If Cedar Fair got another park

[SonofBaconator]

If Cedar Fair had to acquire one more park, which one would they buy? Which one would make sense? Which one would benefit from being a Cedar Fair park? Defunct parks are also fair game as long as they're mostly still intact. This is all hypothetical of course but it would be interesting nonetheless. 

[acole5292]

@RyanWilcox700 posted this Toledo Blade article on Twitter a few months back: http://www.toledoblade.com/Retail/2016/12/07/Cedar-Fair-chief-Matt-Oiumet-talks-future-of-fun.html  Ouimet makes it sound like they have considered acquiring other parks/chains, but those parks/chains aren't interested in selling.  (Sorry, I know this question was hypothetical.  But I found that article interesting.)

I have only been to a few parks in the past few years.  Right now, I would love Cedar Fair to buy up the Six Flags chain and fix it.  Mind you, I've only been to Great America, but that park left a lot to be desired.  When I saw advertisements on the trains of their rollercoasters, I was very turned-off.  

I don't think I'd want to have Cedar Fair buy out any park that is doing well, because there is a lot of charm in some of these parks (looking at you, Dollywood) that I think CF would remove.  Cedar Fair parks are great, but I like the uniqueness different ownership brings to other great parks.

[TTD-120-420]

If we're talking ones that might actually be up for sale sometime soon, I'd put Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I wouldn't like to see it because I don't think Cedar Fair would handle the theming very well, but, then again, neither has SeaWorld as of late. 

[BeeastFarmer]

I think they would look for southern parks to acquire as they could operated on a more year round basis.

[rcwizard13]

I've never been, but I think Darien Lake could be a good choice. Then again, perhaps CF would take it down the Geauga Lake route.

[SonofBaconator]

I think a park like Silver Dollar City might work since it's in the South. I agree that a park in the South would be awesome, especially if it operated year round. However, I don't know how good a Cedar Fair park would do down in Florida since they would be competing with Disney, Universal, Legoland, and Seaworld

[Creed Bratton]

Silver Dollar City is in with Herschend and to be honest, the quality of customer service, theming and more are higher with those parks vs. Cedar Fair and Six Flags. That's not a dog on those two, but I don't think that the acquiring of SDC would do that park any justice.

[beastfan11]

I think they need to focus on getting the parks they have now in check. 

[rhyano]

5 hours ago, acole5292 said:

@RyanWilcox700 posted this Toledo Blade article on Twitter a few months back: http://www.toledoblade.com/Retail/2016/12/07/Cedar-Fair-chief-Matt-Oiumet-talks-future-of-fun.html  Ouimet makes it sound like they have considered acquiring other parks/chains, but those parks/chains aren't interested in selling.  (Sorry, I know this question was hypothetical.  But I found that article interesting.)

I have only been to a few parks in the past few years.  Right now, I would love Cedar Fair to buy up the Six Flags chain and fix it.  Mind you, I've only been to Great America, but that park left a lot to be desired.  When I saw advertisements on the trains of their rollercoasters, I was very turned-off.  

I don't think I'd want to have Cedar Fair buy out any park that is doing well, because there is a lot of charm in some of these parks (looking at you, Dollywood) that I think CF would remove.  Cedar Fair parks are great, but I like the uniqueness different ownership brings to other great parks.

Thanks for the tag of my Twitter!  Matt Ouimet has talked about buying the Busch parks before if they were to go on sale, I think they would make an excellent addition to the Cedar Fair chain and welcome addition to my platinum pass, even if I have to pay $50 more!

[Steph88]

Cedar Fair buying the Busch Parks would scare me. I don't want them getting rid of the animals in Tampa.

I like competition.

But Cedar Fair really would be smart to buy a park they can operate year round.


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[CoasterOhio]

I have put a little bit of thought to it, and I would say maybe Holiday World possibly? I would also say Dollywood, but they're an independently owned amusement park, that is doing very well on their own. 

Same can go for Holiday World. I'd miss the free stuff if CF too over it. But those are my two candidates.

[HTCO]

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[BuckeyeBond]

I'd love to see Cedar Fair squire Busch Gardens Tampa. I wouldn't mind them getting rid of the animals, but that's me. That would give them a foothold in the Florida market. Plus that's on all year market. Never know with the issues that Seaworld inc is having. I wouldn't want them to get Williamsburg because KD is right beside it. But if you want a market with no competition than look no farther than Denver Colorado. Elitch Gardens or Lakeside park. No major competition in that area at all. I'm sure the citizens of Denver would love a park similar to Kings Island. Cedar Fair would have to expand these parks to make that happen, but I think it would be cool.

[Sythe]

I think a park like Silver Dollar City might work since it's in the South. I agree that a park in the South would be awesome, especially if it operated year round. However, I don't know how good a Cedar Fair park would do down in Florida since they would be competing with Disney, Universal, Legoland, and Seaworld

Since when was Silver Dollar City in the south? XD

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[westcoaster]

I think Florida would be great for revenue for Cedar Fair, make it knotts like a few dark rides themed, some coasters, knotts Florida ..

[calakapepe]

Since when was Silver Dollar City in the south? XD

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Its all relative lol
I've heard some east coasters that consider Cincinnati to be the west...
Uhhhh

[KIBeast]

calakapepe, I'm not sure how anyone classes Ohio as midwest either. It's way more east coast than anything.

BGT would be the one I pick for CF to buy.

[purdude86]

Think BGT would be the easiest one for them to build up to a more standard CF park/ Agree with WEstcoaster that them having something like a KBF style park in Florida would be good. There is a lot of competition in central Florida, but there's not really any parks there like CF has. They are msotly family style parks with dark rides and simulators. Just the occassional coaster. BGT is the closest thing to a CF park there and it's still only a selection of coasters and rides. That I could see something that is mroe like KI or CP doing well with residents at least. Might not get the big visitor draw and be real competition on a national market compared to Disney and Universal but people in the region might like it for something with more thrill rides adn big coasters, and doesn't cost $100s for annual passes.

My only worry with them actually getting BGT would be the animals and the likelihod that they'd stay. I imagine they'd probably get ride o them to allow more room for expansions and less upkeep worries and maintenance.

[CoasterOhio]

10 hours ago, KIBeast said:

calakapepe, I'm not sure how anyone classes Ohio as midwest either. It's way more east coast than anything.

BGT would be the one I pick for CF to buy.

I don't see how Ohio can be East Coast. Let me say those last two words again. EAST COAST. Were Mid-west, because we're not in the East coast, nor the West Coast, so we're the Mid-west. TECHNICALLY, We're one of the Great Lake States if you really want to get technical. Besides that,

For BGT, I think they'd keep the animals, but they'd probably have something like, less Animals? More expansion for a smaller habitat.

[Mystic.Timber1]

I think Cedar Fair might buy a plot of land down south somewhere like Florida because they don't have many parks that far down south

[Captain Picard]

They could take over the SEAS parks for half of what it would take to start one new park in Florida. I don't think anyone would buy now when all they got to do is wait and get them cheap if anyone would want them. The value of the SEAS parks are no where near what they was asking not long ago. There was rumors of Six Flags and Cedar Fair years ago as well with everyone saying Cedar Fair buying Six Flags. I could see Six Flags buying the Cedar Fair way before the other way around. This is just my thoughts from what I knew years ago as I don't keep up with it much anymore.

[SonofBaconator]

I never thought it was possible for park chains to buy other park chains.

[malem]

8 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

Six flags would never buy Cedar Fair.

Never is a very long time!

Some analysts have long-predicted a merger; the two companies serve similar markets, yet have very little geographic overlap. In my opinion, Cedar Fair's tax structure as a limited partnership is one of the bigger reasons it hasn't happened (and might not happen any time soon).

[SonofBaconator]

The selling of the Busch Gardens parks to another company seems more of a reality than in years past. I could see Cedar Fair showing some interest in buying BGT mainly because it would be year round. Nevertheless, if BGT is ever put up for sale, I hope that the purchasing party would keep the animals since they're a huge draw to the park.

[ethancoaster]

I think two relatively under-served markets in the U.S. with established theme parks are Denver and Seattle. Denver's got Elitch, but it looks like the current owners are looking to move the park to a new location. If Cedar Fair were to do some make some sort of agreement with Elitch, they could build it into a medium-sized park a la Valleyfair or Worlds of Fun.

Seattle has Wild Waves, but while the population is there to support something larger, it may not be the most attractive market due to weather. On top of that, the park is landlocked with only 70 acres of property. Only way I could see this working is if they bought additional land away from the main park to move the water park.

 

 

[Tera Ryzing]

It was awesome when six flags bought geuaga lake.  They installed a crap load of coasters.  They were getting the Morgan hyper tha ended up in Mexico.  Competition is a great thing.

[malem]

Competition is good, but overbuilding Geauga Lake was decidedly not awesome. It was a big factor in the Six Flags bankruptcy and the eventual demise of that park.

[teenageninja]

On 4/15/2018 at 8:03 AM, Tera Ryzing said:

It was awesome when six flags bought geuaga lake.  They installed a crap load of coasters.  They were getting the Morgan hyper tha ended up in Mexico.  Competition is a great thing.

That Six Flags park was pretty cool, but the thing I think is the most hilarious, was when the park was at it's peak in 2005, a few friends of mine and I went to Geauga Lake for one day and were planning on going to CP the next day.  We rode everything at GL in about 6 hours and ended up going to Cedar Point that night for a few hours as well.

[SonofBaconator]

Interesting how Six Flags could possibly purchase seaworld parks. In all honesty, I still think BGT and BGW would make excellent Cedar Fair parks. 

[CoastersRZ]

I agree that they would make good Cedar Fair parks.  I would rather they be Cedar Fair parks than Six Flags parks.