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Good-Bye Coney? River Downs Racino Looming


pilotank
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People from outside the park business who enter the park business often get rude awakenings and/or become penny pinchers extraordinaire. Mr. Couch with LeSourdsville Lake is one example. The Indiana Beach current ownership is another. Then there's the Trustees at Conneaut Lake Park. Not to mention the CBS debacle.

I'd be very leary of hoping for an ownership change at Coney Island of Ohio. Current ownership has been good to/for the park. The next could easily decide the land's highest and best use does not include an enormous swimming pool and some amusement rides.

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I seriously doubt Pinnacle would be interested in buying either Coney Island or Riverbend. Casinos do concerts to bring people in and/or through the casino and there is really too much distance between the two properties to do that effectively. Don't be fooled the only reason they bought the horsetrack was to open a casino.

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You know belterra casino and river bend are owned by same place? Look at first post on this page the post is by shark6495

Must have missed that reading along, or it didn't make sense when I read it. Might as well buy the 3rd and make your own little complex down there. Something for everyone!

So riverbend is now owned by Belterra I missed that, Coney island would be great for families as a purchase for the Belterra group:

Uh, no. Pinnacle owns the casino and River Downs--the horse track. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra owns Riverbend--the concert venue.

The two places shark6495 was referring to are the casino in Indiana and the casino/race track beside Coney Island of Ohio. Riverbend is not River Downs.

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Exactly what Interpreter said. Riverdowns (the racecino) is owned by Pinnacle Entertainment, which also owns Belterra Casino in Indiana, and that is the reason why they chose to rename Riverdowns to Belterra Park. Riverbend Music Center, as the Interpreter mentioned is owned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. They operate it through a wholly owned subsidiary, Music and Event Managment, Inc. (MEMI).

Coney Island is owned by members of the Walker family. Ronald Walker purchased the park in 1991. Although he died unexpectedly in 1997, his wife and son continues to own the park to this day. The president and general manager for Coney has been working in that role at Coney since 1984, so they have a very steady management team in place.

I doubt Pinnacle is interested in owning Riverbend or Coney. They have said that in the future they may add a hotel to their property, based on how well the Belterra Park property does. It will be interesting to see if that happens. I would have to imagine that a hotel could prove to be beneficial to Coney as well, as currently there are no hotels in close proximity to Coney.

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Not that Coney is a destination park, but a hotel on the side of the Racino, IMHO, would help them and Riverbend. Summer concerts + a trip to Coney + a Racino trip could be a nice weekend.

I could see someone coming down on a Friday night, staying at the Racino, going to Coney early on Saturday, then go back to the Hotel/Racino to change, hit up the Concert on Saturday night, then take the hotel bus back afterwards. The fictitious party people would then leave on Sunday...

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A lot has changed at Coney since 1984. Heck, a lot has changed at Coney since I began working there in 2002! I agree, that Coney is missing one signature attraction to bring people into the park. Right now, the pool is a big draw since it is one of the largest swimming pools around, even with it being built in 1925! It holds 3 million gallons of water! By comparison, I believe that Kings Island`s new wave pool holds 850,000 gallons of water.

It is definitely worth a visit. It is a great family park. And I agree with what you said Shar6495. Combined the venues could make for a great weekend. I wonder if some restaurants will pop up on Kellogg. The one restaurant on Kellogg, about a mile east of Coney and Riverbend, AJ`s Roadhouse just recently closed. The closest restaurants to Coney are all the way up on 125/Beechmont Avenue, or crossing the Ohio River and going to Highland Heights, over by NKU.

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