Cedar Fair Entertainment Company
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (August 2010) |
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| Type | Public |
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| Traded as | NYSE: FUN |
| Industry | Amusement Parks |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Headquarters | Sandusky, Ohio, United States |
| Number of locations | 18 |
| Area served | United States Canada |
| Key people | Matt Ouimet, CEO |
| Revenue | $977.6 million (net) US (2010) |
| Operating income |  $185.5 million USD (2009) |
| Net income | -$31.6 million US (2010) |
| Employees | 2,500+ (2007) (excluding seasonal) |
| Website | www.cedarfair.com |
Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, legally known as Cedar Fair, L.P.,(NYSE: FUN) is a publicly traded partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks and seven water parks across North America. Cedar Fair also manages Gilroy Gardens under contract with the city of Gilroy, California.[1]
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[edit] History
[edit] Dick Kinzel era
Cedar Point opened in 1870 as a recreational area. The park was developed over the years going through only a few managements. In 1978, Cedar Point aquired Valleyfair. The name Cedar Fair then was derived from the names of both parks. "Cedar" coming from Cedar Point and "Fair" coming from Valleyfair.
The first aquisition of the new Cedar Fair company came in 1992 when Cedar Fair bought Dorney Park from Harris Weinstein. Cedar Fair bought Worlds of Fun from Hunt-Midwest in 1995. One of the biggest acquisitions came in 1997 when Cedar Fair bought Knott's Berry Farm from the Knott family. This marked the first time Cedar Fair operated a year-round amusement park. Several new water park properties, named Knott's Soak City, have opened around the southern California area since the acquisition. Knott's Soak City water parks opened in Buena Park in 1999, Chula Vista in 2000 and Palm Springs in 2001. Michigan's Adventure in Muskegon, Michigan, was purchased for $28 million in 2001.
The biggest acquisitions have come recently starting in 2004 with Six Flags World of Adventure. Cedar Fair bought the park for $145 million and renamed it Geauga Lake.[2] However with it being so close to Cedar Point, the park started loosing attendance and various rides, leading to rumors of the park closing. On September 21, 2007, it was announced that Geauga Lake would close and only the connected water park would opperate as Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom.[3] Most of the rides were sent to other Cedar Fair parks to operate. In 2011, the water parks name was shortened to just Wildwater Kingdom, removing the Geauga Lake prefix.[4]
On May 22, 2006, Cedar Fair announced they had outbid competitors and intended to purchase all five parks in the Paramount Parks chain, including Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton and the management agreement of Bonfante Gardens. On June 30, 2006, Cedar Fair announced that it had completed its acquisition of Paramount Parks from CBS Corporation in a cash transaction valued at $1.24 billion.[5]Shortly following the transfer of ownership, Cedar Fair began the process of integrating the two companies by eliminating the Paramount Parks corporate office in Charlotte, North Carolina and transferring all decision-making to Cedar Fair's offices in Sandusky, Ohio.
The individual parks continued to operate under their Paramount names during the 2006 season, however Cedar Fair began removing the Paramount name and logo from the parks in January 2007. The names of the parks were changed back to their original pre-Paramount names (the Paramount's prefix was removed) with the Cedar Fair corporate logo added. They also changed Bonfante Gardens to Gilroy Gardens. Cedar Fair began removing references to Paramount Pictures since they did not have the licenses to use them. All these changes were made before the beginning of the 2007 season.
In December 2009 it was announced that Apollo Global Management would offer Cedar Fair $11.50[6] per share, a 28 percent premium over the market price, as part of a takeover plan which would also make Cedar Fair a private company.[7] The deal included a cash payment of $635 million in addition to assuming Cedar Fair's debt of over $1.7 billion putting the total value of the transaction close to $2.4 billion. Cedar Fair planned to hold a shareholder meeting on March 16, 2010 to vote on the transaction but postponed the meeting to April 8, 2010 implying that two-thirds of the shareholder vote needed for approval wasn't yet secured.[8] On April 6, 2010, the deal was terminated, and Cedar Fair paid $6.5 million to reimburse Apollo for expenses incurred from the proposed transaction.[6] Cedar Fair also adopted a unitholder rights plan as a preventative measure to help protect unitholders in the event of any future hostile takeover.[9]
On September 16, 2011, JMA Ventures, LLC entered into an agreement to purchase California's Great America from Cedar Fair and take ownership of the Gilroy Gardens management contract.[10] The agreement required approval of Santa Clara's city council which was scheduled to vote on the matter on December 6, 2011. However, JMA cancelled its plans to purchase Great America and bowed out of the agreement.[11]
[edit] Matt Ouimet era
On June 20, 2011 Cedar Fair announced that long term CEO Dick Kinzel would retire on January 3, 2012 and that Matt Ouimet will take his spot as the CEO of Cedar Fair.[12] Ouimet was employed by The Walt Disney Company for 17 years. He served as president of Disney Cruise Line and president of the Disneyland Resort. He officially became CEO on January 3rd.[13]
[edit] Properties
[edit] Amusement parks
- California's Great America (Santa Clara, California)
- Canada's Wonderland (Vaughan, Ontario, Canada)
- Carowinds (Charlotte, North Carolina & Fort Mill, South Carolina)
- Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)
- Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
- Gilroy Gardens (Gilroy, California), currently in a management contract with Cedar Fair
- Kings Dominion (Doswell, Virginia)
- Kings Island (Mason, Ohio)
- Knott's Berry Farm (Buena Park, California)
- Michigan's Adventure (Muskegon, Michigan)
- Valleyfair (Shakopee, Minnesota)
- Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, Missouri)
[edit] Water parks
[edit] Included with admission
- Boomerang Bay (California's Great America)
- Boomerang Bay (Carowinds)
- Soak City (Kings Island)
- Soak City (Valleyfair)
- Splash Works (Canada's Wonderland)
- WaterWorks (Kings Dominion)
- Wild Water Adventure (Michigan's Adventure)
- Wildwater Kingdom (Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom)
[edit] Separate admission/property
- Knott's Soak City (Buena Park, California)
- Knott's Soak City (Palm Springs, California)
- Knott's Soak City (San Diego, California)
- Oceans of Fun (Kansas City, Missouri)
- Soak City (Sandusky, Ohio)
- Wildwater Kingdom (Aurora, Ohio)
[edit] Indoor
[edit] Lodging and campgrounds
- Hotel Breakers (Cedar Point)
- Breakers Express (Cedar Point)
- Sandcastle Suites Hotel (Cedar Point)
- Camper Village (Cedar Point)
- Lighthouse Point (Cedar Point)
- Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort (Cedar Point)
- Camp Wilderness (Kings Dominion)
- Knott’s Berry Farm Resort Hotel (Knott's Berry Farm)
- Worlds of Fun Village (Worlds of Fun)
- Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort (Carowinds)
[edit] Former
- Camp Snoopy (Mall of America) Until 2005
- Geauga Lake (Aurora, Ohio) Closed ride sections of park in Fall 2007
- Geauga Lake Hotel Until 2007
- Star Trek: The Experience (Las Vegas, Nevada) [14]
[edit] Fast Lane
On July 18, 2011, Kings Island announced Fast Lane. [15] It is Cedar Fair's version of a virtual queue system. Kings Island served as the testing park for it. For $50, visitors get a wrist band which gives them the ability to cut to the front of the line on the parks most popular attractions. Originally, it could only be used from noon to 7:00 PM, but it was soon expanded to be available from all day. On January 19, 2012, it was announced that Fast Lane would be rolled out at all the Cedar Fair parks for the 2012 season.[16] There is also Fright Lane, which is Fast Lane for the haunted attractions during the Halloween events.
[edit] Attendance
Cedar Fair has some of the most visited seasonal parks in the North America.
Parks with over 3 million visitors a year: Canada's Wonderland, Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm, and Kings Island.[16]
Parks with over 1.5 million visitors a year: Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, and California's Great America.[16]
Parks with a million or fewer visitors a year: Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, and Michigan's Adventure.[16]
Cedar Fair's most visited park is Canada's Wonderland, boasting the highest attendance of any seasonal park in North America.
[edit] Awards
Cedar Fair parks have earned several major Golden Ticket Awards for roller coasters and amusement park operation from Amusement Today, a trade newspaper which ranks amusement parks and roller coasters.[17] In addition, the readers of Amusement Today have voted Cedar Point as The Best Amusement Park In The World for 14 consecutive years.
The Maverick steel roller coaster at Cedar Point received the Best New Ride of 2007 - Amusement Park title from Amusement Today when it debuted in 2007.
The Prowler wooden roller coaster at Worlds of Fun received the Best New Ride of 2009 - Amusement Park title from Amusement Today when it debuted in 2009.[18]
[edit] See also
- Richard Kinzel, CEO of Cedar Fair from 1986-2012
- Incidents at Cedar Fair parks
[edit] References
- ^ "Properties". Cedar Fair official site. http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/company/properties/. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
- ^ Potter, Derek (2004-03-10). "Cedar Fair Buys Six Flags World of Adventure". Theme Park Insider. http://www.themeparkinsider.com/news/response.cfm?ID=1564. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ "Cedar Fair Announces New Direction For Geauga Lake". Wikinvest. 21 September 2007. http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Cedar_Fair,_L.P._(FUN)/Filing/8-K/2007/Ex-99/D2601429. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/198311/3/Aurora-Wildwater-Kingdom-nixes-Geauga-Lake-name
- ^ "Cedar Fair to Acquire Paramount Parks". The Point Online. 2006-05-22. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20070814210552/http://www.thepointol.com/news/2006/76.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ a b "Cedar Fair: Takeover not happening". The Seattle Times. 6 April 2010. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2011535721_apusapollocedarfair.html. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ Samavati, Shaheen (16 December 2009). "Cedar Fair to be acquired by New York private-equity firm". Cleveland.com. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/12/cedar_fair_expected_to_be_boug.html. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ "UPDATE: Knott’s grandson weighs in on sale delay". The Orange Register. 16 March 2010. http://ocresort.ocregister.com/2010/03/16/sale-of-knotts-berry-farms-owner-postponed/37805/. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ "Cedar Fair and Affiliates of Apollo Global Management Mutually Terminate Merger Agreement". Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. 6 April 2010. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cedar-fair-and-affiliates-of-apollo-global-management-mutually-terminate-merger-agreement-89989157.html. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ "Gilroy Gardens Management to Transfer to JMA Pending Approval of JMA’s Acquisition of California’s Great America". Gilroy Gardens. 22 September 2011. http://www.gilroygardens.org/news-media/article.cfm/news_alias/Gilroy-Gardens-Management-to-Transfer. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
- ^ "JMA cancels $70M California Great America purchase". Business Journal. 6 December 2011. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2011/12/06/jma-cancels-70m-california-great.html. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
- ^ http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/press_releases/index.cfm?current_root=15&mode=story&story_id=310
- ^ http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/press_releases/index.cfm?current_root=15&mode=story&story_id=310
- ^ "2008 Press Release". Cedar Fair. 2008. http://www.startrekexp.com/pdf/STTE-Media-release.pdf.
- ^ http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2011/07/kings-island-announces-fast-lane.html
- ^ a b c d "Fun Forward Presentation". Cedar Fair. 2012. http://cf.wddnsweb2.wddonline.net/_upload/pressreleases/final%20funforward%20presentation%20-%20with%20ebitda%20reconciliation.pdf. Retrieved 2012-1-19.
- ^ "Golden Tickets 2007". Amusement Today. 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-05-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20080530013537/http://www.amusementtoday.com/image/GoldenTicket2007.pdf. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ "2009 Golden Ticket Awards - The Best of the Best!". Amusement Today. http://www.amusementtoday.com/corndog/2009gtawinners.html. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
[edit] External links
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