Browntggrr Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Now that the unfortunate decision to close GL is official: Why did KI get Firehawk instead of Dominator? It seems rather easy to assume (now) that CF had decided to close GL prior to the 2007 season, but what is their thinking to why a particular park gewts a particular ride? My only idea is that the footprint of FH is much smaller than Dominator, and KI had enough land to install FH with minimal clearing of land; whereas Dominator would have been more difficult to place in the current footprint of the park w/o clearing land for installation purposes. The same can be said for KD, as long as the rumors are true (Dominator going to KD as well as where it will be built). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalefan Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Cedar Fair didnt know they was gonna close Geauga Lake till Sept. and Firehawk went to Kings Island cause the park still needed Dominator. It makes more sence to take Firehawk anyway. They took Firehawk(X-Flight) during the winter. Dominator runs good and doesnt break down alot. It seems to draw more people anyway. No one knows for sure anyway if GL will be keeping rides or taking them out. And who said the ride side will be closed forever anyway? They said 2008 and not for good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browntggrr Posted October 1, 2007 Author Share Posted October 1, 2007 No one knows for sure anyway if GL will be keeping rides or taking them out. And who said the ride side will be closed forever anyway? They said 2008 and not for good. I am not sure how you could take quotes like: After four years of operating Geauga Lake as a combined water park/amusement park attraction, we have concluded that its future should be entirely as a water park,” said Dick Kinzel and... Cedar Fair Entertainment Company announced today that Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora, Ohio, will become exclusively a water park attraction beginning with the 2008 season. as anything but a permanent closure of the ride side. http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/press_releases...mp;story_id=133 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WooferBearATL Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Cedar Fair didnt know they was gonna close Geauga Lake till Sept. and Firehawk went to Kings Island cause the park still needed Dominator. It makes more sence to take Firehawk anyway. They took Firehawk(X-Flight) during the winter. Dominator runs good and doesnt break down alot. It seems to draw more people anyway. No one knows for sure anyway if GL will be keeping rides or taking them out. And who said the ride side will be closed forever anyway? They said 2008 and not for good. You're naive' if you do not understand that the decision to close GL was made long before it was announced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Touchdown Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 You're naive' if you do not understand that the decision to close GL was made long before it was announced. And you are a conspiracy theorist if you think this decision was made prior to this season and think this was based on anything other then pure numbers/profit. It was made when CF could make an accurate forecast of what GL was going to lose this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browntggrr Posted October 1, 2007 Author Share Posted October 1, 2007 And you are a conspiracy theorist if you think this decision was made prior to this season and think this was based on anything other then pure numbers/profit. It was made when CF could make an accurate forecast of what GL was going to lose this year. So when do you think the forecast was submitted? If it was after the season, it would not be considered a forecast. I would also have to think that to be a true "conspiracy theorist" you would have to believe that CF's intentions were to close the park four years after it was purchased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Touchdown Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 So when do you think the forecast was submitted? If it was after the season, it would not be considered a forecast. I would also have to think that to be a true "conspiracy theorist" you would have to believe that CF's intentions were to close the park four years after it was purchased. Forcasts for the whole year based on partial returns. CF has been running GL for 4 years not to mention other parks, Im pretty sure they know when the park reaches its "peak" of the season (my uneducated guess is July 4th) and once it does hit that peak based on prior seasons they can predict what the final returns will be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagoda Gift Shop Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 So when do you think the forecast was submitted? My guess would be that it became a final decision sometime after the 2Q results came in. That would mean shortly after July ended. I'm sure they had talked about this decision before, maybe even for a few years. It would seem getting rid of the 2 major coasters after last year was a last "hurrah" of sorts. After July, I think they saw that doing just that did not balance out the park so that it was profitable. Also remember that they still did renovations this year. They painted rides. They renovated the Jukebox Cafe. They still had some hope for survival when the season began. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenban Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 My personal guess is that the decision occurred sometime this summer. I have been looking at what little information has been released over the years and to me I could not figure out any way the park could possibly even be close to making a profit. It was a very expensive park to operate and yet it had a very low attendance and admission. I am pretty sure the attendance was around half of what it needed to be to support a park of that size. I would like to think all hope is not lost and that Cedar Fair's management is actually thinking about reopening the park. My guess is that for around $10-15 million it can be returned to a family park. It would be almost impossible to do what I am thinking during the off season and closing then reopening the park would work better as well. Here's what I would do. Clear out all the big expensive coasters (its happening already). Move the big dipper to the north side of the lake. Close everything south of the villain and sell off most of the old Geauga Lake land including the parking lot. Not sure how much the land is worth but it should offset most of the costs in this plan. Cutting back to a single parking lot and set of turnstiles will help reduce maintenance and employee costs. Put in new landscaping, and paths where they are needed. Clean up everything in what remains and remove rides that just don't fit in anymore. Plus put in one or two good new flat rides. If its done correctly with good advertising, cheap admission, and reasonable food prices and I think it could be a hit. The park would have a huge reduction in expenses and maintenance costs and I suspect a park of that size could live and make money off of a 700k attendance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIBeast Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 ^That was very well thought out. I hope that closing the ride side will make GL profitable again. Only problem is, their season is severely shortened since it's waterpark only now. Not sure why we received Firehawk instead of Dominator. Sure, you may have needed to take out a few more trees, but, it seems they have plenty of space. To me, Dominator is much more fun than Firehawk, although I like Firehawk. Ok, truthfully, I haven't been on it since the move, but as X Flight, it was fun. I understand that the new location is a huge improvement over where GL had it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast1979 Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Dominator is (was) the most popular ride at GL. X-FLight was not one of the more popular rides there (). That's why X-FLIGHT WAS UP FOR SALE AND DOMINATOR WASN'T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 X Flight wasn't up for sale. It was removed as part of Mr. Kinzel's plan to downsize the footprint of the park. In a happy coincidence, it found a new home at Kings Island. What bookkeeping maneuvers accompanied that, only Cedar Fair, the IRS and the SEC may know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeLorean Rider Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Cedar Fair bought Firehawk from themselves, duh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browntggrr Posted October 2, 2007 Author Share Posted October 2, 2007 Forcasts for the whole year based on partial returns. CF has been running GL for 4 years not to mention other parks, Im pretty sure they know when the park reaches its "peak" of the season (my uneducated guess is July 4th) and once it does hit that peak based on prior seasons they can predict what the final returns will be. So do you really believe that when both X-Flight and Steel Venom were being removed last year, CF had no intentions of closing the park for '08? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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