Coaster Hipster
Giga Poster
Long time no see & Happy 2025,
To start the year (and return to this lovely forum) afresh, may I suggest a fan-fiction/alternate history heavy game to kill time before the new season really begin?
I was in part inspired by this earlier thread, with a major difference in scope: what pivotal decisions would you like reversed for either a theme park and/or group and/or supplier. (Hope the mods agree this is worthy enough for a new entry).
#1 Silver Dollar City chooses Arrow to build Wildfire
In our timeline: Despite the positive reception of Tennessee Tornado @ Dollywood, Herschend decides to go with then-market leader Bolliger & Mabillard to build the spiritual follow-up at SDC - Wildfire. The intriguing Arrow looper revival attempted with Tennessee Tornado remains a false dawn.
What IFs?
#2 Arrow never partnered with Vekoma to enable the latter to use its designs
In our timeline: In the late 1970s Arrow strikes a deal with (then) newcomer Vekoma. Arrow allows the Dutch manufacturer to use its track (and presumably) other technology. In exchange, Vekoma-built coasters will use Arrow-supplied trains. By the mid-1990s, Vekoma outgrew this initial partnership and started providing product differentiation with its line of Junior Coaster and especially SLCs - leaving Arrow behind in many regards.
What IFs?
#3 SeaWorld buys Six Flags Ohio (Geauga Lake)
In our timeline: In the early 00s, SeaWorld initially offers Six Flags to purchase the dry park formerly known as Geauga Lake, which happened to sit across the lake SW Ohio. Said dry park had only recently joined the Six Flags umbrella through a topsy-turvy series of acquisitions & reverse mergers.
BUT, Six Flags responds with a counter-offer and bought marine park SeaWorld Ohio to create an infamous & short-lived massive resort (SFWoA). By 2004, this whole investment strategy piled up on Six Flags's already ballooning debt.
So Mr Six's corporation sells its failed Ohio venture to rival Cedar Fair in 2004. Reversing to its initial name Geauga Lake, the park is mercilessly closed down for good only three years later, in 2007.
Six Flags eventually filed for bankruption. Its coaster building spree brutally halted - though RMC ensured a steady stream of more budget-friendly additions & thus more than keeping fan interest in the chain.
What IFs?
What do you think?
What would you do differently in the past 50, 100 years of amusement/theme park business history?
To start the year (and return to this lovely forum) afresh, may I suggest a fan-fiction/alternate history heavy game to kill time before the new season really begin?
I was in part inspired by this earlier thread, with a major difference in scope: what pivotal decisions would you like reversed for either a theme park and/or group and/or supplier. (Hope the mods agree this is worthy enough for a new entry).
#1 Silver Dollar City chooses Arrow to build WildfireIn our timeline: Despite the positive reception of Tennessee Tornado @ Dollywood, Herschend decides to go with then-market leader Bolliger & Mabillard to build the spiritual follow-up at SDC - Wildfire. The intriguing Arrow looper revival attempted with Tennessee Tornado remains a false dawn.
What IFs?
- Could an extra large-scale project have offered Arrow a lifeline sufficient to enable them to survive the costly setbacks of X and Stratosphere's fishhook?
- Could following up Tennessee Tornado with another looper success @ Silver Dollar City revive interest in Arrow for other park buyers?
- (And obviously, should Arrow remain in business, how would that affect Alan Schilke, S&S and RMC's timelines?)
#2 Arrow never partnered with Vekoma to enable the latter to use its designsIn our timeline: In the late 1970s Arrow strikes a deal with (then) newcomer Vekoma. Arrow allows the Dutch manufacturer to use its track (and presumably) other technology. In exchange, Vekoma-built coasters will use Arrow-supplied trains. By the mid-1990s, Vekoma outgrew this initial partnership and started providing product differentiation with its line of Junior Coaster and especially SLCs - leaving Arrow behind in many regards.
What IFs?
- So.. no Boomerangs, no SLC?... at least not the way we know it? (maybe eventually another manufacturer comes across with similar ideas?)
- Without Vekoma benefiting from Arrow know-how to springboard into attraction supplying, how would the European amusement park landscape look with a HUGE gap to fill? (Remember, besides the infamous Boomerangs & SLCs popping up everywhere including in America, Vekoma provided many flagship classic multi-loopers across the old continent, as a sort of counterpart to Arrow's Corkscrew then Megaloopers in the US)
- Could Vekoma still make it into theme parks on their own?
- How would Vekoma output look like completely free of Arrow input from the very start?
- Could Schwarzkopf avoid bankruptcy in 1983/84 as a result?
- If Schwarzkopf remained in business then, would Intamin focus their re-sell/broker to America relationship with Anton Schwarzkopf rather than Giovanola instead?
- Would Arrow have successfully entered the Inverted/Suspended Looping coaster market in place of Vekoma?
#3 SeaWorld buys Six Flags Ohio (Geauga Lake) In our timeline: In the early 00s, SeaWorld initially offers Six Flags to purchase the dry park formerly known as Geauga Lake, which happened to sit across the lake SW Ohio. Said dry park had only recently joined the Six Flags umbrella through a topsy-turvy series of acquisitions & reverse mergers.
BUT, Six Flags responds with a counter-offer and bought marine park SeaWorld Ohio to create an infamous & short-lived massive resort (SFWoA). By 2004, this whole investment strategy piled up on Six Flags's already ballooning debt.
So Mr Six's corporation sells its failed Ohio venture to rival Cedar Fair in 2004. Reversing to its initial name Geauga Lake, the park is mercilessly closed down for good only three years later, in 2007.
Six Flags eventually filed for bankruption. Its coaster building spree brutally halted - though RMC ensured a steady stream of more budget-friendly additions & thus more than keeping fan interest in the chain.
What IFs?
- SeaWorld gradually brings proven successful products from its Williamsburg & Tampa parks. Imagine a SeaWorld Ohio with a B&M Hyper and/or Dive, Inverted or Floorless in place of a currently vacant abandoned plot. (though plans to convert to a public park are announced)
- Would the cash flow from the Six Flags Ohio sale delay or avoid the chain's filing for bankruptcy altogether?
- Would Six Flags have refrained from (in hindsight, perhaps ill-advised) decisions like demolishing & selling Astroworld, or selling all its European locations?
- Assuming SeaWorld Ohio'd be a success, how would that affect Cedar Point's investments from 2001 onwards?
- Side-note, all the second-hand coasters that Cedar Fair parks (Kings Island, Carowinds, etc.) inherited from purchasing Geauga Lake would never come to be?
What do you think?
What would you do differently in the past 50, 100 years of amusement/theme park business history?