News Worlds of Fun Cancels WinterFest in 2021

[mtorange]

This seemed like news that deserves it own thread.

Worlds of Fun announced earlier this week that WinterFest would not be returning to their park this season. This seems like a plan that has been in the works for a while, as the other Cedar Fair parks with WinterFest have not announced their winter calendars yet while WOF made the shocking announcement already. My guess is that it is permanent too and maybe even unrelated to COVID.

I’ll admit that I don’t know too much about the park, but does anyone have more expertise on why this decision may have been made? Do you think it’s permanent?

 

[Jonesta6]

I can only speculate it may be related to the park's standing within CF and small market size as to why it's not fiscally sound to keep n the event in the wake of a pandemic.

 

[Nicole]

The counter to that is that by next December (hopefully) everyone who wants a vaccine will have had one and things should be open. It makes sense to delay opening this spring. I'm not sure I see the logic is curtailing operations next winter, once the pandemic is subsiding.

 

[KennethCadwell]

I can only speculate it may be related to the park's standing within CF and small market size as to why it's not fiscally sound to keep n the event in the wake of a pandemic.

It kind of annoys me that CF has lied to people into believing that WOF is a small market park. In the 80's when owned by the Hunt family it was rated in the top 5 parks in the U.S. CF has ran it down by not providing unique rides and upgrades since the Mamba........

 

[CoasterAuditor]

I know WOF doesn’t get the best attendance numbers among the Cedar Fair parks but you would think with it being in the Kansas City metropolitan area with a lot of space they would be interested In expanding it. KC has 2.17 million people you’d think it would do better with attendance than it does or be worth investing in to develop more. I know KC also is kinda isolated from other huge areas as well and anybody coming from the East will be tempted by SFStl or SDC instead but you’d think the pieces have to be there for WOF to be successful and worth investing in?

 

[halfabee]

It kind of annoys me that CF has lied to people into believing that WOF is a small market park. In the 80's when owned by the Hunt family it was rated in the top 5 parks in the U.S. CF has ran it down by not providing unique rides and upgrades since the Mamba........

Nothing against WoF but this is the first I’ve heard it described as anything other than a small or medium market park.

Estimated attendance in the early 90s, before selling to CF, was 1.3M (Amusement Business), which — at 10% above Kennywood — probably didn’t crack the top 25 nationwide. Surely WoF made someone’s own top 5 list of personal preferences, but it wasn’t due to market size or growth potential.

KC is a tough place to be a big draw, not being very close to other population centers. St. Louis is four hours away by car, or less if you drive like me, but of course it has its own Six Flags. So the two parks split the general Missouri area between them, with WoF having the less advantageous regional geography (SFStL probably gets some folks from Indy etc.).

It would be nice to see both parks get more investment, but I really wouldn’t characterize CF’s general stance as a lie.