The product is fun and entertainment. But the dollars the public spends on entertainment are limited, and the competition for those dollars is growing increasingly fierce.
Lagoon has been providing summer entertainment to Utah families for 102 years and intends to keep up its offering in the future, according to marketing and public relations director Dick Andrew.To catch the public eye, the park constantly works to offer something new - new rides and attractions, new types of live entertainment, and, in the case of its water park, a whole new theme.
At the same time, Lagoon executives keep their own eyes on factors that directly and indirectly affect how people spend their entertainment dollars: the economy, the weather, the competition and even gasoline prices.
"It's no secret this is a flat year in the amusement park industry," said Andrew. Parks across the country are reporting flat attendance figures, and Lagoon is no exception.
"We're not predicting a record-high year for attendance. But we're doing fine," Andrew said.
Lagoon is not a destination resort. Families on the East Coast or in California don't plan a week's vacation around coming to Utah to go to Lagoon, in comparison to attractions such as Disneyland and Disney World.
More than half the park's patrons come from along the Wasatch Front, with most of the remainder from southern Idaho, western Wyoming and outstate Utah. A small percentage comes from farther away but Andrew believes they are people visting relatives in Utah who come to the park for a day's outing.
"We have a small population base to draw from, basically along the Wasatch Front. We also have a limited number of days to do it in. We operate 125 days a year, and we're dark for 240 days, compared to parks in climates that are open year around," Andrew said.
"So we're always looking for something new to offer, a new approach, a new marketing package," he said.
The summer of 1990 is the first full summer for the park's $6 million water park, Lagoon-A-Beach.
"It's a nice water park, esthetically pleasing, but there are other nice water parks around," Andrew said, assessing the success of the addition. "We're finding that the water park attracts a huge percentage of the people coming to Lagoon, and they stay longer than before.
"But we're finding it's not attracting the huge numbers of people we thought it would, by itself. We're still searching for our position on it, still looking for a way to package all of the things we have here together: the water park, the rides and games and Pioneer Village," Andrew said.
"We have some ideas. Just wait and see, next spring."
Some economists and travel analysts predict rising gasoline prices will force families to redraw their vacation plans, keep them closer to home. Will that help Lagoon?
"That's the old theory in the amusement park business, but who knows?" Andrew said. "When we had the last crisis, or two crises, in gasoline prices the theory in the business was that people would stay closer to home and it would help us.
"We're not sure that it's anything measurable," said Andrew.
The park's safety record this summer is unblemished compared to 1989, when two young persons were killed in separate accidents. Andrew said those incidents may also be affecting the park's business.
"We've had a good 102 years. We had one year that was most disconcerting, both to us and to the public. People haven't forgotten that. There's some carryover to it, I'm sure," Andrew said.
The park's recruiting and training program for the 1,500 young people hired for the summer season stresses safety and friendly, wholesome entertainment, according to Andrew.
Those 1,500 summer workers, along with the 100 full-time employees, add up to an annual payroll of $4.5 million.
"This is a very labor-intensive business. I wouldn't be surprised if Lagoon is the largest employer of school-age young persons in the state," said Andrew, who got his own start with the company working the midway games as a teenager.
"I think about that sometimes. Consider the number of young people we hire each summer, then the park's history that goes back a century. There must be thousands, tens of thousands, of people out there who worked here in their younger days.
"That's quite a legacy in itself, when you think about it."