What if Cedar Point opens?

SANDUSKY — No one knows when Cedar Fair will open Cedar Point and its other parks, but when it does, people can expect to see changes. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the amusement park industry hard. It forced Cedar Fair to close or delay the opening of all of its parks. "It goes without saying how much COVID-19 has affected our lives and businesses and why the amusement park industry will look back at 2020 as a watershed season for decades to come," company CEO and president Richard Zimmerman said during the company's quarterly sales call. He highlighted some of the potential changes the virus could bring about to operations, which include the following: • Enforcing a limit on guests well below the park's theoretical capacity • Introducing a park reservation system to manage park attendance better • Creating a "virtual" queuing system to reduce crowds in lines at popular rides • Enforcing social distancing on rides • Increasing the use of cashless transactions • Increasing the use of mobile food ordering But as Ohio and the other states where it operates begin to reopen their economies slowly, there's still no indication at this time when Cedar Fair's parks will open, including Cedar Point, which was supposed to celebrate its 150th season this year. With most of its parks only open seasonally, the longer the shutdown extends into summer, the more significant impact it will have on the company, and the local economy. "It's important we can reopen parks with a reasonable number of operating days left in the year," Zimmerman said. In the meantime, the parks are preparing to meet the potential standards for reopening by training employees and increasing its sanitization protocols on rides, common areas and restrooms. "When we do reopen our parks, we will have all aspects of the park fully prepared to meet or exceed the healthy expectations of our guests and authorities," Zimmerman said. When asked how much would they have to limit their park capacity by, CFO and vice president Brian Witherow said most of its parks already operated at about 50% of its theoretical capacity, but on certain days Cedar Point's attendance could rise to more than 50,000 guests moving it closer to 90% of the park's total capacity. "We can do numbers significantly less than theoretical capacity and still be at a profitable level in terms of daily operations," Witherow said.