Kentucky Kingdom

[LoraX]

I don't understand why Mr. Hart would have commented on anything. I still do not understand why the park continues to do things as they have. They can turn anything into a PR nightmare.

I so want to call him Mr. Ed.

[The Interpreter]

That's not nice.

To Mr. Ed.

[upstop]

Oh Wilbur...

[RailRider]

How has this man been successful in business?

I expect to receive my notice of suit shortly because I am sure I have made what the park would consider disparaging remarks over the past 121 pages regarding their actions and stupidity.

That to me is the most shocking thing about Mr. Harts comments, when he shouldn't make comments, is that the park will not stand for disparaging remarks about the park and if you do we are going to sue you.

Also I like to see they are supporting their young employees now, unlike earlier when they sacrificed a young employee for approaching a breast feeding mom in the park.

Should be pretty easy to show how incompetent this park is, starting with leadership. Oh wait my lawyer has advised me that I have No Comment regarding Mr. Hart, his leadership abilities or the future of this park. But this mans an idiot, I mean No Comment.

[TombRaiderFTW]

I have no comment on the quality of management at Kentucky Kingdom.

I don't particularly like the way they've handled almost every issue they've dealt with this year. I think they're approaching each issue that's come up this year like it's never, ever happened in the industry before.

But I'm not going to comment of the quality of the management.

[Diamondbacker]

Plot twist - Mr. Hart, in a money-saving opportunity, is the park's public relations team.

It would explain the ineptitude in that facet of the park's poor management.

If I were close to Mr. Hart, I would be telling him the old cop line, "Ah, tell it to the judge."

[The Interpreter]

Mr. Hart doesn't tolerate those who dissent from his views. He is surrounded by yes people, wearing rose colored glasses. His PR team has worked under his direction, policy and guidance, and has done that which he wanted. Were that not so, he'd have canned them long ago.

[upstop]

Should change the name of the park to Kentucky Fiefdom.

[Imperial79]

I kinda understand him being a little upset about the lawsuit, someone could be faking. Getting Kentucky Kingdom cleaned up and making it a nice park is a huge challenge for anyone and then to have someone come around and try to get money off it is wrong. But then to be this upset about it to file a lawsuit on the woman, to make sure everyone knows he won't take it, and shove it right back in her face is just ehh mmm I don't know....

[bkroz]

If Kentucky Kingdom LLLP and Ed Hart are in the right here, courts will determine it.

Mr. Hart flapping his gums won't make a bit of difference except to go against the park's own insistence that it doesn't comment on pending litigation. Vigilante justice is what he's doing here.

[The Interpreter]

Also known as trying to prejudice a jury....

Should the park find out it isn't right, Mr. Blabbermouth just made any potential settlement much more expensive and also angered the plaintiffs and their attorney.

Gee, dumb.

Truly dumb.

[shark6495]

Not to mention the fall out that if it's proven as the parks fault....

KK where if you get hurt the park will sue you....

We have no hard proof this person had her pass revoked for climbing a fence other than what Ed says....

[Dieseltech20]

Dude seems to be really full of himself. Sad.

[bkroz]

To be fair, anyone who didn't exude confidence (earned or otherwise) wouldn't have been able to empower Kentucky Kingdom. The place needed a loud, protective, exciting, invigorating person to stand behind (and in front of) it and trumpet. Mr. Hart does that.

[The Interpreter]

...armed with the backing of the taxpayers of Kentucky assuming virtually all the risk of failure, while virtually all upside potential accrues to Messrs Hart and Lunsford.

Such a deal.

[rhyano]

Nothings perfect in the first year, things will go better as years go on, for now we just got to hope this park will succed

[homestar92]

Nothing is perfect in its first year, I will absolutely agree there. But KK is... different. And I'm no industry expert, I'm just writing out my opinions as a layperson. I may be way off, but here's how I see the fate of the Kingdom. It has existed before. Ed Hart has run an amusement park before. The park started with a lot more rides and attractions than most first-year parks have. There was likely some pent-up longing among locals to go to their park again. The regional competitors didn't even really launch any sort of media assault against it. In theory, they had every possible advantage. And yet, time and time again, they have made decisions that just seem... well, amateur. Worse than that even, honestly. I'm not sure you'll find anyone on here who WANTS this park to succeed more than me. Thunder Run and Lightning Run are easily among my favorite coasters, and I think overall, the collection of coasters and flats complements my home park (Kings Island) as the two are almost completely mutually exclusive in their ride offerings. I seriously LOVE this park. I don't want to see it close in any way. But the way Ed Hart has run things through the first year, I'm not convinced that he's ready to adapt to the market he's going to be facing.

First, he has to make it to 2016. If that happens, I think the hardest part of reestablishing the park is over. If all goes to plan, all the rides on the property should be running by then and they'll have a very respectable coaster lineup, plus whatever surprises they add. To do that, though, he needs more than the 600,000 guests a year that he got in the first season. In particular, he needs non-passholders to visit one time and spend, spend, spend inside the park. That's where the money is. IIRC, they sold just under 200,000 passes. If that 600,000 guests includes passholders, you're looking at what would seem to be a very small number of other guests, and that isn't good financially. A Halloween event would probably help immensely, but as has been said many times in this thread, that part of Louisville isn't somewhere you want to be after dark, and thus, I doubt we'll see such an event at all unless the park can reach the level of success it was having early in its Six Flags tenure.

Assuming Hart somehow pulls off that kind of success, he's going to attract the attention of Kings Island, Holiday World, Dollywood, and other regional parks. These other parks almost certainly have much larger advertising budgets than KK does, and could launch a media blitz to squash this park like a bug. He would have to adapt to this, too, and overcome that hurdle. If we can reach THIS point, then I think the park might be in the clear for a while. But there's a lot of ifs in this post, and frankly, I've gotten myself worried that my time with Lightning Run is going to be cut a lot shorter than I'd like.

Of course, an automatic door on Swampwater Jack's for wheelchair access would probably be a prudent investment, too. But, hey, baby steps, right?

[The Interpreter]

Now, even the park's attorney is discussing litigation strategy with the media:

http://m.wlky.com/news/kentucky-kingdom-guest-who-claims-injury-says-he-just-wants-medical-bill-paid/29306072

Unbelievable.

[The Interpreter]

The park's attorney? Ed Glasscock.

One of Mr. Hart's investors? Ed Glasscock.

Gee.

http://www.frostbrowntodd.com/newsroom-243.html

http://m.wlky.com/news/kentucky-kingdom-files-countersuit-against-couple-after-injury-claim/29282306

BINGO!

[IndyGuy4KI]

The man has already done over $1,00 worth of bad press. Just pay the medical bill.

[shark6495]

I was thinking the same thing.

So Mr. Hart makes it sound like these guests are trying. To extort hundred of thousands of dollars. In reality, they just want the medical bill paid.........

[The Interpreter]

And, instead of using an attorney who specializes in these types of cases, the park is letting one of its investors, a mostly retired white shoe lawyer from a big corporate firm (and golfing buddy?), dabble in representing it.

Why isn't the park's insurance company counsel representing it?

And, if the park loses this litigation, can the claimants now sue for libel and slander as well?

[The Interpreter]

It's a good time to remember how much who has invested and committed for the future at Kentucky Kingdom.

Just some perspective:

http://insiderlouisville.com/business/ed-hart-and-co-we-have-the-financing-to-reopen-kentucky-kingdom/

And this was when the park was expected to meet its projections , which it hasn't.

$7.5 million in investment for 2015 and 2016. Not each year. Total for the two years.

[RailRider]

Im still hung up on the whole weight restriction issue and it being the riders responsibility to know their combined weight with their ride partner. I will be honest as someone who does not frequent seasonal water parks a great deal I can't remember seeing signs like this on multiple slide complexes. Now Im used to being weighed before hitting some of the huge slides like Tornado's and such, but other than that it has never been mentioned.

But during this time of year we typically visit the indoor water parks like Great Wolf and such for weekend trips with another family. We have probably visited most of the Indoor Parks within a 6 hour drive of central Ohio. The other Dad and I always try rides out before getting on them with the kids and I am now realizing we have been destroying these weight limits. Neither one of us is obese by any means, but we are 2 stout guys and looking at us you wouldn't think we pass the 400lb max. Never once have we been questioned about our weight when pairing up.

I would consider myself well versed in the industry, but this realization makes me feel quite dumb yet realize that if I am unaware of these limits there is a very strong chance Average Joe is even more so. If weight is such an important factor why are they not weighing folks just like they check height.

Once again is it a reasonable expectation by a park to assume you know your own weight let along the weight of the person you are ridding with and that weight is an important factor just like height?

[Oldiesmann]

I think the best thing the park can do at this point is to drop their counter-suit, quietly settle the pending lawsuit and hire a new PR firm - preferably one that specializes in damage control and knows how to properly handle social media. Even if it was a scam, the actions from the park and those associated with them have only hurt the situation for KK. I'm sure the victims' lawyer is having a field day with this.

[shark6495]

One if the reasons I don't think it is a scam is because the one person in the suit has mentioned medical bills not pain and suffering

[silver2005]

I just looked at the new rides list for 2015. If that $7.5 million over 2015 and 2016 is correct, then it sure looks like they're dumping a lot of it just for 2015. I mean, you have a new train (trains?) for T3, 2 new fairly large flats which will cost lots of nickles, and the re-opening of 2 rides already on the property, plus I imagine some park improvements on top of that. They are decent additions for 2015, though how T3 turns out is up in the air. I would think that would eat up a large majority of that money figure right there. The question becomes if T3 is enough to bump attendance over 2 years, especially with what they have to put up with from the competition (FireChaser Express, Banshee and Thunderbird and then whatever, if anything, comes to those parks in 2016). If they don't meet their own expectations, what happens in 2016? Beyond?

Hopefully, they've hired actual PR and law personnel by then as well. If they continue those fiascos long term, they'll be in a bigger mess.

[jcgoble3]

In terms of weight limits, in my two hours in the waterpark I couldn't help but notice a couple of prominent scales with signs saying that many slides have weight limits and guests should check their weight.

On another note, HW enforces weight limits on Hyena Falls. The way they do it is that the lifeguard at the top must ask Every. Single. Rider. "Are you aware of the height and weight requirements for this ride?" and then "Do you meet those requirements?" If the lifeguards are doing their job, you literally cannot go down any of the Hyena Falls slides without knowing that there is a weight limit. It's repetitive for the lifeguards and annoying for riders marathoning the slides that have to answer those questions over and over, but it works.

[RailRider]

^

Really seems like the only way to have a lifeguard do it. Thanks for the info.

[KIBeast]

I get the strategy. If we sue enough people and win, then we'll have some REAL operating cash. Hello new coaster.