Yes, they lost a lot of company picnics when they decided to remove the rides. I still work down there doing some scheduling and assisting with things here and there. The rides side is currently very sad. All the ride pads are still there, just without any fencing in place. Storybook Pedal boats are still there, and open Friday, Saturday and Sundays. At the time the rides were removed, I heard a number that they had projected Group Sales to decrease by. I thought at the time, and still think that the number was overly optimistic. As Ryan said, most companies don`t want to book a company outing to just a pool. Obviously we will never get a true comparison because of COVID. The decision to remove the rides apparently came from ownership. I was certainly blind sided by the news when it was announced. In fact, the main reason they started adding rides back in the early 1990s was to increase the group sales business. That portion had tailed off in recent years compared to when I started at Coney in 2002.
They have done some very silly things over the years, that if I owned/was in charge of the place I would not have done. For example, they came close to installing a Gravity Group wooden coaster way back in 2012. They decided the price was too high. You have to spend money to make money. It would have been a great ride. The ride would not have taken up parking spots under most circumstances. The station would have been where Eurobungy was located, with the lift heading out towards Gate 2, right along Lake Como. The ride would have turned, running parallel to Kellogg, right along the shore of Lake Como. The only time the park uses the grass between Kellogg and Lake Como is for sold out shows, or if they want to park people there instead of parking them in the West lot. Yes, they may have lost some spots for the coaster and its turn around for peak capacity events (and they would have had to find a new location to launch the July 3 fireworks), but it would have been a great ride.
Some of the later ride installs were questionable. Como Cruisers, battery powered boats that cannot run if they get wet! Wipeout was an intense ride, but it didn`t really fit the target demographic of Coney of kids and families. Same goes for Topspin (which was a great ride, and I actually preferred it to Delirium), but it was did not appeal to families. I think had Coney received the coaster, and added things like a Flying Scooter ride, and a Zephyr type ride, things would be drastically different.
My hope, and it is just that, that Coney can hold on a couple more years, and that the ownership decides to add rides back again. Or current ownership sells to someone that will be a good steward to the park and start to add rides back in.