I stumbled on this very interesting article on Geauga Lake by Brian Krosnick. Kinda makes me wonder about a particular park in Southern Indiana that once was a family park and is now starting to evolve...

 

http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140824/28153/lost-geauga-lake-how-worlds-largest-six-flags-disappeared

 

Enjoy!

Carowinds....the next Worlds of Adventure....

Attendance is over 2 million but still below the record setting attendance of 2004 and 2005 l, 2.13 million. 2006 remained relatively flat as the park's put it.

Brian Krosnick. Hm. Sounds like a great guy. Handsome, too!

 

Cedar Fair's current CEO, Matt Ouimet, has expressed a great interest in making Carowinds a flagship park again, and I think they're doing it in the right way; the way that it should be done. A balance, a timeline, intentionality. Not a knee-jerk, reactionary, artificial growth spurt like Six Flags Ohio... Roller coasters at the expense of... well... everything else.

 

I don't think that the "perfect storm" of very unique, very timely circumstances around Geauga Lake will ever replicate themselves like that again. Beloved and cared about parks close every single year, but the circumstances around Geauga Lake were almost unbelievable. That's why it's such a unique story. A 100+ year old park, SeaWorld across the lake, ownership change, the purchase of Six Flags by Premier, the re-branding, the expansion, the combination of two substantial pre-existing parks (two parking lots, two main entrances, two guest services, two lost-and-founds), a sea life park in Northeast Ohio, the sale of it all, Cedar Fair's strategy of redistribution, the surprise all-at-once announcement of the park's permanent closure after having closed for the season, and the relationship to the Paramount Parks sale, all set alongside the very unique strategies of Premier, then Six Flags, plus Anheuser Busch, and Cedar Fair after that, all at that specific time. It's an epic story.

 

If it had all happened ten years earlier or ten years later... Well, frankly, I don't think it would've happened ten years earlier or ten years later. It's such a strange coalescing of the times, the choices, the ways, the leadership... Impossible to do the story justice, and my dinky 7,000 word piece barely gets close. I'm just pleased with the memories that people have shared in the comments and on Facebook as its spread through the region... Makes me think it was worth writing!

 

Thanks for bringing attention back to it!

 

If you're like me and you can sit for hours and read in-depth stories about lost attractions, never-built rides, behind-the-scenes looks, and more, I posted a thread here with links to more of my writing that I intend to update regularly. 

Brian Krosnick. Hm. Sounds like a great guy. Handsome, too!

I thought the name was familiar! Hahaha! It was a very nice read! 

 

And yes, as you put it, that truly was a perfect storm. And a great lesson to be learned for the future of other parks. Your writing was definitely worth it!