Kentucky Kingdom Closure and Relocation Thread

[rct2wizard360]

http://www.sixflags.com/national/footer ... ngdom.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

*yawns*

Yup.

[viper1988]

You beat me!

[rct2wizard360]

Haha only by a minute. I saw it coming.

[david]

I knew this was coming. So, Who thinks we're getting Bonzai Beech? What will happen to T2? I hope we get something from their park, including Chang. Maybe a new flat?!

[monsterfan99]

This sucks. I was planning to go opening day this season for a repeat visit. However, no shock at all.

[david]

If they actually want to reopen the park, this shows they had no intention of closing it earlier on. :/

Who's getting Deluge?
I want TidalWave back, Chang, and as many flats as possible, maybe we'll finally fill the Trailblazer spot.

[neil]

I actually wouldn't be suprised if Great America get their Ferris Wheel. We don't have one, and the the park's facebook page said that County Fair Games was being removed for something. Another ride could go in the old Splash Water Falls spot. We'll have to wit and see.

[david]

Could the ferris wheel go in swf? I would love to have that 5D attraction which is what is supposidly going there. Where could any other attractions go?

If we get TidalWave back, amazing! I don't miss a ferris wheel, so I wouldn't care.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Chitown]

It's ashame they could'nt come to an agreement as the current waterpark and the 2011 expansion would have been a decent sized waterpark.

As for the dry rides, you could tell where they were heading already. Slow removal of them.

Oh well!!! I enjoyed the few times I visited but didn't plan on returning again with all the closings.

[david]

Really want to know which or if were getting any rides!

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[monsterfan99]

I fully suspect all the coasters but the roller skater and Road Runner Express to hit the chopping block. However, I'd love to see the park get the Breakdance.

[david]

^ I have to disagree, not about the BreakDance though. I think they will all be refurbed, painted, themed to something marketable, and sent out to new parks for 2011 gifts. SFA needs a new coaster, maybe they could get Chang, and another park could get RRE and make it a TDKC.

[[jonrev]]

While this does not really surprise me, I'm glad I went in 2006 before things began heading down a death spiral, I think the park finally lost whatever reputation it had after the whole S:TOP incident.

Receiving the Ferris Wheel, or if we're lucky: The Greezed-Viper Lightnin'-Wave, would be fantastic, however.

[Coaster Justin]

My Guess on Relocations:

T2- The Great Escape ?
GL- The Great Escape / SFAm
RS- SFStL
RRE- SFOG


Flat Rides
SFGAdv / SFMM

Kids Rides
SFOT / SFOG / SFFT

[david]

^Nothing for your Alder Madder? I feel epicly neglected.

[onyxhotel08]

Whoever said we should or might get Tidal Wave back is crazy. I don't think a park has ever moved a ride and then brought it back. Especially since Tidal Wave is not a young ride. Could the signs have been seen by SF earlier? Is that why they did not plan Bonzai beach till 2011 season? And why Chang was removed so fast? Man, loads of possibilities...

[Cryptkeeper]

SFGAm HAS to get the mouse!!! It fits in right where SSA was located.

SFGAm is going to have the..BEST..MOUSE..COLLECTION..EVER!!!!!

but seriously (though I am somewhat being serious...)

Watch this:
http://www.whas11.com/home/Kentucky-Kingdom-Park-to-Close-83593392.html

The mayor's office isn't convinced..., but me thinks it's a done deal.

Oh, and stay tuned for the surprise guest at the end of the video clip! The fake sad voice really made me crack up. That dude I'm sure is partying tonight.

[UWW-10]

Well...who didn't forsee this coming? At least the "anniversay" gifts for 2011 make sense, though I would really think twice about relocating some of the rides/attractions as I would question some of them.

Besides that point, Six Flags should have never signed into any kind of lease with the KY Fair Board in the first place. It always seemed like the Fair Board said "jump" and SF responded "how high?". It was just the "odd duck" in the company...it's sad that another park has went to the wayside but the signs and evidence have been there....for a while.

[FParker185]

Well Premeir parks bought the park when it was in bankruptcy well before the Six Flags days. Then when the Over Texas stuff went down and Premeir ended up buying all of Six Flags, SFKK was the only park that without any modification had a ride lineup even remotely worthy of being called Six Flags. I don't think Six Flags had any problem with the lease except for the fact that they had no parking lot of their own, which is a huge source of revenue. Honestly I don't think they ever really planned to build Banzai Beach, mainly because it's weird for them to announce the name of a future expansion without A. a formal press announcement and B. all the artwork and plans that accompany it.

I think SF knew from the start they wanted out of the lease and they knew if they broke the lease they may not have had enough time to disassemble Chang, so they came up with a convenient cover story. No major chain, or any company for that matter would make a move of this magnitude without a lot of planning and forethought. Also in the past few years SFKK was the only park not to see really any investment at all, other parks even if they didn't get new rides have had infrastructure upgrades, rides being painted and stuff of the like. I know Chang saw paint within the past 4-5 years or so, but T2 needed it badly, the Ferris Wheel looked like crap, rides were being torn out with no replacement like Chaos, Rainbow, drop tower. Now obviously the drop tower had to come out, but that space didn't have to sit empty either.

In the end this is a huge windfall for Holiday World. Now they are the only amusement park near Louisville being about an hour away. They have a good waterpark, and the waterpark was always the most popular part of SFKK. HW will probably be able to start expanding now at an accelerated pace and maybe complete the park sooner than they thought. (the hard ride park will wrap entirely around the waterpark, similar to SFKK)

[forddude1416]

I wonder, just because sf doesnt want the land, maybe some local company will keep some type of park there. I'd really hate for all of that to go to waste. I mean yeah it was pretty much the red headed step child of the sf chain but its still one of the children none the less.

[david]

If any SF parks don't have a HH yet, I think this whole water park, and Bonzai Beech will go to some park that doesn't have a HH. Although, I would want Deluge. I think we'll be luck if we leave there with any rides. Since they no longer own the land, wouldn't it be impossible to remove stuff from the park, unless they put it in?

[FParker185]

Actually, one thought comes to mind for the very first relocation, and I'd say there's a good chance of this probably almost immediately...

SFKK's PR Lady comes to SFGAm

[Ilovthevu']

What I would want the most which isn't much (We now have a non-spinning mouse coaster so that's out.) is the theming from Penguin's Blizzard River to retransform Roaring Rapids, and the Reverchon Himilaya. To me Himilaya's aren't that great, but it's something.

I think Greezed Lightning or Tidal Wave is going right to the junk yard. T2 might go to Great Escape, or just be sold because how many parks have Batman the Ride already? I think the Ferris Wheel, Break Dance, and that Zephyr ride (like our Big Easy Balloons) would do good at Magic Mountain as they are low on flats over there. How about the waterpark? They have a Tornado, but SFGAm has one too.

And for the someone that said about County Fair Games being gone, and them putting rides there, I don't really think that's going to happen. I think for County Fair Games, they are only taking out those games that were right in back of the Revolution (The ones that look like they could be moved.), and I don't think the ones that look permament towards the back. Didn't they say they were putting games by the Little Dipper? In that NCC (from that topic), it says they are putting an Icee stand there, and maybe other food stuff I'm guessing.

[onyxhotel08]

“We informed them several times that in the absence of acceptance of our proposal, we would be rejecting the lease by end of business Feb. 4,” Shapiro said. “We never received a response of any kind.”
According to court documents, Six Flags’ lease with the Kentucky State Fair Board was extended to April 9, meaning that was the last day the company could reject a lease or continue it.
Shapiro would not comment on specifics of the lease but said Kentucky Kingdom is a smaller park compared with Six Flags’ 13 other U.S. locations. He said the company also doesn’t share in parking revenue or own the land as it does at its other parks.
Related
Tower of Power ride at Ky. Kingdom
Fright Fest at Kentucky Kingdom
“There’s a lot of revenue streams that we get in other parks that we don’t receive in this park due to the deal points in the lease,” Shapiro said.
A spokesman for Mayor Jerry Abramson said there is still a possibility a new lease could be worked out.
“We’re very hopeful that a new lease can be negotiated and that we can keep Kentucky Kingdom and its jobs in the city,” said Chris Poynter, Abramson’s spokesman.
“Obviously we’re concerned about the loss of jobs and the loss of major tourism attraction to the city,” Poynter said. “There are tens of thousands of people who visit the city each year to come to Six Flags, people of all ages; there’s also hundreds of jobs both full-time and part-time that are at stake.”
Gov. Steve Beshear also said he hoped a deal could still be made. “We hope Six Flags will be able to work with the fair board to find a satisfactory outcome that keeps those jobs in our community,” Beshear said in a statement.
Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June to restructure and eliminate a $2.1 billion debt.
At that time, park President Andy Michaelree said bankruptcy would change nothing at the park. Just a week ago the park had announced plans to hold a job fair to hire 900 seasonal workers for the park’s planned opening April 24.
(3 of 3)


In September Six Flags started moving one of its signature roller coasters, Chang, from the park to make room for a planned expansion of the water park. When Chang opened in 1997, it was promoted as the world’s tallest, longest and fastest roller coaster.


Kentucky Kingdom first opened in 1987 but closed after its first summer. The Larc Co., the original owner, filed for bankruptcy the next year.
Louisville investor Edward Hart bought the park and reopened it in 1990, running it for most of that decade before selling it in 1997 to a company that eventually acquired Six Flags.
Hart said Thursday night that when he bought the park it had an attendance of around 137,000, which rose to nearly 1.3 million by the time he sold it.
Related
Tower of Power ride at Ky. Kingdom
Fright Fest at Kentucky Kingdom
“You spend a good portion of your life building an important asset, you hate to see it close, there’s no question about that,” Hart said.
“This is not a good time for Louisville to lose any economic drivers,” he said.
Kentucky Kingdom received national attention in the summer of 2007 when 13-year-old Kaitlyn Lassiter’s feet were severed by a broken cable while she was on the Superman Tower of Power ride. The ride lifted passengers 177 feet, then dropped them at speeds of more than 50 miles per hour.
The accident hurt attendance at Six Flags parks across the nation. The amusement park reached an undisclosed settlement with the family in November 2008.
Shapiro said the incident had nothing to do with the park’s closing.
Reporter Sean Rose can be reached at (502) 582-4199.

[RobSFGAm]

I agree that that Ferris Wheel moved to SFGAm would be great (and not much cost/investment to move).
I am assuming that like Kiddieland closing, the land owners are going to want to get the land clear out pretty quickly.
There are probably a couple of places, but the SWF area would be a good fit.
I wonder if the clearing by the SFGAm game area (SFGAm Facebook site) is in response to some rides coming from SFKK?
When looking at Google Earth of SFKK when Chang leaving was announced, the ferris wheel caught my eye as a great addition to SFGAm.
Seeing that SFGAm is pretty close in distance to SFKK, SFGAm could get a few other rides.