CP, Wonderland, Great America Raise Admission Costs

[The Interpreter]

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...ESS03/708210385

[Gordon Bombay]

Cedar Fair is a publicly traded partnership headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio, and one of the largest regional amusement-resort operators in the world, and is curently making less money than Six Flags!

[The Interpreter]

...or, more accurately, losing more money in the last quarter than Six Flags...

It remains to be seen if the strategy of pricing integrity and higher prices both inside the parks and at outside the park revenue generators (like hotels) will work...

[Gordon Bombay]

Very true, my mistake.

[jzarley]

"Stacy Frole, head of investor relations for Cedar Fair, said the increase at Disney likely played a role in the Cedar Point pricing."

Yeah...I think it's more a case of attendance isn't reaching the goal, so we've got to increase per caps if we're ever going to get close to our revenue numbers...

It's a pretty good time to do it though...right before the big Halloween crowds start coming. (Of course, a month ago would have been even better.)

[ragerunner]

The pressure is on at CF. While the quarterly report was bad, I think they are seeing even more decline in July and August. This is causing them to take more 'drastic' measures to plug the hole in the dam. I still think they simply have to big of debt and the overall US economy is not giving them the 'perfect' senario that they needed to make this work. I would not be suprised to see a park or two sold before the end of the year.

I also don't think that CF can increase the price of their parks based on Disney increasing their price structure. Different market, different world.

[beastbreakdown]

"It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em."

^^I think Doge Ball is quotable in this situation.

On a serious note though, I think this is a bad answer to worsening problem. If it is already too expensive for a day at one of their parks already why go and jack up the ticket prices. To me, it just seems smart to go for quantity. Reduce prices of items inside the park, and reduce the price of tickets. I think then you will have more people in the parks, willing to actually buy a drink that is not ridiculously priced. Yea it might not pay off right away, but I think it would work in the long run..

[BoddaH1994]

Question at hand -- is the Cedar Fair of now the Six Flags of the past?

...or even, is the Six Flags now the Cedar Fair of the past?

[DeLorean Rider]

Question at hand -- is the Cedar Fair of now the Six Flags of the past?

...or even, is the Six Flags now the Cedar Fair of the past?

oooh good point, very creative...

[The Interpreter]

Or put another way, is the day coming when Cedar Fair will be of the past and only of the past...

[hauntguy]

"Pricing Integrity"... So what does this mean exactly? CF thinks it has "integrity" when it comes to lets say...

food, gifts, season passes, pay-per-rides, customer service, .... and now admission?

...Wow. I can only hope that Busch Parks steps in and takes over. At least we'll have animals! Haha.. -Hauntguy

[Browntggrr]

Let's not forget that it was just last year when the single day admission at CP was decreased by $5 to $40.

And even though they increased the admission twice since then, it is still not at $45.

So CF tried something that didn't work out well.

Trying and failing is better than not trying at all.

[King Maple The Tree King]

"Pricing Integrity"... So what does this mean exactly? CF thinks it has "integrity" when it comes to lets say...

food, gifts, season passes, pay-per-rides, customer service, .... and now admission?

...Wow. I can only hope that Busch Parks steps in and takes over. At least we'll have animals! Haha.. -Hauntguy

Dont forget the integrity towards their employees, which put bluntly, they have as little respect for service towards their employees as they do thier guests.

[The Interpreter]

It has always been my theory that you can tell a lot about a company or organization by how it treats its employees. And, eventually, how employees are treated WILL trickle down to how customers are treated. Food service at Kings Island, anyone?

[BoddaH1994]

"Pricing Integrity"... So what does this mean exactly? CF thinks it has "integrity" when it comes to lets say...

food, gifts, season passes, pay-per-rides, customer service, .... and now admission?

...Wow. I can only hope that Busch Parks steps in and takes over. At least we'll have animals! Haha.. -Hauntguy

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the term "pricing integrity".

Pricing integrity means:

No more free tickets.

No more buy one get one's.

No more bring a friend free days.

No more easily granted discounts.

It does NOT mean:

Higher food prices

Higher admission prices (necessarily)

Higher parking

Higher anything....

The trick behind it is, they want people to visit the park, walk up and pay park admission and spend the day there. They do not want people to wait out their park visits until they can get free or heavily discounted tickets. That was a problem under Paramount.

[Racerrider]

if i use my maxx pass are they going to say they raised the prices so i owe another dollar

[The Interpreter]

A bit more on this:

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2...ront/381574.txt