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W&S Tennis Tournament to possibly move to Charolette

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Hawaiian Coasters 325 KIC Superstar

Hawaiian Coasters 325

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I'm honestly not surprised that they are considering the move. Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in America and while I'd hate to see it leave here, I think there is more room for growth in a place like Charlotte who has better infastructure than a mature market with not the best infastructure like Cincinnati. While I will say infastructure has been improving around here, it is hard to pass up a fast growing market like Charlotte over a mature market like Cincinnati who's growth is very slow. 

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FUN&ONLY! KIC Platinum Member

FUN&ONLY!

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1 hour ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I'm honestly not surprised that they are considering the move. Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in America and while I'd hate to see it leave here, I think there is more room for growth in a place like Charlotte who has better infastructure than a mature market with not the best infastructure like Cincinnati. While I will say infastructure has been improving around here, it is hard to pass up a fast growing market like Charlotte over a mature market like Cincinnati who's growth is very slow. 

While Charlotte is a much faster growing city than Cincinnati, a growing population does not really matter that much for a major tennis tournament where most people are coming from out of state and out of country. Cincinnati is more centrally located than Charlotte, allowing many people from the Midwest to be able to drive to the Western and Southern Open every year. The advantage Charlotte has is that it is near a large international airport with flights to many more cities and countries than you will find in Cincinnati these days.

Where a growing population would come more into play is with the events like concerts and festivals the new facility would host. An entertainment district could also be built up around the facility much easier in the city of Charlotte than in a suburb of Cincinnati. In my opinion, I think the tournament should stay in Cincinnati, and the new owner can just build a new entertainment district in Charlotte if he really wants to as abandoning the Linder Family Tennis Center would be a huge waste. The tennis center exists for the sole purpose of hosting the Western and Southern Open, and if the tournament leave, it will likely sit largely abandoned. Without the millions in maintenance it receives each year, it may fall into disrepair and may even just be demolished after a while.

One of the alternatives to moving to Charlotte that is being considered is expanding the existing facility in Mason to be able to host the expanded Western and Southern open in 2026 as well as its concerts, festivals, events, receptions, and junior tennis tournaments. I would personally love to see that as it would be great for the local economy and would bring more visitors to Kings Island.

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Hawaiian Coasters 325 KIC Superstar

Hawaiian Coasters 325

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2 hours ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

One of the alternatives to moving to Charlotte that is being considered is expanding the existing facility in Mason to be able to host the expanded Western and Southern open in 2026 as well as its concerts, festivals, events, receptions, and junior tennis tournaments. I would personally love to see that as it would be great for the local economy and would bring more visitors to Kings Island.

Also another thing according to the Cincinnati Business Courier is that they are also considering expanding to host things like pickelball competitions as well as year round events like concerts.

Imo if that's what ends up happening, we can probably kiss Timberwolf goodbye for once and for all. No way they need to keep Timberwolf around if the facility across the interstate puts in a concert facility. If they still want to host Spirit Song, they can do what I've said before, block of a section of the parking lot like they did for the Kneivel jumps and set up a temporary stage.  

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disco2000 KIC Immortal

disco2000

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1 hour ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Also another thing according to the Cincinnati Business Courier is that they are also considering expanding to host things like pickelball competitions as well as year round events like concerts.

Imo if that's what ends up happening, we can probably kiss Timberwolf goodbye for once and for all. No way they need to keep Timberwolf around if the facility across the interstate puts in a concert facility. If they still want to host Spirit Song, they can do what I've said before, block of a section of the parking lot like they did for the Kneivel jumps and set up a temporary stage.  

Not saying this will happen, but Timberwolf could co-exist with a concert facility across the street.  The Beach Waterpark was installed in 1985 and that didn't stop Kings Island from building Soak City in 1989 and they both co-existed for many years.  The Beach hung on far longer than I thought it would when Soak City (well WaterWorks) was included with park admission and season passes.

Depending on how the concert venue is setup (are they aligned with Ticketmaster for example), Timberwolf would still provide a venue for the "independent" acts that are not aligned with TicketMaster.  So they could each draw different acts and demographics.

I think the bigger concern could be the talked about concert venue in Blue Ash.  If that goes thru, depending on the alignment with Ticketmaster or not could impact if the Tennis center builds a concert venue.

Isn't it ironic that the namesake of the Tennis Center took Chiquita headquarters to Charlotte and now their namesake venue may have seen better days due to the tournament following in their footsteps and moving to Charlotte.

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MDMC01 KIC Legend

MDMC01

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13 hours ago, disco2000 said:

I think the bigger concern could be the talked about concert venue in Blue Ash.  If that goes thru, depending on the alignment with Ticketmaster or not could impact if the Tennis center builds a concert venue.

Where would this be? I know they are redoing the Towne Square (Veteran’s Memorial) and Summit Park has a stage already.

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disco2000 KIC Immortal

disco2000

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15 minutes ago, MDMC01 said:

Where would this be? I know they are redoing the Towne Square (Veteran’s Memorial) and Summit Park has a stage already.

In the same general vicinity.

And I was mistaken (slightly LOL).  It is a football stadium on private property adjacent to the park that would be used for concerts and that raised the concerns of City Council of it competing against their existing venue in the vicinity..

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2023/01/27/thrown-upon-us-developers-face-criticism-over-blue-ash-stadium-design/69845880007/

 

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Oldiesmann KIC Legend

Oldiesmann

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Mason has committed $15 million in incentives to keep the tournament here. A state representative from Lebanon also added money to the house's version of the state budget bill but it remains to be seen whether that will actually make it to the final budget. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/05/mason-commits-15-million-to-keeping-western-southern-open-in-ohio/70289020007/

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Imperial79 KIC Star Member

Imperial79

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Here’s the latest news about what’s happening. 
https://local12.com/news/local/weve-got-a-couple-aces-up-our-sleeve-tri-state-continues-to-fight-for-western-southern-open-beemok-capital-charlotte-mason-tennis-tournament-cincinnati-ohio

 

Ohio finalizes 22.5 M for Western and Southern Open. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/07/10/ohio-western-southern-open-funding.html

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disco2000 KIC Immortal

disco2000

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7 minutes ago, BeeastFarmer said:

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the economic impact from from the tournament and facility?

If the taxes returned outweigh the taxes that leave, keep it. If not, let the Carolina folks pay taxes for them. 

They will always claim a high financial impact, and of course the illegal POVs from the tennis stars LOL

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Hawaiian Coasters 325 KIC Superstar

Hawaiian Coasters 325

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I know this likely won't happen due to obvious reasons, but I made a little concept that could connect the park with the tennis stadium using a gondola/skylift system. This would allow easy access for people attending the tournament (assuming it stays here) to the park without dealing with the crazy traffic. Also with this concept, the stadium could be used for concerts and other events which is why I have the KI station replacing Timberwolf. This would also come with a second entrance/exit to the park to the skylift station area.

image.png

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MisterSG1 KIC Junky

MisterSG1

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On 8/17/2023 at 2:00 PM, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I know this likely won't happen due to obvious reasons, but I made a little concept that could connect the park with the tennis stadium using a gondola/skylift system. This would allow easy access for people attending the tournament (assuming it stays here) to the park without dealing with the crazy traffic. Also with this concept, the stadium could be used for concerts and other events which is why I have the KI station replacing Timberwolf. This would also come with a second entrance/exit to the park to the skylift station area.

image.png

Let me guess, were you inspired by that wacky proposal to link Wonderland to the Toronto subway system using a gondola system?

Wouldn’t a simple pedestrian overpass from the parking lot be a better option? It could arguably move people a lot quicker than the gondola could.

 

You might find this weird, but Toronto and Cincy do have a fair amount of things in common, like how we have the tennis tournament before you guys, and our tennis venue isn’t that far from the theme park relatively speaking.

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BeeastFarmer KIC Legend

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2 hours ago, MisterSG1 said:
On 8/17/2023 at 2:00 PM, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I know this likely won't happen due to obvious reasons, but I made a little concept that could connect the park with the tennis stadium using a gondola/skylift system. This would allow easy access for people attending the tournament (assuming it stays here) to the park without dealing with the crazy traffic. Also with this concept, the stadium could be used for concerts and other events which is why I have the KI station replacing Timberwolf. This would also come with a second entrance/exit to the park to the skylift station area.

image.png

Wouldn’t a simple pedestrian overpass from the parking lot be a better option? It could arguably move people a lot quicker than the gondola could.

 

@Hawaiian Coasters 325...I like the thought, but don't think it's practical.  In a dream world where ki reacquires the land across the freeway, lots of things could happen over there.

 

@MisterSG1... I think a pedestrian bridge would be a stretch because of the distance required. With height requirements, the landing would need to stretch further out. People would not want to have to walk that far and back. For safety and capacity, I think a monorail would be a solution. 

 

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Taylor.B03 KIC Junky

Taylor.B03

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I'm not sure how practical something like that would be, it only really seems like the stadium is only used for 1-2 weeks a year on a large scale. I just don't see why this would make any financial sense in any way shape or form. The walkway would only really benefit that 10+ people who are going to the park then walking to the stadium. It's too specific to build a bridge over a highway from an amusement park that is open seasonally to a place that has only 1 major event per year

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MisterSG1 KIC Junky

MisterSG1

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I was thinking of it (in case Kings Island could entertain the idea) of it being an overflow lot to watch tennis.

A pedestrian bridge isn’t that far off of an idea, not far from me, a pedestrian bridge was built to connect a parking garage to Pickering GO Station which crosses over the mammoth Highway 401’s 16 lanes of traffic!

image.jpeg

What I was thinking was something like this which can serve as an overflow for the Cincy Open from Kings Island’s parking lot. 

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FUN&ONLY! KIC Platinum Member

FUN&ONLY!

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4 hours ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Also worth to note that in 2025 the tournament is expanding to 2 weeks which would likely mean more people coming to the area. Wonder how this will affect the park as this will likely mean more people coming to the area. 

While I do not know how much the tournament affects park attendance, Kings Island makes a point of keeping the park open during the tournament even if the park can barely be staffed. Even if people do not visit the park while in town for the tournament, the rollercoasters running in the background of the tennis facility is free adverting and lets visitors become aware of the park (if they were not already) so that they may make future plans to visit the park. I could possibly see a big 2025 addition to coincide with the expanded tennis tournament and increase in visitors, but it is probably too late to carefully plan out a big new rollercoaster for 2025 (assuming one is not planned already). Instead, maybe Kings Island will take advantage of the opportunity and advertise a massive new 2026 addition (which seems more likely) during the 2025 tournament to entice visitors to come back the following year.

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disco2000 KIC Immortal

disco2000

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Appears it will be getting a new name as Western & Southern backs out of sponsoring.

Here is an interesting quote (and cross-threading about marketing dollars and that it isnt always about a tangible number one can tie to ROI that some here are adamant has to be the case LOL):

“It’s not really about a return on investment for those title sponsors or expanding your brand reach. What naming rights deals are really about is you’re paying a premium for the perks of entertaining your clients, rewarding your consumers and there’s nothing better than sealing a deal with some courtside seats.”

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/the-tournament-stays-but-not-the-name-western-southern-steps-down-as-title-sponsor-of-cincinnati-masters

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