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Biggest city without a park?

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
What would you guess is the biggest city/population center on each continent without a major local amusement park?
 

Mack

Mega Poster
Depending how you define local, let's say like, 3 hours drive maybe.
North America: Phoenix, Boston, Vancouver/Seattle/Tacoma
South America: Lima
Europe: Moscow
Africa: Lagos
Asia: Probably New Delhi-area or my other guess would be Saigon.
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
Phoenix has Castles n' Coasters (OK, not a major park), and Boston has SFNE somewhat near.

Vancouver has Playland, but Seattle is certainly one that came to my mind.
 
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Mack

Mega Poster
I feel like SFNE is a bit of a stretch for Boston. We never went there from Boston. The only time I went was from Worcester, MA. SFNE is a good couple hours away and isn't really that well-known in Boston, but I suppose you could count it. IMO it's kind of a stretch, though. It's also a stretch to call SFNE major.
 

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
Boston has SFNE somewhat near..
Lolol yeah, 100 miles away 'near' um... Canobie is Boston most Local park... And even that is somewhat loosely used

Major city with no actual park within it., Houston! Fourth largest city in the country, parkless since Six Flags pulled out almost 15 years ago? New Orleans is another big city with no park... But had a Six Flags
 
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Mack

Mega Poster
Yeah, I think Canobie draws more from Boston than SFNE does. SFNE's crowd is Springfield, Chicopee, Worcester, Hartford, etc.

I think majorness and localness need to be like, considered together. Cedar Point is local to Cleveland/the Great Lakes megalopolis, but I wouldn't call the park in Phoenix major. Going to that park in Phoenix is a bit different from going to SFMM from Los Angeles.
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Berlin has nothing, but that's mainly because of the East/West Germany thing.

And yeah +1 for Seattle

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Mack

Mega Poster
Berlin has nothing, but that's mainly because of the East/West Germany thing.

And yeah +1 for Seattle

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My wild hypothesis is that the area around Seattle/Tacoma/Vancouver is just too rugged to allow for such a development.
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
Houston is the 4th largest city in the US. The closest proper park....San Antonio. That's your answer for the US.

Galveston is not close enough to be considered Houston either.

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MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
I feel like SFNE is a bit of a stretch for Boston. We never went there from Boston. The only time I went was from Worcester, MA. SFNE is a good couple hours away and isn't really that well-known in Boston, but I suppose you could count it. IMO it's kind of a stretch, though. It's also a stretch to call SFNE major.
Yeah, you're right: SFNE is more than halfway across the state from Boston. On the other hand, it's a small state, and Google tells me Boston to SFNE is an hour and 45 minutes, whereas your first post was considering within three hours local ...
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
Lolol yeah, 100 miles away 'near' um... Canobie is Boston most Local park... And even that is somewhat loosely used

Major city with no actual park within it., Houston! Fourth largest city in the country, parkless since Six Flags pulled out almost 15 years ago? New Orleans is another big city with no park... But has a Six Flags
Ah, Houston has to be the winner. I was thinking of cities that have never had parks, but I didn't think of cities that used to have parks but now have voids.
 

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
Yeah, you're right: SFNE is more than halfway across the state from Boston. On the other hand, it's a small state, and Google tells me Boston to SFNE is an hour and 45 minutes, whereas your first post was considering within three hours local ...
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/bos...m1!1s0x89e6e3da57989b61:0xc70807afa6e4a9a!3e0 Google tells me it's basically 100 miles away, like I said. Ha. I used to make that drive every other week when I lived in Boston!

Also, for everyone saying Seattle doesn't have a park... Wild Waves, formerly a Six Flags property, in Federal Way is 20 miles or so from the city. I would say that's their local park. And while it's not CP/MM massive... it's still got more than other parks. Mouse, woodie, looper
 
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Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
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The Delhi metropolitan area has 26.5 million inhabitants according to Wikipedia, and no amusement parks since 2008 or so according to RCDB.

Next on the list, Manila, The Philippines. 24 million people, the last park closed its doors in 2008.

A single Big Apple coaster serves Lagos, Nigeria and the 21 million people there. I don't know if that counts?

It appears that the city of Rio de Janeiro still lacks a "proper" amusement park. There appears to be some mall parks there, but the outdoor parks are listed as defunct, and RCDB has no pictures. Quite bad for a city of 12.3 million people?

Kinshasa, DR Congo has 11.5 million people and no amusement parks whatsoever. Actually, there are none in the country at all.

Bandung, Indonesia has 8.5 million people (larger than Bangkok, Thailand), but no outdoors theme parks. A couple of mall parks appear to be running, though.

RCDB has no hits for Busan, South Korea. Wikipedia lists it as having 8.2 million people, and a thriving economy. Wait, upon revision it seems like RCDB uses the spelling "Pusan". Still no operating parks with operating coasters, apart from one which appears to have a knock-off Zamperla, last attended by RCDB contributors in 1998. Sounds strange for a country so developed as South Korea?

And indeed, it seems like there are no proper parks (only what appears to be paintball/go kart venues with backlot coasters) at all in Houston, USA. 6.5 million people, and all the parks are defunct. That sounds really strange considering the amusement park culture of that country. Cities like Surabaya, Indonesia; Karachi, Pakistan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Bogota, Colombia appear to have a more thriving theme park scene. What went wrong?


Also, it appears that with a wide enough definition for what constitutes an amusement park, you can find them in most cities. Even Luanda, Angola. But no matter how I searched on RCDB, I could not find a single park in the country of Ethiopia, which has around 100 million people (12th or 14th largest in the world, depending on which Wikipedia page you cite). The same goes for DR Congo, as mentioned above (82 million people) and Kenya (50 million). I think those are the three largest countries (by some margin!) that don't have amusement parks at all.
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
There appears to be some mall parks there, but the outdoor parks are listed as defunct, and RCDB has no pictures.
Those aren't even mall parks, but mostly just buffets that can be rented for parties and usually aren't open to general public, hence no photos on rcdb. The coasters are tiny as well...
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
The Delhi metropolitan area has 26.5 million inhabitants according to Wikipedia, and no amusement parks since 2008 or so according to RCDB.

Next on the list, Manila, The Philippines. 24 million people, the last park closed its doors in 2008.

A single Big Apple coaster serves Lagos, Nigeria and the 21 million people there. I don't know if that counts?

It appears that the city of Rio de Janeiro still lacks a "proper" amusement park. There appears to be some mall parks there, but the outdoor parks are listed as defunct, and RCDB has no pictures. Quite bad for a city of 12.3 million people?

Kinshasa, DR Congo has 11.5 million people and no amusement parks whatsoever. Actually, there are none in the country at all.

Bandung, Indonesia has 8.5 million people (larger than Bangkok, Thailand), but no outdoors theme parks. A couple of mall parks appear to be running, though.

RCDB has no hits for Busan, South Korea. Wikipedia lists it as having 8.2 million people, and a thriving economy. Wait, upon revision it seems like RCDB uses the spelling "Pusan". Still no operating parks with operating coasters, apart from one which appears to have a knock-off Zamperla, last attended by RCDB contributors in 1998. Sounds strange for a country so developed as South Korea?

And indeed, it seems like there are no proper parks (only what appears to be paintball/go kart venues with backlot coasters) at all in Houston, USA. 6.5 million people, and all the parks are defunct. That sounds really strange considering the amusement park culture of that country. Cities like Surabaya, Indonesia; Karachi, Pakistan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Bogota, Colombia appear to have a more thriving theme park scene. What went wrong?


Also, it appears that with a wide enough definition for what constitutes an amusement park, you can find them in most cities. Even Luanda, Angola. But no matter how I searched on RCDB, I could not find a single park in the country of Ethiopia, which has around 100 million people (12th or 14th largest in the world, depending on which Wikipedia page you cite). The same goes for DR Congo, as mentioned above (82 million people) and Kenya (50 million). I think those are the three largest countries (by some margin!) that don't have amusement parks at all.
Impressive. You should be a reference librarian.
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
The Delhi metropolitan area has 26.5 million inhabitants according to Wikipedia, and no amusement parks since 2008 or so according to RCDB.

Next on the list, Manila, The Philippines. 24 million people, the last park closed its doors in 2008.

A single Big Apple coaster serves Lagos, Nigeria and the 21 million people there. I don't know if that counts?

It appears that the city of Rio de Janeiro still lacks a "proper" amusement park. There appears to be some mall parks there, but the outdoor parks are listed as defunct, and RCDB has no pictures. Quite bad for a city of 12.3 million people?

Kinshasa, DR Congo has 11.5 million people and no amusement parks whatsoever. Actually, there are none in the country at all.

Bandung, Indonesia has 8.5 million people (larger than Bangkok, Thailand), but no outdoors theme parks. A couple of mall parks appear to be running, though.

RCDB has no hits for Busan, South Korea. Wikipedia lists it as having 8.2 million people, and a thriving economy. Wait, upon revision it seems like RCDB uses the spelling "Pusan". Still no operating parks with operating coasters, apart from one which appears to have a knock-off Zamperla, last attended by RCDB contributors in 1998. Sounds strange for a country so developed as South Korea?

And indeed, it seems like there are no proper parks (only what appears to be paintball/go kart venues with backlot coasters) at all in Houston, USA. 6.5 million people, and all the parks are defunct. That sounds really strange considering the amusement park culture of that country. Cities like Surabaya, Indonesia; Karachi, Pakistan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Bogota, Colombia appear to have a more thriving theme park scene. What went wrong?


Also, it appears that with a wide enough definition for what constitutes an amusement park, you can find them in most cities. Even Luanda, Angola. But no matter how I searched on RCDB, I could not find a single park in the country of Ethiopia, which has around 100 million people (12th or 14th largest in the world, depending on which Wikipedia page you cite). The same goes for DR Congo, as mentioned above (82 million people) and Kenya (50 million). I think those are the three largest countries (by some margin!) that don't have amusement parks at all.
Manila has Enchanted Kingdom not far outside, Star City right in the city and a few mall parks. Enchanted Kingdom and Star City are "major" enough really considering its not exactly a wealthy area.

Busan has Tongdo Fantasia an easy bus ride away. Also, Kyungju World, a much more major park, is very easy day trip material. It would be about an hour's drive or about 90 minutes using buses.
 

Mack

Mega Poster
With Korea, you have to remember that the country is about 3/4 the size of the state of Ohio and about 1/3 the size of the UK (and about 3/5 the size of England alone) -- and on top of that, half the population is in the Seoul metropolitan area.
 

TMCoasters

Mega Poster
I feel like SFNE is a bit of a stretch for Boston. We never went there from Boston. The only time I went was from Worcester, MA. SFNE is a good couple hours away and isn't really that well-known in Boston, but I suppose you could count it. IMO it's kind of a stretch, though. It's also a stretch to call SFNE major.
SFNE is definitely major... Two of the best coasters on Earth. I wouldn't say it's close enough to Boston to be considered a Boston park though.
 
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