Geauga Lake Discussion Thread

[Skramp]

Maybe if they would have slathered the track with butter, then offered it to ACE, they would have accepted.

[verticalzero]

From Screamscape:

 

It only took the demolition crews about 6 hours to cut it down to tiny bits.

 

Meanwhile, there is speculation that demolition work on The Villain may be next.

 

http://www.freepowerboards.com/geaugalaketoday/geaugalaketoday-about1138.html

 

Double Loop's last day was 7-9-08. A crew of about 15 guys and 1 cutting machine started on DL it's loops.

 

The machine sliced through the track pieces in 10 ft sections. dropping it on the ground then cutting it up into smaller pieces. Within 6 hours they reduced it down to nothing. With the same crew the villain coming down a day and a half max.

 

By 2:30pm Double Loop was down to the station and a few pieces of track.

 

Can someone try and post some pictures of it coming down.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

Moment of silence as a lone tear sheds down my face.

[NASA Guy]

 

I have only gone to Geauga Lake once. On what is most probably the most memorable days of my life.

 

If only I could go back in time and visit just once more, god I hate Cedar Fair for that. (But CF is also building me a B&M Hyper, so I'm good!)

[pianojohn]

Ahh....one of my childhood coasters is gone. I remember the year they opened The Corkscrew and the big ad slogan that year was "Double Loop and Corkscrew too!" This was big news back in 1978! I will have to look for some of the OLD pics I have of the park from the late 70's.

 

It is such a shame that Cedar Fair decided to just close the whole place down. I could envision the park turning into a quaint Lake Compounce type of park, but that will never be.

 

Here's hoping against hope that the Big Dipper can be saved.

[jamesdillaman]

Corkscrew was my first upside-down coaster, and Double Loop was my second (and my first looping coaster). Now I feel old that they're both gone.

 

-James Dillaman

[Force 310]

Here's hoping against hope that the Big Dipper can be saved.

Apparently, it's going to be rebuilt, but it won't be operating.

 

Double Loop was my first coaster with inversions as well. I just became interested in riding coasters last year, and right after the regular operating season was over, CF closed the park down without warning. So I don't have that many memories attached to the park (besides some earlier memories of Sea World), but I still wish it hadn't been closed down.

[robbalvey]

It's kind of sad to think that this park was in better hands with Six Flags. And I wonder if with today's new management they would have tried to salvage it had they stilled own it.

 

IMO, what the park was when it was "Six Flags Worlds of Adventure" is exactly what the company seemed to want in their park profile.

 

Oh, well....

 

Everyone thought I was crazy when I said it, but the day it was announced that Cedar Fair bought the park I knew this would be the fate of the park...I just knew it!

 

--Robb

[gk]

I never got a chance to visit GL - I remember going to Sea World of Ohio as a kid, though, and we were watching some water ski show on the lake, and I was watching the trains run on double loop across the water and wishing I was over there instead!

[BeemerBoy]

You mean ACE didn't try to salvage this for the museum?

[raptor2011]

I think that the park was doomed after 2000. I think Six Flags was trying to make Geauga Lake the premier amusement park in northern Ohio. Before 2000 I think that Six Flags did believe that they could beat out Cedar Point when they added all of the rides. Cedar Point then added Millenium, Wicked Twister, Top Thrill Dragster and I think people would just rather go to Cedar Point for those then Geauga Lake. It also didn't help after 2001 Geauga Lake didn't get any landmark attraction. My wish was that Geauga Lake was still a nice family fun park when owned by Fun Times I think. Now all of the rides are getting demolished

[THE ONE]

It's kind of sad to think that this park was in better hands with Six Flags. And I wonder if with today's new management they would have tried to salvage it had they stilled own it.

 

IMO, what the park was when it was "Six Flags Worlds of Adventure" is exactly what the company seemed to want in their park profile.

 

Oh, well....

 

Everyone thought I was crazy when I said it, but the day it was announced that Cedar Fair bought the park I knew this would be the fate of the park...I just knew it!

 

--Robb

 

I can't agree more Robb, Six Flags was going in the right direction with the park, and yes I can only think with the new management that park would have been better in hands with SF than Cedar Fair.

 

We had family that lived in Aurora Ohio so my family would go to Aurora just about every year and we would visit Geauga lake and Cedar Point. We started going to both park's every year from 78- 98 in till our family moved.

When It became SF I started going back. I know i visited the park each year from 2000-2003 through the hole SF era. After CF bought the park I did not start going back in till 2006 when the rumors started popping up that they were going to take out rides and passably close the park.

 

I don't remember much of GL in till the mid 80s, ( I was to young then) I really liked GL allot even through the SF era the park was nice and clean until CF bought it. The park was better when it was Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, and if SF would still have it today with all the changes that they have made to the rest of the parks in the chain i can only imagine what they would have dome with SFWOA.

 

Just want to say is that i used to be a huge Cedar Point fan in till last September when the closed GL, I think they handled this situation poorly.

 

Anyway sorry for rambling on and on about my life history with GL, I just wish I had more pictures of this park . I loved that park back in the day.

 

And i will miss it very much our family had lot's of memories their.

[Goliathdude]

This really makes me sad. I've never been to Geauga Lake and never will.

[haux]

I think that the park was doomed after 2000. I think Six Flags was trying to make Geauga Lake the premier amusement park in northern Ohio. Before 2000 I think that Six Flags did believe that they could beat out Cedar Point when they added all of the rides. Cedar Point then added Millenium, Wicked Twister, Top Thrill Dragster and I think people would just rather go to Cedar Point for those then Geauga Lake. It also didn't help after 2001 Geauga Lake didn't get any landmark attraction. My wish was that Geauga Lake was still a nice family fun park when owned by Fun Times I think. Now all of the rides are getting demolished

Does anyone remember the Six Flags Worlds of Adventure commercials where the people said they would pass by Cedar Point on the way to SFWoA? Those failed miserably.

 

Would the outcome be different is Cedar Fair had not bought the park? Who knows. But I think Six Flags was putting the park for sale, and Cedar Fair bought it thinking it would be a good investment. Too bad it turned out to be a bad move.

 

I wonder how much Villain and Double Loop will get for scrap.

[Movieguy]

That's a real shame...Double Loop was a great little coaster...and one of the few smooth arrow loopers I've been on, hehe.

[jamesdillaman]

^^ Was it really a bad inestment? Large "new" coasters for Kings Island, Kings Dominion, and Dorney?

 

-James "Seems like a good investment to me..." Dillaman

[haux]

^^ Was it really a bad inestment? Large "new" coasters for Kings Island, Kings Dominion, and Dorney?

 

-James "Seems like a good investment to me..." Dillaman

It was a bad investment in the sense that it failed and had to be closed.

[jamesdillaman]

^ Isn't it still open as a waterpark? Or did I miss something?

[Astat]

Cedar Fair bought it thinking it would be a good investment. Too bad it turned out to be a bad move.

 

I wonder how much Villain and Double Loop will get for scrap.

 

I honestly think that Cedar Fair intended on eventually closing the park and distributing its useful rides to other parks in the chain from the day they bought it. The fact that not a single new ride was added outside of the waterpark during Cedar Fair's tenure as owners really makes it seem glaringly obvious.

 

And I believe Villain went for $40,000? I seem to remember that being in one of the post-auction articles.

[haux]

^ Isn't it still open as a waterpark? Or did I miss something?

I'm just talking about the ride side.

I honestly think that Cedar Fair intended on eventually closing the park and distributing its useful rides to other parks in the chain from the day they bought it. The fact that not a single new ride was added outside of the waterpark during Cedar Fair's tenure as owners really makes it seem glaringly obvious.

I've heard that argument before, but I just don't buy it. If Cedar Fair bought it to close it, it would have been done right away. I think the chain saw that it was failing after a few years and made a sensible business move and dropped it. Giving the rides to other CF parks was a perk.

 

If you think about it, businesses do this all the time. Krispy Kreme closed a lot of shops a few years ago, and Starbucks recently announced it will be closing 600 stores. Starbucks didn't open them intending to sell them for real estate space. They just underperformed. The same can be said for Geauga Lake.

 

But I don't want to argue about that. Let's keep this on topic, I guess.

 

Where did you see figures for how much Double Loop or Villain sold for? Do we know if they've been sold to a scrap dealer yet? I really want to see how much they went for.

[YoshiFan]

On GeaugaLakeToday.com it has the auction prices. I think Double Loop went for $25,000

[geaugalakeinexile]

Six Flags had a great mix in Geauga Lake. The animal side and ride side worked well. Unfortunately Six Flags needed money and Cedar Fair offered to buy it. This was before the other Six Flags park sales.

I have no doubt that Cedar Fair bought it to close the ride side from day 1.

Bottom line, Cedar Fair bought a park that drew 2.1 million guests a year and ran it down to 700,000. If they did not plan to close Geauga Lake then whoever oversaw the purchase should have been fired. So far no management at Cedar Fair has been canned.

 

As for scrap, here in Cleveland you can get up to $100 a ton for clean unmixed scrap steel. I do not know what Double Loop weighed.

 

Double Loop was a fun coaster, I'll miss it.

[Guest]

Villain went for $30,000.

 

Double Loop went for $25,000.

 

I doubt the scrap dealer is getting any money out of those coasters. It just doesn't make sense.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

I'm convinced that CF took on this property for the sole purpose of eliminate the competition. Not that Six Flags was a serious competitor with Cedar Point, but to quote Robert Vaughn from Superman III, "It's not enough that I succeed, but everyone else must fail." I guess 100% of the local market is better than getting "only" 85 or 90%.

[Scaparri]

^I completely agree. Seriously, during the four years the park was owned by Cedar Fair they removed two of the three most popular coasters (one that highly distinguished itself from anything at CP, and one that was nearly identical to a coaster at CP), removed the entire side of the park that separated Geauga from Cedar Point (Wildlife), and place CP billboards within the general area of the park. Now what did they "improve"? They gave Thunderhawk a new paint job, and added a ProSlide Tornado to the newly relocated water park (does the new location seem fishy to anybody else?).

 

And after all of that, they had the huevos to say they didn't understand why people weren't coming to the park!?!?! Riiiight....

 

Nobody will ever be able to convince me that they didn't have ulterior motives. In my eyes, they took advantage of an opportunity to eliminate a competitor with a long-term vision of selling most of the land for a profit while saving a small amount to build a large water park. Maybe that makes me sound foolish, but I guess I don't really care. I'm bitter.