Great Adventure Outpost
Industry => Six Flags News => Topic started by: GADVwow on February 04, 2010, 07:01:45 PM
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Kentucky Kingdom Rejects Lease
Park to Close
Six Flags announced today that as it nears the scheduled end of its restructuring process, it has decided to reject its lease with the Kentucky State Fair Board relating to the Kentucky Kingdom park. In recent weeks, Six Flags had proposed a new lease arrangement to the fair board that would have enhanced the viability and future of the park. Unfortunately, those proposals were not accepted and the park will cease operations and the company will move expeditiously to re-locate employees and several of the more than 40 rides and attractions to one of its 13 other markets.
"We are deeply disappointed to be leaving such a great fan base in the greater metropolitan area of Louisville and we are grateful to the thousands of employees at Kentucky Kingdom and the millions of guests for their dedication, support and loyalty over the years," said Mark Shapiro, Six Flags President and CEO.
"This action relates solely to Kentucky Kingdom," Shapiro continued. "The substantial lease
payment has been a significant hurdle for this park in recent years. Our other parks, which reside
largely on company-owned land, will be completely unaffected and will open as scheduled for the full 2010 season."
SEASON PASS HOLDER LETTER | GROUP INFORMATION | FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Does the closing of Kentucky Kingdom mean that other Six Flags parks will be closing or sold?
Does this have anything to do with the restructure/bankruptcy?
I have family members who bought Season Passes to Kentucky Kingdom. What happens now?
What about employees of the park, what will happen to them?
What happens to the rides at Kentucky Kingdom?
Will prices at my local Six Flags be affected the closing of Kentucky Kingdom?
Does the closing of Kentucky Kingdom mean that other Six Flags parks will be closing or sold?
Absolutely not...this is an isolated situation. The current lease was simply not sustainable in the current economic environment. The rent was way too high, making it extremely difficult for the park to achieve profitability year in and year out. Six Flags was hopeful that a deal could be reached with the State Fair Board to re-negotiate the lease price to keep the park open but the State Fair Board wouldn't budge. Therefore, we decided to reject the lease and cease operations, a right we are entitled to in our restructuring process. All of our other parks are profitable and are located largely on company-owned land, therefore the Kentucky Kingdom situation is not at all applicable.
Does this have anything to do with the restructure/bankruptcy?
As part of our restructuring process, we exercised our option to reject the current Kentucky Kingdom lease. Our goal was to renegotiate lease payment terms that would enhance the viability and future of the park. This is an isolated situation. In fact, the restructuring process will be completed in just a few short weeks. All of our other parks are profitable and will be opening for the 2010 season beginning in March and we are full steam ahead with a much improved balance sheet, after completion of the restructuring.
I have family members who bought season passes to Kentucky Kingdom. What happens now?
Costs for pre-purchased 2010 Season Passes will be 100% refunded. Notices will go out to Season
Pass holders shortly. We also invite those Season Pass holders to remain so, as their Passes will be valid at all other Six Flags Theme Parks throughout the 2010 Season. For those guests who choose to keep their Kentucky Kingdom Season Passes, we will be sending them four Bring-A-Friend Free Passes that will be valid at any of our other Six Flags parks as well.
What about employees of the park, what will happen to them?
We will be working with team members on an individual basis to assist during this transitional period. We will make every effort to relocate those team members who want to remain with the company to our 13 other markets. Kentucky Kingdom provided more teen jobs than any other business in the Louisville area.
What happens to the rides at Kentucky Kingdom?
We are still making those decisions, since we had been hopeful that we could keep the park open. We know that some of the rides and attractions will be relocated to other parks, though the final details are still being worked out.
Will prices at my local Six Flags be affected the closing of Kentucky Kingdom?
Absolutely not...Six Flags will remain an affordable family friendly entertainment option in our other locations. In fact, Season Pass pricing at many of our parks is the lowest in years.
http://www.sixflags.com/national/footernav/kentuckykingdom.aspx (http://www.sixflags.com/national/footernav/kentuckykingdom.aspx)
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http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100204/BUSINESS/2040358/Bankrupt+Six+Flags+to+close+Kentucky+Kingdom+theme+park (http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100204/BUSINESS/2040358/Bankrupt+Six+Flags+to+close+Kentucky+Kingdom+theme+park)
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An Important Message for
Kentucky Kingdom
Pass Holders
Have more fun
Dear Valued Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Season Pass and Play Pass Holders:
On behalf of Six Flags and the 55 full-time Kentucky Kingdom employees, I would like to personally thank you for your continued loyalty and support. It has been our honor to provide amazing thrills and lifelong memories to you and your families for the last twelve years.
It is however, with much regret that I inform you that despite multiple attempts to reach a new, fair and equitable lease agreement with the Kentucky State Fair Board, Six Flags has been unable to do so. As a result, Six Flags has rejected the current lease and will be closing Kentucky Kingdom, effective immediately. Please know that this action only affects the Kentucky Kingdom theme park - all nineteen other Six Flags parks will be open for business as usual in 2010, including nearby Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags Great America in Chicago.
As a reminder, your Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Season Pass and/or Play Pass is valid at any of our Six Flags Theme Parks, as well as Six Flags Mexico and La Ronde Theme Park in Canada. In a few weeks, we will be sending you, via e-mail, four "Bring a Friend Free" tickets valid to any of our Six Flags Theme Parks. These "Bring a Friend Free" tickets will only be valid if you choose to retain your 2010 Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Season Pass.
Information on our other theme parks, locations and operating hours, can be found at www.sixflags.com (http://www.sixflags.com). For your convenience, we have also developed a "Frequently Asked Questions" page on our website should you have any additional questions.
If you would prefer to return your 2010 Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Season Pass, you can find information on how to obtain a full refund at www.sixflags.com/kentuckykingdom (http://www.sixflags.com/kentuckykingdom).
Again, I want to thank you for your continued support over the last twelve years, and I hope to see you at another Six Flags park very soon.
Sincerely,
Andy Michaelree
Andrew J. Michaelree
President
Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom
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What happens to the rides at Kentucky Kingdom?
We are still making those decisions, since we had been hopeful that we could keep the park open. We know that some of the rides and attractions will be relocated to other parks, though the final details are still being worked out.
http://www.sixflags.com/national/footernav/kentuckykingdom.aspx (http://www.sixflags.com/national/footernav/kentuckykingdom.aspx)
That means it going to Great America :D ;)
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Hopefully we get something
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Chang already has gone to SFGAm.
As for other rides, stay tuned.
I strongly suspect you are in for some surprises.
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we all know twiated twins isn't going anywhere exceot the fireplace...
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It is in very poor shape. Certainly worse than Villain was at Geauga Lake.
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especially for the fact it's been SBNO since 2008
.
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I also just got this alert
Maybe another Company may get in there and run/buy/lease it
Its a dam shame for all the locals and the Families that use the water park
Hmmm
Thunder Run,Greezed Lightnin' or T2 would be a nice little addition for the folks that are afraid of the Mega Coaster at Great Adventure
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Put it over by skull mountain and it'd be perfect.
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Re-theme
Thunder Run
and yes put it over near Skull Mt. in the Woods
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I also just got this alert
Maybe another Company may get in there and run/buy/lease it
Run/buy/lease what? The land belongs to the State Fair Boards, but everything sitting on that land belongs to Six Flags. I doubt there will be anything left there to run, buy, or lease.
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Re-theme
Thunder Run
and yes put it over near Skull Mt. in the Woods
JERSEY DEVIL!!!
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Bummer. Not as tragic of a loss as AstroWorld was IMO, but still a bummer.
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I also just got this alert
Maybe another Company may get in there and run/buy/lease it
Run/buy/lease what? The land belongs to the State Fair Boards, but everything sitting on that land belongs to Six Flags. I doubt there will be anything left there to run, buy, or lease.
Not necessarily so. What belongs to the Commonwealth of Kentucky and what belongs to Six Flags depends in large part on the terms of the lease and on what Six Flags can get out of the park before the lease expires.
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What happend to Vampire?
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Long ago it was moved to Six Flags New England, then known as Riverside.
It came from China, where it was known as Boomerang:
http://www.rcdb.com/5211.htm (http://www.rcdb.com/5211.htm)
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SFNE
http://rcdb.com/174.htm (http://rcdb.com/174.htm)
* I hate it when my computer doesn't update fast enough...
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If we get Greezed Lightnin' is the weight drop launch system "safe" at GA as it's not hydraulic or LIM?
If it's really as loud as wiki says, it would be perfect at GA as we have several loud coasters already, besides that it already was in great america so they wouldn't send it back.. Its much cheaper to relocate than the wooden coasters if money is a problem too. ;D
Would be nice if could take the enterprise as well, to replace the dead one.. While we are at it, lets take the water slides for HH too as the park could always use more slides and has room, 2 tornados would be funny. We have enough land to put the entire KK inside GA, we can call it.. the KK section. :D
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http://www.wlky.com/news/22468433/detail.html (http://www.wlky.com/news/22468433/detail.html)
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Wow... It always sucks to see a park have to close down.
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from the wlky link below
I hate seeing things like this
"i think it is wrong and it breaks my heart that they would even think of closing the kingdom. I took my kids there when they were young. As soon as my son got old enough, he went to work there and has been there ever since. We still go to the park several times every year. I now have a grandson who just turned 4. He loves going. It will simply break his little heart. Think of how many young people that will be out of work. Please try to do something."
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Those three coasters will be gone. Greezed Lightnin' never worked when I was there : ( and now it might be gone for ever. T2 could be used at parts. Thunder run , no chance it leaves in one piece. (I'm guessing of course) Now for flats rides if we don't get anyting that would be a real shame.
I can see the rollerskater being a Mr Six dance coasters and the Mouse being saved. The water slide was the best part of last years visit.
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Let the p!ssing contest begin. The fair board will continue to fight and protest this but Six Flags has/had no intention of remaining there. The removal of Chang was evidence from day one.
I'm mostly saddened about Greezed Lightnin'. Unfortunately, as Bubba said, it is probably unlikely they would re-install it somewhere else :(.
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I'd rather it go to a small park than another Six Flags anyway. But it would be neat to bring it back to Great America. For those that don't know, the loop on it is from the former Tidal Wave at California's Great America (now Cedar Fair) and the rest of the ride was originally Tidal Wave at Illinois's Great America (Six Flags). And AstroWorld's more intense shuttle loop (also Greezed Lightning) is still in storage in Texas, as the park that bought it from AstroWorld was unable to find a suitable site to construct it on.
I always thought it would be cool to have one of these on the lake at Indiana Beach. But Knoebels is another perfect location for an antique looping coaster.
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Holiday World Expects Positive Bounce From Kentucky Kingdom Closing:
Word that Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville is closing brought a mixed reaction from
Will Koch, president of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari here.
“It’s tough, always sad when another park closes,” Koch said Friday morning. “We know the people (employees) over there.”
But he said Holiday World also sees it as an opportunity to draw even more customers from the Louisville area.
“We would love to offer our park to their fans and we think we have the capacity,” said Koch.
He said while Holiday World’s attendance — just over 1 million annually — has remained fairly flat since 2006, the family-owned park has continued to open new rides and make other improvements and expects corporate picnic business to rebound this year....
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/feb/05/holiday-world-expects-positive-bounce-kentucky-kin/ (http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/feb/05/holiday-world-expects-positive-bounce-kentucky-kin/)
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Just a question.
Would Ceder Fair be happy this is happening?
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Although Kings Island may pick up a wee bit of business from this closing, Holiday World is far more apt to pick up business because of it.
Right now, Cedar Fair has many more problems of its own to contend with.
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really depends where someone lives right? if I lived east of 75, I would probably pick wherever is closest, which might be KI. Or is KI really that bad?
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Let's just say that Kentucky Kingdom was a stop on the way to better places and Kings Island (for me at least) is a multi-day destination.
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KK is the kind of place that if they had a 2 hr sundown plan you'd probably do that?
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No way. The park had a reputation for having a gang/thug/bad neighborhood problem at the end...and the last two hours of the day could indeed be perhaps the most unpleasant.
One of the things I never understood was that, with this reputation, the park had wrestling shows! Of all things. And then was shocked, shocked I say, at the conduct of some of the people who showed up for them.
If you are really interested in Kentucky Kingdom, what happened there and the details, I highly recommend this thread on Kings Island Central:
http://www.kicentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20717 (http://www.kicentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20717)
I'd pay particular attention to posts there by Shaggy (especially his post 88 on page 6) , who knows the area and that particular park well, and to The Interpreter (among others, post 46 on page 4), a long time visitor to that park, who went there more than 30 times the year it converted to Six Flags, even though he lived three hours away at the time.
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KK was a place you stopped at to get a cheap Six Flags pass or you stopped there for a couple of hours because you already had a Six Flags pass. If you didn't do the waterpark, a couple of hours was usually plenty of time to enjoy the coasters and any other rides you wanted to take a spin on. Unless you're Bubba. In that case, Greezed Lightning was never open. :-/
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And play passes this year were...$29.99. Regular season passes were $39.99. That should have told the Fair Board something.
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SFKK wasn't that bad, I wish I did the waterpark when I was there. It sucks for all the locals around the park though...
Let's hope we get some flats out of it though!
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This article quotes a representative of the fair board who contends the rides belong to the fair board, or at least some of them do:
...Harold Workman, Ky. Fair Board President, said, “Six Flags removed the Chang rollercoaster ride. They requested they able to remove it through me they requested that under the pretense that they were going to expand the water park and after showing me diagrams and pictures of what they were going to expand and what they were going to add and so on. So, we're a little disappointed in the fact they removed a ride but never really moved on expanding the water park.”
He said that at that point, the way the lease is worded makes it sounds like Chang could have belonged to the Fair Board because it is affixed to the ground.
Workman says Six Flags wanted to pay no rent for nine years remaining on the lease. The offer also included a share of profits, if there was any.
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Whats-next-for-Six-Flags-Fair-Pres-says-rides-might-not-be-going-anywhere-83772172.html (http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Whats-next-for-Six-Flags-Fair-Pres-says-rides-might-not-be-going-anywhere-83772172.html)
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It's one month before school's out, and there are no signs that the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom property could reopen for the summer.
Legal hurdles are in the way -- hurdles that started with a lease dispute and still leave an uncertain future for the Louisville economy and hundreds of potential workers.
Walk to the front gate of what used to be Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, and you'll see the "U" is missing from the sign.
And "you" likely won't be enjoying a ride or a dip in the pools here any time soon....
No one wants to touch anything, until the question of who owns the rides is decided.
http://www.fox41.com/Global/story.asp?S=12435515 (http://www.fox41.com/Global/story.asp?S=12435515)
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KENTUCKY KINGDOM WON'T OPEN THIS YEAR:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100506/NEWS01/5060350/Kentucky+Kingdom+won+t+reopen+this+year (http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100506/NEWS01/5060350/Kentucky+Kingdom+won+t+reopen+this+year)