CF wants to buy Astroworld. You can find the news on thispagecannotbedisplayed dot com. Your opinions? Yea or Nay? Discuss. No big whoop.

__________________
"Ok, fat ***, we've just traveled 2,460 miles just for a little Roy Wally entertainment. The moose says you're closed. I say you're open!"

I thought the property was being sold off. I didn't think that buying it and operating it was an option. I guess we will have to see what developes.

__________________
I like the Zingo a lot.

Actually, the only real news there, slightly misinterpreted by *****, is that Daniel Snyder said that Cedar Fair was interested. Cedar Fair hasn't said a thing about being interested in the park.

So consider the source of that news- a guy fighting to take over a company and who isn't known for being the most honest.

__________________
Have you read my number 1 best seller? There will be a test! ~God
Life with God is one thrill ride you'll never want to get off of.
My park & coaster photos: Sir Willow's Smugmug pictures

That would surprise me if Cedar Fair took the park. Dan Snyder may be throwing just wood in a fire, making up stuff.

__________________
Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
The 2010 TN Coaster Draft: Now Underway Round Two
Six Flags - Cedar Fair Merge? No way.

I don't think Cedar Fair would take another park under it's wing just two years after taking over Geauga Lake. Right now there are in a rough transistion trying to return Geauga Lake to it's old glory and for the past few seasons things haven't went as good as the company hoped. I think Cedar Fair would give GL&WWK a few more years to start getting attendance up before venturing off and taking over more parks. Keep in mind the reason why Six Flags is in the hole right now is because when Premier Parks took over, they took over just about every available park in the United States. Cedar Fair obviously realizes scooping up a crap load of parks isn't the best idea, because that is what put Six Flags in the situation they are in today.

[QUOTE=Griswold]CF wants to buy Astroworld. You can find the news on thispagecannotbedisplayed dot com. Your opinions? Yea or Nay? Discuss. No big whoop.[/QUOTE]

There's a difference between "Cedar Fair is interested in AstroWorld" and "Cedar Fair wants to buy AstroWorld." You don't know that they want to buy it. What we know is that Dan Snyder (we don't know how credible he is) [i]said[/i] that Cedar Fair is interested, meaning they "supposedly" shown interest in the property - meaning to evaluate it, and to see the terms of acquisition.

And if anyone remembers, they were in talks with Visionland park owners in taking over the park financially and in magement - and the acqusition, which seemed sure, fell through.

If CF bought it, this would be there first park in the area. They would need to do some major additions, including a new parking lot possibly. I dont think it is likely that they will buy it, but they could.

I'm surprised they have an interest in AstroWorld in the first place knowing how much work would have to be done in order to keep it successful.

__________________
Element of Freedom - December 15th

/\ And I'm sure they still remember how hard it was to get Geauga Lake back onto its feet. It took awhile before the park actually turned some kind of a profit for the partnership.

And Mr. Six - the Cedar Fair/AstroWorld "acquisition" hope is definitely not going to happen. That parking lot issue will most likely be the biggest reason.

The parking lot issue is solveable. (sp?)

The deal that SF had with Reliant had expired, which was the reason they were back to negotiations.

If Cedar Fair were to purchase the park, the parking problem could simply be solved. Just purchasing land (which is plentiful in the area) and getting a tram system. Take a look at Schlitterbahn for example. They shuttle thousands of people back and forth between their 'East' and 'West' section with ease. Or they could pick up the negotiations again and work out a deal for another ascertained amount of time.

__________________
ThrillNetwork Editor (past tense: lectricShark)
Never forget justice is what love looks like in public. -- OXFAM

[QUOTE=Chris L]/\ And I'm sure they still remember how hard it was to get Geauga Lake back onto its feet. It took awhile before the park actually turned some kind of a profit for the partnership.[/QUOTE]

Chris you are very right, if Cedar Fair and Geauga Lake hadn't added Wildwater Kingdom this year, there definitely wouldn't have been any improvement in the attendance. Thankfully they did and they were able to increase attendance by 19% from last year which is decent. No one ever said the transition from SFWOA to Geauga Lake was going to be easy and so far it hasn't been, but Cedar Fair has done a good job thus far with the park. I still say to give them a few more seasons to get things together and hopefully Geauga Lake will return to it's old glory and start generating more profits. Once Kinzel retires in 2007, we won't have to worry about Cedar Point getting all the attention. Hopefully we'll see GL get some new rides in the coming seasons, it should help the park out a lot. I'm also hoping by next season we see a 20% attendance increase from this year once Phase II of WWK is complete.

As for AstroWorld, there abolutely no way the park could survive if Reliant Stadium doesn't allow the park to use the parking anymore regardless of who's running the park. The parking situation may be one of the main reasons, but SFAW has been struggling for the past few seasons and it's quite obvious that they are losing more money than they are actually gaining so that is why SFI has decided to part ways with the park. Even if CF took over I really don't see it improving that much seeing how the park is in such bad shape as it is. Six Flags sure like to give up on parks, when a park is so deep into the hole and Six Flags can't do anything about it they just part ways, we saw the samething thing with Geauga Lake. Geauga Lake got lucky and got picked up by a decent chain though, I really don't see the park opening again if someone doesn't do anything about their current situation. As you can see by the picture below, the park is surrounded on all sides by various buildings, theres just nowhere they could build a new parking lot especially considering the size of land they would need to build a big enough lot. That truly is out of the question. To be honest, I don't think Cedar Fair will buy the park. They are already in transition of improving Geauga Lake and turning it back into a decent park, I really don't think they can afford to buy this park and somehow turn this around for it as well. In the end I think they would lose too much money and would probably give up on the park after awhile. At least Geauga Lake is showing improvement, I don't see it going anywhere.

[url]http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/4695/sfaw5kt.jpg[/url]

[QUOTE=EastCoastn07]SFAW has been struggling for the past few seasons and it's quite obvious that they are losing more money than they are actually gaining so that is why SFI has decided to part ways with the park. Even if CF took over I really don't see it improving that much seeing how the park is in such bad shape as it is. Six Flags sure like to give up on parks, when a park is so deep into the hole and Six Flags can't do anything about it they just part ways, we saw the samething thing with Geauga Lake. Geauga Lake got lucky and got picked up by a decent chain though, I really don't see the park opening again if someone doesn't do anything about their current situation.[/QUOTE]

Seriously, why does everyone always say this? If AstroWorld was doing even half as bad as everyone seems to think they are, SF would have sold it a long time ago, before Geauga. The park falls around the middle of the chain in attendance, maybe slightly higher. The season pass prices are the 4th highest in the entire chain, and the ticket prices are rather high, too (I believe they're $42, not sure where that ranks with the other parks). Because SF Corporate refuses to give the park any money, there is no way SF could possibly be losing money on this park. In these last few years, they have finally gotten a little bit of general improvement money thrown at them, but still not enough to offset the huge profit they must be making off of this park. Just because a park is not getting rides does not mean it's not making money. Hell, Geauga got tons of rides and it wasn't making a dime.

__________________
ThrillNetwork Moderator
Houston Thrills Central | Freude Am Leben
Bayerische Motoren Werke: Freude am Fahren
Marvel McFey is dead.

/\ That's not true. When Six Flags snapped up Geauga Lake and transformed it into Six Flags Worlds of Adventure and made all those investments its initial year, the attendance at that property spiked big time for about two seasons. It was the following years down to its sale to Cedar Fair that showed a decline in returning visitors due to supposedly poor customer service and operations. So to say "Geauga got tons of rides and it wasn't making a dime" is false.

^ Very true...Actually something I agree with you on. :D

Byron's right about AW's attendance though...apparently they even did better than SF Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. The picture SF is painting of AW having poor attendance in reality is no different than the post-9/11 attendance slump nationwide at all parks. I really think parking and land are the issues here. Personally though...I'd LOVE to see what Cedar Fair could do with my home park... SF owns the former car dealership next door to the park which they now use as employee facilities. (that satellite photo is a couple of years old BTW...it still shows Texas Tornado...Globexplorer's map is more recent). Personally, I think they could easily build a large parking garage structure (similar to Universal Orlando's) on that property. Unfortunately, SF no longer has rights to that land on the SE corner of the park next to the amphitheater. They used to launch fireworks there for the fireworks show but I believe they were just leasing that lot. Houston Metro apparently owns it now. But...apparently there are several abandoned warehouses behind the park which would be ideal for parking space if they used trams. Those of us who love AW can only hope that Cedar Fair can save our park.

-Derek

__________________
-- Fisherman <>< --
-- Matthew 4:19 --

Theres no way Cedar Fair will buy Astroworld. SF will get more for the property if they sell it to a bunch of different people. The land is so valuble right there by the astrodome and the houston texans football stadium. Plus, I think Cedar Fair is interested in one more big project at CP in the next few years, along with improving their smaller parks. If they buy SF Astroworld, it would suck with the coasters there right now and CF would want 2 keep their good reputation (at least better than SF). If they build from scratch, that would cost so much and the money would be better spent at their existing parks, plus the expansion in those locations wouldn't cost as much. Touching on kind of what Fisherman said, it would be nice if CF saved Astroworld, but soon there will be a theme park there. Who would resist an oportunity to have a park in one of the United States top 10 populated cities?

__________________
GO MAGIC

For the most part I think SFAW has junky rides, so i dont think CF would ever buy it. plus, as a CF fan, Id rather see them spend theyre money on somthing else.

__________________
"Everybody claims I'm crazy and go over the edge. But the view is so much better from the edge."
- Stan Checketts

They should spend their money on the huge 2007 CP attraction...that's a better use of 150 million or so...

Do any of you see a park in [url="#"]Houston[/url] in the next 10 years? It's one of America's 10 most populated cities so I think someone will want to buy land and bulid a park there, even if it is going to be a small park. Maybe they can actually get some new rides, instead of all that used Six Flags junk. Going back on what I said above, why would Cedar Fair waste their money on that junk?

__________________
GO MAGIC

[QUOTE=VekomahangNbang]Do any of you see a park in [url="http://#"]Houston[/url] in the next 10 years? It's one of America's 10 most populated cities so I think someone will want to buy land and bulid a park there, even if it is going to be a small park. Maybe they can actually get some new rides, instead of all that used Six Flags junk. Going back on what I said above, why would Cedar Fair waste their money on that junk?[/QUOTE]

You are criticising yourself. At first you act like it's an excellent oppertunity to create a park in one of America's most populated cities. Then, you say why would CF want to waste their money on it?

At least try to make sense.

Of course, since i know you, u try 2 find anything wrong with my posts. What i meant was that Cedar Fair wouldn't want to spend their money on that right now. It could be better spent at Cedar Point or one of their smaller parks. Somewhere else in the future (maybe CF in 10 years) might want to invest in a highly populated area. This doesn't mean they have to buy the land SF Astroworld was on. That land is very expensive due to being right next to the Astrodome and such. So, maybe in 10-15 years CF might want to invest in a Houston area park, or some other location, but when they look at their priority list, Houston is not on the top right now.

__________________
GO MAGIC

How do you know that CF will want to invest in Houston in the future? How do you know CF wants to build another park at all?

And in the future, try to reread your posts. You have several spelling errors.

I didn't say that! I said maybe they would want to invest before I even fixed the post. I didn't necessarily say they had to invest in Houston and that was also before I even fixed the spelling in the post.

[font=Times New Roman][size=3][/size][/font]

__________________
GO MAGIC

Why would they waste money on it? Because it's a money making machine. SF invests little into the park and gets a ton in return.

__________________
ThrillNetwork Moderator
Houston Thrills Central | Freude Am Leben
Bayerische Motoren Werke: Freude am Fahren
Marvel McFey is dead.

Are you saying Six Flags make a ton of money because last time i checked, they were in a huge debt and up for sale.

__________________
GO MAGIC

WTF? Are you retarded? Just because a company is making money doesn't mean they can't be in debt. SF makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year, but they also spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year. They do make a lot more than they spend, but they don't even make enough to cover the interest on their loans.

__________________
Back from the dead.
"ROSEBUD. Rosebud frozen peas, full of country goodness and green peaness."

/\ VekomahangNbang just doesn't understand the concept of cash flow. Yes, it's true Six Flags Inc. has a debt load of approximately 2.1 to 2.3 billion. But that has nothing to do with the fact that individual parks are pumping out revenue from admission sales, in-park spending, etc...

Yes, SF makes a lot of money, but once you factor in how much money they are losing (bills, new rides, ect.), they aren't making any money overall. Can you even think about what their monthly electricity and water bills are? SF debt has grown over the years and now sits at 2.6 billion. I don't know any other company that's 2.6 billion dollars in debt.

__________________
GO MAGIC

Correction: You don't know of any theme park company that is in debt. I'm sure there's large corporations like airlines that are in even more debt.

^ You obviously haven't been paying attention to the latest financials. Six Flags is making a profit this year, not losing money.

You're also addressing the company as a whole, not the individual park. Astroworld as a park has made far more money than Six Flags has had to invest in the park It's been a much greater return on investment than many of the other parks.

I'm sure that someone will come along and build a new park in Houston if something doesn't happen with Astroworld (and sorry, but it sure looks like the city and arenas are making sure that's not going to happen) It won't be Six Flags (they don't build parks) and I seriously doubt it'll be Cedar Fair (they haven't built one in a long time either) Expect some private entrepeneur to come along and do it.

Oh, for Montu- the word you were looking for was "contradict." Kind of ironic that you're bashing him for not knowing what he was talking about when you were doing the same thing. :)

__________________
Have you read my number 1 best seller? There will be a test! ~God
Life with God is one thrill ride you'll never want to get off of.
My park & coaster photos: Sir Willow's Smugmug pictures