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M&D's Theme Park goes into Administration

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It's always sad when a park goes into administration, especially one like M&D's that a devoted family has poured its heart and soul into for decades. However, as sad as I am to say it, I'm not overly surprised. The park seemed to really struggle after Tsunami derailed in 2016, and with Tornado being put up for sale recently, I guess the signs were there that the park's financial collapse was imminent.

Maybe a new company might take the park on once the pandemic is over and there's a little more certainty about the future? The site has quite a lot of potential and there's no real competition to speak of in Scotland, so maybe a new owner could come and reopen the park, build it up gradually and then put in something big to get the masses in, sort of like what Tayto Park did with Cu Chulainn?
 
Matt N said:
It's always sad when a park goes into administration, especially one like M&D's that a devoted family has poured its heart and soul into for decades. However, as sad as I am to say it, I'm not overly surprised. The park seemed to really struggle after Tsunami derailed in 2016, and with Tornado being put up for sale recently, I guess the signs were there that the park's financial collapse was imminent.

Maybe a new company might take the park on once the pandemic is over and there's a little more certainty about the future? The site has quite a lot of potential and there's no real competition to speak of in Scotland, so maybe a new owner could come and reopen the park, build it up gradually and then put in something big to get the masses in, sort of like what Tayto Park did with Cu Chulainn?
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Yh that's my hope. My dream though is for a company to buy M&Ds, Camelot site, Pleasure Island site and maybe even some more parks and create a company run parks brand that will compete with the best
 
Me in main Coronavirus topic said:
May be wrong here but I believe M&Ds started as a travelling fairground and the park was used as a base for their travelling rides. At least I know their observation wheel was still travelling as seen it in Cardiff a few times. While it is disappointing the park itself has shut, I wouldn't be surprised to see a return to the travelling circuit for most rides.

Doubt Tornado will be saved though, making it even more annoying that on my singular visit to M&Ds, it was down for maintenance...
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VonRolland said:
Six Flag's Scotland
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That's an insult to most Six Flags parks.

Shame that a load of folks have been made unemployed, especially in times like these when it's very difficult to find alternative employment. But let's face it, it was a glorified fairground with an arcade on the side, and a load of rides that you're not sure if you can trust. In coaster and theme park enthusiast circles, it's no big loss.
 
FarleyFlavors said:
The sheer number of Scottish people I came across last time I was at Flamingo Land would suggest otherwise.
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BPB and Flamingoland do get a fair amount of Scottish visitors being up north. Used to be the same at Frontierland, Pleasureland and Camelot before they closed. I’ve been to M&D’s a few times and it never seemed very busy. Perhaps many Scottish locals prefer to wait and visit more significant parks during half terms etc? Just a thought!
 
FarleyFlavors said:
The sheer number of Scottish people I came across last time I was at Flamingo Land would suggest otherwise.
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To elaborate, there's not really any market reason for a big park to be -in Scotland-. Flamingo Land may have a lot of Scottish visitors, but could it have sustained itself solely on them? Parks of a certain size need to reach a certain number of people to sustain themselves. Scotland is a minor theme park market, but parks close to Scotland can draw guests from there and thrive, provided they also draw guests from elsewhere. Think of the park as the centrepoint of a large circle. A circle drawn in North England and eclipsing parts of Scotland to the north would also eclipse Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield to the south. A circle drawn with the centrepoint between Glasgow and Edinburgh might also eclipse parts of North England to the south, but to the north there's just sparsely populated highland.

Similarly, you see a lot of Norwegians in Legoland Billund, but the place would never have worked if it was located in Norway. There's a reason why Denmark has so many parks and coasters compared to its population, it's because it also draws from the Norwegian market, and to some extent the Swedish one too. It can pull in guests from several countries in all directions. And the competition from the Danish parks makes it difficult to establish any new parks in Norway or the south of Sweden. They would be on the periphery of the draw area of the Danish parks, but not have the same neighbouring demographics to draw guests from.

So yeah, the Scottish theme park market is mostly a regional one, where M&D's may possibly represent the upper size limit for a park, while larger parks further south have better demographics to work with and can thus grow bigger.
 
Pokemaniac said:
To elaborate, there's not really any market reason for a big park to be -in Scotland-. Flamingo Land may have a lot of Scottish visitors, but could it have sustained itself solely on them? Parks of a certain size need to reach a certain number of people to sustain themselves. Scotland is a minor theme park market, but parks close to Scotland can draw guests from there and thrive, provided they also draw guests from elsewhere. Think of the park as the centrepoint of a large circle. A circle drawn in North England and eclipsing parts of Scotland to the north would also eclipse Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield to the south. A circle drawn with the centrepoint between Glasgow and Edinburgh might also eclipse parts of North England to the south, but to the north there's just sparsely populated highland.
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I get what you're saying, but that "circle drawn with the centrepoint between Glasgow and Edinburgh" doesn't have to be particularly large to encompass a sizeable amount of the population, and it wouldn't have to extend to the border. There's 4.28 million in the larger central belt area alone. Plus, Scotland gets a lot of tourists - there's over 2 million overseas visitors per year to Edinburgh alone.
Pokemaniac said:
Similarly, you see a lot of Norwegians in Legoland Billund, but the place would never have worked if it was located in Norway. There's a reason why Denmark has so many parks and coasters compared to its population, it's because it also draws from the Norwegian market, and to some extent the Swedish one too.
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To counter that, how large would a circle centered on Tusenfryd have to be to encompass over 4 million people? Or Kolmården?
Pokemaniac said:
M&D's may possibly represent the upper size limit for a park
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You could well be right, but I reckon a larger (and more decent) park might do okay. I suspect M&Ds isn't the kind of place that gets a lot of repeat business.
 
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