Cedar Fair, L.P. , doing business as Cedar Fair Entertainment Company , is a public trading partnership headquartered in Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates twelve amusement parks, two open water parks, an indoor water amusement park and five US and Canadian hotels. Cedar Fair also manages Gilroy Gardens under contract with the city of Gilroy, California.
Video Cedar Fair
Histori
Cedar Point opened in 1870 as a recreation area. The park was developed over the years through only a few management. The park belongs to Cedar Point Pleasure Company. In 1974, Cedar Point Pleasure Company proposed the construction of a playground in Cambridge Township, Michigan at the former Frontier City amusement park site. The plan was abandoned in 1975. Three years later, Cedar Point acquired Valleyfair. The name of Cedar Fair is then derived from the name of the two parks, "Cedar" from Cedar Point and "Fair" from Valleyfair. Cedar Fair was founded in 1983 and then became public on April 29, 1987.
Dick Kinzel era
The first acquisition of the new Cedar Fair company came in 1992 when Cedar Fair bought Dorney Park from Harris Weinstein. Cedar Fair also purchased the Worlds of Fun from Hunt-Midwest in 1995. One of the biggest acquisitions occurred in 1997 when Cedar Fair bought Knott's Berry Farm from the Knott family. This marks the first time Cedar Fair operates amusement parks throughout the year. The acquisition includes an indoor garden operation Camp Snoopy at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. In 2005, Cedar Fair resigned from the lease arrangement leaving Mall of America to manage the park itself. Mall of America established a partnership with Nickelodeon franchise in 2007, and continues to operate under the name Nickelodeon Universe. Several new water park properties named Knott's Soak City opened in the vicinity of southern California since the acquisition included Buena Park in 1999, Chula Vista in 2000 and Palm Springs in 2001. The Michigan adventure in Muskegon, Michigan was purchased for $ 27.6 million in 2001.
Cedar Fair opened its first indoor water park in November 2004, Castaway Bay. It was added to the former Radisson Hotel which was later renamed. The indoor waterpark resort is open all year round.
A larger acquisition followed in 2004 with Six Flags World of Adventure. Cedar Fair bought this park for $ 145 million from Six Flags Inc. and returned its name to Geauga Lake, the name of the park used up to the image of Six Flags in 2000. However, the park began to lose its presence and various rides, leading to the park's closing rumors. On September 21, 2007, it was announced that Lake Geauga would be closed and only a connected water park would operate as the Geauga Lake Wildlife Kingdom. Most of the rides in Lake Geauga are shipped to other Cedar Fair parks to operate. In 2011, the name of the water park shortened to just the Wildwater Kingdom, removing the Geauga Lake prefix. WildWater Kingdom closed in 2016. The last day of operation is September 5th.
On May 22, 2006, Cedar Fair announced that they beat competitors and intend to purchase the five parks in the Paramount Park chain, including Star Trek: Experience at Las Vegas Hilton and Bonfante Gardens management agreement. On June 30, 2006, Cedar Fair announced that it has completed the acquisition of Paramount Park from CBS Corporation in a cash transaction worth $ 1.24 billion USD. Shortly after the transfer of ownership, Cedar Fair started the integration process of both companies. With the purchase of Paramount Park, Cedar Fair LP announces that they will be doing business under the name of Cedar Fair Fair Company. Cedar Fair LP remains a legitimate company name.
Individual gardens continued to operate under their Paramount name during the 2006 season, but the Cedar Fair began removing the Paramount name and logo from the park in January 2007. The park names were changed back to their original pre-Paramount name (Paramount's prefix was removed) with the logo Cedar Fair company added. Bonfante Gardens is converted into Gilroy Gardens. Cedar Fair began removing references to Paramount Pictures Although the acquisition gave Cedar Fair a ten-year license agreement for Paramount names and icons, such as Star Trek and Batman, Cedar Fair chose to terminate the agreement and not pay the annual license fee. All references to the Paramount/CBS licensed property were removed before the start of the 2007 season.
In December 2009 it was announced that Apollo Global Management would offer Cedar Fair $ 11.50 per share, a 28 percent premium above market prices, as part of a takeover plan that would also make Cedar Fair a private company. The deal includes a cash payment of $ 635 million in addition to assuming a Cedar Fair debt of more than $ 1.7 billion USD putting the total transaction value close to $ 2.4 billion USD. Cedar Fair plans to hold a shareholder meeting on March 16, 2010 to vote on the transaction but postpone the meeting until 8 April 2010, implying that two-thirds of the shareholder vote required for approval has not been guaranteed. On April 6, 2010, the agreement was terminated, and Cedar Fair paid $ 6.5 million to reimburse Apollo expenses incurred from the proposed transaction. Cedar Fair also adopts individual rights plans as a precautionary measure to help protect the tenants in the event of a hostile takeover in the future.
On September 16, 2011, JMA Ventures, LLC signed an agreement to purchase California Great America from Cedar Fair and take ownership of the management contract of Gilroy Gardens. The agreement requires the approval of Santa Clara's city council which is scheduled to vote on the issue on December 6, 2011. However, the JMA canceled its plan to buy the Great America and bend it out of the agreement.
Era Matt Ouimet
On June 20, 2011, Cedar Fair announced that long-term CEO Dick Kinzel will retire on January 3, 2012 and that Matt Ouimet will take his place as CEO of Cedar Fair. Ouimet has been employed by The Walt Disney Company for 17 years, including serving as president of Disney Cruise Line and president of Disneyland Resort. He officially became CEO on January 3rd. Cedar Fair is launching a new website for their park in 2012 as well as a new marketing campaign, Thrills Connect .
On November 20, 2012, the Cedar Fair announced that they had sold its location Knott's Soak City: San Diego to SeaWorld Parks & amp; Entertainment. About nine months later, Cedar Fair announced it sold the location of Knott's Soak City: Palm Springs to CNL Lifestyle Properties.
On September 5, 2016, Cedar Fair closed the Wildwater Empire, the last operating part of Geauga Lake & amp; Wildwater Kingdom. All the land that once contained both properties is now available for redevelopment.
On October 4, 2017, Cedar Fair announced that Ouimet would resign as CEO and be replaced by COO Richard Zimmerman on January 1, 2018. Ouimet will remain with the company, taking on a newly created position of executive chairman of the board of directors.
Maps Cedar Fair
Properties
Amusement park
Water park
Outdoor
Included with admission
Inheritance/separate properties
Indoor
Former
Lodging and camping
- Hotel Breakers (Cedar Point)
- Cedar Point Express Hotels
- Camper Village (Cedar Point)
- Lighthouse Point
- Indoor Coast Resort Castaway Bay (Cedar Point)
- Wilderness Camp (Kings Dominion)
- Knott's Berry Farm Resort Hotel
- Worlds of Fun Village
- Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort
- SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Carowinds (under construction, opening of summer 2019)
Fast Path
Fast Lane is a version of the virtual queue system from Cedar Fair. It was first announced for Kings Island on July 18, 2011. The park serves as a testing ground for it. For $ 50, visitors get a wrist bracelet that gives them the ability to get to the front of the park's most popular attractions. Initially, it could only be used from noon to 7 pm, but soon expanded to be available throughout the day. On January 19, 2012, it was announced that Fast Lane will be launched at all Cedar Fair parks for the 2012 season. There is also Fright Lane, the Fast Lane for haunted attractions during Halloween events.
Attendance
Cedar Fair has some of the most visited seasonal parks in North America with a combined 25.1 million people visiting their park in 2016. The most visited Cedar Fair Park is Knott's Berry Farm while Canada's Wonderland's most visited seasonal park.
Parks organized with visitors per year:
See also
- Dick Kinzel, CEO of Cedar Fair from 1986-2012
- Incident at Cedar Fair park
References
External links
- Official website
- Cedar Fair SEC
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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