- August 27th, 2015, 5:45 pm
#83445
If Carowinds was failing, why would Cedar Fair even take the time and money to invest in it? If that was the case, they'd just sell it. They wouldn't make a $30 million investment at a park like Michigan's Adventure, so why do it at a park that's failing?
SeasonDiningPlan wrote:arby wrote:My 2 cents.
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I value everybody's right to an opinion and actually relish hearing them. However, I am reminded every day of how blessed my family and I are to be able to travel. My wife works in an 'inner city' school where 90% of her students get free or reduced lunches. While the new slide complex might be cookie cutter to us, I am certain that to at least a notable percentage of the average guest at Carowinds, they are something new and exciting and a season pass to Carowinds is probably their primary form of summer fun. They can't afford to go anywhere else. I remember when we first moved here and could barely afford to go to Carowinds when season passes were only $50 each.
</soapbox>
I guess my ability to see the big picture that has taken me far in my career is coming into play here. I have an idea of the big picture that Carowinds is trying to achieve and it is going to take YEARS to get there and many phases to achieve it (unless someone has a spare couple hundred of million that you would like to donate to the park)
Universal is in the mecca of tourist areas and surpassed NYC recently in the number of annual tourists. While it is our favorite park, it costs us a lot of money to go there. It's really not an apples to apples comparison to correlate Carowinds and Universal Studios when season passes to Carowinds is still less than a four day trip to Universal Studios.
I think more than likely what will happen is Carowinds will end up going bankrupt again and being bought out by another company. This park has never been in good hands or good management. Paramount really didn't do it any favors and cedar fair hasn't either. (Stinky trash cans every 10 ft that smell like sewage)
Fury 325 and intimidator are bringing in the guys who hunt coasters for a living. Giga coaster hunters. But once that appeal has worn out. You don't have any other substance to bring visitors in.
I think the real reason the park is investing money is because they know without investments Carowinds will fail. So this is a return on investment thing. They're hoping that this money spent on Fury and the water park "upgrade" will turn a bigger profit in return.
I'd be interested to look at the books for this park and see what their profits or debts looks like sometime in the future.
One thing is for sure. They should have spent the money on actually building some air conditioned rides because Boo Blasters is a major joke (The guns don't work half the time) and if you've been on Men in Black from Universal you'll know what real indoor rides should be. Kinda impressive considering it is 15 years old and still one of the best arcade shooting indoor rides in history.
If Carowinds was failing, why would Cedar Fair even take the time and money to invest in it? If that was the case, they'd just sell it. They wouldn't make a $30 million investment at a park like Michigan's Adventure, so why do it at a park that's failing?
Coaster Count: 63
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