Cedar Fair to close California’s Great America

[DoomPlague]

1 hour ago, DiamondbackFan said:

There is more detail in the SEC filing.

https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0000811532/78a5bf4c-e155-489d-b56b-5161d8809409.pdf
 

 

Wait, so if they keep it open 11 more years (seems unlikely), they would be paying more than 150 million in rent (half of what they're getting but I don't know what they property tax savings is) AND they are losing revenue as the park winds down and ultimately the business as a whole including those rides that can't be relocated AND they are losing whatever extra cash they would make by selling the land at the end of the term when it will likely be more valuable. I'm no expert. but it seems like they're better off ****ing everyone off and closing the park this year.

[DoomPlague]

21 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

I appreciate it! My main concern is that Psycho Mouse is an Arrow that was already relocated 

Was it? I don't see it listed anywhere as a relocation.

[SonofBaconator]

10 minutes ago, Orion742 said:

I would love to see a wild mouse at KI they are so much fun!

My thing is, I’d prefer a brand new one as opposed to a relocated one that has miles on it.

[SonofBaconator]

3 minutes ago, DoomPlague said:

Was it? I don't see it listed anywhere as a relocation.

That was an error I just noticed, I got that one confused with Mad Mouse at Myrtle Beach Pavilion 

[MDMC01]

This is indeed sad for those in the area that love the park, however...

if we did get any rides from this, I vote for Railblazer, Psycho Mouse and/or Survivor (aka Tiki Twirl). However, Railblazer would be a perfect fit at Michigan's Adventure, and would give me another reason to make the trek up there someday (haven't ridden Thunderhawk yet). Also, DT and Delirium look cool, but we have similar rides. I just hope that when it comes time to close and relocate things that the rides are handed out wisely to CF parks that really need them.

[KI Guy]

This really sucks. With (soon to be) two parks closed under Cedar Fair's ownership perhaps it's time to add a wrecking ball to their corporate logo.

My heart goes out to the people of the bay area. Clevelanders know your pain.

[DoomPlague]

This guy makes some pretty good points https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOAPArbF4xc

CGA is in one of the most expensive places to do anything in the US and has struggled in terms of profitability and they tried to offload the park 10+ years ago. They probably tried to find a buyer for it this time around as well. Still sucks and I question if it was the right financial move, but CF has a pretty big debt to cover.

 

[Shaggy]

I visited CGA about 20 years ago.  My first, and only, time (so far) seeing the park in person.  I knew that it was surrounded by corporate buildings, but I was still shocked at just how shoe-horned it was.  It is literally surrounded on 3 sides by an office park, and then a residential area on the other.  It was obvious then that the park had no where to grow.

Frankly, its a wonder this hasn't happened sooner.  Its always fought battle after battle due to its location - especially with the 49'ers stadium adjacent.  I hate to see the loss of a long-standing park, but can also understand how it makes financial sense.  That land is like sitting on gold.

I cant imagine that the 49'ers will not have some say as to how much developing the new land owners can do... they share the parking lot with PGA.

P.S. - Count me on the side of not wanting any cast-off rides from CGA relocated to KI.  I'd rather see them go to other parks.  That having been said - send their flyers to Carowinds, and bring our Eagles back.  Now THAT would make me happy.

[BeeastFarmer]

I wonder what the future holds for Gilroy Gardens?

[johnjniehaus]

I definitely think they will move the coasters to other parks in the Chain. My opinion is that the smaller parks (Valley fair, Dorney, Worlds of Fun, and Michigan Great Adventure) should all benefit. Cedar Point, Kings Island & Dominion, Carowinds, and Canada's Wonderland don't really NEED any of those coasters....if we (KI) did get one I think I'd go for Patriot just because we don't have a Floorless and it might be good in The Vortex plot. However, we really don't need it and it probably wouldn't be very popular here when competing with Diamondback and beast and Banshee and etc. 

 

However, I'd LOVE to see us get some flat rides out of the deal! If that skyride can be moved then hopefully it comes to us. Would love to see the Bayne Kurve and or Orbit relocated here. The double decker carousel needs to be saved and moved somewhere. Can't destroy/scrap a thing of beauty like that. I would also really love to see the Demon relocated and saved but it'll probably get scrapped which is really sad because I really liked the one at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. That arrow model is actually one of the better ones. 

[Coasterteam]

darn they're fast, not even Halloween yet

original photo credit to TBKarate

 

[SonofBaconator]

9 minutes ago, johnjniehaus said:

However, I'd LOVE to see us get some flat rides out of the deal! If that skyride can be moved then hopefully it comes to us. Would love to see the Bayne Kurve and or Orbit relocated here.

If we get anything out of this, I would like to see some of their flat rides find a second life here. Berserker, Centrifuge and Orbit look like fun rides that would fit in well here.
 

I’m not sure if relocating the sky ride is an easy feat considering it was built for CGA and no other park.

[homestar92]

Personally, I hope Six Flags reaches out to them. We all laugh at Six Flags a lot, but Six Flags Great America in particular has made great efforts to preserve the history of their park and other regional parks. I would really love to see the Skyride return to Six Flags Great America and the carousel become a parts donor for theirs to make sure that at least one of them exists as long as possible.

If, somehow, they still own any spare parts at all for Whizzer, I desperately hope those wind up with the other Great America.

[Old_Bearcat]

The assessed value of the land CGA sits on is $143,014,489 (the are of the park, not the lots or other ancillary areas),  Using the best information I could find  the property tax rate is 1.18936%. If they do not have any rebates or rollbacks, Cedar Fair pays $1.70 million a year in property taxes for the 103 Ac site. (For comparison, Kings Island's tax bill is $1,025,988 on 5x the land area of CGA)

Parcel Report (1).pdf

[Oldschool75]

11 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

If we get anything out of this, I would like to see some of their flat rides find a second life here. Berserker, Centrifuge and Orbit look like fun rides that would fit in well here.
 

I’m not sure if relocating the sky ride is an easy feat considering it was built for CGA and no other park.

I'd be happy with their sky ride and place it in coney mall.

 

[rlentless]

Looks like a great park . . I wish I could visit it.

(POV) Delta Flyer| Sky Ride | View of California's Great America

 

[Kenban]

11 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

I’m not sure if relocating the sky ride is an easy feat considering it was built for CGA and no other park.

The sky ride that was at Kings Island was relocated from Coney Island, and several other installations have been moved before, the one at Great Adventure is relocated from the Worlds Fair in Queens.  All of these sky rides were built by one company Von Roll who also built the one at Cedar Point.

The old Kings Island sky ride was the model that had small 2 person gondolas.  This is a larger model with 4 person gondolas like what’s at Cedar Point.

CGA has a pretty big installation, they have enough towers and cabins to basically get a third of a mile easily.  For instance a station near Orion would stretch to Planet Snoopy, going over the launch tunnel on Flight of Fear, and the lift hills of Racer.  Station between Racer and Flight of Fear could almost stretch to the Picnic Grove.

[DoomPlague]

13 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I wonder what the future holds for Gilroy Gardens?

That's very much up to the owner, the City of Gilroy. Chances are this won't affect them except maybe they purchase a small ride or two. Or maybe CF can donate a ride as a tax write off? The park runs as a 501c3 non-profit. *shrugs*

[homestar92]

46 minutes ago, DoomPlague said:

That's very much up to the owner, the City of Gilroy. Chances are this won't affect them except maybe they purchase a small ride or two. Or maybe CF can donate a ride as a tax write off? The park runs as a 501c3 non-profit. *shrugs*

A big part of their marketing though is that your Great America pass gets you in the gate, which is something many people in the area will already have. With that benefit being gone, Gilroy has more incentive to entertain offers from other park operators. Regardless, there's no reason to believe the park will cease to exist - new management is certainly possible. To be honest, I'm not even sure how much money operating that park brings Cedar Fair. They certainly don't talk much about it.

[purdude86]

I would love to see KI get some of the flats from there as that is what we are missing the most. Feel like any coasters from there are already covered by our lineup or would be too low capacity like RailBlazer and Psycho Mouse. Berserker and Orbit would be great additions. Both could be callbacks to old attractions. Put Berserker in Oktoberfest as a new Bayern Kurve and keep it going through a building like at CGA too for theming with a Bavarian look. Then Orbit somewhere in Coney Mall as a return of Skylab.

The skyride would be great to have as well.

[dustyj86]

Hopefully Mike/Kings Island can move quick and ask for the Skyride, so we could have one again. Would love to see that brought back. 

If it ran in the original Skyride’s path, Slingshot was just removed.
That’s where the Oktoberfest station was.
Snoopy Boutique was the other station.
It would be welcome relief from walking from the left side of the park (Action Zone/Coney Mall) to the right side (Rivertown/Planet Snoopy)
I’m pulling heavily for this idea!


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[SonofBaconator]

6 hours ago, Kenban said:

The sky ride that was at Kings Island was relocated from Coney Island, and several other installations have been moved before, the one at Great Adventure is relocated from the Worlds Fair in Queens.  All of these sky rides were built by one company Von Roll who also built the one at Cedar Point.

The old Kings Island sky ride was the model that had small 2 person gondolas.  This is a larger model with 4 person gondolas like what’s at Cedar Point.

CGA has a pretty big installation, they have enough towers and cabins to basically get a third of a mile easily.  For instance a station near Orion would stretch to Planet Snoopy, going over the launch tunnel on Flight of Fear, and the lift hills of Racer.  Station between Racer and Flight of Fear could almost stretch to the Picnic Grove.

In that case could it be shortened to run the Coney Mall midway?

[Imperial79]

3 hours ago, dustyj86 said:

If it ran in the original Skyride’s path, Slingshot was just removed.
That’s where the Oktoberfest station was.
Snoopy Boutique was the other station.
It would be welcome relief from walking from the left side of the park (Action Zone/Coney Mall) to the right side (Rivertown/Planet Snoopy)
I’m pulling heavily for this idea!


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I am too! That would be a dream come true! If we get anything else, I’d like to see the Bayern Kurve, that would be icing on the cake, but I doubt it, since other parks in the chain might be asking for it as well. 

[Kenban]

1 hour ago, SonofBaconator said:

In that case could it be shortened to run the Coney Mall midway?

Easily, less towers and a shorter cable.  When the one at Kings Island was moved from Coney Island it was actually lengthened, and a new tower was fabricated and added.  The ride had three towers at Coney and four at KI.

[FUN&ONLY!]

2 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

In that case could it be shortened to run the Coney Mall midway?

The sky ride running the Coney Mall midway would be nice, but I think that would mean the removal of many of the trees which would be sad.

I am all for California’s Great America’s sky ride to come to Kings Island, but I think it would be better in its original location.

[Imperial79]

Is the towers as tall as the old Kings Island Skyride?  

[MDMC01]

2 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

In that case could it be shortened to run the Coney Mall midway?

Great idea! One of the entrances could be near the Coke Freestyle stand/Adventure Express's exit and one could be down near Action Theater. It could even go through the center of the Coney Mall midway, just like Cedar Point's (as in, how it runs through the center of the main midway).

Also, I think Psycho Mouse (with an Oktoberfest-appropriate theme) would go great in Slingshot's old spot. Apparently, there was once a Wild Mouse at Coney Island (OH), so there's the historical connection. Also, when I was a kid, I imagined a Wild Mouse similar to Ricochet going where Delirium is now (as both Kings Dominion and Carowinds were getting one at the time and I thought we would too!).

[dustyj86]

I am too! That would be a dream come true! If we get anything else, I’d like to see the Bayern Kurve, that would be icing on the cake, but I doubt it, since other parks in the chain might be asking for it as well. 

They can ask for it, but Kings Island direly needs it-
To have the Skyride and Bayern Kurve back?
Be still my heart…


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[dustyj86]

The sky ride running the Coney Mall midway would be nice, but I think that would mean the removal of many of the trees which would be sad.
I am all for California’s Great America’s sky ride to come to Kings Island, but I think it would be better in its original location.

Not to mention the odd angle the mall took with the 1975 expansion
Original location would be best, I agree


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[dustyj86]

Is the towers as tall as the old Kings Island Skyride?  

I don’t believe so.
From what I’ve read, Kings Island’s original Skyride was roughly 90/95 feet
From pictures and POV videos of Delta Flyer/Eagle’s Flight, the towers appear to be roughly 50-60 feet tall
But- I’m okay with that
The 1977 incident with the Skyride is evidence enough that mayyyyybe it would have helped to evacuate everyone if the towers weren’t so tall


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