Monday, August 26, 2013

Cedar Fair Announces Large Multi-Year Investment in Carowinds



To kick off an exciting week that will see announcements from all the Six Flags parks, along with many Cedar Fair parks, a multi-year investment in Charlottle's Carowinds has been announced by its owners.

Cedar Fair plans to spend $50 million on the park over the next three years.  The amusement park operator's official press release and a local news sources tout that in addition to creating new jobs the expansion will forever change the park and elevate it into a new category of fun.


Cedar Fair has pointed out in that past that they feel Carowinds is undersized for the market it is in, and so they've created a big plan to expand the park.

"The continued growth in the Charlotte market presents a unique opportunity for our Carowinds amusement park, which we believe is ready for record-breaking attractions," said Richard Zimmerman, Cedar Fair's Chief Operating Officer.  "Over the next three years we intend to make several significant investments in both the amusement and water park areas, including new rides and attractions, new and upgraded food locations, and general infrastructure improvements.  We plan to expand the capacity of Carowinds in all areas to appropriately serve its market and provide our guests with a 'Best Day of Summer' experience each and every time they visit our park."

This story mentions that parking at the park may be shifted, but the main entrance will stay where it is but be upgraded.  Cedar Fair COO Richard Zimmerman said “We’ve got some exciting things in terms of what you’re going to see when you arrive at the park.” To me that sounds like we could see a GateKeeper sized expansion in that area in a couple years.

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/08/26/5150100/carowinds-plans-50-million-expansion.html#storylink=cpy

When the series of expansions is complete, Carowinds will be Cedar Fair's fourth largest park, I would believe behind Canada's Wonderland, Cedar Point, and Kings Islands.  No details on new rides have been released as of now, however it sounds like we can expect some of those during this week.  It is also unclear at this point if the expansions mean an entire new section tot he park, but a decent sized water park expansion seems like something we can count on.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about what Cedar Fair has planned for the park, and seeing it come to fruition!


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