Koch family to run Kentucky Kingdom

[Cole]

Big news.
http://www.wdrb.com/story/16975959/koch ... ky-kingdom

[w00dland]

Wow.

None of the parties would talk about specifics within the proposed lease.

"You can just go ahead and run it for free..."

[FParker185]

Ed Hart got hosed. I think he was far and away the best bet to get the park up and running again profitably. Now you got a very direct competitor, aka a wolf in sheep's clothing running the park. They went from someone who wants nothing more than to see the park be successful, to someone who it's in their best interest to see the park not be *too* successful.

[Coaster Justin]

I see this becoming a Thorpe/Chessington story where the tamer attractions and waterpark additions go to Holiday World and the more intense scarier attractions go to Kentucky Kingdom.


I have faith in the Koch family. Why nobody else does is beyond me.

[DejaVu2001]

https://twitter.com/#!/BluegrassBwalk/s ... 3939091456

Lease has been approved by the Fair Board. Park will reopen in 2013 renamed as Bluegrass Boardwalk.

[FParker185]

I see this becoming a Thorpe/Chessington story where the tamer attractions and waterpark additions go to Holiday World and the more intense scarier attractions go to Kentucky Kingdom.


I have faith in the Koch family. Why nobody else does is beyond me.

Some people had faith in Cedar Fair when they bought Geauga Lake. Didn't change the cold hard facts in the business world though.

[CoastsToCoasters]

Well the park will need some major headliners (for the area) to get it going again. Kentucky is gonna want a park back but not THAT park, it had/has a terrible rep. I really want the to save "Time Machine" at Freestyle, ugh haha but in all seriousness, This park is going to do well & much better I'm almost sure of it. Holiday world may be small, but its successful & there is nothing but positive reviews that come from it. I have full faith in this investment & am very anxious to see what "Bluegrass" has to deliver next year! Ive always wanted to experience SFKK, & now in ways, (Its not a Geauga lake) I can seein the original park didnt completely die so to speak.

[monsterfan99]

It can not be stated enough how awful the parks new name is.

[Coaster Justin]

I see this becoming a Thorpe/Chessington story where the tamer attractions and waterpark additions go to Holiday World and the more intense scarier attractions go to Kentucky Kingdom.


I have faith in the Koch family. Why nobody else does is beyond me.

Some people had faith in Cedar Fair when they bought Geauga Lake. Didn't change the cold hard facts in the business world though.

OK, You're comparing Holiday World to Cedar Fair? That's like comparing Haunted Trails to Walt Disney World.

[monsterfan99]

I see this becoming a Thorpe/Chessington story where the tamer attractions and waterpark additions go to Holiday World and the more intense scarier attractions go to Kentucky Kingdom.


I have faith in the Koch family. Why nobody else does is beyond me.

Some people had faith in Cedar Fair when they bought Geauga Lake. Didn't change the cold hard facts in the business world though.

OK, You're comparing Holiday World to Cedar Fair? That's like comparing Haunted Trails to Walt Disney World.

Profit is profit. If you can kill off your closest competition, it's great business.

People have this weird love of Holiday World. They act like they don't care about profits first.

[w00dland]

I don't get the whole "Koch family wins the lease on Kentucky Kingdom so they can run it to the ground" argument. Holiday world was easily the superior park, and there is a chance KK would never have opened again if they didn't try for this lease. Both parks will still make money if the Koch family figures out how to run them in congruence with each other. Whether that means focusing one park on younger audiences and one on older or offering 2 park ticket offers for a whole summer/season pass deals. The parks are only 1.5 hours away which isn't too much in the grand scheme of things.

My guess is they got a great deal on this lease and have very little to lose/a lot to gain.

[BP317]

I see this becoming a Thorpe/Chessington story where the tamer attractions and waterpark additions go to Holiday World and the more intense scarier attractions go to Kentucky Kingdom.


I have faith in the Koch family. Why nobody else does is beyond me.

Some people had faith in Cedar Fair when they bought Geauga Lake. Didn't change the cold hard facts in the business world though.

OK, You're comparing Holiday World to Cedar Fair? That's like comparing Haunted Trails to Walt Disney World.

So the company that operates many of the most successful and highest attended seasonal theme parks in the world including Cedar Point, King Island, and Canada's Wonderland, is like Haunted Trails? And how is Holiday World more like Walt Disney World than like Cedar Fair?

Re KK: I agree with Mike that having someone other than the owners of HW running the park would have been in Louisvilles best interests. But I suppose an open park is better than a closed park.

[FParker185]

Here's another simpler way of looking at things. Holiday World now gets a little over a million visitors a year, lets call it 1.1 million just to make things easy. Now lets say in 2012, KK has a really good year, it gets a half million visitors right off the bat, but at the same time HW sees their attendance drop to 775,000-0.8 million visitors. In the end that's a net gain of 3/4 of a million visitors, but now they are saddled with the cost of running 2 amusment parks, one (KK) which will start off as very maintenance intensive and in need of new rides/capital to fill the holes SF left.

Does that .75 million extra visitors offset the cost of running 2 entire parks vs. one?

And let's be honest, this is an ideal situation. And you have to remember, SFKK is in bad shape. Twisted twins needs 2 new trains and a whole slew of track work, T2 either needs 2 new trains, or in lieu of that a total overhaul of the existing trains with a mandatory replacement of all the seat frames which isn't cheap(life expectancy of T2's trains was 10 years, and that comes right from Vekoma's mouth and documentation), and there are currently 2 coasters missing, one of which was undisputed marquee attraction at the park. When SF left they took out all the office equipment, most food service equipment, cash registers, etc, whatever wasn't nailed down is gone and isn't coming back. Also there are holes in the park that SFKK operated with, like the old Chaos spot, flats back near Twisted Twins, the Huss Rainbow, Hellevator, etc, and the park's appearance, condition, landscaping and whatnot is def not up to Holiday World standards. was a big reason why SFKK's attendance dropped from over a million people annually down to something like 250,000 at the end while HW's attendance skyrocketed.

On top of that, those 3/4 of a million people they gain in attendance probably didn't have the money or the means to drive an hour west to Holiday World, and I bet probably after admission don't exactly have the means to make a bunch of in park purchases, which is where most parks get the money to pay the bills. You can say, well they can sell cheap season passes for both parks, then maybe you don't see the attendance drop at HW as dramatically, but at the same time you're seeing people visiting the park(s) without the $$$ that comes from admission. Also expensive season passes just don't fly in Louisville, there's a reason SFKK season passes were $39 and went up to just $45-$50 during the season while at the same time parks like SFGAm were charging $52 for a one day admission plus $15 in parking

I'm not saying HW can't be successful, but it's going to be extremely hard and they will be walking a very fine line, and I definitely wish them the best.

[Coaster Justin]

So the company that operates many of the most successful and highest attended seasonal theme parks in the world including Cedar Point, King Island, and Canada's Wonderland, is like Haunted Trails? And how is Holiday World more like Walt Disney World than like Cedar Fair?

Re KK: I agree with Mike that having someone other than the owners of HW running the park would have been in Louisvilles best interests. But I suppose an open park is better than a closed park.

I was comparing Holiday World to Haunted Trails. Holiday World is just 1 park company. Cedar Fair owned like 10 properties prior to buying Geauga Lake. I was comparing Cedar Fair to Walt Disney World.

[Galvan]

Still Coaster Justin your not seeing the point.

So I am going to put it too you in English so maybe you can understand it.

HW/KK situation = CP/Gueaga Lake part 2.

We all know how that ended up.

[w00dland]

^Not a given. If it turns out that way please quote me and make fun of me in a couple of years.

I'm not saying they are gonna make a ton of money, but I don't think they will lose out either.

Either way, we'll never know for sure since HW isn't a publicly traded company.

[monsterfan99]

^Wouldn't the Koch family have to provide end the year sales info to the fair board and then it becomes public knowledge?

[w00dland]

I guess that would depend on the lease. If its a revenue share then I imagine we could figure out what money the park brought in (but probably not attendance), but if they agreed on a lump sum lease each year then all that the fair board would report would be that one sum, and we'd have no idea.

That was a long sentence.

[Coaster Justin]

^Not a given. If it turns out that way please quote me and make fun of me in a couple of years.

I'm not saying they are gonna make a ton of money, but I don't think they will lose out either.

Either way, we'll never know for sure since HW isn't a publicly traded company.

I'll make a promise to everyone. If they close down Kentucky Kingdom, I'll change my Signature to reflect it.