Knott’s Reports Disappointing Attendance

Despite opening its new Supreme Scream thrill ride over the summer, Knott’s Berry Farm has little chance this year to equal the 3.65 million visitors it attracted in 1997, the partnership that owns the Buena Park theme park said Friday. Attendance has improved since June but “has not caught up from its disappointing early season,” the result of El Nino deluges, said Richard L. Kinzel, president of Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair LLP. Still ahead are Knott’s popular Halloween events and the scheduled opening of a huge wooden roller coaster in late November. Cedar Fair, which also owns four Midwestern parks, said its overall operating profit rose, although it didn’t meet revenue and attendance goals. It said it will increase its distribution per partnership unit by 2 cents annually, to $1.30 per year, despite a new federal partnership tax of about $14 million.