Executives at Cedar Point face that challenge every few years in their endless quest to build bigger, better and faster roller coasters along the Lake Erie shore.
Even with 14 existing roller coasters with names such as Mantis and the new 310-foot high Millennium Force, Cedar Point Vice President of Marketing James Hildebrandt says coming up with that elusive name never gets any easier.
Hildebrandt recently told a crowd gathered for a Sales and Marketing Executives of Cleveland luncheon that the name Raptor — inspired by the legendary bird of prey — was one of the most popular choices to date, scoring a 98 percent approval rate from park visitors before it opened in 1994.
It didn’t score so high, however, with attorneys for Universal Studios, who believed the “raptor” name was derived from dinosaurs in the Steven Spielberg film “Jurassic Park,” which had made millions at the box office during the summer of 1993. Cedar Point officials refused to budge from the name since it had already tested so well with the park’s visitors. Besides, they had Webster’s Dictionary on their side.
“We told them there is a big difference between the bird of prey raptor and the dinosaur raptor,” recalls Hildebrandt. “Finally, we told them, ‘Look it up. It’s in the dictionary.’ That’s when we knew we were safe.”
Jim Vickers
