What I find funny (and maybe this is the wrong thread for this observation) is that every year, they always raise their single day tickets mid-season without question. I mean, those of us who sell single day tickets KNOW that it's coming around late June/early July. This year, they didn't do that. Not once. Granted, they raised the price about a dollar from the end of 2009's prices to 2010, but they didn't do a mid-year raise like they normally do.
So, maybe SDC is starting to realize that their ticket prices are too high and they NEED to step up to the plate and bring in new attractions before they can justify raising the price?
This year, the park seemed like a ghost town compared to other years. A friend and I were at SDC either Memorial Day weekend, or Labor Day Weekend... I think it was either Friday or Saturday, I can't remember. But the place was EMPTY!!!
if you would like to reveal your identity and back me up, go ahead I mean, walk on to Wildfire, Powderkeg, and just about every other ride at the park with no line whatsoever! In fact, it's been that way just about every time I've been this year, not waiting more than 10 minutes for ANY ride!!! And it shouldn't be that way!
The economy is still in a sluggish recovery, and despite what another member said about how they don't see how SDC could possibly be hurting this year, I stronly disagree. I'm sure that I have no idea how much it costs to keep the park running day to day, but I also know that it's got to be outrageous!
Yes, they opened a new ride this year. Yes, it was their 50th Anniversary. Yes, their loyal fanbase probably all still bought season passes, but I guarantee you that SDC has hurt this year... and it probably DOES have quite a bit to do with the cost of their tickets!
Nate made a VERY good point that if you announce 2012's plans in 2010, you're going to have a bunch of people buying Six Flag's season passes over SDC's! While to many of us, it's nearly impossible to even compare the two parks in any way, but not everyone feels the way that we do about SDC! When I worked at White Water eons ago, the WW guys put up this slide show and showed us that a drastically more significant amount of people who came to WW lived in St. Louis than Kansas City. At the time, KC had a water park and St. Louis did not. The difference was ASTOUNDING!!!
If you don't think that SDC competes with Six Flags and Worlds of Fun, you're seriously mistaken. And, if SDC is going to continue to raise ticket prices, but not deliver on expected additions, then people WILL go elsewhere to buy their season passes... especially if they can get a family of 4 season passes at Six Flags for about 1/3 less than it would cost them to buy SDC season passes!