Kentucky Kingdom back on track, adds 5 rides

LOUISVILLE -- When Kentucky Kingdom kicked off its comeback in May after a five-year hiatus, no one knew if the theme park could recapture its status as a Louisville landmark.

But Kentucky Kingdom attracted nearly 600,000 visitors and sold 117,000 season passes in 2014 — strong results that led the theme park's owners to expand the schedule and accelerate investment in new rides for next year.

Although the $43 million relaunch included a few stumbles, officials with the Kentucky State Fair Board and city of Louisville are upbeat about the reopening and the park's long-term prospects.

"It's really great having Kentucky Kingdom open again," said Clifford "Rip" Rippetoe, president of the Kentucky State Fair Board, the park's landlord at the Kentucky Exposition Center. "It's brought energy to our campus."

The theme park will close out its 2014 season this weekend. The owners declined to disclose profits but pointed out that $8 million to $10 million spent on additional rides and improvements for next year is an indicator of results.

"We feel good about where we are. We have a very healthy cash flow," said Ed Hart, leader and majority shareholder of an investment group that has a 50-year lease deal with the fair board.

The bottom line for parents is that the cost of daily admission, $44.95, as well as season passes, $59.95 for early buyers, will remain the same next year. The season will be lengthened from 94 days this year to 110 days in 2015.

The park will add five attractions next year, including three rides mothballed by prior owners — the T3 roller coaster; the Raging River Raft Ride; and the Enterprise, a modernized Ferris wheel-shaped ride that flattens as it spins its passengers in gondolas.

Also debuting next year are two rides — a 130-foot-tall SkyCatcher swing and Cyclos pendulum that rotates 360 degrees — that will cost about $1 million with installation.

The focus during 2014 was to create a clean, safe atmosphere where families, particularly mothers, felt comfortable spending a day with their children, Hart said.

But park managers couldn't foresee a controversy that blew up this summer after a teenage employee told a woman who was breast-feeding her infant that she needed to feed her baby in a restroom.

Park officials sparked outrage on social media when they explained that policy calls for mothers to be discreet and to use three "health services" stations for feeding.

They backtracked within 24 hours, announcing that mothers were welcome to breast-feed anywhere, any time. Hart said they fumbled and learned from their mistakes, including the need to train employees thoroughly on policies.

Kentucky Kingdom began in 1987 under a Dallas-based company that went bankrupt after a year. Hart, a New Yorker and one-time retail buyer, stepped in and reopened the park in 1990, expanding it and adding roller coasters and other rides.

Attendance grew to 1.3 million by 1998 when Hart sold the park to Premier Parks for $78 million. That company's acquisition of Six Flags theme parks a year later led it to rebrand the property as Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

Attendance and revenues declined during the next decade. The largest blow came in June 2007 when 13-year-old Kaitlyn Lasitter, riding the Superman Tower of Power, had her feet severed when a cable broke.

The company reached an undisclosed settlement with the Louisville girl's family after it was sued for negligence. The park then closed in 2009,