Six Flags Entertainment Corp (FUN) 2012 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for standing by.

Welcome to the Cedar Fair fourth-quarter and year-end earnings conference call.

During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode.

Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions.

(Operator Instructions).

This call is being recorded today, February 19, 2013.

I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Stacy Frole.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Ian.

Good morning, and welcome to our fourth-quarter and year-and earnings conference call.

I'm Stacy Frole, Cedar Fair's Vice President of Investor Relations.

This morning, we issued our 2012 fourth-quarter and year-end earnings release.

A copy of that release can be obtained on our corporate website at www.CedarFair.com or by contacting our Investor Relations offices at 419-627-2233.

Joining us on the call this morning is Matt Ouimet, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Witherow, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Richard Zimmerman, our Chief Operating Officer, is also with us today for the call.

Before we begin, I need to caution you that comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws.

These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements.

You may refer to filings by the Company with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of these risks.

In addition, in accordance with Regulation G, non-GAAP financial measures used on the conference call today are required to be reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

During today's call, we will make reference to adjusted EBITDA, as defined in our earnings release.

The required reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA is in the earnings release and is also available to our investors on our website via the conference call access page.

In compliance with SEC Regulation FD, this webcast is being made available to the media and the general public, as well as analysts and investors.

Because the webcast is open to all constituents and prior notifications have been widely and unselectively disseminated, all content of the call will be considered fully disclosed.

Now I would like to turn the call over to Matt Ouimet.

Thank you, Stacy.

I'm pleased to report 2012 was another strong year for Cedar Fair.

We achieved record net revenues of $1.068 billion and record adjusted EBITDA of $391 million.

As I mentioned on our last call, we firmly believe the execution of the FUNforward initiatives we announced at this time last year were largely responsible for our record results, including solid increases in our average in-park guest per capita spending, while we maintained our record attendance levels.

This is our third straight year of record results, and we expect this trend to continue into 2013.

During the year, we had the pleasure of entertaining 23.3 million guests at our parks, which is comparable to the record attendance we reported last year.

Our attendance is divided between season pass customers, group business and advance and front-gate purchases.

This year, we experienced a solid increase in our season pass customer base, which was part of our concerted effort to transition our single-day customers to season passholders.

We believe the success of our new eCommerce platform, which was implemented only in February of 2012 helped drive record season pass sales.

The growth in this program confirms the consumers' strong value perception of owning a season pass to our parks.

It also provides them with the ability to enjoy our parks at a more comfortable pace and in time increments that align with their busy schedules.

Additionally, season passholders tend to be some of the best goodwill ambassadors to our parks, influencing the visitation of friends and family.

Season passes are one of the best examples of advanced purchase commitments which provide some protection against the distraction of other entertainment offerings.

Advanced purchase quick commitments also support spending elasticity in terms of in-park guest spending, and to some degree, signal the level of market demand, which helps us execute against our broader dynamic pricing objectives.

The increase in season pass attendance was offset by a decrease in our other sales channels as consumers migrated over to season pass.

While much of this migration was intentional, we still have opportunities to optimize our indirect distribution channels, including significant efforts in expanding our sales force.

This past year, we identified and hired new sales leadership team, retrained our existing sales force and introduced a new sales incentive program, something that did not exist in the prior years.

Early results from these changes were positive, and we believe this is an area of additional opportunity for us heading into 2013 as our new team is able to build upon their existing relationships, have more flexibility in the types of products we offer, as well as the quality of products we offer, such as improved catering facilities for corporate, school and family events.

We are also exercising more discipline in the cooperative marketing support we require from all of our promotional partners.

Despite the fact that season pass visits grew to almost 40% of our total attendance in 2012, and the fact that season pass guests typically spend less per visit than other guests, we were quite pleased to see our average in-park guest per capita spending increase 5% to a record of $41.95 per visit.

In fact, our admissions per cap increased approximately 4% and the remaining in-park spend increased 7% year-over-year.

We attribute this strength in our admissions per cap to our ability to strategically and successfully price into areas of high demand, as well as the more disciplined approach with our promotional partners that I just mentioned.

The significant increase in the remaining in-park guest spend is largely the result of successful introduction of new premium product offerings, such as Fast Lane and preferred parking at all of our properties, along with our new food initiative, which focused on providing higher-quality food offerings.

The successful introduction of our new eCommerce platform, which in turn creates spending elasticity upon the guest visit, also contributed nicely to the higher in-park per capita spending levels.

Of course, we must always recognize the impact that our marketable investments have on our results.

In 2012, Canada's Wonderland introduced Leviathan, a 306-foot tall, 92 miles per hour steel coaster, which is one of the tallest and fastest coasters in the world.

In 2012, this Park experienced the largest increase in attendance out of our portfolio, as well as one of the largest increases in average in-park guest per capita spending.

Clearly, this world-class roller coaster contributed nicely to Canada's Wonderland success.

The solid increase in revenues combined with our continued efforts to diligently manage our costs resulted in record adjusted EBITDA of $391 million, or approximately $6.99 per diluted limited partner unit.

As we announced on our third-quarter call, with the strength of these results and our confidence heading into 2013, our Board of Directors expects to pay a record $2.50 per unit distribution to unitholders in 2013.

The first-quarter distribution of $0.625 is expected to be declared in the near future and is expected to be paid on March 25 to unitholders of record on March 15.

Before I turn the call over to Brian to discuss our financial results in more detail, I would like to emphasize that the past three years of record results would simply not have happened without the dedication and hard work of our employees.

Our employees have a special passion for entertaining our guests and providing a best-day-of-summer experience for every guest at every park every day.

We are extremely proud of the collective efforts our employees have put forth to make this another record-setting year for Cedar Fair, and we thank them all.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Brian to discuss our financial results in more detail, and then I will provide an update on our 2013 outlook.

Brian.

Thanks, Matt.

From a financial perspective, we are very pleased with our results as we continued to build on the back-to-back record years in 2010 and 2011.

In 2012, we achieved record levels of net revenues and adjusted EBITDA through record in-park guest per capita spending.

We reduced our consolidated leverage ratio to 3.9 times debt-to-adjusted EBITDA, down from 4.2 times in 2011.

We had no borrowings under our revolving credit facility at year end, and in fact, ended 2012 with $79 million in cash on hand.

And, as Matt just mentioned, we announced our intent to pay a $2.50 per unit distribution to our unitholders in 2013, a more than 50% increase from the 2012 distribution rate of $1.60.

These successes demonstrate the strength of our long-term strategy, which has enabled us to substantially increase the return to unitholders, making 2013 our 27th consecutive year of paying a distribution.

Now taking a closer look at the financials.

For the year, we reported revenue growth of $40 million, or 3.9%, to $1.068 billion.

This was driven by a 4.8% or $1.92 increase in average in-park guest per capita spending to $41.95, which was partially offset by a modest decline in attendance of approximately 86,000 visits, as well as a less than 1% or $789,000 decrease in out-of-park revenues.

It is important to note that average in-park guest per capita spending represents the amount spent for attendees to gain admission to our parks, plus all amount spent while inside the park gates.

Out-of-park revenues primarily represent the sale of hotel rooms, food, merchandise and other complementary activities outside the park gates.

On a total revenue basis, revenue per attendee increased 4.3% or $1.87 to $45.85 per guest compared with $43.98 per guest in 2011.

As Matt mentioned earlier, we are particularly pleased with the 4.8% increase in average in-park guest per capita spending.

With our continued emphasis on growing our season pass business, our success at growing per-caps while maintaining our record attendance levels is a result of the strength of our pricing philosophy and our FUNforward initiatives.

In 2012, we achieved a more than 10% increase in the number of season passes sold, as well as a 6% increase in the average price per pass.

We believe these record sales are a direct result of the aggressive initiatives we've put in place, including the very successful introductions of our new eCommerce platform and installment sales.

Considering installment sales were not introduced until February of 2012, we are confident that we can build upon these results for the 2013 operating season.

Our current year installment programs began in September in conjunction with our announcement of new rides and attractions for the 2013 season.

This compares with a February launch date for installment sales in 2012 when the eCommerce platform was first implemented.

The strong increase in in-park revenues was slightly offset by a less than 1% or $789,000 decrease in out-of-park revenues, which was the result of softness in the performance of some of our hotel properties.

In 2012, operating costs and expenses increased $21.4 million or 3.2% to $684.7 million.

The year-over-year increase in costs, which was in line with our expectations, was driven by a $3 million increase in cost of goods sold and a $20.5 million increase in operating expenses.

These increases were somewhat offset by a $2.1 million decrease in selling, general and administrative costs.

The $3 million increase in cost of goods sold was principally driven by our initiatives to improve the overall quality and value of our food and other product offerings at our parks in 2012.

The increase in operating expenses was due to several factors, including higher employment-related costs, higher operating supply costs and higher self-insurance expenses.

Employment-related costs increased approximately $11 million due to normal merit increases, increases in health-related benefit costs, additional staffing levels associated with new initiatives aimed at improving the overall guest experience and nonrecurring severance payments.

Operating supplies and expenses increased approximately $5 million due to initiatives to expand or enhance the live entertainment offerings at our parks, as well as incremental costs associated with our new eCommerce platform.

During the year, public liability and workers' compensation expense increased approximately $3 million due to claim settlements and an increase in our general reserve based on estimates of future claims.

The decrease in SG&A was largely driven by year-over-year reduction in professional and administrative costs, which more than offset increases in advertising costs and operating supplies.

Adjusted EBITDA, which we believe is a meaningful measure of our park level operating results, increased 4.4% or $16.4 million to $391 million for 2012.

This increase is a direct result of the record level revenue and average in-park guest per capita spending trends produced by our parks this year, combined with strict control over costs.

We were also pleased with our adjusted EBITDA margin, which was 36.6%, up 20 basis points from our 2011 adjusted EBITDA margin of 36.4%.

We would note that adjusted EBITDA margin growth was somewhat constrained by reinvestment into the parks in order to implement new initiatives and premium offerings, which we believe position the Company for longer-term success through constant improvement of the overall guest experience.

Touching on our fourth-quarter results for a moment, revenues for the quarter were $129.2 million, down approximately 11% or $15.6 million from last year's fourth quarter.

As we mentioned on our last call, we experienced a modest decrease in attendance during the month of October.

We believe this decrease was due to the less-than-favorable weather conditions when compared with the same period a year ago and was not a reflection of economic factors.

In fact, we believe that the first-year implementation of several FUNforward initiatives, such as increased season pass sales and advance purchase commitments, helped to ease the impact of the less-than-favorable fall weather.

As we've stated in the past, we believe the weather's impact averages itself out over the duration of a full operating season, but it can impact comparisons when looking at a short period of time.

As expected, operating costs in the fourth quarter decreased approximately 14% or $17.2 million.

This decrease in costs was largely attributable to a $9 million decrease in operating expenses and a $7 million decrease in SG&A.

As we've discussed in past calls, we accelerated some off-season maintenance projects into the first half of 2012 due to favorable weather trends, which resulted in lowering operating expense in the fourth quarter.

During the quarter, we also experienced a reduction in legal and related professional costs when compared with the fourth quarter of 2011.

Now, let me highlight a few items on our balance sheet.

As stated in our news release this morning, we are pleased with our liquidity and cash flow as we continue to build upon the strength of our balance sheet.

We ended the year with no outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility and with $79 million in cash on hand.

Our record 2012 performance, along with debt repayments totaling $25 million, has enabled us to further reduce our leverage in 2012.

At the end of 2012, our consolidated leverage ratio was 3.9 times, which is down significantly from 4.9 times as recently as three years ago, and is below four times, which we have stated was a near-term objective.

Through the prudent management of our cash flows, we are able to maximize our financial flexibility and our ability to create value for unitholders in both the short-term and long-term through a combination of debt reduction, capital investments and cash distributions.

To summarize, we are pleased with our record 2012 operating results as well as the Company's solid financial position.

We continue to generate a significant amount of free cash flow, which has enabled us to strategically balance debt repayment, growth and unitholder return.

We are well-positioned heading into 2013 and we will continue to prudently manage our cash flows to maximize value for our unitholders.

Now I will turn the call back over to Matt.

Thank you, Brian.

Looking ahead to 2013 and beyond, we continue to be confident in the fundamentals of our business model and growth opportunities.

Consumers continue to choose to spend their discretionary entertainment dollars in our parks, and given the ongoing budgetary constraints all consumers are experiencing, this is a particularly strong endorsement of the price value we provide.

For the 2013 operating season, we believe we have a very strong lineup of new rides and attractions.

The construction of GateKeeper, a new wing coaster at Cedar Point and the highlight of our 2013 capital plan, is coming along on schedule and on budget.

In fact, I encourage you to visit Cedar Point's website and view the Webcams we have posted of GateKeeper's construction.

It is truly transforming the entrance and overall landscape of the best amusement park in the world.

This ride has been receiving national attention, and the animation video on YouTube has already been viewed by more than 2 million people.

We are positive guests will be talking about this ride all summer long.

Our 2013 marketable capital program of approximately $100 million also includes a new world-class wooden roller coaster at our California's Great America Park in Santa Clara, California, a massive waterpark expansion at our Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun Park in Kansas City, Missouri, and new family attractions at several of our other parks.

All of these projects remain on schedule and on budget.

We are confident this lineup of new rides and attractions will continue to provide our guests with a best-day-of-summer experience each and every time they visit our parks.

On our last call, we also mentioned that we expected to spend an additional $15 million to $20 million annually over the next several years on incremental capital programs.

For 2013, this will include the acceleration of four point-of-sale systems prior to the start of the upcoming operating season, as well as investments in employee dormitories and guest accommodations starting in the second half of the year.

The acceleration of the point-of-sale systems will provide a better guest experience in the near term as lines are shortened due to faster transaction processing times.

These new systems will also provide additional growth opportunities over the long term as we are able to obtain better real-time data across all of our properties.

In addition to improving how we interact with our guests inside the parks, we are making a meaningful investment in the development of a guest marketing and analytics database which will enable us to develop new customer relationship management strategies, or CRM as I will refer to it in the future.

This investment will be accounted for as an incremental expense line item in 2013.

The integration of our eCommerce platform and a new CRM strategy will allow us to be more effective in our marketing efforts and provide us with valuable decision support data.

We will implement CRM in 2013, but I believe its full impact will begin in 2014 and beyond.

Our net promoter score, or NPS, for 2012 tell us our parks are already doing a great job in providing a memorable experience for our guests.

In fact, Cedar Point, our flagship park, has one of the highest NPS scores that I've ever seen.

While the NPS scores across all of our parks are very strong, we always believe there are opportunities to improve and we challenge our general managers accordingly.

We can never forget the number one reason guests come back to our parks is because they had a great and memorable experience during their prior visit.

It is this focus on the guest experience that will allow us to continue to report record results year after year.

From an investment standpoint, our total return to our investors in 2012, combining distributions and unit appreciation, was 63%.

We plan to continue our aggressive investor outreach program into 2013 and I hope to see many of you at Cedar Point this year when we host an analyst day towards the end of June.

This event will allow you to meet with the members of our executive management team and will also provide you with a first-hand opportunity to experience GateKeeper.

Save-the-Date notices will be sent out within the next several weeks.

In conclusion, we continue to target adjusted EBITDA of $415 million or more by 2016, which reflects a 4% cumulative average growth rate.

As we've traditionally done, we plan on providing our annual net revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance in May with our first-quarter earnings.

At this point in time, I will say that we are very confident heading into 2013 and will be targeting another record year for Cedar Fair.

We will continue to generate a significant amount of free cash flow and will prudently manage these cash flows to ensure a quality and growing distribution that are unitholders can depend on year after year.

At the same time, we will continue investing in future growth opportunities for the business to ensure its long-term success.

Now we will open up the call for any questions or comments you may have.

(Operator Instructions) James Hardiman, Longbow Research.

Good morning.

Thanks for taking my call.

First, just a quick clarification.

Just want to make sure I understand the per capita color that you gave us.

You said 4% growth essentially at the gate, 7% the rest of the park.

The 4% does not include the additional Fast Pass option in terms of paying double to skip the line.

That is incorporated in the 7%, correct?

The 4% is essentially an apples to apples?

That's correct, James.

The 4% is without the Fast Lane.

Okay, very helpful.

If I think then about the trade-off between per capita spending and attendance during 2012, I think at the end of the day, everybody is pretty happy with what you've been able to do with your overall top line.

So however you're able to get there, I'll take it.

But do you think that the attendance was negatively impacted by the increase in average ticket costs?

And how should I think about the interplay of those two going forward?

It's a good question, James.

Good morning.

The short answer to that is no, we don't believe that we suppressed attendance because of pricing.

And I think more importantly, what I like to think about is two things.

One is you don't change your pricing strategy because you have a rainy October.

The second is we believe we have the opportunity to continue to build on pricing year over year, unlike capturing episodic attendance.

So I would tell you we are still very confident.

And although we didn't touch on it today, I expect someone to ask us along the way about our season pass sales to date.

And even though we have again taken price increase going into our 2013, we are well ahead of where we were at this time last year on season pass, which is the earliest indicator we have of macro demand.

So I hope that helps connect the dots for you.

It does.

Very helpful.

And then sort of a follow-up, the per capita growth in 2012, certainly, I think, better than the investor base expected.

Talk about if that outperformed your own expectations.

And I think ultimately, when you originally talked about some of these new programs, the expectation was for 2013 to actually be a bigger year than 2012 in terms of the per capita increases.

When I think about that 5% growth, was some of that pull-forward, meaning that we are taking that out of 2013, or do you still actually think that 2013 could be a bigger year from that perspective?

I suspect if you asked my management team, they will tell you I'm never happy with our performance.

But the real reality is some activities or initiatives such as Fast Lane got traction faster than we would've anticipated, although we still believe there is meaningful opportunity there, as we study that program.

And then others are still on the very early inning and should have -- we should see more impact in 2013, particularly impact from our new advertising agency, which only came on board in the spring of last year, and some of the other initiatives that really --.

Take -- sales force, I talked about earlier.

I think now that we have the sales team in place that we want and they've been trained up and the incentive program is into its second year, those are examples where I think we're still in the early innings.

Great.

Very helpful.

Thanks, guys.

Scott Hamann, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Good morning, everyone.

I know you don't want to use weather as an excuse in any given year, but I'm just curious how you would characterize the overall weather in 2012.

Less favorable than the prior year.

Okay.

(multiple speakers) Matt.

And I guess a follow-up question on the -- you mentioned that season pass sales were obviously strong, and some of the other segments were a little bit softer.

Does that include the corporate group biz (multiple speakers)?

Actually, our corporate group business actually grew last year, as well.

And so what you are really seeing is a migration from a person who maybe was visiting a time to time and a half before, who sees the value in the season pass program.

So that is -- the primary offset if you are is the migration of people over to season pass.

Okay.

And just in terms of operating days for '13 versus 2012, are there any major variances that we should take note of?

There is not at this time.

Okay.

Thanks a lot.

Tim Conder, Wells Fargo.

(Operator Instructions) [Sri Raja], Deutsche Bank.

Strong end to the year.

Good job, guys.

Quick question.

What are you thinking in terms of the bonds, given where it is trading at, and the recent capital markets, with Six Flags recently doing a deal, where at that price, are you guys are thinking of refi-ing those bonds?

Sure, Sri.

As we've said on previous calls, we are constantly monitoring the credit market and will look for opportunities to improve both our average cost of debt, as well as extending [tenure] and improving covenants where we can.

That said, the high-yield bonds, 9 1/8 bonds we currently have placed, they are a little bit of a hangup at this point, as they are not callable until August of 2014.

So that is just a little wrinkle that we have to consider when monitoring those markets.

All right.

Thank you.

Michael Needleman, Preservation Asset Management.

Good morning, gentlemen, and congratulations on a great year.

Just a couple of questions, if I can.

I wonder if you might just address in terms of the CRM, one, when is the software going to be implemented?

Two, how is it that you are going to define the success of the implementation of the CRM platform?

And if you don't mind also, maybe talk a little bit about -- in terms of the analytic side of the equation, the same questions in regards to returns and how you are kind of monetizing that.

And if I can, which CRM system are you implementing?

The latter, I'm going to avoid, Michael, just because I consider the approach we are taking to be proprietary.

But the system will be up and running by the March/April timeframe.

The great thing about CRM, if you -- it sounds like you do have some experience with in the past -- it is probably the most finite measurable type of marketing approach you can have because you can actually see individual responses based upon testing control groups, et cetera.

So we are expecting for very good things, both on an efficiency basis, how we spend our marketing dollars, and on an effectiveness basis, in terms of being able to have more dollars available to go after those incremental audiences.

And so we would expect a very solid return, north of, candidly, what -- the other stuff we expect; where normally we would expect at least a 15% IRR on some of our capital investments, we would expect this to be well north of that.

That's very helpful.

Just a couple other quick questions, if I can.

In terms of the capital expenditures planned -- rising over the course of the next couple of years that you talked about, should we expect that to -- the range of $100 million plus to be what you are speaking of over the course of that accelerated CapEx plan?

Is that about the number?

No, what we've said to date is about $20 million -- $15 million to $20 million for the next three to four years; three years, I think is what we said.

And that is the range we are working in primarily for the refreshment of the hotels, as well as other initiatives related to what we would call nonmarketable capital for the most part.

The $100 million number you saw or I referenced earlier is we spend about 9% of revenue each year on marketable capital.

So you should expect about $100 million a year for marketable capital, and then for the next three years or so, you should expect $15 million to $20 million a year.

Two last questions.

In terms of marketing dollars at absolute dollar terms, is that because of your new switch over to your new agency?

Are you planning to increase that, recognizing that that dollar flow will flow to a number of different verticals?

But is that number absolutely going to be going up?

It is, but only in a very small amount.

And quite honestly, we tend to think of marketing as a percentage of admissions revenue.

And on that basis, it is constant.

And my last question is if everyone comes -- if I come to the analyst meeting, do I have to wait in line for the ride?

It depends whether you buy Fast Lane.

(Laughter) Again, thanks a lot guys.

I appreciate it.

Tim Conder, Wells Fargo Securities.

Thank you and we apologize there earlier.

Matt, a couple of questions here.

On your season passes, you talked about the installment plan was rolled out this past February of 2012 for 2012.

What percent roughly or just sort of color can you give us of season passes in '12 were sold on that?

And again, granted you didn't have a full year.

And then how is that tracking so far here for 2013?

Tim, I'm not going to be able to give you -- or I'm not going to give you the percentage, because I do think that has some proprietary advantage to us.

But let me make a couple points, and if I don't answer your question, you can circle back.

But to remind the audience, we put in -- in February of last year, we started an installment payment for season passes that was either three or four payments, and saw very successful pickup from consumers who are trying to budget responsibly these days, thankfully for all of us.

And so in September, we actually launched the program; so to make six payments, you can do the same thing that we did last year over six payments.

And most recently, we now have let you start to pay in advance over three or four payments for your hotel stay at either Cedar Point, any of our campgrounds at the other parks or the Knott's Hotel.

And in all cases, Tim, we believe we are seeing both incremental pickup, which is clearly important -- and as I've mentioned, we are running ahead of where we were last year.

But we are also seeing that advance purchase commitment from people who might have waited to buy at the gate.

And that is equally if not more valuable to us, because it makes sure that we are their entertainment option for next summer and maybe not a ballgame somewhere else.

So it is all positive, Tim.

I'm sorry, I just don't want to give you the specific numbers.

That's fine, Matt.

Not a problem.

Well understood.

On your POS rollout, I think you referenced four parks.

Can you just kind of walk us through what parks and what years or what time period that POS will be rolled out at your primary parks?

Sure, Tim.

Coming out of 2012, we had six of our 11 properties were on POS.

The four parks that POS is being implemented for or introduced for 2013 are Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, Great America and Knott's Berry Farm.

The only park left then is our smallest property, Michigan's Adventure, which we would intend to try and tackle for 2014, once we work on some infrastructure items.

The Knott's implementation was just completed this past week, and that property is now up and running on POS as of today.

Okay, great.

And then I guess lastly to ask here.

It was alluded to what you are looking at on attendance and the trade-off here.

And again, as was mentioned earlier, we will take that the way you guys are running it any day.

But given the fact, let's assume that weather is normalized, would you anticipate a modest uptick, all else being equal, in attendance looking into 2013 at this point?

I think we would be disingenuous and inconsistent if we didn't say that we would hope that would normalize this year.

But as we always say, too, weather tends to balance itself out over the course of a season.

But I would hope it would be -- we would obviously like to see it a little sunnier and a little warmer.

Okay.

And lastly, I'll ask here.

Just remind us the severance that occurred during 2012, and that was pretty heavily skewed towards fourth quarter, if I recall right here.

Severance -- from an operations perspective, Tim, we took a hard look at the staff, staffing levels, as well as individuals in certain positions across the properties, and there was a little bit of severance towards the latter part of the season after -- or latter part of the year after the season wrapped up, in addressing some changes that needed to be made on that level.

And Brian, any total quantification, and was the payment to Dick Kinzel also included in that number?

No, there was no payment to Dick Kinzel that would be included in that.

There was a payment under the settlement of his contract (multiple speakers) from a cash flow perspective.

But the amount we are talking about is roughly $1 million across the system, Tim.

Great.

Great.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions) We have no further questions at this time.

I will turn it back to management for any closing remarks.

First of all, thanks for the questions, and certainly thanks for your ongoing interest in Cedar Fair.

There is no question, 2012 was a solid year for us.

And I assure you that our management team and our Board of Directors look forward to building on this positive momentum and creating value for our unitholders as we move forward.

I also encourage all of you to plan a trip to our parks this summer to experience your investment in fun firsthand.

Stacy?

Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today.

Should you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact me at 419-627-2227, or Lisa Broussard at 419-609-5929.

We look forward to speaking with you again in about three months to discuss our 2013 first-quarter results.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Cedar Fair fourth-quarter and year-end earnings conference call.

Thank you for your participation.

You may now disconnect.