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Kentucky Kingdom


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You can live in Indy and its still a local park to me as you drive to, visit the park, and return home all in a single day. For a family of 4 with smal childern are they going to spend the extra gas to go to Kings Island when SFKK is cheaper right down the park and the kids would likely enjoy just as much as they would Kings Island.

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Just in the last 10 years i found that if Six Flags doesn't want to put money in a park or if it's been destroyed, they sell it. Just look at what happen to SFNO. And how many of the old Six Flags board members made millions off the side on company's they already owned?

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And food pricing in a park scores of miles from Kings Island will never affect Kings Island food pricing. Many factors are used in determining food pricing (or should be) at Kings Island, but pricing at an amusement park nearly 100 miles away is not one of them.

That's like saying if one man were to punch another man directly in the face, the victim would not respond. If Kentucky Kingdom manages to become a force against King's Island, AGAIN. I'm quite sure King's Island will begin to lower their prices.

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And food pricing in a park scores of miles from Kings Island will never affect Kings Island food pricing. Many factors are used in determining food pricing (or should be) at Kings Island, but pricing at an amusement park nearly 100 miles away is not one of them.

That's like saying if one man were to punch another man directly in the face, the victim would not respond. If Kentucky Kingdom manages to become a force against King's Island, AGAIN. I'm quite sure King's Island will begin to lower their prices.

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The reason Kings Island responded the way it did last time around (and won't this time) is because Kentucky Kingdom was the then Six Flags' first conversion park...and Gary Story was making it quite clear he was going after Kings Island and its business...it was a paramount strategy for him. When the Action Zone expansion happened, Story moved his attentions (and many of his employees) to Geauga Lake and went after Cedar Point, first with Six Flags Ohio then with Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. We know how that ended...

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As to doubting that the park will reopen, how's Americana doing these days? Six Flags New Orleans? That new park in West Virginia that was supposed to open just a year or so ago? Wild West World? Ghost Town In The Sky? Hard Rock Park? Free Style Music Park?

Hmmm..i'm from WV and i never heard that WV was supposed to open a new park..do you have any details?

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As to doubting that the park will reopen, how's Americana doing these days? Six Flags New Orleans? That new park in West Virginia that was supposed to open just a year or so ago? Wild West World? Ghost Town In The Sky? Hard Rock Park? Free Style Music Park?

Hmmm..i'm from WV and i never heard that WV was supposed to open a new park..do you have any details?

Here ya' go:

http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7919&view=findpost&p=128077&hl=%2Bwild+%2Bescape&fromsearch=1

http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16602&st=0

http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13086&view=findpost&p=215547&hl=%2B%2Bwild+%2B%2Bescape&fromsearch=1

http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11900&st=0&p=195659&hl=++wild%20++escape&fromsearch=1entry195659

http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11484&view=findpost&p=188045&hl=%2B%2Bwild+%2B%2Bescape&fromsearch=1

The second thread is most up to date...and there is no news...it appears to be stalled, while the developers tell us it is proceeding...if you have been to Cabelas near Wheeling, that's the area!

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For a family of 4 with small children are they going to spend the extra gas to go to Kings Island when SFKK is cheaper right down the park and the kids would likely enjoy just as much as they would Kings Island.

I live in Elizabethtown and YES, we will spend the extra gas money to visit KI.

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  • 3 weeks later...

You may recall I said NOTHING would be announced on this before election day:

Kentucky Kingdom Could Stay Closed Even Longer:

...The Kentucky State Fair Board and businessman Ed Hart have yet to strike a deal to reopen the park, even after months of negotiations. Hart had been expected to present his business plan during a fair board meeting later this month, but it appears that plan has been delayed until November....

One of the hold-ups is how the $50 million revitalization plan will be funded.

http://www.fox41.com....asp?S=13330641

As I have consistently said from the beginning, a public sector backed bond issue is a non-starter in Kentucky. It won't happen now, it won't happen after the election, and it is unlikely to ever happen...

If this were such a great deal, Mr. Hart could get financing without using the full faith and credit of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And if I were the owner of Beech Bend Park, I'd be hopping mad if the state financed my competition by using, in part, my tax monies to do so.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The park was not even the same park the first time it failed, the park was completely different and the second it failed due to improper management. Ed has proven to us twice (Magic Springs) that he can successfully run a park. The fact they are postponing this represents that the politicians know it will not favor well with the public but, they are also aware of the fact that in the long term the park is expected to bring in millions of dollars of profits for the state and may I remind you, it's citizens as well.

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This is a BAAAaaaad deal for Kentucky. Kentucky Kingdom is better off forgotten. The struggling economy in the state is too fragile for local citizens to deal with this garbage. I agree that amusement parks can be great for employment, especially for students wanting to balance school and work. But unless one can accomplish a fulltime year round position ( rare ) such employment would not justify claiming to assist the economy. Not in this unique situation.

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The park was not even the same park the first time it failed, the park was completely different and the second it failed due to improper management. Ed has proven to us twice (Magic Springs) that he can successfully run a park. The fact they are postponing this represents that the politicians know it will not favor well with the public but, they are also aware of the fact that in the long term the park is expected to bring in millions of dollars of profits for the state and may I remind you, it's citizens as well.

Magic Springs during the Ed Hart days was not exactly the best run park I have ever been to...in fact, I was actually happy when PARC announced it was taking over...I've been to Magic Springs under each of the managements, and Terp thinks (choosing his words carefully) that operationally the park was operated best by the original management, though financially they couldn't make a go of it. Some of the ride choices made by Mr. Hart's group were, at best, highly questionable. The less I say about how that park has been run during this last decade, the happier I will be.

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Many people perceive the installation of a multitude of large rides and attractions over a short period of time to equal a "successful park."

Although in it's early days it had a multitude of large rides installed in a short period of time, KK was never was never the "success" many think it was.

Shaggy

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From that article:

...Hart had been scheduled to present a preliminary business plan for the revamped park's operation to the fair board at a meeting Thursday. But the fair board postponed the presentation and gave Hart until March 31 to refine the plan, to negotiate a lease for the park and to give the legislature time to consider the bonds. The fair board owns about 60 acres where the park will operate....

As I said, after the election. This legislature is not going to authorize that bond issue. The one that is installed in January is even less likely to do so.

And Mr. Hart is not even ready with his plan, needing until March 31...

I wouldn't be counting on this ever happening.

And then Mr. Hart tells this lu-lu!

...He said in an interview that the board initially held out hope to have the park open perhaps as early as summer 2011, because it hadn't ruled out financing the park's improvements through conventional lending sources. But he said prevailing commercial interest rates are prohibitive to large borrowing....

This is about the most preposterous statement I have ever read on the Internets. Interest rates are at low rates not seen since the Eisenhower administration. I wonder if his nose grew as he said that...I am beginning to think that he, too, is an operations guy, not a finance guy.

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There are some absolutely unbelievable comments in that article.

The state would have little financial risk with the bonds and Harold Workman, fair board president, said, "Every public official we have met with supports the park's reopening" at the Kentucky Exposition Center.

If there was so little financial risk - then a private bank would be lining up to give Hart the money. And just how many of those public officials who support the park reopening are willing to finance the bonds?

He has proposed an annual lease payment to the fair board of around $1.2 million.Hart intends to develop a new entrance into Kentucky Kingdom off Phillips Lane and to offer free parking rather than have patrons pay $8 to park at the fairgrounds.

I'm wondering if the park would have been open in 2010 if this deal had been offered to Six Flags?

A recent state-funded study found that economic impact of a reopened Kentucky Kingdom could be about $11 million a year, including tax revenue and money taken in by hotels and restaurants near the fairgrounds.

Wow, maybe Mr. Workman should have focused on keeping it open, rather than driving Six Flags away. It's almost always cheaper to keep what you have than have to get something new.

"We have made great progress" since Six Flags walked away from its long-term lease early this year, Workman said.

Really - did he say this with a straight face?

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Nope...Mr. Hart would run the park, but the Kentucky State Government (thus its taxpayers) would guarantee the financing...if the park failed, the taxpayers could lose out. This because apparently no bank will finance the deal...

Playland at Rye, Westchester County, New York, on the other hand, IS a government run park. And Visionland in Alabama (now Alabama Adventure) used to be....The first has lost money for years, the second failed miserably and the taxpayers took a real bath on that one....

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...Any bonds issued would have to be approved by state lawmakers. Rep. Tom Burch, D- Louisville, says in this down economy the chances of that happening are "slim."

"1 to 10 and ten being the very best. I would say a 1," Burch said in an interview....

Both Ed Hart and Harold Workman, the head of the fair board, were unavailable for comment.

Representative Jim Wayne, D- Louisville, whose district includes the fair grounds, had a different opinion than that of Burch.

Wayne sits on the bond oversight committee and said it might be worth the investment if Hart can prove the park would have long-lasting benefits.

Hart will likely make that pitch before the budget committee sometime next year.

http://www.fox41.com....asp?S=13408076

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