Loaded Couch Potatoes

Six Flags just announced on their website that they will cease operation of their Kentucky Kingdom theme park.  The announcement says that Six Flags rejected the lease agreements with the owner of the land, the Kentucky State Fairgrounds.

In recent weeks, Six Flags had proposed a new lease arrangement to the fair board that would have enhanced the viability and future of the park. Unfortunately, those proposals were not accepted and the park will cease operations and the company will move expeditiously to re-locate employees and several of the more than 40 rides and attractions to one of its 13 other markets.

In an interesting contrast with Six Flags’ statement, this article claims that all rides are property of the Kentucky Fair Board.  Harold Workman, president of the Ky Fair Board said that the removal of the Chang roller coaster in September of last year was approved by him after Six Flags presented him plans to expand the water park by removing Chang.  With the way the contracted is worded, the Chang roller coaster could have belonged to the Fair Board, since the ride was affixed to the ground.  He also claims that Six Flags proposed a deal to pay no rent for the remainder  of the nine year lease in exchange for some sort of profit-sharing deal.

update Feb. 10, 2010

The current rumor is that Compagnie des Alpes is in talks with the Kentucky State Fairgrounds about running the Kentucky Kingdom property.  CdA runs several theme parks in Europe including the Parc Asterix, Walibi parks, Bellewaerde, and Hellendoorn.  If the deal goes through, Kentucky Kingdom would be their first park in North America.