realKyle

The park has many weaknesses. #1: Its competitors (such as Holiday World and Kings Island) have more room to expand, while Kentucky Kingdom's size if it uses all the land for expansion, would be around 80 acres, far smaller than those two other parks. #2: Height restrictions, given its proximity to the airport, restrict KK from ever building attractions taller than 150 feet (which, as far as I'm aware, is the max height they're allowed to build), which limits the park if they ever plan/want to compete by building new thrill rides as they did during the 1990s. #3: (This is a minor one, but no one I've seen really talks about it as a negative) The park layout is terrible. The road cutting the park in half, King Louies Playland being in the middle of the front half of the park, and Hurricane Bay being in the middle of the second half of the park make KK unnecessarily difficult to navigate (especially when compared to Kings Island, for example). The back half specifically feels dead in most places, such as the area between Thunder Run and Taco Tequila, which is connected by a long, narrow path, with only one attraction (Raging River Rapids Ride) and almost nothing going on back there. #4: KK, despite its best efforts, has so far struggled to make a profit. When Hart reopened the park in 2014, he believed that KK in the 2010s could have 1.2 million visitors in a season, which were the same attendance numbers from the '97 season. These days, Kentucky Kingdom gets around 700k visitors per season, which is not terrible, but far less than its competitors who average over 1 million guests per year. The issues with making a profit limited the park in the 2010s when it came to new additions (such as not being able to afford a dueling RMC, instead opting for a single-track Storm Chaser). The emergence of Holiday World may be a reason to blame their attendance struggles, as I know that park has taken a large bite out of out-of-state visitors who now go to Santa Claus and not Louisville, I should mention the park of course also has its strengths, its location in Louisville and friendly relations with the local and state governments definitely help it. But barring some serious investment from Herschend or some other operator, I don't understand how Kentucky Kingdom can stay open without heavily relying on the state and local governments to help bear the cost of keeping the place afloat. Although I wouldn't entirely blame Herschend's few investments for the current state of the park, because aside from the 1990s when Paramount was not expanding Kings Island as much and Holiday World was not much of a competitor, it seems that Kentucky Kingdom has struggled to really compete as a regional amusement park.

The seasonal events are nice additions, but I'm honestly skeptical about this park's future. Read an article from Louisville Business First where the park's general manager suggested that they plan to focus on "minor repairs" to the park instead of major additions, so it seems Herschend plans to treat Kentucky Kingdom more like Wild Adventures and not Dollywood/SDC. Also leaving T3 SBNO doesn't look like a sign that they're eager to invest in the property. Maybe their plan for Kentucky Kingdom will work, but for a park like this with many weaknesses in a competitive regional market, I don't see how they could ever break 1 million visitors in a season like they used to back in the 90s, or even turn out solid revenue (because as far as I've seen this park hasn't really made a profit since it reopened 10 years ago).

I thought about that too but I think they'll still let it happen being that the company would still have competitors in SeaWorld and Herschend (albeit they own a lot less parks).

If I had to guess I'd say some place like Darien Lake or Great Escape but that's just what I'd predict.

Has anyone heard any rumors about what will happen to the T3 site or T3 itself? I wish they'd open up that area and put some flat rides on it and maybe a coaster where the old amphitheater is, but I know that probably won't happen.

SeaWorld and Herschend trying to compete with Cedar Flags:

Their social media looks inactive so I haven't heard anything, but I'm really disappointed with the pace of construction. Grand Texas was announced nine years ago and its not even half way done yet. I always thought that their financing wasn't in good condition, so I wouldn't be shocked if the pandemic accelerated that and causes them to sell their property. So it wouldn't surprise me if either A) the property is sold, or B) Grand Texas Theme Park won't be built for at least another five years, if ever.

I actually think that would be pretty cool. I heard talk about Frontier City going to HFE, but I think Magic Springs would probably work better.

Does anyone think that Six Flags is gonna buy this park? I've heard people talk about that for years, but I wonder if they have plans; of course they couldn't do it now cause of their financial state, but I wonder if they have it planned.

I think this one has better audio

Is there a live stream for the announcement?

#1 FoF and Top Gun were built during Hart's ownership in the 90s, but ironically enough the other attractions (including the addition of Paramount's Action Zone) was in response to Six Flags buying KK in the late 90s; because at the time, people believed that Six Flags was going to greatly expand KK so it could compete better with KI. #2 I think they were aware of it, but I don't think they had the funds to rapidly expand like they did in the 90s (even with the investments). In fact, KK was supposed to get a B&M in 2014, but they went with a Chance Rides coaster because it was cheaper. It's not that they weren't aware of it, they just couldn't do as much as they wanted to do.

Yeah, I don't think that in 2014 they thought that they were just going to flip the park and sell it off in a few years. The main issue that KK has in the 2010s/20s that it didn't have in the 90s is that now it's in a competitive market. Back in the 90s, Holiday World was pretty small and didn't have any coasters, Opryland was closing, and King's Island wasn't really expanding as much as they have recently. By the time that KK reopened in 2014, these parks had gotten such large dominance in the region that it's more difficult to compete nowadays.

Yeah but those are the Cedar Fair flagship parks, meanwhile places like Michigan's Adventure get neglected.