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California's Great America: General Discussion

Interesting.

I was pretty surprised when the masterplan came out for a number of reasons:
  • Paramount folks always said the park was a dog and struggled
  • Cedar Fair was rumoured to be trying to purchase the Paramount Parks without Great America
  • The park has had long term problems with its location due to its proximity to the 49ers stadium
  • Cedar Fair sold the park in 2011 ... but the deal fell through
They bought the land for $150m not that long ago, felt like an odd decision for a park you were looking to get shut of - but I guess this was perhaps always part of the plan, if only as a backup.

So it goes. Nice little park, but massively inferior to Gurnee.
 
This is a great shame, CGA is a really nice regional US park, and more enjoyable than Discovery Kingdom which is just up the road.

The park was almost lost previously, so perhaps it’s not the biggest surprise. You can’t imagine there’s going to be any investment between now and whenever it closes, and you would hope that some of the better coasters (RailBlazer, Flight Deck) get re-located.
 
Wonder which Cedar Fair parks will get the likes of Rail Blazer and Flight Deck.

Or if this is an indication that the company might be looking to sell off any other parks in the chain.
 
Wonder which Cedar Fair parks will get the likes of Rail Blazer and Flight Deck.

Or if this is an indication that the company might be looking to sell off any other parks in the chain.
11 years is a long time, if it runs the course. I don't remember a lot about Flight Deck, it's not one of the best B&Mers.

When they were really struggling to refinance their debt during the 2009/10 period they did moot selling Worlds of Fun and Valleyfair!, but that could well have been just posturing.
 
Sad news man, actually gutted by this :( With the collapse of the original sale in 2011, it seems like the park was living on borrowed time in a sense. I need to visit and hopefully it sees out the 2033 deadline. A great loss to the industry but with the housing crisis in the Bay Area, Cedar Fair's debt, and the park not only being landlocked but also having to share with the 49ers, it was low hanging fruit that's been taken.
 
This is quite interesting, a big shame but very interesting. It seemed Cedar Fair had decided against closing the park and actually bought the land not that long ago from the convention centre it sits next to. This would make sense and they then starting putting in quite a bit of investment, like RailBlazer, so this is quite a shock. I suppose they will relocate the rides that are still in good shape whenever they decide to actually close the park. This is a great shame but I did hear the land was worth loads, so I don't entirely blame Cedar Fair, although I am surprised they have so much debt, it was under the impression Cedar Fair was one of the best performing entertainment companies, but I suppose all companies like that carry some debt.
 
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, but it is sad. As Rob says, I doubt there’ll be much investment now. We might also see attractions getting removed before the park actually closes down. For example, Steel Venom and X Flight were removed a year before Geauga Lake closed down. Ratanga Junction gradually removed attractions in the years leading up to their final closure. Kentucky Kingdom closed Twisted Twins a couple of years before the park closed.

Rides weren’t always closed for the same reason. In some cases, it was to move them to a different park. In the case of Twisted Twins, they presumably didn’t want to spend money on it. In the case of Rantaga Junction they began re-developing a corner of the site while the rest of it carried on operating as a theme park.

They might not do that here, but it is a possibility.
 
For a sale of $310 million, I can't say I blame the chain (think about how many B&Ms that could buy!!!), but I am sad to see the park go. I would absolutely love for them to just relocate the whole place, but I can't imagine that will be on any to-do list.

During my visit in 2019 I felt the park had a lovely atmosphere, was well kept, and I really enjoyed my day there. RailBlazer blew me away! Such a shame to see any park close, no matter the reason.
 
The attraction has been announced! It is a Zamperla WindstarZ called 'Pacific Gliders', which seems to have been heavily rumoured.
Credit: California's Great America
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Good to see that the park is still getting some love, and a ride like this can easily be re-located once the park does finally close.
 
I know I'm a bit late to this news, but how bizarre to announce a parks closure... as a long term plan.

It can't be good for business, staff retention or upkeep if you know the parks going to close anyway. I understand that the new zoning details probably had to be published as part of the lands sale. But you'd think it would be in the interest of the new land owners to keep their ultimate intentions vague until the time to actually close the park comes.

on the other hand, it should avoid a situation like Camelot and American Adventures had; with the site being SBNO for over 10 years until the developers were able to start work.
 
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