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Who killed Geauga Lake?


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In order to keep the Cedar Fair and Cedar Point threads on topic we are starting this thread. it look like some people still need to rant on the topic so rant all you want about who killed Geauga Lake in this thread.

1889 - 1969 : Geauga Lake was in private hands

1969: Geauga Lake is sold to Funtime Inc.

1970: Sea World opens Sea World Ohio next to Geauga Lake

1995: Premier purchases the park

1998: Premier buys Six Flags and rebrands itself as Six Flags

2000: Geauga Lake is renamed Six Flags Ohio

2001: Sea World Ohio sold to Six Flags and combined into one mega park named Six Flags World of Adventure

2004: Six Flags sells park to Cedar Fair

2007: Cedar Fair closes ride side after the season

2016: Wildwater Kingdom closes after the season

 

From what I have read and heard, the park thrived prior to 1969 when it was strictly a local park. However, business picked up in 1970 with the opening of SeaWorld, which as a separate park helped turn a trip to Aurora into a two-day trip for many. Business was steady as Funtime Inc. made many additions throughout their ownership period.

 

Then Premier purchased the park and made a huge $9MM investment for 1996.

In 2001, after Six Flags and Premier combine forces the park announces an unprecedented $40MM of improvements, including 4 new coasters and then a fifth new coaster in 2001. However, from 2001 - 2004 after Six Flags combined the Rides Park, Water Park and Wild Life Park into one park, overall attendance slipped. Many say this is because people who would previously spend two days in the two parks, now spent only one day in the combined park.

 

From 2004 - 2007, Cedar Fair shipped out to Wild Life and expanded the Water Park did not make major rides upgrades and attendance continued to slip.

 

In my opinion they all played a part.

Premier started adding larger roller coasters to modernize and start competing directly with Cedar Point

Busch sold out to Premier/Six Flags, in affect ending a two park ecosystem

Premier now under the Six Flags name combines two parks into one mega park to further drive head-to-head competition with Cedar Point

During the four seasons under the Six Flags name, park attendance declines even with the park greatly increasing coaster offerings at an unprecedented level. The local population is responsible for this drop in attendance.

During Cedar Fair's reign, the park tries to focus more on the water park side after closing the Wild Life park. Also at this time the local economy sours. The ride area does receive new rides and attendance continues to drop considerably. A much higher percentage decrease for Cedar Fair than Cedar Point. Cedar Fair eventually closes the money losing ride side.

 

Although I said many factors played a part, I see Six Flags being most accountable . They started the arms race with Cedar Point, then miscalculating on the combined park.

 

Second, I hold the locals accountable as they stopped supporting the park during the Six Flags reign.

 

Then the economy soured as Cedar Fair purchased the park and by this time the locals had already shown a lack of appreciation for the existing park.

 

Sure Cedar Fair closed to park in 2007.

 

I look at it this way, Cedar Fair buried the body, but many others killed it slowly over time.

Edited by larrygator
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I think Six Flags tried to make it into something it wasn't. It got too big too fast. The market wasn't large enough to support that size of a park, but they kept investing. Cedar Fair bought it, and decided not to keep adding rides because that plan clearly wasn't working. I think closing the wildlife park and later closing the ride side of the park only caused it's inevitable decline to happen faster. In my opinion, if Cedar Fair had kept investing in the ride side of the park, it would only have cost them more money. It was probably the best financial decision they could make to get some of the rides out and send them to other parks where they will be able to make a profit off them. They had to cut their losses.

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Geauga Lake was certainly not thriving in the late 1960's. As Euclid Beach were closing and my parents moved East, they began to go to Geauga Lake which they mentioned was run down and small.

 

Short answer: Sea World Killed Geauga Lake

 

Sea World (who on average entertained 1.5 - 2 Million) gaveth life and tooketh life away. Geauga was thriving all the years that Sea World were open with on average 1 million Guests per year. Incidentally, Geauga Lakes Best season on record was 1999.

 

Six Flags Ohio brought in 2.1 million people in the 2000 season... and for a park that could comfortably handle perhaps 1.4 Million, the park was understaffed, under maintained and as dirty as heck and the higher attendance showed how unprepared the park was. Many of those 2.1 people would never visit again due to a bad experience.

 

Six Flags combining the parks (Originally over 3 Million combined in 2000 to about 1.7 for the entire gate in 2001 and dropping from that point on-) was the other hitter as well as Six Flags went from about 100 acres to 600 and being in three townships, the taxes were horrendous.

 

Kinzel himself said many times as far back as 2005 "Geauga Lake does not bring in enough to sustain its size" So with an average of 700k guests from 2004 to 2007 and tons of expenses and taxes high maintenance rides including older ones that were falling apart (double loop, etc) the park wasn't making enough money. Not to mention, the local unions were boycotting the park for using non-unionized labor, which is a very common and dirty trick that unions do.

 

In the end, I don't ever believe Cedar Fair ever bought the park to close it. Why do i think that? First, it would have been closed in 2004, second, they spent millions on refurbishing rides (even ones they didn't retain), spent millions on new merchandise and signage and renovated several locations within the park. They also built a $25 Million waterpark (a mistake, but still, a brand new waterpark) The numbers never worked out in their favor.

 

What should Cedar Fair have done? Sold off everything on the Sea World side, and kept Geauga Lake the smaller, local park many people loved just with smaller rides.

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I'd say that the huge investment that Six Flags made in the late 1990s/early 2000s really sent the park spiraling downward. IMO, if they would have spread out the new attraction openings more, generating consistent buzz over a period of time instead of a lot of buzz immediately with a quick drop-off, it would have been better for them in the long run.

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All I'm going to say is. in continuation from the Cedar Fair thread, is I don't necessarily hate Dick Kinzel. I think the backlash against him over the closing of Geauga Lake was in the way he went about it. If he and the CF organization would have just come out and told everyone in advance mid to late 2007 that the park was closing and gave everyone a last chance to say goodbye, like many parks that have closed did, there wouldn't be so much bitterness against him. It was almost a soap opera leading up to the closure.

 

Look at it this way, CF had gone out of their way to let everyone say goodbye in advance to White Water Landing, Demon Drop, and Paddlewheel Excursions but would not let everyone say goodbye to a park with a 119-year history.

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In order to keep the Cedar Fair and Cedar Point threads on topic we are starting this thread. it look like some people still need to rant on the topic so rant all you want about who killed Geauga Lake in this thread.

1889 - 1969 : Geauga Lake was in private hands

1969: Geauga Lake is sold to Funtime Inc.

1970: Sea World opens Sea World Ohio next to Geauga Lake

1995: Premier purchases the park

1998: Premier is purchased by Six Flags

2000: Geauga Lake is renamed Six Flags Ohio

2001: Sea World Ohio sold to Six Flags and combined into one mega park named Six Flags World of Adventure

2004: Six Flags sells park to Cedar Fair

2007: Cedar Fair closes ride side after the season

2008 - Current: Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom is still alive and kicking.

 

From what I have read and heard, the park thrived prior to 1969 when it was strictly a local park. However, business picked up in 1970 with the opening of SeaWorld, which as a separate park helped turn a trip to Aurora into a two-day trip for many. Business was steady as Funtime Inc. made many additions throughout their ownership period.

 

Then Premier purchased the park and made a huge $9MM investment for 1996.

In 2001, after Six Flags and Premier combine forces the park announces an unprecedented $40MM of improvements, including 4 new coasters and then a fifth new coaster in 2001. However, from 2001 - 2004 after Six Flags combined the Rides Park, Water Park and Wild Life Park into one park, overall attendance slipped. Many say this is because people who would previously spend two days in the two parks, now spent only one day in the combined park.

 

From 2004 - 2007, Cedar Fair shipped out to Wild Life and expanded the Water Park did not make major rides upgrades and attendance continued to slip.

 

In my opinion they all played a part.

Premier started adding larger roller coasters to modernize and start competing directly with Cedar Point

Busch sold out to Premier/Six Flags, in affect ending a two park ecosystem

Premier now under the Six Flags name combines two parks into one mega park to further drive head-to-head competition with Cedar Point

During the four seasons under the Six Flags name, park attendance declines even with the park greatly increasing coaster offerings at an unprecedented level. The local population is responsible for this drop in attendance.

During Cedar Fair's reign, the park tries to focus more on the water park side after closing the Wild Life park. Also at this time the local economy sours. The ride area does receive new rides and attendance continues to drop considerably. A much higher percentage decrease for Cedar Fair than Cedar Point. Cedar Fair eventually closes the money losing ride side.

 

Although I said many factors played a part, I see Six Flags being most accountable . They started the arms race with Cedar Point, then miscalculating on the combined park.

 

Second I hold the local accountable are they stopped supporting the park during the Six Flags reign.

 

Then the economy soured as Cedar Fair purchased the park and by this time the locals had already shown a lack of appreciation for the existing park.

 

Sure Cedar Fair closed to park in 2007.

 

I look at it this way, Cedar Fair buried the body, but many others killed it slowly over time.

 

Premiere parks wasn't purchased by six flags,it was the other way around with six flags being purchased by premiere parks in 98.

 

It was SFI under the premiere parks management that killd SFWOA/GL by not adding new rides to the park just prior to the sale to CF in 04 due in large part to their focus shifting toward SFMM & SFGRADV recieving ride after ride at the expense of the other parks.CF inherited a troubled park that SFI would've never sold if they could've kept running it at a profit but that's just my .002 cents.

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^I edited the original post, I was typing too fast and didn't catch that when proofing. I had it correct in one place in the thread and wrong in the other.

 

^^^^"Thrived" might not have been the appropriate word. My understanding it that the park was at least turning a profit and had a small core of supporters, even if it was a little rundown.

Edited by larrygator
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All I'm going to say is. in continuation from the Cedar Fair thread, is I don't necessarily hate Dick Kinzel. I think the backlash against him over the closing of Geauga Lake was in the way he went about it. If he and the CF organization would have just come out and told everyone in advance mid to late 2007 that the park was closing and gave everyone a last chance to say goodbye, like many parks that have closed did, there wouldn't be so much bitterness against him. It was almost a soap opera leading up to the closure.

 

Look at it this way, CF had gone out of their way to let everyone say goodbye in advance to White Water Landing, Demon Drop, and Paddlewheel Excursions but would not let everyone say goodbye to a park with a 119-year history.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself!

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It was SFI under the premiere parks management that killd SFWOA/GL by not adding new rides to the park just prior to the sale to CF in 04 due in large part to their focus shifting toward SFMM & SFGRADV recieving ride after ride at the expense of the other parks.CF inherited a troubled park that SFI would've never sold if they could've kept running it at a profit but that's just my .002 cents.

 

Adding rides is exactly why the park was "killed" off - adding anymore would probably sealed its fault sooner. The park had too many assets for the amount of revenue/attendance that was generated. Hence why high-maintence rides like X-Flight were shipped out quick to help cut some of the huge maintenance budget.

 

Kinzel has gone on record (prior to the Paramount Deal) that one of his biggest regret was not purchasing Geauga Lake when he had the chance in the mid-90s from FunTimes Inc. If they purchased it then I think it would have been another story - I would guess Cedar Fair would maintain it as a local attraction not try to over-expand it.

 

The factors I believe are:

1) Too much, too fast - There is a reason no existing parks have added the amount of capital Six Flags did for the 2000 season. It throws off the balance sheet.

2) Six Flags directly went after Cedar Point (anyone remember the old SFO commercials - "We drove past Cedar Point to get here"). They went strong after the Detroit market - which was 4 hours+ away and had Cedar Point in-between. Whether it was marketing or captial they went after the wrong audience.

3) The area physically couldn't handle it - and the government didn't help. The park was a legal mess. Anyone who followed the park in the early '00s will remember the many legal battles the park faced (especially when it became SFWoA and it sat between two counties). Simple things like rerouting a service road was big point of contention in local court. The long-rumored hyper coaster was argued in court forever to try to get both cities to approve the height. Didn't help literally 50 feet from some of the rides were houses. The only real route to the park was a 10-min drive down a two lane road passed an increasing number of wealthy subdivisions whose residents didn't like the welcome attention.

 

I honestly believe Cedar Fair buying the park and reopening it as Geauga Lake was one of the better things that could have happened. Who is not to say SF wouldn't have killed it also ala AstroWorld? I attended the media ceremony for the "grand reopening" and just talking to some of the execs and hearing them speak there was one consistent message - they wanted to "bring back the fun" by transforming it back into a smaller local park. Maybe I drank the koolaid but that seemed to be the right idea - trim the assets to match revenue and attendance and get back to what made the park successful for the first 50+ years. They even brought in some of their top leaders from the Point.

 

Could CF have done a better job? Maybe a few things seemed to hurt them off the bat - including the park's rep with the local residents and government and some ticketing issues (i.e. fail with the season pass tie-in with Cedar Point). I think did the right thing by trimming the fat - honestly I wondered if they could've done more. Kinzel has also admitted removing the animals hurt more than they would have thought.

 

I think my point is the park survived for so long (considering a large number of Cleveland/Youngstown parks didn't make it) because it was a local place - trying to turning it into a large force didn't work as planed (who's not to say if it was built up over time as local infrastructure was expanded that it wouldn't have worked. Cedar Fair is always painted as the bad guy when it comes to the final closure but I can't help but see it as they bought a sinking ship and couldn't repair it fast enough to keep it afloat.

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Geauga Lake was suffering the same local fate as many parks were in the 50's and 60's and time was taking it's toll on the park. Had Sea World not moved in, I would have been shocked if Geauga Lake ever made it past 1975, unless they built a new pool or offered more beach activities.

 

In my opinion, Idora Park losing the giant pool was a major factor.

 

I don't hate Cedar Fair either, and I agree that the park made a bad choice in order to not warn us, but I don't think they knew it themselves. They were however planning to move Thunderhawk, Dominator and Texas Twister. The fact that all the other rides sat there for a year was proof that they would have continued operating and weren't pre-planned.

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After buying Paramount parks in 2006, they then had 3 parks within a few hours of each other. For one they can't market Geauga Lake when the same company owns two better parks just a few hours away from it. They're were kinda breaking even with the 3 parks.

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I think that Cedar Fair is the villain here. Nobody is perfect, but Cedar Fair could have chosen to run the park as a local attraction. Many parks survive with 700,000 visitors a year. The removal of the wild animals hurt the park, but this could have been avoided. Certainly Cedar Fair was paying attention to how many people were visiting the animal exhibits.

 

Six Flags at least tried with the park. If you look back at Cedar Fair's history you should remember that usually, when Cedar Fair purchases a park, they fool around for a few years before they decide to add anything like a coaster. Why do they wait so long? I think it is because they do not know what they are doing. Michigan's Adventure, Worlds Of Fun and Dorney Park all sat for a few years before a coaster was added to them. The former Paramount parks were an exception, but that was ony because Cedar Fair knew those parks could make a profit after adding big rides. With other parks, it was like, wait and see.

 

Not giving the public a notice that the rides were closing was a mistake. In the 1950s, Cedar Point announced that it would close and the public outcry was enough to keep it open. The same could have happened with Geauga Lake.

 

I think other people did damage, but Cedar Fair didn't know how to repair the damage. The lack of any new rides and the removing of the animals didn't help the park. A new flat ride could have generated interest in the rides section as there would have been ads promoting it. Sure, take out X-Flight and Superman. These were not the right rides a local traditional park, but at least put up something to replace them. When it comes to saving the rides side, Cedar Fair didn't even try.

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Both are to blame. Six Flags over expanded the park (like they did with a few other parks). I think the real mistake was combining the park when they bought Sea World. While it seems to be working ok at SFDK, I think they should have kept the parks Six Flags Ohio/Hurricane Harbor and Six Flags Marine World or use the WOA name for the former Sea World park. The combined park was just too big to be offered under a combined ticket. I also think the 2000 expansion should have been scaled back.

 

Cedar Fair really overpaid for the park as well (seems to be a theme with Kinzel's later years). I remember reading an article when the park closed where Kinzel said in hindsight they should have probably kept the animal park a year or two and try to make it work, because he felt closing it had a much bigger negative impact on the park than they ever imagined. Once their attendance slipped even more you can't blame Cedar Fair for wanting to downsize the park, but that just leads to more problems when people hear that and will just asume the park is closing (hello people still thinking SFMM closed).

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There is no clear culprit of the demise of Geauga Lake in my opinion, but I do think Cedar Fair overpaid for a badly damaged park in terms of it's operations and public image. Having SeaWorld right across the lake was key for the success of not only each other, but the area as a whole. GL/SW made a great weekend vacation combo. Unfortunately, SeaWorld selling out to Six Flags really changed public perception. Roughly two hours away in Erie Pa, the collective, local attitude was disappointment because they lost a great family-friendly attraction. Even though Six Flags heavily marketed the amusement/wildlife combo, the market was very reluctant to catch on because around here Six Flags is seen as an amusement company and not as a wildlife attraction. Sure enough, the old Six Flags image of dirty and poorly run kicked in and the park was forgotten amongst the surging parks such as Cedar Point for thrills, and Waldameer as the valuable, family-oriented stay-cation. Cedar Fair, in my opinion, was a godsend. The park was cleaned up and running nicely in typical Cedar Fair efficiency and friendliness. Unfortunately, even with the traditional Geauga Lake name restored, the public had forgotten the park without its right-hand counterpart SeaWorld. My last visit on a Friday in July of 2007 was very enjoyable in terms of thrills and operations, but the severe lack of attendance was saddening and disturbing at the same time. The park itself, even without X-Flight and Steel Venom, still boasted a nice collection of coasters, a top-tier waterpark, and clean, friendly operations, but their market was already absorbed and entrenched in Cedar Point.

 

So sad, because Geauga Lake was far superior to Darien Lake which is roughly equal distance from my hometown Erie, Pa, and was not as greuling and exhausting as Cedar Point. Unfortunately, the general public didn't see it that way. R.I.P. Geauga Lake and The Villian (one of CCI's lost gems).

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Well I'm still not a Cedar Fair fan, but as said before there's more than one culprit. I actually never even heard of Geauga Lake until I went to Sea World on a class trip in 1998. I loved Sea World and to be honest there was nothing like it for the longest time. The only thing that comes close is the Pittsburgh Zoo. I'll never forgive for the closing of Sea World Ohio.

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Who Killed Geauga Lake? Cedar Fair but Let's get past that for a minute.

 

I think the "Flagging" should've happened in 1999 instead of 2000. That way the only competition that year was Cedar Point's Planet Snoopy.

 

Now Cedar Fair. If they didn't want the park to die, They sure didn't show it by only adding like 5 things (Liquid Lightning, Coral Cove, Riptide Run, Tidal Wave Bay, Splash Landing) from 2004-2007... Oh wait, let me look at the 2011 park map on the site... Make that 2004-NOW!!! Yes they have not added anything since 2006 when they added the wave pool. Also the 2011 prices are higher than the 2007 prices when they included a free theme park.

 

 

So If Kinzel/Cedar Fair didn't want the park to close/die, You'd think they would've added a new ride by now.

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I don't understand why the assumption is that CF should have built more rides. The park was already too big for the market to support it. Downsizing was the answer, not expanding. Why in the heck would it make sense for them to dump more and more money into a park that they were already losing money on? The market clearly was not interested in more rides, otherwise SF's rapid expansion wouldn't have burned them so badly. The closing may have been mishandled, with no warning, but still. I don't see how anyone could justify the risk of adding another ride. I think the two mistakes CF made were:

 

1. Closing the wildlife park

2. Buying the property in the first place

 

I think they knew it was a dying park in the last few years, and were not really concerned about saving it. They were trying to figure out the best exit strategy.

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Hindsight is 20/20. With that said, I think CF should have kept the animals but returned it to a separate gate zoo. There isn’t a lot of overlap between the demographics of a zoo and an amusement park. By combining them into the same (more expensive) ticket, SF alienated customers for both products. If CF still wasn’t comfortable with the zoo’s performance after a few seasons they could have then sold that portion of the property.

 

I think CF made the right decision in making the waterpark their central focus. But I think they should have expanded and rebranded the existing waterpark rather than completely relocate it. Hurricane Hannah’s could have been doubled with the removal of X-Flight, Steel Venom, Head Spin, Skyscraper, Bel Air Express, Mr. Hyde’s Nasty Fall, go-karts, etc. GL would be able to expand its waterpark to the front gate while eliminating several of its expensive to operate rides.

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I agree that downsizing, as far as removing X-Flight and Superman, was the right thing to do. I still think that one or two smaller rides could have been added as an experiment to see if they could regenerate interest in the rides side of the park. If the rides failed, they could have been sent to other parks. My point earlier about the rides was that something should have been added amid the removals. I agree that a ride like X-Flight was too big for the park, but they could have built a new flat ride that no other park in Ohio had and marketed it as such. In regards to the removal of the animals, why didn't they try to fix that within a year? Cedar Fair has deep pockets. I do not like hearing that the Paramount deal left them without cash. As well as the former Paramount parks are attended, they were going to make their money back within a reasonable time.

 

One thing I think that my have hurt the park was the lack of a decent kids area. I was never that impressed with the offering of kids rides at Geauga Lake. Cedar Point and Kings Island have much better areas for kids and even Kennywood seemed to offer more family rides. I think Cedar Fair may have failed to understand this. The wild animals were an attraction that appealed to families.

 

I still think Cedar Fair should have known the market in the Cleveland area a little bit better(the removal of the animals hurt us more than I thought).

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But the underlying arguement really is why did Cedar Fair purchase a park knowing there were animals when they clearly don't operate animal parks? If I didn't know anything about animal parks I surely wouldn't have any interest in owning a park that had them.

 

I still believe that 2003 was the best year under Six Flags. Rick McCurley was the GM and the park was noticably improved over the prior two seasons and I truly believe people were beginning to give the park a second chance. Shouka's stadium would be packed with each show. The dolphin show was getting good crowds. The problem was the lack of things to do on the Wild Life side between shows to keep people interested over there. That was the direction Six Flags was beginning to address when they added Thriller Bees and Starfish near the sea lion stadium. Then came the plans to put the rumored hypercoaster on that side of the lake. Sure they had issues between Aurora and Bainbridge but eventually an agreement was made between all parties to make that happen.

 

I could have seen a Thomas Town or Wiggles World added to the park if Six Flags would have held on, added to the Wild Life side to expand the kid's offerings.

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I didn't go to Geauga Lake in 2003, but I have heard nothing but great things about that year. Cedar Fair came in at a time when momentum had been gained to save the park. Cedar Fair didn't try to build upon this. In regards to the hyper, I don't think that was the right choice until they sustained the momentum that had been building up to 2004 as 2003 was a great year for the park. If 2004 and 2005 had been great, we could have seen the hyper in 2006 or 2007. Season passes should have been honored at Cedar Point and Geauga Lake right from the start. It couldn't have been much trouble to have had pass holders from one go to the guest relations window to get a free ticket. People who bought Geauga Lake (Six Flags) passes bought them on the agreement that they could be used at other parks across the country. Cedar Fair should have honored this with its own parks in 2004 for GL passholders. It is my understanding they waited until 2005 to include GL in the Cedar Fair passes. Not a good PR move at all.

 

Cedar Fair buying a park with animal exhibits when they do not run parks with animal exhibits shows they didn't know what they were doing. Those animal exhibits were popular for a reason-people wanted to see them. Removing popular attraction is not a good way to keep customers. Another way to look at this is that a park that combines an amusement park, a zoo and a water park has its own unique drawing power. It is hard to get a group to agree on anything, but if a family member likes zoos and another family member likes swimming and another family member likes roller coasters, Geauga Lake was more likely to satisfy a group.

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... why did Cedar Fair purchase a park knowing there were animals when they clearly don't operate animal parks?

 

I believe that CF bought GL to prevent another company from successfully developing it to the point it competed with Cedar Point. The story I've always heard was that Busch originally offered to buy SFO before SFI counter-offered to buy Seaworld Ohio. In 2000, Busch obviously believed that they could successfully run both properties with the Seaworld brand name and consolidated overhead. I suspect that CF didn't want a competent operator like Busch (or even Kennywood) to buy and improve SFWOA.

 

Hear me clearly, I do not think CF bought GL with the intention of downsizing it to just a waterpark. But, I also don't think CF ever expected the property to grow or ever bring in a killer profit (compared to their other properties at least).

 

Season passes should have been honored at Cedar Point and Geauga Lake right from the start. It couldn't have been much trouble to have had pass holders from one go to the guest relations window to get a free ticket. People who bought Geauga Lake (Six Flags) passes bought them on the agreement that they could be used at other parks across the country. Cedar Fair should have honored this with its own parks in 2004 for GL passholders. It is my understanding they waited until 2005 to include GL in the Cedar Fair passes. Not a good PR move at all.

 

IIRC, those who purchased SFWOA season passes had the option to get a full refund up through June 30, 2004 (or they could exhange it for a GL pass). Had GL been honored at CP, the price would have been drastically higher. Otherwise, CP customers would just buy the cheaper GL pass. A CP/GL combo pass was available in 2005 and 2006 (and GL passes were accepted at other CF parks).

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In reality, Cedar Fair killed the park, because they were the ones who decided to close it. All these factors had a huge part in its decline, but Cedar Fair pulled the plug.

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I know about the season passes and the offer for a refund, but it would have been a better PR move to have honored them in 2004. The could have just raised the price of the GL pass.

 

If Cedar Fair didn't expect to make a profit from GL and just wanted it to keep it from falling into a competitors hands, then what was the long term plan? There could only be one answer-close the rides. I visited GL several times and I while I didn't experience multi-hour waits in line, I did notice that the rides were more than just a walk on. I know I waited in lines for Villain, X-Flight, Serial Thriller, Superman and even RWB at times. I do not see how this park could not have been turning a profit. My guess is it was under performing, but not losing money. To the east there is Conneaut Lake which is reported to lose money every year but something keeps it alive.

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