Fair Board Focuses On Kentucky Kingdom

{Louisville,  Kentucky}...The owners of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in southern Indiana said Monday they may seek rights to operate Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville. Harold Workman, Kentucky State Fair Board president, said Friday that reopening the amusement park is the fair board’s top priority, and, even though state budget constraints currently appear extreme, getting the 2012 General Assembly to approve $20 million to upgrade Kentucky Kingdom remains the fair board’s No. 1 legislative priority. Kentucky Kingdom has remained closed since October 2009 after the former operator, Six Flags, announced it was abandoning the park amid a bankruptcy filing. The Kentucky State Fair Board granted businessman Ed Hart the rights to try to work out a deal to reopen Kentucky Kingdom after he owned it for about a deade prior to 2000, and, after more than a year of talks with the fair board, Hart said last fall he was on the verge of arranging $23 million in bank loans to cover the lion’s share of the cost to reopen the park, and the Al J. Schneider Cos. had agreed to guarantee up to $20 million of Hart’s debt. In late September, the fair board was ending talks with Hart, saying Hart wanted revenue guarantees from the state that it was unable to meet.