California's Great America: Unsold Afterall

The sale of California's Great America to JMA Ventures was expected to close this month, however, Cedar Fair has announced that JMA has pulled out of the deal and they will retain ownership of the park.

Interestingly, the press release names the park as both an "exceptional" and "valuable" property, something that the general consensus agreed was not how Cedar Fair viewed it in the past.  It was mentioned during 2011 earning reports that California's Great America did particularly well recently.  The company never releases individual park attendance and earning figures, but it appears as though the tides have changed for the property.

Plus, it's quite important to remember that at this point Matt Ouimet is probably making much of the decisions, with Kinzel's official retirement less than a month away.  Perhaps Mr. Ouimet sees potential in the park that previous leaders did not.

Part of the announcement was also that Cedar Fair has reached "a long-term agreement with the San Francisco 49ers related to the construction of the stadium and parking for NFL and other stadium-related events for the life of the new stadium."  Exactly details on this agreement were not released, but I'd be quite interested to see them.

From quotes in the release by Mr. Ouimet, the future of the park actually seems bright.  The company will "build the park's customer base through new marketing initiatives and capital investments," the latter of which is something that he park has sorely gone without for a while.

Hopefully if this is really a done deal, and Cedar Fair now feels that they really want to make a go of it, and invest and grow the park, things could actually work out.  Perhaps.