What is everyone's opinion on what Holiday World is thinking right about now with the KK news. 

The same as it was before.  Does wild adventures have cinnamon bread?

All jokes aside I think this will definitely push them to compete more

 The perfect world answer on what current ownership is thinking is "Oh ****, get Fred Grubb on the line" but in reality, I recall hearing and reading rumbles across different platforms (this was months ago people, so no I didn't save every link to my Mac) about lingering financial issues stemming initially from the T-Bird installation.

This is KK trying to think what HW is thinking about them. 

 

I think that Holiday World is certainly more directly impacted by the goings on at Kentucky Kingdom than KI.  If Hershend treats KK like Wild Adventures then Holiday World will probably be in a better position than when Ed Hart was running the show.  Time will tell.

I wonder if Herschend has an ultimate goal of putting Holiday World in the family?  It fits their image, is a great park and could be in a vulnerable position as a result of Covid.

I have no idea the financial position of either company, but I think what we saw with Kentucky Kingdom shows just how precarious the situation is for our beloved parks.

31 minutes ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I wonder if Herschend has an ultimate goal of putting Holiday World in the family?  It fits their image, is a great park and could be in a vulnerable position as a result of Covid.

I have no idea the financial position of either company, but I think what we saw with Kentucky Kingdom shows just how precarious the situation is for our beloved parks.

What's the history of a chain having two parks within 90min of each other?  SEAS in Orlando/Tampa is different than two regional parks in close proximity.

^ I don't know, nor did I claim that is was going to happen.  I just speculated.  Unlike some other recent folks on here, I didn't claim it's going to happen.

I don't think it matters much. It was a bigger deal for Holiday World when Kentucky Kingdom re-opened vs just changing operators.

Most of the people who go to Kentucky Kingdom or Holiday World do so because of proximity.

Unless there is a clearly better park that is around the same distance the vast majority of people will go to the one that's closer.

I travel almost 5 hours to go to Holiday World. 1 hour 45 minutes to Mason for King's Island. Would I drive 4 hours just to go to Kentucky Kingdom or buy a season pass if I was not visiting one of those other 2 parks along the way? I highly doubt it.

Regardless of Hershend’s intention to invest in the park, they will almost certainly pour a lot more money into marketing in the Louisville area as well as their satellite markets. This will put a squeeze onto Holiday World no matter what and they will have to take whatever motions they consider appropriate. 

On 2/25/2021 at 3:55 PM, BoddaH1994 said:

...they will almost certainly pour a lot more money into marketing in the Louisville area as well as their satellite markets. This will put a squeeze onto Holiday World no matter what and they will have to take whatever motions they consider appropriate. 

Do you see less marketing efforts in the Cincinnati region in favor of Louisville/Southern Indiana?

9 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

Do you see less marketing efforts in the Cincinnati region in favor of Louisville/Southern Indiana?

For Kentucky Kingdom? Probably. But I never saw many ads from them here anyway. If it were up to me I would focus on territories that are in the region but don’t have a park. Louisville, Lexington, Nashville, etc.  Now it’s possible you’ll see more ads than before simply because the pool of cash may be a lot higher for advertisements but that remains to be seen.

Why would they promote the heck out of KK when they don't wild adventures?  

2 hours ago, coaster sally said:

Why would they promote the heck out of KK when they don't wild adventures?  

I think mainly because Kentucky Kingdom is in an area that has a much higher population. The metropolitan population surrounding Kentucky Kingdom is double that of Wild Adventures. 

6 hours ago, coaster sally said:

Why would they promote the heck out of KK when they don't wild adventures?  

If you ever drive on highway 75 to Florida they have 1000 billboards advertising the park 

Just now, grsupercity said:

If you ever drive on highway 75 to Florida they have 1000 billboards advertising the park 

Maybe a few

I have noticed on social media feeds that KK's posts have ramped up exponentially.  The KKSPH group is becoming more active and it seems more GP-type folks are commenting.

It will be interesting to see how the season unfolds--a new player in the market and a still struggling environment in the Covid reality.