 9 years Six Flags held Kentucky Kingdom with subpar marketing and worse customer service, they never were able to cash in on that. http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2011/03/17/louisville-population-soared-from.html Myrtle Beach only grew 37% in that time and where KK was mostly paid for and did very few infrastructure improvements, Hard Rock Park had millions of Dollars in debt from the start. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/real_estate/1103/gallery.Fastest_growing_metro_areas/9.html

^ Ah.... I wasn't sure if we were allowed to do it that way for copyright reasons. Noted and thanks.

And a SECOND article. (Admins: How do you copy and paste the story into the forum that shows all the article text?) http://www.wave3.com/story/21945539/changes-made-to-budget-to-get-kentucky-kingdom-open-on-time Changes made to budget to get Kentucky Kingdom open on time Posted: Apr 11, 2013 2:42 PM EDT Updated: Apr 11, 2013 5:22 PM EDT By Jaimie Weiss LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - The money is in place to get Kentucky Kingdom reopen, according to the Louisville businessman who wants to be the new operator. Wednesday, the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority approved $10 million in tax incentives for Ed Hart and Kentucky Kingdom LLP. Thursday, Hart said despite reports that it will cost more money to open the park, that is not the case. Hart said he and his business partners have finalized a budget and have a new plan to restart Kentucky Kingdom with the original $40 million investment. He said they'll be paying more out of pocket. "My partners and I are going to have to put in more money than we anticipated because we're going to be borrowing less money from the bank," said Hart, who also said that change will expedite the process. "Spring is in the air," Hart said. "Aren't you ready to go to an amusement park?" Hart couldn't appear more excited to be in the process of reopening Kentucky Kingdom, but for at least another year, you'll have to attend a park outside of Louisville. Hart said after being approved for the tax incentives by the state, everything is on track to make him the new operator. "The tourism tax credits were a very, very important part of our financial plan, so we're happy to see that piece is completed," said Hart. The incentives will be paid out over ten years and are based on performance. Hart is adamant that when the park is running again it will go over as well as when he operated it in the early 1990s. "We ran a very successful facility," Hart said. "We built over 1.3 million in attendance, bringing hundreds of thousands of people, visitors, in for overnight stays." Hart said they're already hiring contractors to get inside and get to work. The deadline to finalize the lease is April 27.

Looks like KK landed the $10 Million in Tax Credits it needed. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130410/NEWS01/304100113/Kentucky-Kingdom-partnership-lands-10-million-tax-credits

^ Stealth (as well as Greezed Lightning) was removed by Paramount. Perhaps part of a ride relocation program, or perhaps they were themselves thinking about liquidating the park. Or perhaps they just wanted a waterpark.

Philip Koch passes away. May God Bless him: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/apr/09/no-headline---koch/

Gravity is free, I don't see why more manufacturers take advantage of it instead of designing it with thousands of dollars worth of drive wheels.

The one they purchased is from Beech Bend (which was moved to a closed Canadian Park) http://rcdb.com/1376.htm

Valleyfair has more than enough coasters for its attendance.

Watch the video. It's been clearly "Cut" apart.

Scrapped for sure.

I'm thinking this Sea Dragon is going to be brand new, not used. I think they were referencing a ride like this being on the carnival circuit. And before I forget, Chance still makes the Sea Dragon theme available. Galveston Pleasure Pier just built a brand new one last year.

I wonder if this is their answer to a Harry Potter-styled park.

One step closer ... Kentucky Kingdom project approved for sales tax rebates: http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2013/02/28/kentucky-kingdom-project-approved-for.html

Lots of great shots of the Skycoaster going up at their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FunSpotAmerica?ref=ts&fref=ts

^ He had just looked at the park within the last year, so I figured he's looking for new decay and vandalism. He knows the industry well, I know he knows what he's getting into. As for the park becoming a waterpark comments: Ed wants to market the park out to the largest geographical radius that he can, and with that in mind, he knows it's going to take large thrill rides combined with a strong waterpark and themepark to achieve people driving that far out to attend the park. So that's why I don't feel the waterpark will be the "main draw" if this thing happens the way he wants it to.

The two thrill rides he mentioned before were a 135' Star Flyer and a Flying Scooter.

Lets not forget that you can grow the park not just by making it bigger, but by removing older attractions or building rides on top of each other. Do I think that KK would have gotten 2.5 million by now? No, but I think they would have been able to sustain the 1.8 Million figure and hold it.... and that's the goal, to sustain the attendance. KI and CP have been doing it for years with the exception of 2009 when the market was trying to survive.

Hart wants new trains for Thunder Run, T2 and Twisted Twins. The Twins trains wound up in St. Louis last I heard. There's video of him somewhere breaking down all the costs of repairing each ride, the Giant Wheel would get repainted for example, and there are holes in some of the roofs of the buildings. You're talking a good $1k to $3k just to replace a roof for example depending on the damage and who they hire. KK still has a ton of great infrastructure, so hopefully the major repairs should mostly be the rides, and some of those were winterized. Still, I'd like to see him use the wild mouse foundation for a new wild mouse, I mean, it's already there and Maure Shone still makes that model that was there. But that's just me.

I wonder how similar this deal was to the original deal Hart had back in 1990.

I SHOULD move to Texas... no income tax... same as Florida and "possibly" soon to be Louisiana.

Simon is absolutely correct. Those books are fantastic sources and there are videos available as well. My parents grew up going there, so I heard many a story, but it was closed 4 years prior to my birth. Here is a pretty good website: http://www.euclidbeach.org/

With Transformers 4 set to come out in 2014, it couldn't have opened at a better time.

Visted the park today and have a few photos to share. Enjoy! Son of Beast Son of Beast Son of Beast Good Grief! Forget Haunt, this is the REAL Monster at Kings Island Never noticed before, but the Wave Swinger was updated to LED's

^ God-willing, I plan to be there on Saturday and Cedar point and Jungle Jacks Landing/Columbus Zoo on Sunday.