Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. (Operator Instructions)
Your first question comes from Scott Hamann - KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Scott Hamann - KeyBanc Capital Markets
Good morning. I’m just trying to peel back the onion here a little bit on some of these drivers for the first half of the year and I was hoping you might be able to kind of give me an order of magnitude on some of these issues that have impacted the results of whether corporate season pass sales, operating days, and just the general economy. Which of those are the big drivers and kind of as you look at whether in particular in past seasons have people that delayed their visits earlier in the year kind of come back and you recoup those later in the year?
Richard L. Kinzel
Scott I think as we said in our prepared remarks, it really is a combination of all the above that you have mentioned. For example, our eastern parks, Dorney Park for example, it was the third wettest summer that they’ve had so far and that’s a very important park to us. Cedar Point, we’ve only had one 90 degree day here in Sandusky all season.
The economy has certainly played a big part in it. For example, Detroit has a 17% unemployment rate. It’s the highest in the country. Charlotte, which is another big market for us, happened to be third in the latest surveys that we saw and that of course as a result of seasons pass sales [while with] confidence in the economy so I wish I could narrow it down to one thing, but I honestly believe it’s a combination as Pete said in his remarks that it’s basically the economy, it’s weather, and it’s consumer confidence. Hopefully within the remaining 40% of the season that we have, the people who come out, the weather will turn around, people will get some confidence in the economy and feel that they still want to get a day or two to come out with the family and visit one of our parks.
Is there anything Pete you want to add to that?
Peter J. Crage
No, I think you’ve covered it. Scott, we try to zero in on the exact drivers but these are fairly ominous, the weather, the cold temperatures is fairly ominous situations. To carve out and attribute a particular decline to a particular event or a series of events is extremely difficult if not impossible.
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