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Canada's Wonderland sold

J

jgreebnerg76

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Canada's Wonderland sold
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Cedar Fair LP, an Ohio-based amusement park operator, is buying the Paramount Parks business from CBS Corp., including Canada's Wonderland, for $1.24-billion (U.S.) in cash, the companies announced Monday.

CBS Corp. had been looking to sell the parks business, which didn't fit with its media holdings. CBS Corp., which split up with Viacom Inc. at the beginning of the year, owns the CBS network and a group of affiliated TV stations, a large radio business and an outdoor advertising company. Viacom, which owns MTV and VH1, kept the Paramount movie studio.

The five Paramount parks being sold to Cedar Fair are: Canada's Wonderland near Toronto; Kings Island near Cincinnati; Kings Dominion near Richmond, Va.; Carowinds, near Charlotte, N.C.; and Great America located in Santa Clara, Calif.

Cedar Fair is a publicly traded partnership based in Sandusky, Ohio that operates seven amusement parks and five water parks, including Cedar Point, on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo; Knott's Berry Farm near Los Angeles; Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, Pa.; Valleyfair near Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota; Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Mo.; Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom near Cleveland; and Michigan's Adventure near Muskegon, Mich.

CBS B shares rose 20 cents to $25.41 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while Cedar Fair shares fell 12 cents to $26.88.

JG
 
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES !!!!!!

Cedar Fair is, in my opinion, the best amusement park operator among the big three - Six Flags, Paramount, Cedar Fair. Paramount is by far the worst when it comes to building innovative and thrilling rides. We can finally expect something decent to be built at Wonderland, especially since it's likely that a flagship coaster will be built soon after the Paramount is removed from Wonderland's name.
 
Don't expect new rides.

I heard Wonderland is going to be closed down actually. According to my manager at work, the Wondlerland site is going to be sold soon to some huge muslim cultural organization, that is going to develop a huge muslim cultural centre on the site complete with community centres, housing, etc all for muslim people.
 
It was just sold the Cedar Fair. It is also the most well attended park in the Cedar Fair portfolio.
 
It's actually number three, behind Cedar Point, and Knott's Berry Farm, whatever that place is. However it's just barely number three. And with a large investment in a decent ride, its attendance would explode since no one in Toronto knows what a modern roller coaster is. There have been rumours of Wonderland's closure for years, but they are nothing more than rumours. It's highly profitable, and you can be sure it's not going anywhere.
 
I heard Wonderland is going to be closed down actually. According to my manager at work, the Wondlerland site is going to be sold soon to some huge muslim cultural organization, that is going to develop a huge muslim cultural centre on the site complete with community centres, housing, etc all for muslim people.
Click to expand...

Yes Mike it was just sold. I doubt they are going to flip it around and sell it again.
 
Well they bought all of Paramount Parks. They could easily flip a park or two if they didn't fit their plans.
 
Cedar is very commited to PCW. According to an article I read they said PCW is successful, and they might even expand there operations in Canada.
 
About the re-selling (thereby closing) of PCW.. I doubt it. With nothing else like it close by I expect at least The Sun would be up-in-arms about it. (OK, non-jokingly, there would be an outcry against it) And I do think that since Toronto is by no means a tiny city, something would be done to stop it or start an alternate site.

?
 
Cedar is very commited to PCW. According to an article I read they said PCW is successful, and they might even expand there operations in Canada.
Click to expand...

That sounds reasonable. With a huge local market I'd think they'd want to expand.
 
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With a huge local market I'd think they'd want to expand. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Exactly. Though I have often wondered why Wonderland didn't grow larger, faster at times. (Don't ask what I wanted there, I just wondered)
 
Chuck100, using the Amusement Business numbers, Wonderland is number one - the most popular seasonal theme park in North America, with higher attendance than Cedar Point or Knott's. These are 2005 numbers. It makes sense, given that Wonderland is the only regional theme park in an area that is home to 4 million people, whereas Ohio has three regional parks and not that many more people to attend them.

IMHO, this is good news. Wonderland was always the cash cow for Paramount - hopefully Cedar Fair will see it as the northern counterpart to CP and follow the same pattern of investment. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dragon Fire removed - there's a lot of development land on that side of the park for a hyper. An indoor waterpark (a la Great Wolf, or CP's one) would make sense soon as well.

But uh-oh, Cedar Fair is a Pepsi chain! I wonder if that means Wonderland will be going back to Pepsi, ugh.

Andy
 
I've seen that list of attendence as well. It's the highest attended outside of California, Florida and Las Vegas. It's amazing it's higher than the Six Flags between NY and Philly, and Chicago and Milwaukee though! I guess they're going back to just Canada's Wonderland, as the Cedar Fair parks don't carry any unified branding. I wonder if they'll continue to license the names of Paramount movies (like Top Gun)?
 
About rides like Top Gun etc.

I wish that during the wait lines for rides they came up with some more exciting sets, videos.. something along the lines of what they have at Universal's Islands Of Adventure. When you are in line for the Spiderman ride you line up inside of the Metropolis office. It did help offset the long waits and gave you more to do than just see how long you can sit on the rails before told off by bored operators.
 
On the actual topic: does anyone think that anything will change for this season? Or does ownership only take effect after this fiscal year, something like that?
 
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