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Ok cedar fair wants way too much for the land, and no one is going to pay what they want. Cedar fair brings down the price then more people will be interested in the property and they will get more offers.

I'd say if they expand wildwater kingdom and build a indoor water park and then open the geauga lake hotel again and build a few more then you got yourself a premier water park. If that were to happen then someone might be willing to pay what they want. I doubt that since they only have Dipper, wolf bobs, Rip Cord, and some small buildings.

The reunion was canned.
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2007- Skyscraper Triangle crew 5/18/07-5/28/07
Americana/Time Warp Crew-5/28/07-8/5/07
Shipwreck Crew-8/7/07-9/16/07
2010-Wildwater Kingdom or Disney

Does anyone know what their "minimum acceptable offer" is?

I would think that they would jump on anything over $5 Million for everything as-is, and $15-20-ish to throw in WWK...

Somewhere in the news recently it was reported the value of the land alone was in the $4-$5 million range. There are issues of some of it being swamp/protected. On top of that you have to remember "underneath" Geauga Lake Park is a lot of infrastructure like water, electrical and sewer lines which complicates things for any future development. Plus you have foundations for things like coasters and skyscrapers that all need dug up. Who wants to spend tons of money to dig all of that up in order to build something new?

If only someone would realize what SC88 just said. Although I am sure someone does and someone is to stubborn to sell.

At least sell the part that we all know some people want, the land under and around dipper.
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GL's demise was caused by one mans foolish greed.

In the end the truth will come out as it always does.

SC88 should tell that to CF
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2007- Skyscraper Triangle crew 5/18/07-5/28/07
Americana/Time Warp Crew-5/28/07-8/5/07
Shipwreck Crew-8/7/07-9/16/07
2010-Wildwater Kingdom or Disney

They would ignore him, as they always ignore virtually everything on Geauga Lake.

Ignoring everything and never realizing that any response at all would be far better than none. That the few they hear from represent thousands more concerned about the exact same issues. Thousands more who a few years from now are going to look back at what happened at Geauga Lake and put Cedar Fair in the same boat as Art Modell, if things stay on the present course.

Ignoring things only encourages louder and flashier ways of making sure the message was received.

I was at WWK on Monday and it was PACKED beyond capacity, and I have heard the same thing from other people who have been there recently as well. First, all of the picnic tables were occupied and it looked like more had actually been put out near the trees and grass areas surrounding the pavilion.

Liquid Lightning and Thunder Falls had lines all the way down the slide towers (not an exaggeration), and people were actually waiting for tubes on the lazy river. Over by the wave pool the party deck was reserved for a group, they had costumed characters dancing, and the wave pool was swamped with people, not an empty lounge chair to be found.

There was certainly a shortage of tubes for the lazy river, wave pool, and even the Thunder Falls tube slides.

The thing that KILLS me is the fact that the 3D theater and old Mission Bermuda Triangle building sit dormant. The former Happy Harbor flat ride area (which had a scrambler,swinging ship, swings, spider) is intact and in perfect position for expansion, but CF moved the rides leaving a weed filled concrete area with the infrastrcture already in place for rides.

I just don't get it! GL had people visiting the park (700K, correct? ), and those attendance figures didn't justify the amount of rides, staffing, and land, that was a fair assumption by them.So the CF board figured that GL was losing money based on that and voted to close it, keeping WWK.

The brain trust of Cedar Fair didn't realize that all they needed to do was downsize GL in the first place. Where did all the former GL patrons flock to? certainly not CP, many of them are overflowing WWK on hot summer days and the rest are at Waldameer, Kennywood, etc...

Why move all those flat rides perfectly placed at WWK, why gut the interiors of two entertainment buildings?

A smaller GL would have been perfect play from CF after the first few seasons when they realized the park wasn't drawing enough people for it's size. Move out the big guns (Batinator, X-Flight, SuperVenom, even Head Eraser or SerialHawk), kill a few food stands/gift shops, hell they could have even sold off some of the excess land and you have a downsized property resembling the old school GL.

They still would have given their other parks "like new" coasters, kept the local community happy, reduced staff, kept the same customer base.

I mean, they did actually spend a good amount of money painting, landscaping, keeping the place looking nice. They had already moved a signature coaster, I truly believed that was the direction GL was headed, and I was okay with that. Cf stated that they wanted to return GL to it's roots and become a family park again, so the rumors of Batinator's removal didn't surprise me.

CF is sitting on this land, paying taxes, and as someone else said "the costly amusement park infrastructure is sitting as well". CF had to have had some kind of major offer for the land that fell through or something, it just does not make good business sense to do what they did without a substantial offer, the goal is to make money, and they could have certainly been making money all this time that GL has closed with a revamped business plan, instead they are losing it. These are executives with years upon years of industry experience and MBA educations, how do screw this up? A 119 year old historical amusement park with generations upon generations of loyal patrons (built in customer base with a built in brand that everyone is NE Ohio knows) eager to visit the park and see if the new management can deliver because many had been unsatisfied with SF. This was not a risky new start-up amusement park (ex:Hard Rock Park). This should have been a damn walk in the park, the inability of CF to think outside the box and innovate or do anything remotely creative just stuns me.

The park did manage to survive for 119 years before CF got involved, it could have certainly still been THRIVING with a small amusement park/water park that could meet the demand which is clearly there with a packed WWK as undeniable proof.

Am I missing something? does WWK have to be a water park only? These families are going to WWK for a good time, if there were a few flat rides than the lines for them would be long (Just like the waterslides). WWK is "doing well" because it is smaller, it's that simple.

Sorry for the long, not-thought-out, and unorganized rant, but I could not stop thinking about this after going to WWK the other day
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Veritas Aequitas

Synergies...that damn awful business term, is what happened. They 'guessed' that by closing GL they would create Synergies that would increase attendance at CP, but that never happened.

Synergies, I hate that word.

Whenever a business uses the word Synergies, and CF sure did in pressers when they purchased the properties, look for cutbacks, layoffs and selloffs.

Synergies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks NM form that insightful post which is exactly the same questions I have been pondering over since the ride side closed. WWK has apparently caught on, or maybe they finally figured out that you need to advertise. Whatever the reason WWK has been obviously quite busy this year. Although everyone knows that GL was quite busy in its last year, but all we heard from CF was that GL's attendance was lower than expected. Is WWK's attendance lower than expected?

I hope that someone sees this increased attendance as a reason to do something with that land across the lake. Wouldn't it be nice to spend part of the day at WWK and then go over and enjoy one of the oldest operating coasters in the US?

Come on cities and everyone involved, lets wake up!
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GL's demise was caused by one mans foolish greed.

In the end the truth will come out as it always does.

What i dont get is why Cedar Fair didnt keep Geauga Lake open until they sold off the land.
If Dick was smart enough he would have known that keeping Geauga Lake open, (Which was generating cash flow) was cheaper than closing it, having to pay to move all these rides, and paying ONE MILLION dollars a year just to keep the land, which is making NO MONEY whatsoever because he closed it.
I know this and i'm only 16.
Way to go dick.

Anyway, back to the topic.
I don't think Wild Water Kingdom is going to close this year at all. Ive seen some 5000+ days at that park and I think it's doing fairly well for its size.
Now if CF wants to keep WWK open and attract more guests; EXPAND. There is SO MUCH land surrounding that park. My god. You have the old happy harbor Nets area, which you could use to place a new waterslide complex/pool/SOMETHING.

Now let me ask you this.

In one thread I started I provided a park rendering of what WWK was SUPPOSED to look like in 2006. I mean, I saw 2-3 new waterslide complexes, a new pool, and another lazy river surrounding the wave pool. Now, WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT? I don't see all of this stuff around the wave pool.
If they actually came through with their original plans, then WWK would be a premiere water park, and the park wouldn't be so overcrowded.

When i went to WWK the other day, they closed the wave pool for about 15 minutes. I go up to one of the lifeguards and ask why we had to get out. He replies, "the wave pool was too crowded." Now, i dont know if that's a legit reason or not, but I mean come on.

Why not complete phase 2. Or from what i've been hearing they are refurbishing SC? Why not bring some of those old slides over to WWK and place those in the old Happy Harbor nets area? The possibilities are endless CF! Now do SOMETHING.
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Cedar Fair - epic FAIL.

GLMemories89 wrote:

from what i've been hearing they are refurbishing SC?

What is the SC you're referring to?

SC=Soak City

GLMemories89 wrote:

Why not complete phase 2. Or from what i've been hearing they are refurbishing SC? Why not bring some of those old slides over to WWK and place those in the old Happy Harbor nets area? The possibilities are endless CF! ?Now do SOMETHING.

Add to that the possible closing of Great America and you could really fill WWK up with some additional stuff.
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GL's demise was caused by one mans foolish greed.

In the end the truth will come out as it always does.

coasterdad wrote:

SC=Soak City

GLMemories89 wrote:

Add to that the possible closing of Great America and you could really fill WWK up with some additional stuff.

And perhaps a whole new amusement park on the other side of the lake. All of the parks already have enough roller coasters, CGA has 8 of them. Even if they move 4 of them to Geauga Lake, that would still be enough roller coasters at the park. Add a number of flats and water rides in addition to the Columbia Carousel, and it could really take off again.

Great America, like its once sister park in Illinois, has a good assortment of flat rides. They certainly couldn't go wrong with bringing a good chunk of them back to the Lake, including our former Texas Twister.

Their coaster selection isn't much to brag about but I'd certainly take their Flight Deck (small B&M invert) and Psycho Mouse (Arrow Dynamics Mad Mouse) to give Dipper some coaster company.
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On September 21, 2007, a historic 119-year old amusement park had been secretly murdered. Never forget it.

Not to change the subject but I still find it astounding that it costs as much to visit WWK as it did to visit Geauga Lake and WWK combined. Yet still nothing new : (

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