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Possible new ride/rollercoaster coming to Thorpe Park in 2019

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I'd have no issue with this topic if it was along the lines of "what do you think Thorpe new coaster will be and what year?" But it's not. It's a blatant attempt to make a rumour out of nothing.

They may well get a new ride in 2019 and it may well be on the Loggers site, but can we be a little more transparent about the difference between credible rumours weaving down and just wild shots in the dark?

Thanks.


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Joey said:
I'd have no issue with this topic if it was along the lines of "what do you think Thorpe new coaster will be and what year?" But it's not. It's a blatant attempt to make a rumour out of nothing.
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A very specific rumour too, if you look at the thread tags...
 
I suppose for all we know they might have knowledge but not want it to come back to them so are pretending to be ignorant, tbf.


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Ian said:
All I need now is "Merlin's investment plans changed after the Smilier incident" and "The guys from Mack were seen there the other day" and I can call Enthusiast Bingo!

Tbh, although I have a little bit of faith in this Merlin investment cycle bollocks that people spout every so often, I think the reality is nobody knows exactly what will happen. I am confident that the Merlin parks are individually allocated a varying sum of cash every year and the nature of the business dictates that every other year or so they must have something big to maintain interest. But this big, big, small, medium, big, small etc whatever stuff seems like bollocks. Mr Varnry probably says to Mr Thorpe or whatever, "In 2020, we're going to give you £20,000,000 to spend". Does that automatically equate to one kick ass coaster? No. It could be spent on several flats or perhaps infrastructure. Yes there is probably a MTDP, but that is just a wish list. In reality, it is a business that has to adapt and react on a frequently changing basis due to cash flow, visitor numbers, sponsorship deals, the wider economy and other external factors. This investment cycle was probably true a decade ago but nowadays it is nonsense and it drives me nuts!

On the surface of things, the opening post is correct. Thorpe Park is due a new coaster and it's been a while since they had one. There might not be any substantial evidence but, yeah, 2019 seems like it could be a possibility. Those who have followed coasters and park companies for years, know that isn't going to happen, but the sentiment is nice.
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Hate to be that guy who beats on a dead conversation, but...

The investment cycle for products (ie rides and attraction) really isn't nonsense and Merlin still try and live by it today. If you ever check out their presentations and reports to investors (linky here - https://merlinentertainments.biz/results-and-presentations - they can throw up interesting tidbits!), it is something which is mentioned time and time again. They go on about "planned investment cycles", "pre-determined capex cycles", etc when referring to the theme parks - it's something which is planned well in advance and by no means a coincidence that the parks cycle round on big, medium and small investments each year.

Things like hotels, infrastructure and such would be separate to the money for 'product investments'. So a 'small' year for a park doesn't necessarily mean they won't see significant investment - for example, this year at Towers is a small year in terms of rides (little CBeebies things), but they've seen a big chunk of investment with the CBeebies Hotel. Similarly with Chessington in 2014 - that would have been a 'medium' investment year for rides (Scorpion Express and Amazu), but they opened up their second hotel and loads of other hotel / infrastructure things.

If you were to combine the two separate things that are invested in (ie products and non-products), the whole investment cycle thing comes across as nonsense, yes. It's a strange way to look at it, but it is there.


As for whether a large sum of money equates to one big ride... Merlin have made it no secret that when it comes to marketing pretty much anything (but especially big things), they need to have a 'killer image' and a marketable slogan to describe the thing. That's what brings about all the (sometimes crazy) world first's Merlin claim, and their constant love of IPs, as 99% of the time they grab the public's attention super easily. It fits with pretty much all of Merlin's investments - some examples: Saw (world's first horror movie themed coaster / steepest freefall drop), Th13teen (world's first psychocoaster nonsense), Flug (Germany's first wing coaster), DBGT (Ghost Train for the 21st Century), Galactica (world's first coaster FULLY DEDICATED to VR), etc... And if you look at all those rides, there will always be one big marketing image you see (and would have saw in the build up) time and time again.

So there's nothing stopping them having a big year where they say invest in 3 or 4 flat rides and merge them into one big area. But that's usually harder to market, in Merlin's way of marketing, than one big ride with a big hit. Not impossible of course; CBeebies Land was a medium sized investment and a huge hit, so something similar to that but with more widespread appeal could go down really well.


The way it seems to work in terms of high investment at the moment is:
Gardaland - 2011, 2015, 2019,...
Thorpe - 2012, 2016, 2020,...
Chessington - 2013, 2017, 2021,... (Gruffalo was a high investment according to Merlin...)

Towers was meant to be 2013, 2017, 2021,... but Smiler's crash happened and sort of threw all the plans out the window, hence why SW8 is 2018. Makes more sense, as that then means Chessington and Towers aren't competing with high product investments on the same year.

The Lego parks follow a similar pattern. Legoland Windsor was meant to be 2015, 2019,... but they didn't get planning permission for Ghost for 2015 so that mucked things over. Though if rumours are to be believed, their next big thing is 2019 so that hasn't really thrown things off track..

Heide was following the 3 year plan still (2011, 2014, 2017 where all high with Krake, Flug and Ghostbusters). In theory, it should follow Chessington's pattern now and the next big thing would be 2021. But if Colossos is dead for good, that might change..

tl;dr - For actual rides and attractions, there's a pre-planned investment cycle which Merlin try to stick to as much as they can. But for overall investment in each place as a resort, there's not.
 
^^ Thorpe still have plenty of room for a new coaster that isn't in the loggers leap area, for one thing they've got that entire island that they built and have done nothing with next to Swarm.

If anyone at Thorpe Park had any kind of competency, their next coaster won't be a dive. For one thing, they already have a "dive" in the form of Saw. For another, anybody whose been to Thorpe has also probably been to Alton, and ridden the original Dive. Building another one in the UK just doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't add anything to Thorpe's lineup. But that being said, this is Merlin, and there doesn't seem to be a competent person making decisions at that company. The UK is screaming for an airtime machine!
 
^^^It wont be for 2019. If it was, construction would have already started. But it had better not be a dive machine. Do you have a source for this information?
 
Coasterblogger said:
BREAKING NEWS LEAKED PERMITS;

According to various sources on the London City Council, or whatever they're called, I forget, Thorpe recently filed permits to build some major new attraction on the Slammer site that would be ready for 2019... and due to there being a 20 foot wide underground tunnel involved, rumours are tumbling around that this will be a B&M Dive coaster. What do you think?!?
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That's not even a convincing attempt at trying to fool people with made up rumours/leaks. Also if you are trying to actually fool people I wouldn't boast about it on the Coaster Bot Discord beforehand. ;)
 
Coasterblogger said:
BREAKING NEWS LEAKED PERMITS;

According to various sources on the London City Council, or whatever they're called, I forget, Thorpe recently filed permits to build some major new attraction on the Slammer site that would be ready for 2019... and due to there being a 20 foot wide underground tunnel involved, rumours are tumbling around that this will be a B&M Dive coaster. What do you think?!?
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*Runnymede Council, nice try.

Edit: oh right it's a confirmed wind up - hopefully you fall down the 20ft tunnel :cool:
 
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