A Greenbay amusement park that hasn't had a coaster since 1936 is in negotiations with the owners of 2 wooden coasters. They are pursuing the one that has historical value. Me thinks it is the Starliner coaster at Cypress Gardens.
From previous rumors, there is now only one thing I like in Green Bay
(sings)If you want to be my Chang-y, doesn 't matter if your black or white, or brown, or blue, or green, or red, or orange, or mauve, or yellow... 2010 trips- Dollywood, SFGAm, maybe SoCal
It would give me another reason to go to Green Bay. I think it would be cool if they did. I wonder what state would have the highest wooden/steel coaster ratio. It would be a tie between WI and IN.
^ Oddly enough, the winner is West Virgina as they have 2 woodies and no steel coasters. 2nd place goes to Iowa with 4 woodies and 2 steel.
The park has wanted a coaster for a few years, so good for them. Would give me a reason to visit the park, which I have heard nothing but great things about.
The best things in Bay beach are the scat and the slide, everything else is carnival regulars, nothing worth it if you aren't there to visit family
(sings)If you want to be my Chang-y, doesn 't matter if your black or white, or brown, or blue, or green, or red, or orange, or mauve, or yellow... 2010 trips- Dollywood, SFGAm, maybe SoCal
I grew up going to Bay Beach, so this is GREAT news! Any type of family coaster will fit right in. Geauga Lake's Big Dipper would really be amazing, but I'll be happy with anything.
So outside of the name and blueprints, what are they even getting with this ride? The track was collapsing and the trains were taken by one of the owners a few years ago.
^ That's what I was wondering. This is our local government at it's best- overspending for basically just the name and rights to build a REPLICA of the Zippin Pippin. That's basically what it's going to be. It's not like it's going to be the actual coaster that Elvis rode- they don't even have the actual train he sat in, so what's the big deal? If they like the layout of that coaster, they should've just hired a designer to build a similar layout from scratch, probably for less money, or just moved another used, less expensive coaster to Green Bay. Call it Pippin Zippin or something like that, so they don't have to pay for naming rights. To say they are moving this historic coaster to Green Bay is very misleading. They are probably laughing themselves silly in Memphis that the idiots in Green Bay would pay $3 million for naming rights for a coaster that's just going to be scrapped anyway.
Green bay was originally under the impression it was salvageable, and agreed to buy it if financing went through. I believe they paid around 100k, then found out all the lumber is garbage. The city thought they could have a running coaster for a few hundred k including install and upgrades. Now they get to replace the wood, etc. From what I understand the track will be used as much as possible, and I think the trains were in the sale. Because of topography, they would have had to rebuild it prety much from scratch, so it's the same either way.
rizash wrote:Green bay was originally under the impression it was salvageable, and agreed to buy it if financing went through. I believe they paid around 100k, then found out all the lumber is garbage. The city thought they could have a running coaster for a few hundred k including install and upgrades. Now they get to replace the wood, etc. From what I understand the track will be used as much as possible, and I think the trains were in the sale. Because of topography, they would have had to rebuild it prety much from scratch, so it's the same either way.
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Well I don't know about the track, but i know that the train isn't included, since it was won at an auction a couple years ago by a country singer who wanted it for a museum. Actually, he won the whole coaster, but only wanted the train because Elvis rode it.
^Correct on the trains. At this point, they could have just bought the unused wooden coaster at the new Legoland for the same price and had a ready to use coaster.
monsterfan99 wrote:^Correct on the trains. At this point, they could have just bought the unused wooden coaster at the new Legoland for the same price and had a ready to use coaster.
I Agree. There was also a nice wooden coaster in Pigeon Forge, TN, right by an outlet mall that I remember seeing back in 2001. It only ran for I think a couple years, and size-wise, that would've been perfect for what they were looking for. I forgot the name of it, but I believe it was dismantled and sold to some park in Canada, where it sits in pieces and now it looks like it won't be set up after all. That would've been perfect- not too far to transport, it's already in pieces, ready to be set up. If they got that one, they could've possibly had it set up and running before the end of this summer.
monsterfan99 wrote:^Correct on the trains. At this point, they could have just bought the unused wooden coaster at the new Legoland for the same price and had a ready to use coaster.
I Agree. There was also a nice wooden coaster in Pigeon Forge, TN, right by an outlet mall that I remember seeing back in 2001. It only ran for I think a couple years, and size-wise, that would've been perfect for what they were looking for. I forgot the name of it, but I believe it was dismantled and sold to some park in Canada, where it sits in pieces and now it looks like it won't be set up after all. That would've been perfect- not too far to transport, it's already in pieces, ready to be set up. If they got that one, they could've possibly had it set up and running before the end of this summer.
Apparently the coaster was sold to someone in Mexico in 2006. Amazing the ride ran for only 14 months.
I believe they are paying $10,000 for naming rights, blueprints and salvageable parts, rest of what Green Bay is spending is for construction of the new ride.
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073