If Cedar Fair Could Purchase One More Park

[SonofBaconator]

1 hour ago, rhyano said:

Any corporation that would acquire Holiday World would no doubt in my mind ruin the park, and since Kings Island is within a couple hour driving distance, I don't think it would work out financially since you would be competing with yourself in that market, and would ultimately Geauga Lake that park. 

Agreed.

I'd say the distance between parks has to be a minimum of 4 hours away. KI and CP,  Carowinds and KD, Worlds of Fun and Valley Fair, CGA and Knotts are all a significant distance away from one another with the shortest distance being 4 hours between KI and CP.

Instead of Holiday World, Cedar Fair would probably want Six Flags Great America. Instead of Kentucky Kingdom Cedar Fair would probably want Dollywood. Not that they'd ever have a shot at acquiring either park but the point is that they don't really overlap. Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom are both in overlapping markets.

 

[Shawn Meyer]

I would love it If Cedar Fair owned Lake Compounce in Bristol Connecticut. 

[Rivertown Rider]

The hard part is so many of the ones that would be good fits are already spoken for by other chains.

Going to Palace Entertainment and trying to purchase Kennywood and Lake Compounce would make a ton of sense.  CF would do a good job taking care of the woodies and would help operationally as well (especially in Kennywood's case, I've not been to Lake Compounce so I can't speak for them).

Wild Adventures is owned by Herschend but it would a good location.  The trouble is CF wouldn't want to deal with the animals but it would be an area that they could keep open nearly year round.

[SonofBaconator]

On 9/13/2020 at 3:11 PM, Rivertown Rider said:

Wild Adventures is owned by Herschend but it would a good location.  The trouble is CF wouldn't want to deal with the animals but it would be an area that they could keep open nearly year round.

Animals are a touchy subject (unless they're petting zoo animals.) I don't know how parks like BGT can calculate how much money their animals make them. Its not like with a coaster or a flat ride where they can count the ridership numbers to determine how the ride is doing.

[SonofBaconator]

On 7/21/2020 at 12:31 PM, SonofBaconator said:

Six Flags America: Call me evil but I would liquidate this park. I hear its awful and I've heard the land is worth more than the park is. I have friends who live in the DC/Baltimore area and they never go to this park often opting to go to Hershey, Kings Dominion or Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I know no one wants to lose an amusement park but with the East Coast so chock-full of awesome parks, I don't think a lot of people would miss it, but maybe I'm wrong.

Now that I'm rereading this, I'm starting to rethink my original statement. I've been on this huge platinum pass obsession for a while and I think a park like SFA would be a nice "supporting park." Much like how I'd want Adventureland to bridge the CF gap between Worlds of Fun and Valleyfair, Six Flags America would be a decent bridge between Dorney Park and Kings Dominion. The SFA property could be to Kings Dominion what Gilroy Gardens is to CGA. 

Imagine these scenarios:

"Hey I live in DC, I can go to my local park but ai can also go to the park near Richmond and the park near Philly on one pass"

"Hey I live in Philly but I can go to the park in DC and the park in Virginia on one pass"

"Hey I live in Virgina, I can go to park near Richmond, Philly, and DC on one pass"

If SFA could be touched up and treated like a small, in-between park it would be nice. Cedar Fair has enough IPs to change the ride names and improve the atmosphere without breaking the bank. Plus I think Six Flags could care less about this park.