rest in pieces, geauga lake...

...specifically, with pieces scattered about the country at various Cedar Fair amusement parks.

There had been word that two more roller coasters, Dominator and Thunderhawk, would be leaving Geauga Lake after this season. This following last year's removal of X-flight (renamed Firehawk at Kings Island) and the standing-but-not-operating Steel Venom (moving to Dorney Park as Voodoo for 2008).

Stu and I wanted to be sure to get in our last rides on Dominator just in case the rumors proved accurate. We managed to ride Big Dipper as well, on what would turn out to be the last operating day of Geauga Lake's amusement park component, during their fun and delicious (and crowded) Oktoberfest celebration.

Imagine our dismay when, last Friday, we heard the news that not only would the two aforementioned coasters be leaving, but the entire ride side of the park would be closed for good.

I don't have any great emotional tie to Geauga Lake, but it had been growing on me ever since my first visit last year. We went three times this season, and I'll admit the ride side was always something of an afterthought; the water park was the big draw, and our visits were limited to hot weather days -- unlike Cedar Point, which we'll visit even into the 60-degree October nights. Still, Dominator was an excellent coaster, quite possibly the smoothest I've ever ridden. The Villain, in its freshly-retracked form this year, was also a good thrill.

And then there's my buddy the Big Dipper, Ohio's oldest operating roller coaster, built in 1925. There really isn't much to it -- the basic "out and back" bunny hop hills characteristic of coasters of that era -- but it was still fun and ran well. And far less painful than Cedar Point's Blue and Mean Streaks.

Personally, I'd be thrilled if Cedar Point installed Big Dipper in place of Mean Streak, but only if they first held a big bonfire to burn it down, allowing us (and our spinal columns and ribcages) to exact our revenge on that rough rickety piece of crap. Maybe it could be on Halloween, so we could release the evil spirits that quite obviously possess the Mean Streak. Sadly, considering the Big Dipper's age, I find it highly unlikely that it will be saved or relocated.

Theories, both of the conventional and conspiratorial variety, abound regarding what could and couldn't have saved Geauga Lake. Many point to the Six Flags purchase of SeaWorld Ohio, which created a park so large that ticket prices skyrocketed, thus elminating the "cheaper alternative to Cedar Point" demographic. Some say having two parks with separate admissions created a "destination" where families would go to Geauga Lake one day and SeaWorld the next. On the other hand having three parks in one (ride, water, and animal) gave the impression of getting a great value for the ticket price.

And indeed, Six Flags brought in record numbers of visitors during 2000 and 2001, so much so that Aurora and Bainbridge Township residents complained about the parking lots filling up and people leaving their cars in tree lawns. But after the novelty of "hey we have a park with a famous name now" wore off, apparently many found Six Flags Worlds of Adventure to be poorly managed and unclean. I can't vouch for that since I wasn't there, but that's what I'm told.

There's a larger question of how much of a draw the marine animals were. SeaWorld itself barely broke even. For one, they were only open 120 days out of the year, because, well, Ohio has winter. Also, when SeaWorld was built in 1975, part of the land agreement prohibited them from building rides to compete with Geauga Lake. (And Aurora wasn't exactly eager to grant permission for yet more noisy rides; both Aurora and Bainbridge Township had a hate-hate relationship with Geauga Lake and Six Flags.) At the time, this really wasn't a concern, since SeaWorld was primarily an animal park, but they eventually realized the benefit of roller coasters at their San Diego and Orlando properties. Busch Entertainment, the parent company, finally gave up and sold SeaWorld Ohio to the new Six Flags Ohio across the lake for a hefty sum. Six Flags actually paid well more than the value of the park to acquire it, as part of the rabid company-wide expansion they were undergoing at the time.

Considering the expense of operating a marine life park in Ohio and the old SeaWorld's attendance figures, I'm not sure what effect the animals really had on Geauga Lake. I'm sure for some people it provided something Cedar Point didn't, and it's rather obvious Six Flags made a mistake in trying to compete on the roller coaster aspect. Cedar Fair tried to remedy this by turning the former SeaWorld area into a premier waterpark and removing a few coasters on the ride side to make the park less expensive to operate. I honestly thought they would continue doing this (with the removal of Dominator and Thunderhawk), bringing Geauga Lake back to its mid-1990s era profitability and reputation as a less expensive "family" park.

Just a little bit of history on Geauga Lake and its relationship with Six Flags: Geauga Lake had been run by Funtime Inc. (also known as Funtime Parks) since 1966. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, a real estate developer known as The Tierco Group found themselves successful in the renovation and expansion of small amusement parks, so much so that they changed their name to Premier Parks in 1994 after the acquisition of Funtime. This merger added Geauga Lake, Darien Lake (Buffalo), and Wyandot Lake (Powell, north of Columbus) to their portfolio. This seemingly sent them on a buying spree, going so far as to incur massive debt to acquire Six Flags from Time Warner in 1998. Over the next few years, most of the smaller parks were rebranded with the valuable Six Flags name.

Eventually, the sagging economy, the post-9/11 travel decline, rising gas prices, and whatever all else caught up with them. Every year since 2003 has seen Six Flags divest itself of its less-successful parks -- see Geauga Lake sale to Cedar Fair in early 2004. Incidentally, all three former Funtime parks (Lakes Geauga, Darien, and Wyandot) have since been sold off. Wyandot Lake was acquired by the adjacent Columbus Zoo and is reopening next year as a water/amusement park called Zoombezi Bay.

In the end, it's hard to tell who's responsible for which aspects of Geauga Lake's demise, at least from what information is publicly available. I do wish Cedar Fair had given it another year to try and set things right, and I'm certainly disappointed that future visits will be limited to the waterpark only. But, they also are not in the business of losing money, especially with the debt incurred from last year's Paramount Parks acquisition, so there's that.