Volume 3, No. 18. September 26,2003
Soured enthusiasm
This is the park that built an effective marketing campaign by catering to coaster
enthusiasts. This is the park that forged a family-type relationship with those
enthusiasts. This is the park where an enthusiast pushed the thrill envelope
too far and fell to her death from the back seat of a roller coaster train.
However,
it was enthusiasts’ behavior in the aftermath of that tragedy that caused
Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari to decide that, for next year at least,
it would not host enthusiast events (see story in Extra!
Extra!). In a letter to 20 enthusiast club presidents and Internet forum
administrators, Holiday World also announced a new zero tolerance policy, permanently
banning from the park people who have engaged in unsafe behavior on rides or
even announced an intention to do so on the Internet.
“It’s
not the happiest day in my life,” Holiday World President Will Koch said
the day he made public the letter. “We’ve enjoyed a wonderful relationship
with the coaster enthusiasts over the years. The vast majority I would call
friends, we trust and get along with them just great. It’s this dang fringe
element out there, and we feel it’s time we put our foot down and say ‘enough
is enough.’”
Gone
is the annual Stark Raven Mad, which would have celebrated its 10th year next
season. The event had become one of the most popular coaster enthusiast gatherings
every year; but it was at May’s Stark Raven Mad that a woman, whom investigators
determined was standing in the back seat of The Raven roller coaster,
fell to her death.
Contributing
to Holiday World’s decision was the fact that next year’s Stark Raven
Mad would ostensibly have been an anniversary of the tragedy. “It would
be darn difficult to be here and be happy and have fun,” Koch said. “It’s
hard to imagine that. It would be difficult and painful for our ride operators.
Several of them are still struggling with what we went through in May. And,
the idea of being here worrying about what people are doing played into it.”
Exacerbating
that last point were Internet postings Holiday World officials saw throughout
the summer which festered the hurt of May’s accident: enthusiasts bragging
about their daredevil antics on coasters, enthusiasts offering detailed instruction
on how to subvert park safety procedures, and enthusiasts making what Koch said
are “libelous” claims about Holiday World activities.
“The
Internet is the great frontier, the wild west,” Koch said. “It’s
wide open, and you can post without having your name attached. I don’t
want to make it sound like we’re opposed to anybody saying anything negative
about the park, but the issue is talking about and planning ways to override
safety procedures and mechanisms, or saying things authoritatively that are
just not true. Those things really bother us. It’s not our desire to reign
in free discussion about what people like and don’t like about parks and
roller coasters, but we all need to be on the same page as far as safety is
concerned. We don’t need people out there planning ways to subvert our
systems.”
ACE
President Carole Sanderson feels enthusiast clubs are being unfairly blamed
for past incidents and tasked with sole responsibility for policing even those
people who are not club members. “What’s annoying to me as an individual,
not as president of ACE, is what do they do with the public? ACE is not a professional
organization,” she said: it’s a hobbyist organization. “Out of
8,500, we have our 5 or 10 percent that are problems. I don’t have a problem
getting rid of whackos.” However, citing a lack of rider responsibility
laws in many states and other enforcement standards, she said, “There’s
a lot more issues out there we need to address than a few bad ACE members.”
She
admitted that ACE had been reluctant to kick out violators of the organization’s
code of conduct because of lawsuit threats. When ACE removed a board member
several years ago, the resulting lawsuit cost the organization about $18,000
in legal fees though the organization won the suit. Nevertheless, even before
May’s tragedy at Holiday World, ACE had inaugurated new standards concerning
on-ride photography and member responsibility at ACE events, and since the accident
the organization has stiffened its resolve to take disciplinary action against
any member who violates the club’s code of conduct (THE
LOOP, June 27, 2003). Four such cases already have been advanced, turned
in by parks and other members; in two of them, the charged members quit the
club. Now ACE has no jurisdiction over their behavior, but they are still out
there visiting parks.
It
is specifically those “fringe enthusiasts” Koch is targeting. Still,
he wants the clubs and web administrators to take a stronger stand and more
formative action against such safety hazarders, and he wants to start meaningful
dialogue on this issue among other parks.
His
is a gutsy move. Cedar Fair in late August sent to enthusiast clubs a letter
signed by Ronald K. Fussner, corporate director of loss prevention, reiterating
Cedar Fair safety standards and asking the clubs to clamp down on violators
at Exclusive Ride Time events. Still, Cedar Point is scheduled to host next
year’s annual ACE Coaster Con.
Holiday
World’s move to cancel next year’s events (the park has made no decision
on 2005 or beyond) risks an enthusiasts’ backlash, one which would be broadcast
on the very same Internet forums that built the park’s national stature
in the first place. “I hope things go back to the way they used to be,”
Koch said. “Heck, we love that relationship.” Which is the other side
of the coin in Koch’s action: among amusement parks, Holiday World arguably
carries the most clout among enthusiasts, and the park’s decision is, at
the least, a profound wake-up call.
“There’s
a significant risk that the enthusiasts are not going to find the doors as open
as they used to be,” Koch said. “To do things they like to do, changes
are going to have to happen. At least at Holiday World that is true.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
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