Room for a little one?

[slappy mcguire]

With talk of there being no Theme park coming to the Isle of Man, I have a twofold question. Could the UK accommodate another theme park, and if so, where is the conurbation that could best support it, and if it was say the Borders or somewhere similar, what could be done to best shield it from external factors, such as the weather?

 

[Kebab]

I'm sure we've had a topic like this before, but surely the UK could accomodate another theme park, it's just that it's an extremely expensive country to actually run one.

I always place bets around the Midlands really, because it's easiest to access from around the entire country, there's plenty of countryside and space which could be made to great use when building a theme park, and often located a distance away from any towns or villages so the restrictions are far less enforced (asides from Alton Towers, but the restrictions made that park a masterpiece in all fairness).

With the external factors such as the weather, and commonly wind issues with some of the rides and rollercoasters, little can be done. Pretty much every park in the UK cope with little issues as so, if it rains then it's no big deal, just a small possibility of closing a few rides. You could build an indoor theme park like the one in Las Vegas, but that just sounds far too expensive, and I don't think it offers the same freedom as an outdoor park. With the wind issues, barriers are often used (look at Silver Star), but in the Midlands it might not be a massive problem, it's normally towards the coastline.

It'd be great to see another theme park in the UK, just can't see one for quite a while. :?

 

[T0M]

Merlin were approached by the island's government to look into it, they will have instantly dismissed it.

If having 7 million people within a two-hour drive is the criterea then I'm not sure any more locations are suitable in the UK, without being too close to Alton Towers or Thorpe Park.

If they were to buy/built another park then I would suspect it would be strikingly different to the one it is next to. Given that we have a thrill capital (Thorpe) and a family/childrens capital (Chessington) close to London, I can't see anything being built there. I consider Alton Towers to be a mixture of both thrill and family/children so perhaps there could be a 'thrill capital of the north' constructed. The north west could be a possibility as it is a densley populated area - but there is already BPB/Camelot/others there. The north east will NEVER happen as it is too isolated by Merlin's apparent standards.

As has been said on here or elsewhere (I forget), I think smaller themed attractions (Legoland Manchester) could be thei future direction. However, as Flamingo Land has proved, the roughty toughty northerners crave thrilling rides so who knows!

Granted, I've sort of focused on a Merlin view here, but I think the same applies to any large company coming in from overseas. I also think a new indpendently-owned park is unlikely at the minute, barring a bored billionaire splashing out.

 

[Gangster4Life]

I reckon a theme park on the outskirts of Manchester could do well.

 

[jokerman]

The place that has the population near it is somewhere between Manchester and Sheffield, but that's almost all Peak District, so building there is not possible.

Really, the money required to start a park of any standard from scratch isn't around at the moment. We'll be waiting a while before another park comes along.

 

[slappy mcguire]

Can't see another park ever coming to London or the Midlands again, the density of population is already well served by parks there (think the decline of the American Adventure, to illustrate this). Personally I suspect only the North East and North west have capacity left, possibly Newcastle or Liverpool. Carlisle may be a suggestion, but I just don't see there being enough population there.

The next new park, whatever it proves to be is likely to be spawned from either an exiting country park, such as Whitehouse in Morpeth, or a country estate, like Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield. The reason I asked about things like weatherproofing was more about ride choices, in the way DLRP has a higher than average number of Dark rides and indoor rides.

 

[slappy mcguire]

double post. *silly computer*

 

[Inverse]

I think the Mayor of Weston Super Mare had it right wanting a Disney, build one there or down in the South West.

 

[jokerman]

South west doesn't have the population, that's for sure. If you were to build a park/resort of the same quality as Disney then you would be able to get the people going there, but the chances of a park that good just springing up at the moment are very low.

 

[furie]

Yep... Smaller parks are popping up and doing well. Twinlakes and Wonderland for example are thriving in the East Midlands. these are both easily in the Alton Towers catchment area.

They're different markets though and it's the market American Adventure tried to move to. I think pricing and "reputation" nailed the lid closed on AA though. If people aren't sure if a place is open, and expect a big park with big park prices only with rides removed - people wont show.

Jokerman is right that if Disney or Universal made a "world class" sized park, then people would flock to it no matter where it was. For the rest of the country though, I think that infrastructure and market saturation is the key problem against any other "big" park (LWV content size and up).

Hopefully we'll carry on seeing the smaller parks do well and see some of these "farm" type parks expand too. However, I just can't see anything other than smaller family parks really making any kind of real headway.

 

[slappy mcguire]

stupid

 

[slappy mcguire]

Computer!

sorry for the multi-posts...

I sometimes wonder whether some of the larger parks will eventually swallow up smaller ones, to kinda reproduce the Disney multi-park model. If for example, Merlin swallowed up Drayton, and sold it as the 'day 2 park for Alton visitors, I wonder how that would affect both parks, or maybe acquired Twinlakes, and marketed it as Alton JUNIOR, with in mind the same purpose.

The UK themepark industry is quite an odd one; it tends to reinvent itself every thirty years or so (remember Alton, LWV and many others are all approximately thirty years old), and with the economic climate being somewhat responsive to entrepreneurial ideas, I sometimes wonder if the Farm parks may find themselves growing faster than anyone expected, as farmers unable to make headway in traditional ways, turn to the tourist industry.

A good case in point is a farm park near me, Adventure Valley in Durham, which just opened this year, charging about £8 per head; there is a dearth of rides at the 175 acre site, some of which they charge for additionally), but the park has found itself completely unprepared for the volume of visitors, running out of food, and ridiculous queues for even things such as a barrel train. Sooner or later there will be one that becomes a licence to print money and that will be an interesting turn in events.

The very mention btw of Lightwater Valley annoys me; bad planning, bad luck, and a lack of funds have seen a park that has the capability to be a big hitter completely derailed; huge catchment area, 5 mins of the A1, a decent size and decent surroundings should see attendances getting close to 1 million, but to get less than a third of that is unforgivable.

The reason Merlin is so far ahead is money, and love them or loathe them, vision.

 

[Snoo]

Next time slappy.. don't hit reload when it doesn't submit right away. Just make sure you copy and paste a big post before submitting. It will get rid of those pesky double posts..

 

[shane790_0]

I think the North East is the only 'free' area for a new park...... Liverpool could work if/when Camelot closes

 

[slappy mcguire]

I thought Liverpool too, but don't think it is dependant on Camelot, more that may be the death knell for the park. The north east would be a good choice IF a decent proportion of the rides were indoors, or had covered queuelines.

 

[gavin]

I'm not seeing all the fuss about the weather at all. The UK is tiny; there's no drastic difference in the weather between basically anywhere that parks exist now or areas that are being discussed here.

Every park, in every country, has to deal with weather issues of some kind or another.

 

[shane790_0]

I always thought the weather was pretty much the same across the country untill last year when I went and worked down in Winchester for 3 months....... Im based in the NorthWest and I would leave the north (peeing it down) hit Birmingham and it would be overcast and by the time I hit Winchester it was like the south of France! It was like that for the whole of the 3months I was working there (going home at weekends)

 

[slappy mcguire]

^I had the same in reverse; All my southern park visits this year were bathed in sunshine, contrasting to a One in three ratio for my Northern visits...