Knott’s Promotion Was Flawed

Knott’s Berry Farm has long been one of Orange County’s premier locations for a day’s fun, both for residents and tourists. Last week’s ill-advised promotion to lure people to the park turned into a disaster that can’t be allowed to occur again.

The Buena Park theme park marked Cinco de Mayo with an admission charge of only 5 cents. The normal rate is $36 for adults and $26 for children. No surprise that the turnout was enormous.

But what swelled the crowd even more was heavy promotion on two radio stations popular with teenagers, one an English-language station, the other Spanish.

School officials asked Knott’s days in advance to call off the promotion, fearing it would increase truancy. The fears were well founded. Some schools reported anywhere from 17% to 65% absenteeism.

An especially ugly part of the day’s events was a group of teenagers throwing rocks and bottles at police outside the park. Other teens fought with one another and stopped traffic on nearby streets, including heavily traveled Beach Boulevard.

An average weekday crowd at Knott’s this time of year is around 4,500. On Cinco de Mayo, more than seven times that number showed up. The discounted admission hours ran from 6 to 10 a.m., by which time 4,000 teenagers were still outside, frustrated at not being able to enter.

More than 200 riot police eventually cleared the area outside the park, arresting six juveniles. Knott’s officials apologized for the disorders, but that was a bit after the fact. They should have foreseen the effect of such a heavily discounted admission, coupled with a promotion by popular radio stations.

Theme parks and similar attractions have to keep the customers coming through the gates. That’s how they stay in business. But aiming promotions at teens on a school day during school hours is wrong, even though Knott’s also used the day to raise funds for the Boys and Girls Club of Buena Park.

Knott’s should plan better in the future to gauge the effect of discounted admissions or special features. The park is better off being known for its fried chicken and thrilling rides than for angry crowds and battles with police.