Next Step: Finding the Money:

http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Video-Johnny-Archer-visits-Holiday-World--140552623.html

I think Bluegrass Boardwalk and Holiday World are in good hands, they're a family that knows what they're doing.

"From the Ruins of the Kingdom, the Boardwalk Rises?"

This past summer I had the opportunity to go down to Louisville and visit with the Kentucky Kingdom Redevelopment Company who allowed me to tour the park and photograph it. With the recent news of Bluegrass Boardwalk and hope that the park is going to be reopened by 2013, I decided to do an article for my website. Check it out here.

Some sample photos of how the park looked a few months ago:

Wow, thanks for sharing!

Great read Gordan, not to be nit picky (ok maybe i am ) but the QA in my just had to point this out...

In January of 2011, a new management group emerged stating that they were interested in negotiating a lease with the Fair Board.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it 2012?

That rust on GL's track and launch run is a little concerning. Otherwise the place seems to be in decent shape.

nice photo's.

Great read Gordan, not to be nit picky (ok maybe i am ) but the QA in my just had to point this out...

In January of 2011, a new management group emerged stating that they were interested in negotiating a lease with the Fair Board.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it 2012?

It was. Thank you sir, pardon my error!

Also being nitpicky, "Looney Tunes" is misspelled in a caption, spelled "Loony Tues".

Edit: Also, "necessary" is spelled wrong, as "necesarry." I always have trouble spelling that word though. You really need to get a browser with spellcheck.

Oh, I do, trust me. However whether or not I listen to its spelling suggestions at 4 am is another story. Thanks for the corrections though.

lol, 4 AM. Honestly, I wouldn't either, especially on a school night!

Great article Ronny. I am really looking forward to seeing how this new management re-opens the park and how they are going to do it. I had some fond memories of Kentucky Kingdom, I have not been there however since they added Greezed Lightnin' and closed down Hellavator (I reufuse to call it Superman). Should be interesting to watch.

Awesome article my friend. I have to say, it makes me cringe to think of the work that will have to go into each ride to bring them up to standard, to operate again. Its amazing the damage that the open weather can do to these structures without any kind of preventative or active maintenance. For instance, I cannot believe that the trains were left on Thunder Road. To pass a state inspection, each attraction is going to need very thorough attention.

I wonder why those trains where still on track. I've heard from a former employee sorce that the train was however wrapped up for the winter season when the park closed after the 2009 season like every season while on track in the station. When KK closed for the 2007 season they left the trains for twisted twins on the track as well. Those trains sat in the station for almost 3 ye wrapped up. The coursal also had also been covered up by its covers/curtians, but it look like Ed or the Fairboard had decided to unwrap these rides and give them some air or something durring recent months.

Article about "Why" a second park!

http://bluegrassboardwalk.com/baby-steps/

Personally I feel the "can we afford it" question was kind of side stepped there.

Just hope they don't mortgage all of Holiday world, of course with this said they are knocking out any competion with Holiday world.

They will have lots of work to do but with work money and cleaniness and great staff, they will win and succeed.

Should be interesting for sure.

Hope they keep the kids land maybe they could license a couple of Hannah barbera characters?

Or come up with their own of course this option being a lot cheaper!

Blizzard river could be a highly themed tube ride, My boys loved that ride, as pingeons layer even better than Kings Island version.

Plus they had some great slides in the water park.

And the wooden coaster is great.

The HB licensor is now Time Warner, long time exclusive licensor to Six Flags, so that is decidedly unlikely.

Kentucky Kingdom had three wooden coasters.

And that deal with Bluegrass Boardwalk may well be contingent on financing. This opera is far from over. In fact, the Rubenesque lady has not even arisen to warble yet. Last I heard, she'd not even located her sheet music.

Terp, the ONE and ONLY...Accept no imitations.

^ You mean there's no Terpy Jr.? I thought it was your second persona.

Here's a picture of the state the park is in as it stands now:

that's pretty good (it's technically a commonwealth though...)

Workman to retire, Kochs to "try" to reopen Kentucky Kingdom:

http://www.bizjournals.com/mobile/louisville/news/2012/03/22/workman-to-retire-from-fair-board.html

The Park is one step closer to reopening.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120416/NEWS01/304160065/Tax-credits-sought-Bluegrass-Boardwalk-theme-park?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|News

http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2012/04/16/holiday-world-owners-say-they-have.html

Maybe I will show my lack of knowledge in this area but.... why is it that when a company/family owns 1 park is can do so with a slight profit or at least no net loss (either from reinvestment or the like). But when a group tries to take on multiple parks, there begins to be losses. Why is that? What happens to the business model? Business theory would suggest that the more outlets where your goods are sold, the higher the costs but if done well the higher the income (and hopefully the profits).

I am commenting on both this situation and also FUN, CBS Parks, Paramount, Six Flags, Etc

Maybe I will show my lack of knowledge in this area but.... why is it that when a company/family owns 1 park is can do so with a slight profit or at least no net loss (either from reinvestment or the like). But when a group tries to take on multiple parks, there begins to be losses. Why is that? What happens to the business model? Business theory would suggest that the more outlets where your goods are sold, the higher the costs but if done well the higher the income (and hopefully the profits).

I am commenting on both this situation and also FUN, CBS Parks, Paramount, Six Flags, Etc

More distractions, drive for bigger profits over guest experience, sacrificing gate integrity chasing volume...

But ultimately, it can usually come down to penny pinching results in diminished guest experience, leading to fewer guests, leading to discounted gate, leading to further penny pinching, repeat.

I don't know about you guys, but I am definitely going to be at Bluegrass Boardwalk at least once next year. I think that the park won't be Holiday World exactly, but it will pretty darn close.

All I can wonder is how much longer they will have the different amenities that we like at Holiday World (free Pepsi, cool-down stations, etc.) with the addition of the new park. I think that the Koch Family can save some extra money, though, and not go on a huge, new-ride spending spree for next year. Maybe a new flat or something. Their main goal has to be sprucing up the park from the disarray that the "company that numbers its flags"(quoting Terp) left it in.

Also, the Kochs also need to add something as popular as Holiwood Nights to BB. I think that this will do wonders for the park.

In conclusion, it will be interesting to see how BB fares in 2013. I hope the park does well, because it was sad to see how bad SF left it.

(Thanks to Gordon Bombay for the photos. Here's the link to them:http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html)

Bluegrass boardwalk ; BCS for 2014 2015 Boardwalk Christmas Spectacular: They could finally do something similar to a winterfest.

Being in Louisville it just might work for the Koch family:

My question is what will the mascot be, the kids area, one of my families favorite memories was the foam factory even us parents *adults* got into the fun, with the slides. my eldest boy and wife loved the water slides with the up and down hill technology.

I will miss chang, hopefully that area will be a waterpark expansion.

Hope they can save twisted sisters and really keep some theming to the pingeons blizzard river and the height requirement was great for kids too .

Time will tell hopefully it works out for the koch's and the Holiday world family:

Some thoughts in response to the last few posts:

* The Six Flags organization that filed bankruptcy had one park as its genesis, Frontier City in Oklahoma. Under Gary Story, Tierco expanded, bought many parks, including Geauga Lake and Kentucky Kingdom. By then called Premier Parks, it then gobbled up Six Flags. It bought many more parks, overpaying for many of them, overexpanded, engaged in coaster wars with Cedar Fair and took on massive levels of debt it could not repay. It invested in new areas of parks while letting its assets seriously deteriorate.

* Cedar Fair began with a single park, Cedar Point. It slowly and methodically added Valleyfair, Dorney Park, Knott's Berry Farm, Worlds of Fun, Michigan's Adventure...all while incurring relatively low levels of debt. Then it uncharacteristically added Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. When CBS's Paramount Parks became available, the company, most agree, wildly overpaid for it, $1.24 billion, and took on a massive debt load, even borrowing money to pay out future "earnings."

• The Kochs, before 2011, were known for focus, not borrowing or overexpanding. There is a serious risk of distraction and expansion spreading management too thin. As of yet, there is not even a publicly disclosed executed lease. To think this park will certainly be open in 2013 is sheer folly. There is much work to do, and much that could go wrong. There are those who think the Kochs are taking on too much risk. Note that Pat Koch is apparently not a part of this venture.

All along, I pointed out that Ed Hart's plan did not make financial sense for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and was not likely to be approved. One person here, in particular, thought I was unduly pessimistic. I wasn't. In my opinion, this deal is way too risky for the Kochs and Holiday World. It may work, but it has a high probability for failure.

Terp I don't think you could have summed up this venture by the Koch family any better. I love HW and the Koch Family but in my opinion believe that they have set their goals a bit too high in trying to get BB up and running again. To set up the public with the notion that the park would be up and running by 2013 was ludicrous. The fan fare they received (on facebook/twitter/etc) was pretty substantial. Most people thanking the family "for opening the park next year" and "bringing back the park." I thought I was the only person who DID NOT like what was going on... What people seem to not understand is that the lease they signed was preliminary. Not only do they have to secure a large amount of money really quickly. But on top of that they need to revamp the ENTIRE park. Judging by the photos from Gordon Bombay there is A LOT of work to be done to even make the park habitable, let alone function by May 2013. The self-imposed deadline for opening the park sets up a lot of people for disappointment... Just look at how the 3 year timberliner delay for the voyage has had a bit of backlash in the roller coaster community.

Just imagine if they DO NOT get BB open by next year as stated by the family (its quite easily feasible as of now)... Not only are they going to disappoint fans but I believe their family name and reputation will take a hit as well. I believe they do not want a mark on their family name so they will do whatever it takes to get the park up and running because they DO NOT like to disappoint their fans. Like Terp said this plan COULD work. But I myself see it failing miserably before any positives come from this situation...

I just hope that:

A ) If they cannot secure the financial means for BB, they will have enough dignity to say they made a mistake and be able to return their focus back to the stellar park that is HW.

B )Don't put HW in financial jeopardy because of this "business adventure" if it does actually work out.

Great two comments, we can only hope for HW and Blue grass boardwalk (BGB) and the Koch family:

Hopefully they are not using assets of HW to build all of BGB.

they know how to run a park and sure I'm excited!