This is another topic that sprung out of a Discord discussion. Maybe it should be in Q and A, but since I feel there is no straightforward answer, I'll put it here instead.
The topic in a nutshell: Between 1990 and 2005-ish, the UK had around a dozen parks that built coasters that would feature among the largest or most thrilling in the country. None of them were quite on the level of Alton or Thorpe, but big custom coasters were ordered from well-known manufacturers, some of which had some pretty impressive stats. Nowadays, you only ever hear about custom-designed, non-kiddie rides from Alton, Thorpe, and Blackpool. What the heck happened to the rest?
Some examples:
- Odyssey at Fantasy Island was the third fastest and second tallest coaster in the UK when it opened in 2002. Three years earlier, it had also built a custom Vekoma with fairly impressive stats: 46 m tall and a speed of 100 km/h. Odyssey and Millennium are still the third and fourth tallest coasters in the UK, and Odyssey remains the second-tallest full-circuit Inverted coaster built to date. Between the two, a Reverchon Spinner clone was opened in 2000. The only coaster addition to the park since Odyssey is an identical, semi-permanent replacement for the Spinner, which was dismantled and sent to Margate in 2015.
- Oakwood built Megafobia in 1996 and followed it up with the world's then-largest Eurofighter, Speed, in 2006. Since then? A second-hand Pinfari of indeterminable age, and a kiddie coaster RCDB has no information about.
- Flamingo Land seemed to enter the fray in 2006 with Kumali, a custom Vekoma SLC, and a handful of other coasters added in the following years. They got less and less impressive as time went on, and it's been five years since the last one now - which was a Zamperla Volare.
- Drayton Manor used to be famous for Shockwave and G Force. Neither of which were top contenders on the world coaster scene, but pretty sizable and unique both on a UK and European scale. Since then? A kiddie coaster and a family boomerang, currently 10 and 7 years old, respectively.
- Lightwater Valley. Need I say more? Built the world's longest coaster somehow in 1991. The follow-up in 2001 was a little less impressive, a Reverchon spinner clone. And since then? A Big Apple the park built in 2003 and rebranded in 2014.
- Southport Pleasureland once could afford a brand-new Vekoma 689 m SLC in 1999. This was never a world beater coaster by any means, but pretty large for the UK scene, passing the 100-foot height mark. Somehow Southport also acquired a secondhand wooden wild mouse in 2000. Then it went all south. It currently operates a Big Apple and a Pinfari Looper, the latter of which it got second-hand from a small park in West Norway of all places. Said park threw it out back in the day to make room for a Reverchon Spinner.
- Loudoun Castle and Dreamland Margate were also home to fairly large coasters, if only temporary, owing to their business model. Still, they put up coasters with inversions from time to time, which is a very rare sight nowadays.
UK, what the heck happened to your park industry? Okay, none of these were world beaters (maybe except the ones at Fantasy Island), but at least there used to be almost a dozen parks that built coasters that could be said to belong to the best and biggest in the country, or even in Europe. Now there seems to be three parks left you can expect anything like that from, and I only include BPB because of Icon, its only brand-new coaster since 1994 and only the second coaster built there since the turn of the millennium. Meanwhile, the coaster scenes in other countries such as Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark still go strong.
What happened to the market that could justify this investment level? Was it all a bubble? Did the parks with money run out of room once they had made their big purchases? Have everyone really fared that bad financially since the 2007 crisis? And where are they headed in the future? Did UK-ers just stop going to parks altogether? Is the domestic market doomed in the long term?
When I look at the kind of rides built in the UK in the nineties and early noughties, there's no wonder why a community like CF could spring up and thrive. Everybody seems to have had a home park with nifty, recent additions and seemingly bright ambitions. Since 2010, there's literally just Big Apples, Reverchon Spinners, and second-hand (or third-hand or fourth-hand) family coasters anywhere to be found outside the big three, and not a custom layout in sight since that Thomas Land ride Drayton built in 2010. What the heck happened in the UK that didn't happen elsewhere?
The topic in a nutshell: Between 1990 and 2005-ish, the UK had around a dozen parks that built coasters that would feature among the largest or most thrilling in the country. None of them were quite on the level of Alton or Thorpe, but big custom coasters were ordered from well-known manufacturers, some of which had some pretty impressive stats. Nowadays, you only ever hear about custom-designed, non-kiddie rides from Alton, Thorpe, and Blackpool. What the heck happened to the rest?
Some examples:
- Odyssey at Fantasy Island was the third fastest and second tallest coaster in the UK when it opened in 2002. Three years earlier, it had also built a custom Vekoma with fairly impressive stats: 46 m tall and a speed of 100 km/h. Odyssey and Millennium are still the third and fourth tallest coasters in the UK, and Odyssey remains the second-tallest full-circuit Inverted coaster built to date. Between the two, a Reverchon Spinner clone was opened in 2000. The only coaster addition to the park since Odyssey is an identical, semi-permanent replacement for the Spinner, which was dismantled and sent to Margate in 2015.
- Oakwood built Megafobia in 1996 and followed it up with the world's then-largest Eurofighter, Speed, in 2006. Since then? A second-hand Pinfari of indeterminable age, and a kiddie coaster RCDB has no information about.
- Flamingo Land seemed to enter the fray in 2006 with Kumali, a custom Vekoma SLC, and a handful of other coasters added in the following years. They got less and less impressive as time went on, and it's been five years since the last one now - which was a Zamperla Volare.
- Drayton Manor used to be famous for Shockwave and G Force. Neither of which were top contenders on the world coaster scene, but pretty sizable and unique both on a UK and European scale. Since then? A kiddie coaster and a family boomerang, currently 10 and 7 years old, respectively.
- Lightwater Valley. Need I say more? Built the world's longest coaster somehow in 1991. The follow-up in 2001 was a little less impressive, a Reverchon spinner clone. And since then? A Big Apple the park built in 2003 and rebranded in 2014.
- Southport Pleasureland once could afford a brand-new Vekoma 689 m SLC in 1999. This was never a world beater coaster by any means, but pretty large for the UK scene, passing the 100-foot height mark. Somehow Southport also acquired a secondhand wooden wild mouse in 2000. Then it went all south. It currently operates a Big Apple and a Pinfari Looper, the latter of which it got second-hand from a small park in West Norway of all places. Said park threw it out back in the day to make room for a Reverchon Spinner.
- Loudoun Castle and Dreamland Margate were also home to fairly large coasters, if only temporary, owing to their business model. Still, they put up coasters with inversions from time to time, which is a very rare sight nowadays.
UK, what the heck happened to your park industry? Okay, none of these were world beaters (maybe except the ones at Fantasy Island), but at least there used to be almost a dozen parks that built coasters that could be said to belong to the best and biggest in the country, or even in Europe. Now there seems to be three parks left you can expect anything like that from, and I only include BPB because of Icon, its only brand-new coaster since 1994 and only the second coaster built there since the turn of the millennium. Meanwhile, the coaster scenes in other countries such as Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark still go strong.
What happened to the market that could justify this investment level? Was it all a bubble? Did the parks with money run out of room once they had made their big purchases? Have everyone really fared that bad financially since the 2007 crisis? And where are they headed in the future? Did UK-ers just stop going to parks altogether? Is the domestic market doomed in the long term?
When I look at the kind of rides built in the UK in the nineties and early noughties, there's no wonder why a community like CF could spring up and thrive. Everybody seems to have had a home park with nifty, recent additions and seemingly bright ambitions. Since 2010, there's literally just Big Apples, Reverchon Spinners, and second-hand (or third-hand or fourth-hand) family coasters anywhere to be found outside the big three, and not a custom layout in sight since that Thomas Land ride Drayton built in 2010. What the heck happened in the UK that didn't happen elsewhere?
