CoasterBuzz Podcast #129 - December 8, 2008

Jeff, Mike and Pat review this week's news in the amusement industry.

• NYC wants to buy some of the Astroland property. Nobody wants what Thor Equities wants to build.
• Six Flags and Intamin settle with Lassiters over Kentucky Kingdom accident. We assume that she'll be taken care of the rest of her life financially. Jeff plugs the Cleveland Clinic.
• Hard Rock Park going to auction, bidding starts at less than a tenth of the original cost of the park.
• What impact will this strange economy really have on the amusement industry? It seems genuinely bad when you see people around you with problems.
• Industry lobbies for school years that sync with vacations and park seasons.
• Paramount Pictures wants to get back in the theme park business, this time in Osaka on the Expoland. Seems strange after Viacom then CBS shed their parks, but perhaps it makes more sense in the Japanese market.
• Santa Claus, Indiana, gets GPS love. But people are not spontaneously driving there after a TV ad.
• Mike gets Jeff on a Twitter rant again. That leads to a lengthy discussion about being over-connected. Mike cleverly points out that this is just another thing that people want to consume. There's a cultural tendency to consume far more than we need.
• Sandusky is down one indoor water park.
• Q-Bots spread to California. Gonch is right that it just keeps continuing to spread.
• Shanghai Disney? Depends on who you ask. Certainly China seems like a natural market to expand in.
• Cypress employees want to sue the park. For a lay-off? That seems pretty silly.
• Six Flags is playing a development role for a new park Qatar. Is the brand really that valuable, and in the Middle East?
• Busch Gardens Europe doing a holiday event. By the way, Ohio has two climates, Mike.
• Univeral lay-offs at 3%.
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