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Kentucky Kingdom (SFKK, KK) Discussion Thread


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If this park does reopen, I need to go to it in 2014 just in case it's pulls a freestyle music park and closes again.

 

I think it will last a few years while the "honeymoon" effect takes place (everyone goes because they are excited it reopened)...I give it 5 years before it is waterpark only.

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I'm pretty much at this point have the mindset, Kentucky Kingdom? bah, no, my home park is Holiday World and would much rather go there honestly.
It’s going to cost more than planned to get Kentucky Kingdom in shape

 

Shocking.

 

I do hope that it opens, but it's pretty much a back and forth joke now.

 

This is the way I also feel... While I do hope this park opens back up, I don't care too much and I've moved on with my life! I think everyone in this area has also moved on by now. 2009 was a LONG time ago. I now consider Kings Island my home park!

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I have lost some hope too, but I still really want kk to open. The people of Kentucky love it. It is also very sad to se a closed amusement park just sit there. I do have great faith in Hart. I wrote to him and he even wrote me a personal letter back. You can tell he really cares, mainly because he doesn't want to see something he created go down the drain.

Edited by sfkk
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When I went to kentucky kingdom and they had the mile high falls and twisted twins section walled off I asked the employee why. She said that it was to add food stands and gift shops and that it would reopen in 2009. She must have taken Six Flags' national restructuring process to literally mean adding structures and buildings. It just goes to show how little six flags' educated their employees. Also that part of the park did not open in 2009.

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^ Dude I can be the first one to tell you that regular park employees at any park like Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks have no knowledge of future park plans or expansions. In fact employees usually find out major announcements after the GP find out. It has been reasoned that the Twisted Twins area of the park was closed off due to Six Flags finical difficulties, and the solution was to not operate and staff 2 major rides. The employee who you talked to was most likely saying the generic statement that the higher ups told the workers, "it's closed for future additions."

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  • 2 weeks later...

And a SECOND article.

 

(Admins: How do you copy and paste the story into the forum that shows all the article text?)

 

http://www.wave3.com/story/21945539/changes-made-to-budget-to-get-kentucky-kingdom-open-on-time

 

 

Changes made to budget to get Kentucky Kingdom open on time

Posted: Apr 11, 2013 2:42 PM EDT Updated: Apr 11, 2013 5:22 PM EDT

By Jaimie Weiss

 

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - The money is in place to get Kentucky Kingdom reopen, according to the Louisville businessman who wants to be the new operator.

 

Wednesday, the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority approved $10 million in tax incentives for Ed Hart and Kentucky Kingdom LLP. Thursday, Hart said despite reports that it will cost more money to open the park, that is not the case.

 

Hart said he and his business partners have finalized a budget and have a new plan to restart Kentucky Kingdom with the original $40 million investment. He said they'll be paying more out of pocket.

 

"My partners and I are going to have to put in more money than we anticipated because we're going to be borrowing less money from the bank," said Hart, who also said that change will expedite the process.

 

"Spring is in the air," Hart said. "Aren't you ready to go to an amusement park?"

 

Hart couldn't appear more excited to be in the process of reopening Kentucky Kingdom, but for at least another year, you'll have to attend a park outside of Louisville.

 

Hart said after being approved for the tax incentives by the state, everything is on track to make him the new operator.

 

"The tourism tax credits were a very, very important part of our financial plan, so we're happy to see that piece is completed," said Hart.

 

The incentives will be paid out over ten years and are based on performance. Hart is adamant that when the park is running again it will go over as well as when he operated it in the early 1990s.

 

"We ran a very successful facility," Hart said. "We built over 1.3 million in attendance, bringing hundreds of thousands of people, visitors, in for overnight stays."

 

Hart said they're already hiring contractors to get inside and get to work. The deadline to finalize the lease is April 27.

Edited by larrygator
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(Admins: How do you copy and paste the story into the forum that shows all the article text?)

 

Highlight the whole article and select COPY.

Paste into the thread on TPR.

For style purposes I like to then: Italicize the whole article, Bold the headline, Shrink the byline

Edited by larrygator
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"My partners and I are going to have to put in more money than we anticipated because we're going to be borrowing less money from the bank," said Hart, who also said that change will expedite the process.

 

Translation: we couldn't get the funding we wanted. Sounds like whatever banks he went to weren't confident in his overall plan either.

 

"We built over 1.3 million in attendance, bringing hundreds of thousands of people, visitors, in for overnight stays."

 

These claims remind me of Hard Rock Park thinking they could do 4 million a year. The market has completely changed since he last owned the place, with much more competition. Not to mention the investment in major rides he had to make to get there (a luxury I don't think they'll have this time around---not enough $$$).

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^ Remember, Louisville population grew 189.2% from 2000 to 2010 and the 9 years Six Flags held Kentucky Kingdom with subpar marketing and worse customer service, they never were able to cash in on that.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2011/03/17/louisville-population-soared-from.html

 

Myrtle Beach only grew 37% in that time and where KK was mostly paid for and did very few infrastructure improvements, Hard Rock Park had millions of Dollars in debt from the start.

 

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/real_estate/1103/gallery.Fastest_growing_metro_areas/9.html

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These claims remind me of Hard Rock Park thinking they could do 4 million a year. The market has completely changed since he last owned the place, with much more competition. Not to mention the investment in major rides he had to make to get there (a luxury I don't think they'll have this time around---not enough $$$).

 

Ed said he don't expect to reach 1.3 million guest until the 3rd year or so.

 

Back in the day Holiday World was no competition. However, now obviously Ed is focused on getting his customers back who have chosen Holiday World over the Kingdom. These are two different parks that offers two totally different bag of rides. Holiday World mainly focuses on old family attractions and waterslides, while the Kingdom mainly focuses on new thrill rides. Holiday World is for family waterpark enthusiasts, while the kingdom is for familiys and thrills seekers. Holiday World is for value, and the Kingdom is supposedly going to try to take the name as the Value Park. It should be interesting to see where things go. I could see Kentucky Kingdom hurting Holiday World somewhat in the future.

(When I say The Kingdom, I'm talking about the park before Six Flags)

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^It's debatable that the remaining coasters are more thrilling. I'm sure guests will turn in their holiday world passes right away for the opportunity to ride T2 again.

 

Ask Six Flags old management team how being in a "coaster arms race" worked out for them.

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^Yes, but Magic Mountain was in a "coaster arms race" with a park all the way across the country...not an hour away. They have to do something to offer a different experience, and Holiday World already has the "family" market cornered.

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^It's debatable that the remaining coasters are more thrilling. I'm sure guests will turn in their holiday world passes right away for the opportunity to ride T2 again.

 

Ask Six Flags old management team how being in a "coaster arms race" worked out for them.

 

Not many people have passes to Holiday World from the Louisville area. If passes are cheaper than the Holiday World price I'm sure whoever has a Holiday World sp would trade it in.

 

But when you talk about the old Six Flags managament team, isn't that the dark past? I mean, Ed didn't have a problem with coaster wars, but Six Flags just couldn't handle it. I still believe that what hurt the Kingdom under the SIx Flags management is Geauaga Lake, but Oh well... The Kingdom's future is looking brighter anyways.

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^My point was that the current version of Kentucky Kingdom isn't exactly a thrill mecca. Especially when compared to the park that has 3 of the top 50 wooden coasters in the world. Could Ed Hart change that? Sure, but judging by the fact his partnership is spending more out of pocket because they couldn't get the financing they wanted (for whatever the reason may be), throwing a ton of money at new rides to win back business is probably not the best strategy (hence the comparison to the old Six Flags---didn't spend within their means).

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throwing a ton of money at new rides to win back business is probably not the best strategy (hence the comparison to the old Six Flags---didn't spend within their means).

 

I don't know what other choice they have. Without some great additions this will fall flat on its face once the novelty of the park reopening wears off and people realize it has far less than it had before. They shouldn't install B&M's entire catalog on year 1, but they definitely need rides. If I were them, I'd try to get Thunder Run into peak condition and then try to get a good, modern steel coaster because Holiday World doesn't have that. An Intamin Mega Lite would be perfect, but I doubt that's in the budget.

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throwing a ton of money at new rides to win back business is probably not the best strategy (hence the comparison to the old Six Flags---didn't spend within their means).

 

I don't know what other choice they have. Without some great additions this will fall flat on its face once the novelty of the park reopening wears off and people realize it has far less than it had before. They shouldn't install B&M's entire catalog on year 1, but they definitely need rides. If I were them, I'd try to get Thunder Run into peak condition and then try to get a good, modern steel coaster because Holiday World doesn't have that. An Intamin Mega Lite would be perfect, but I doubt that's in the budget.

 

Ring, ring

 

Hello, this is Rocky Mountain Coasters.

 

Yeah, RMC I have a dueling wooden coaster that needs a complete overhaul, you up for the challenge?

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^^That's one of the main reasons I have my doubts it will be successful. I'm not confident that this ownership group has the ability to pay for the rides it would take for the place to be truly competitive.

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^^ I think the layout's too small for something like that. Plus, a fresh refurbishment like that would cost way too much since they'd have to alter most of layout like they've done for the other coasters they've refurbished.

 

I'm really glad to hear that things are still somewhat rolling along with the park, even though I'm a little sick of hearing about it now. I don't know about any of you, but I also kinda like how they're being sorta silent about what they're doing, rather than what was going on before with the promises that were being made for the park. It makes me not have as high of expectations for when the park gets closer to opening, because knowing they could be putting in a brand new roller coaster and greatly expanding the water park sounds great, until comes time to open the park and having the disappointment of only being able to fulfill less than half because they've realized before that "we needed to put more money into refurbishing everything else in the park rather than putting in new attractions."

 

Just a thought.

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I have faith in Ed Hart to get this done. Looking at his business history, he has a great track record and seems to be a very determined man when he decides to do something. One thing, though, I can't get out of my head... The possibility of buying land elsewhere to reconstruct Kentucky Kingdom has never been mentioned. Regardless of how successful the park becomes in its early years, it's going to run into the same problem that has been a monkey on its back for years - it's landlocked. I know the whole deal of wanting to keep at the fairground because of the state fair and everything, but still. And considering the bad blood that appears to flow between Hart (and some of his partners in the new Kentucky Kingdom) and Gov. Beshear, I'm a little surprised there has been as much cooperation between Hart and the state as there has been. There's a whole lot more politics to the Kentucky Kingdom situation than many from out-of-state may realize.

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