In early March, Kentucky Kingdom, a park with a loyal cult following, announced a partnership with the largest family entertainment company in the nation, Herschend Family Entertainment. You may know Herschend from their pristine parks like Dollywood and Silver Dollar City. Though Kentucky Kingdom is a small park and Herschend not as flashy a name as other major US park chains, this announcement sent shockwaves across the theme park landscape.
Today we’ll be running through 4 predictions for what we might see from the future of Kentucky Kingdom in its new ownership. By the end, you may just find yourself booking a trip to Louisville.
But before we peek into where this park may be headed, let’s take a look at where it’s been.
Kentucky Kingdom opened in the 1980s, and has been through multiple changes in ownership since. The park opened to a disappointing response, and closed the next season. Then, in 1990, a man named Ed Hart purchased the park and put the work in to make it into a destination for the Louisville area and beyond.
The park excelled so rapidly that it caught the attention of megachain Six Flags, who bought the park in 1998. Though the large chain brought Kentucky Kingdom new attention and new attractions, the quality of operation slowly went downhill. Attendance dropped with its standards, and in 2009, Six Flags closed the doors of Kentucky Kingdom.
Two years later, none other than Ed Hart bought the park back and opened its doors once more. With his reacquisition, the park gained a powerful one-two punch in its largest two new coasters: Lightning Run and Storm Chaser. The park ran smoothly as its coasters under Hart’s operation until earlier this month when he passed the baton.
This has happened once before. Ed Hart has handed the park to a larger, seemingly more capable chain, and that chain might as well have ran the park into the ground. To be frank, the new operation of Kentucky Kingdom is in a way troubling; what if past mistake repeat themselves?
But Herscend’s focus on family, beauty, and experience tells me this is not so. Something about Herscend, about Dollywood and Silver Dollar City, tells me there’s no need to fear. The park’s in good hands.
Without further ado, here are 4 predictions of what’s to come for Kentucky Kingdom.
1. Kentucky Kingdom will upgrade from park to resort
Silver Dollar City and Dollywood are more than just theme parks; they’re resorts. Perhaps the most prominent signifier between park and resort is where guests stay at the end of their park day. Both Dollywood and Silver Dollar City offer on-site facilities—Dollywood in its expansive resort hotel and Silver Dollar City in its woody campgrounds. These are beautiful, park-run facilities with diverse amenities that allow guests to enjoy their day on the grounds even after the parks close.
Though Kentucky Kingdom does offer discounted rates at nearby hotels, the park does not offer on-site facilities. This sounds like a small thing, but an on-site hotel takes a park into another echelon of status. Kentucky Kingdom will no longer be a park for Louisville locals and in-the-know coaster enthusiasts; it will be a destination. With on-site facilities, guests will be encouraged to stay more days, spend more money, and make more memories.
2. Park landscaping and theming will undergo a major overhaul
Both Dollywood and Silver Dollar City are some of the most beautiful, green parks in the country. When you step into one of these parks, you may as well be stepping into an enchanted forest. In these parks you forget about the outside world. Alongside on-site facilities, immersion is the name of the game for Herschend. The parks are not places as much as they are experiences.
Kentucky Kingdom is, by all accounts, a nice park. The grounds are clean and well-tended; the walkways are wide and clear. But it is also—and I say this with love—a parking lot park.
Parking lot parks are exactly what they sound like. They’re typically very flat, typically very concrete parks without much landscaping or fanfare. They get the job done—coasters are easy to build and relocate on flat, open land—but don’t exactly reflect Herschend’s track record as the operators of some of the most beautiful parks out there.
3. The park will unveil a (massive) new ride
You may have heard the term “big three” tossed around theme park conversations. As we talked about in our How an Idea Becomes a Ride series, an immense amount of thought and planning goes into each new roller coaster at a park, taking into consideration space, budget, theming, and gaps. While Kentucky Kingdom’s two largest rides, Storm Chaser and Lighting Run, are smooth, crowd-pleasing airtime machines, Kentucky Kingdom is still missing the ride. The ride to perk up ears, to stir internet discourse, to get tickets booked.
Dollywood, for example, boasts a series of killer attractions, but none quite like Lightning Rod, an intense and iconic launched wooden coaster—you read that right. Launched wooden coaster. This coaster, like Storm Chaser at the Kingdom, is manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction, and many well-seasoned enthusiasts consider it the manufacturer’s best, though that’s often a toss-up with Steel Vengeance.
Storm Chaser and Lightning Run are both great rides, but they’re accomplishing something quite similar. What I mean is: both rides are on the smaller side, with the same exact height of 100 feet, and focus on packing in airtime. Though Storm Chaser features two mind-boggling inversions, the ride’s main goal is undoubtedly providing negative Gs for riders, AKA airtime. With their new family coaster, Kentucky Flyer, opening this past season, another airtime-focused ride for younger and older thrill-seekers alike, it’s safe to say you won’t see another airtime-focused ride come to this park to finish off the big three. The park is practically begging for a ride focused on inversions or a launch coaster…or both!
With Herschend’s acquisition of Kentucky Kingdom, don’t be surprised if you see a newer Bolliger Mabillard model or an intense launch coaster (perhaps from Intamin or S&S) hit this park.
4. Ticket prices will quietly rise
Any worthy improvement must be paid for, and while Herschend will likely drop a good bit of money into this park, those extra costs will most likely fall into the hands of the park’s guests. As of the time of writing this article, a single-day general admission ticket to Kentucky Kingdom is $49.95. Not bad, right? Let’s look at Herschend’s other large parks, shall we? A single-day general admission ticket to Silver Dollar City or Dollywood will cost you $74 or $79, respectively. I’m no math guru, but that’s a price increase of around fifty percent. While an extra thirty bucks may not feel like a lot considering the massive improvements that are sure to come, imagine a family of five’s new total at their hometown park.
Of course, these predictions are just that: predictions. Speculations from an avid theme park observer. Herschend only acquired the park a few weeks ago. As the transition continues and the 2021 season commences, we are sure that, whether our predictions are right or wrong, Kentucky Kingdom will never be the same.
