September 22, 2018 
Management of Cedar Point, the amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, recently announced that it would be closing the Dinosaurs Alive and Witches’ Wheel to make room for a new attraction called “Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island.” This paragraph is what Cedar Point management released about this upcoming new attraction:
“Grab your map and prepare for a minute-by-minute real-life adventure, where you and others are challenged, questioned and pushed to the limits in both brain and brute power. Be immersed in interactive encounters with the island inhabitants, push yourself with physically active challenges that test your resourcefulness and fortitude! It’s your job to discover and uncover all that you can; to solve the mystery surrounding the Forbidden Frontier, and return to tell the tale. Every ending is different and determined by you and the secrets you unlock!”
Forbidden Frontier is scheduled to open in 2019. Dinosaurs Alive and Witches’ Wheel closed permanently in September 2018.
Questions
- You are the vice president of rides and attractions at Cedar Point. Assume that Forbidden Frontier will cost $5 million to construct in late 2018 and that the attraction will open in 2019. Will your 2018 division income contain an expense of $5 million for the construction of Forbidden Frontier? Explain.
- As part of management for Cedar Point, why is it important to understand expense recognition principles?
- What general ledger account will the initial cost of the Forbidden Frontier attraction be posted to?
- What financial statement does that general ledger account in #3 appear on?
Instructor Resources
These resources are provided to give the instructor flexibility for use of Accounting in the Headlines articles in the classroom. The blog posting itself can be assigned via a link to this site OR by distributing the student handout below. Alternatively, the PowerPoint file below contains a bullet point overview of the article and the discussion questions.
- Student handout (pdf) (word) (contains entire blog posting + discussion questions)
- PowerPoint file (brief article overview + discussion questions)
Copyright 2018 Wendy M. Tietz, LLC
Accounting in the Headlines 
I am using these in a HIgh School Classroom. Do you post your thoughts on the questions?
No, I do not. Two reasons: 1) The questions are meant to be discussion generating and I don’t want to limit discussion by presenting one answer; and 2) Many instructors use the blog posts as graded assignments.