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A PartyCenterSoftware.com customer, Hey Day Family Fun Center, gets big accolades from industry magazine, Replay Mag.
As Hey Day reaches it’s second birthday, people around the industry are
taking notice of the unique approach and their ability to capture their
customers imagination. Hey Day has everything from dynamic mini-golf to
space-age laser tag and tons of exciting arcade and redemption machines
to satisfy everyone.

Hey Day also takes a special approach to parties and events. Providing a very high level of customer service and bringing the best in attractions is what brings the customer back time and time again. Congratulations to Brad Little, GM, and the entire Hey Day team.

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Article published July 24, 2009
ROLLER-COASTER ECONOMY
Cedar Fair feeling the recession’s pinch
Customers packing lunches to save money

By LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

SANDUSKY – When Ben Balazs made his annual pilgrimage to Cedar Point
this month with six friends and family members, he did something
different to save money: He packed his lunch.

“We went outside and ate outside, and did a sit-down meal for dinner
so we weren’t spending a lot of money on food,” the 17-year-old Bedford
Township resident said.

Unfortunately for Cedar Point’s parent company, he wasn’t alone.

Yesterday, Cedar Fair LP
said attendance at its amusement parks this summer has dropped 11
percent and revenues 12 percent from the same period a year ago. It
blamed the drops on cool weather and a turgid economy.

The company, based in Sandusky, owns Cedar Point and 10 other
amusement parks, six outdoor water parks, an indoor water park, and
five hotels.

Cedar Fair
said that through Sunday, its revenues were $452.6 million, down $62.3
million compared to last year. Attendance was 10.2 million visits, a
decrease of 1.2 million visits.

Meanwhile, average in-park spending fell 2 percent to $39.52 per
visitor. Nonpark revenues, including resort hotels, fell 12.4 percent
to $50 million from $56.2 million a year ago.

“We anticipated this would be a challenging year for our operations
when compared with our record-breaking results in 2008,” Dick Kinzel,
Cedar Fair’s chairman, president, and chief executive officer, said in
a written statement. “Since the July 4 weekend, attendance and revenue
trends have improved somewhat across the regions in which we operate,
although overall results since then still remain slightly behind last
year.”

The amusement park industry

- which use to tout itself as largely recession-resistant – can’t
beat back assaults this summer from both a faltering economy and bad
weather, industry watchers said.

“No question that the economy is affecting our industry this year,
and the weather has been a major problem in the northern states and
especially in the East Coast states,” said Gary Slade, publisher of
Amusement Today, a 3,000-circulation magazine that caters to amusement
industry executives.

“The parks that I’ve spoken to are all off on their gate count
because of the economy, and off on their [per-guest] spending,” Mr.
Slade said. “Most are telling me that, where the guests in the past may
have come to the park for the whole day and purchased two meals in the
park, they’re buying one meal and then either packing a lunch or eating
off the grounds to save money.”

Cedar Fair said its performance in the first half of the 2009 season included 39 fewer operating days than a year ago.

The second half of the season will have an additional 70 operating days at its parks compared to a year ago.

The company has been aggressively discounting admission prices to
lure customers in the midst of the recession. Mr. Kinzel indicated the
practice would continue as the summer wears on.

Also yesterday, Cedar Fair
said it has finalized the sale of 87 acres near Toronto. Vaughan Health
Campus of Care will pay $50 million for the land, which is adjacent to
Canada’s Wonderland amusement park and Cedar Fair will use the money to
pay down its debt.

Contact Larry P. Vellequette
at: lvellequette@theblade.com
or 419-724-6091.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A new long-course triathlon likely to attract top talent from around the world is on its way to Northern Ohio.

Next fall, newly founded race presenter Revolution3 will stage both full and half Ironman-length triathlons from Cedar Point amusement park, starting from Sandusky peninsula and fanning out into Erie county.

At stake for professionals is a prize purse worth $150,000, a sum
rarely seen outside the branded Ironman series. Amateur competitors are
likely to be lured by distinctive family-friendly features, including
special access to the park and high-tech athlete tracking.

“It’s just an amazing venue,” said Heather Gollnick, Revolution3’s director of marketing
and a competitive long-course triathlete. “Everything you need is there
on site. People can literally walk out the door from the hotel onto the
beach.”

The race, set for Sept. 12, 2010, will begin on the shore outside
Hotel Breakers, which will open early that week to welcome athletes and
their families. From that point, competitors will swim either 1.2 miles
(in the half-Ironman race) or 2.4 miles along the peninsula’s east side.

Bryan Edwards, sales promotions manager for Cedar Point, said spectators should be able to view the entire swim leg of the race from the beach.

Upon exiting the water, athletes will transition to their bikes in a
parking area, then tuck in for a 56- or 112-mile ride through rural
Erie County. Details of the course are still under discussion with
police and county officials, but a tentative route shows multiple
passes through Huron, Milan, Berlin Heights, and Birmingham.

Finally, the run. Once off their bikes, athletes will complete either one or two loops of a 13.1-mile course along Cedar Point causeway and through downtown Sandusky.

The finish is likely to be somewhere on the grounds of Cedar Point.
“That’s what guests and families will be most interested in seeing,”
Edwards said. “It’ll be a first for us, but it’s something we thought
we should try.”

Kevin Park, a competitive triathlete in Chardon, said he suspects
the bike and run courses will be “flat, boring, and probably windy,”
but still called the area “a great place for a race.”

cedar-triathalon

Judging by responses from the one event Revolution3 has mounted to date, a half-Ironman race last month at Quassy Amusement Park in Middlebury, Conn., it’s clear the company knows how to stage triathlons.

“They attracted a good field of pros,” Park said, alluding to
winners Matty Reed and Miranda Carfrae. “For a first-time race, it was
pretty impressive.

“This is not a fly-by-night group. These are athletes and people who
know what athletes are looking for. I think it’s going to draw really
well … There’ll be high-profile people who will show up looking for a
payday.”

But athletes aren’t the only people Revolution3 is taking into
consideration. Spouses, relatives and children are also high on the
presenter’s list of priorities.

In the days leading up the race, Edwards said Cedar Point
plans to hold a series of special events for triathletes and their
guests, including possible evening openings of rides and other
attractions. Each participant will receive two complimentary tickets to
the park that weekend, he said, along with two shirts, a medal, and
various athletic accessories from Revolution 3.

During the race, families also will be able to follow their loved
ones in real time by means of custom GPS devices, which will relay each
athlete’s progress to a Web site. It’s a feature bound to make life
easier for spectators in a race even the fastest will take eight or
nine hours to finish.

For triathletes in Northeast Ohio, the timing could hardly be
better. Revolution3 arrives on the market just as the Mentor-based
Greater Cleveland Triathlon has discontinued its half-Ironman race, the
longest event of its kind north of Columbus.

By offering both 70.3- and 140.6-mile races, Revolution3 fills two
important gaps, offering practical, local alternatives to the popular Ironman brand, whose events tend to sell out quickly and are only available in surrounding states.

“Right now, a lot of people are excited just because of the
location,” said Ken Beech, a member of the Cleveland Triathlon Club
planning to make the Cedar Point race his first Ironman-length event.

“For either of these distances, you kind of have to travel, and with
kids, it can become too much to take on. Here, the family will have
something to do while I’m out abusing myself.”

With entry fees of $500 and $250 for the two main distances, the
Cedar Point race costs about as much as Ironman events. A September
timeframe places Revolution3 in the vicinity of Ironman races in
Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.

Registration for Revolution3 opens in August or September.