Kentucky Kingdom Closure and Relocation Thread

[sccard01]

By the way it sounds, Six Flags can't remove a ride without the KFEC approval! Which means Six Flags want be able to remove any of Kentucky Kingdom Rides!:) That sound so good for us Lousiville ppl (None of the rides have been added into the park Since Six Flags took over besides a couple of water slides and Greezed Lightin)

http://www.whas11.com/news/business/Wha ... 72172.html

[david]

This is terrible. JUST TERRIBLE. The fair is not happy that they don't want to re-negotiate, and SF wants rides, so their going to tell SF "NO!".

[monsterfan99]

^^Great call on the fair boards part. I'd be pissed to with the zero notice the chain gave anyone including the fair and employees.

[david]

Actually, they've been having problems with the lease for quite some time, they just got fed up now. SF should have the right to remove ANYTHING SF added.

[onyxhotel08]

They will get the rides out fast when they bought the park it included the rides even though the land itself is not theirs. Their biggest hurdle was with Chang and maybe they did not even intend to expand the water park and just showed the board a fake outline of Bonzai Beach for 2011?

[david]

I think that if the park wants to restructure, they need to dump this park. No and or buts about it. KK wasn't bringing in any money. I think they had every intention of building Bonzai Beech, but they were waiting to start until this happened,if it were to happen.

[monsterfan99]

maybe they did not even intend to expand the water park and just showed the board a fake outline of Bonzai Beach for 2011?

This. I am really thinking that was the plan. Or they did little to no construction seeing if the fair board would let them have the lease for the last 9 years for free.

[Ilovthevu']

I think it's pretty obvious that they wanted to take the greatest most expensive thing in Kentucky Kingdom (the B&M), and make-up something to the fair board that they were going to do something with that area. Think about where the waterpark is, and think about where Chang is. How would they connect the two areas (with a walkway over the midway)? If not, T2 would end in a dead-end. What, people would walk all the way around the waterpark to get to the other side.

Just think about though the Wooden coaster SBNO, and the Splash Water Falls ride, and all the other rides they took out like Rainbow, and the Dragsters. They even took the Jay Thomas guy, and moved him to Magic Mountain. Doesn't that tell you something right there?

To me, this park is just one of the worst parks out of so many amusement parks. They say they once had 1.3 million a year, but was that when it first opened? Sure, people are curious about parks. The "new" Wal-Mart opened, and it was just jammed packed, and than after a little bit, the crowds start thinning somewhat. To me, they could be the same for amusement parks. Look at Gaugea Lake. It was really packed at the beginning, and than people didn't like what they saw, and they haven't gone back.

I really understand that the local people are going to miss it. I would hate to not have an amusement park right by me. That would torture almost. However to me, that park just is not worth keeping as a Six Flags park. Maybe, it's okay as a $25 dollar park like a Cypress Gardens (even though that's closed), but NOT a Six Flags park where they are going to invest tons of money in, and need room to expand.

To me, Six Flags America should be next, but the problem is the economy is bad, and you can't get go land values because I thought that land around there is very high, and they have a bunch of it. They advertise Six Flags Great Adventure that Six Flags doesn't even care about Six Flags America. You know it's bad when you are in Maryland (or it could have been Delaware), and at the tourist rest stop, the person goes I have no idea about a Six Flags America, but we do have Six Flags Great Adventure brochures. To me though, Six Flags America has better "loot" to move somewhere else (not enough though.) like Superman, Batwing, and Joker's Jinx.

They had Two-Face, but than they sold it because they can't figure it unlike Kings Island in which the ride looks flawless when I'm at the park. That's what happens when they don't put enough maintenance money into that park.

[tp41190]

The problem is Six Flags killed these parks. And they have no one to blame but themselves. Look at Geauga Lake. It was doing just fine being a small theme park. Then Six Flags wanted to turn it into a mega coaster park. By adding all of these huge and expensive coasters. They then did not get the attendance they needed to make it profitable and they had to get rid of it. Same goes for Kentucky Kingdom.

[tillenterprises]

Don't get your hopes up that anybody is getting any rides from KK. I see a long drawn-out court battle starting between the fair board/state of Kentucky and Six Flags, similar to the New Orleans Six Flags situation. There will probably be some kind of court injunction which will prevent Six Flags from removing any more rides. The park will probably sit SBNO idle for 2010 while they sort it all out in court. In the end, Six Flags will probably be forced to pay restitution to the fair board for removing Chang "under false pretenses," and fair board will go shopping for a new company to take over the park with probably little to no luck, unless they can somehow talk the previous owners to take over the park again.

[w00dland]

^First of all, yes you are probably right.

The reason why its going to be a long court battle is because the Fair Board has way too much power in this situation. Their number one argument is because Six Flags affixed these rides to the ground, that made them the Fair Board's property. I don't know if I'm the only one who sees the gap of logic in this, but I'd probably argue since Six Flags PAID for that property, and is only on the Fair's LEASE it would still be owned by the company. Just because you bolt something to the ground doesn't mean you give up the 13 million you paid for the damn thing.

Think of it like a shopping mall. If Sears leased a corner of a mall and started bolting down shelves would those shelves suddenly be owned by the company who owns the mall? No. If they decided not to renew the lease they would pick up their stuff and go.

Buuut since the Fairboard seems to be more powerful than the GOVERNOR and the fact that this costs Kentucky thousands of jobs and is a political nightmare, you are going to see one hell of a fight from local officials to keep this park open. Even if they literally make up a ludicrous argument out of thin air to try and win.

[onyxhotel08]

Six Flags are idiots for taking SFKK on when it seems like they did not even own anything on that property...how I have no idea SF paid the $12 million for Chang not the board how can they not be allowed to take it with them?

[DejaVu2001]

^ SF did not pay for Chang. Chang was built for 1997, and Premier (which later bought SF) didn't aquire Kentucky Kingdom until 1998. Anything built after 1998 should be SF property, anything before that is unclear and very well could be KFEC property.

[forddude1416]

nevermind, i need reading comprehension sometimes

[onyxhotel08]

But even then Chang belonged to Premier not Kentucky...they did not spend a dime on any part of Chang and now they want it back? Please...

[DejaVu2001]

^ I just said Premier did NOT buy Kentucky Kingdom until 1998. Before 1998, Kentucky Kingdom was ran by Ed Hart who also leased from the Fair Board.

[onyxhotel08]

So when Chang opened in April 1997 (Just looked that up), it was put in by Ed? Who paid the 12 million?

[DejaVu2001]

I would assume Ed Hart payed it. Either way, doesn't matter. Point is SF/Premier didn't pay for it, so without being able to see the specific terms of the lease, theres no way to know who technically owned Chang. Based on past experience, SF was pretty much free to remove and reuse rides while they leased SFKK, although I think they had to get approval to remove Chang. I don't think the Fair Board will be able to do anything about Chang though unless they can prove that SF never had any intention of actually building Bonzai Beach.

[onyxhotel08]

Gonna be hard to prove pretty sure Six Flags had all their bases covered

[forddude1416]

If someone put in the ride before six flags owned it, then six flags bought it out, wouldn't it stand to reason that they'd take on the parks assets too?

[DejaVu2001]

^ Under normal circumstances yes, but when the land is leased, things can get complicated (see the SFNO fiasco)

[sccard01]

Six Flags only added 1 ride to Kentucky Kingdom anyways in this past DECADE! And 3 watersides!? and 2 up charge attraction! (One upcharge attraction sling shot was removed a couple years back)


Rides SixFlags Added
Sky Coaster: Upcharge Attraction
Greezed Lighting: Used Coaster
Tornado
Deluge
Mega Wedgie

Ed hart invested his money into Kentucky Kingdom from 1990-2000, He added everything in the park and made it fun, but Six Flags Ruined the park with the lack of attractions!

[david]

Let's not point fingers, Six Flags id whatever they thought was best for the park. Six Flags PAID for the park, that means they PAID for the rides being operated in the park, and the establishment. They fair really shouldn't start this because Six Flags will NOT re-open the park. If they think trying to tie up SF like this will get SF to rethink their decision, the fair is sadly mistaken.

[sccard01]

It was premier parks who bought the park. Six Flags took over premier parks later on. Many really don't care about Six FLags, we all just want to see Ed Hart to get the park back and make it into what it was before Six Flags took over.

[monsterfan99]

Let's not point fingers, Six Flags id whatever they thought was best for the park. Six Flags PAID for the park, that means they PAID for the rides being operated in the park, and the establishment. They fair really shouldn't start this because Six Flags will NOT re-open the park. If they think trying to tie up SF like this will get SF to rethink their decision, the fair is sadly mistaken.

Depends on what the lease says. Premier may have very well given up ownership on the rides before they bought the park for a better deal. when you start doing business leases, things get fuzzy and this will end up in the courts or SF just gives up the fight. They already got Chang and some wooden coaster trains. Not much left that is worthwhile.