California's GAm Invertigo to be REMOVED!!!

[6Flags4Evr]

This came as a shocker. I was on Theme Park Review's home page and the first topic to pop up was this. Aparently the coaster is to be removed and moved to a different Cedar Fair park. Cedar Fair claims the ride is to be removed for some future development.

This is something that should be very interesting to watch and keep eyes and ears open to what the future holds for the park.

[FParker185]

Real news from an official source:
http://www.cagreatamerica.com/news/deta ... em_id=1069

[monsterfan99]

Odd thing to do to the park, but it's dying anyways. Might have to book my flight out there for this summer.

[FParker185]

I'd say that's probably a wise course of action. With the whole 49ers thing going the way it's going, I don't see that park still existing say 5 years down the road. And even if it is still there, there won't be much there worth riding, not that there is now other than maybe Top Gun.

[BLADE]

I just came across this the other day. I've wondered why Marriott's chose Santa Clara to build the other Great America and it led me to do some research recently. This kind of answers that question.

http://santaclaraca.gov/index.aspx?page=515

I've looked at this parks history as being unfortunate and what could have been. The location Marriott's chose does not seem to fit in with what they did with Gurnee, and what they tried to do with the DC park. The northern California area is really not that much different in layout than the Southern WI/Northern Illinois area, in where populations are located. Had Marriotts stayed with this philosophy, they should have considered building in the Vallejo area, where SF Discovery Kingdom is located. It is perfectly located between Sacramento and the southern tip of the metro bay area, San Jose, at 63 miles each way. The supporting cities of Stockton, Modesto, and Fresno are similiar to Madison, Rockford, and Peoria in distance. It seem like the location Marriotts chose, would be like putting the Gurnee park in Gary Indiana. It would be much less desirable to travel that extra distance from Milwaukee and have to drive through Chicago traffic. Marriotts didn't seem like they could make up their mind on whether they wanted a regional park or a destination park.
In 1970, the Sacramento metro area had 800,000 people with excellent growth. SF/Oakland around 6.1 million, San Jose had 370,000, but was exploding, and Vallejo around 60,000, which would have made it capable of staffing a park. The Solano county fair is located right next to SFDK. It draws a significant amount of people for the various events it hosts. This can only help an amusement park survive.
I wonder if this location could have given the park the attendance boost it needed to be profitable for Marriotts. Even a 10% boost would have made profits much larger because overhead and operating expenses should have remained the same.

It's really a shame Marriotts wasn't more patient with this park. In that time frame from 1976 to 1984, there was double digit inflation and high interest rates. The economy was in terrible shape. Better days were ahead and yet the park was still profitable. The property wouldn't have been subdivided and have all the problems with neighbors. It could have dominated that market today, especially it it could have kept any other significant competitors from coming in. I agree, I think this parks days are numbered. 5 years or less.

[BP317]

As John Graff, former president of IAAPA once said: "I have never fully-understood how anybody makes money in this business, at least a large percentage of them. First you have a short season for most, and if the weather doesn't cooperate, it is shorter. It is a labor and capital intensive industry and a helluva lot of competition for the guests nickel. Even back in the days when a lot of the receipts may have gone unreported to Uncle Sam, it must have been tough, but it seems like an impossible challenge now."

I'm sure the park was successful but the constant CAPEX investments it takes to build attendance, especially at a new park when you don't bring in revenues for more than half the year, I think Marriott just lost interest in the theme park business.

[BLADE]

Blackstone paid $2.7 billion for the Busch parks last year. It's tough, but I'm sure there's money to be made if you know what you are doing.

[monsterfan99]

^There is, but name value is the big issue. No matter where Hard Rock Park was, it would never be a smash hit due to the lack of name value. To overcome that, the park has to overspend and as Dr. Seeker says in the Dinosaur pre-show "and that's not good." If Orlando Thrill Park ever opens with the insane ride line-up, it is Dead on Arrival for the reputation reason alone.

Mr. Gaff is dead on and it's starting to show. Chain after chain and park after park have been bitting the dust in the last 40 years. The way we live our lives now is part of the reason but debt is the other. The sheer amount of extra people and visits a park needs to get make back the millions they spend are insane. It's also the reason for the huge shift in water parks and how they make a huge attendance different with almost no real cost.

Even today you end up with situations like Kings Island where a $22 million dollar ride is added and attendance goes down. I'd bet they never recoup their investment on Diamondback no matter how amazing or popular the ride is. As enthusiast we suffer from lack of rides but it makes sense. If the mega rides do not help the bottom line, why add them ?

[6Flags4Evr]

Rumor has it now that the coaster may be headed toward Dorney Park in 2012. Hopefully this rumor isn't true. I think a different Cedar Fair park could definitly benifit the coaster better than Dorney. Mostly Valleyfair but that's just my opinion.

[CoastsToCoasters]

Dorney is the most talked about right now. Some have mentioned Kings Dominion, which would be odd but it would just add another thrill to their lineup of big s*** they've received. I could see it doin oddly well at KD.

But if DP adds it, they will be the exact same as we were (tech) back in 2001 and so on with Three totally different inverted coasters... BTR, V2, Dejavu. They'll have Talon, Possessed, & Invertigo. Haha

I said "tech" cause we also had SUF while we had Dejavu. So did we "tech" have 4 inverted coasters? Haha

[Coaster Justin]

^
I read that earlier and thought why Dorney? Why not Valleyfair or Michigan's Adventure which could use Major Attractions. (Valleyfair's last coaster was 07, Michigan and Dorney were 08.)

[FParker185]

Invertigo would be a very nice addition for Valleyfair! Pretty dissmilar from their Impulse, and the capacity of the ride would fit in well for VF! being a smaller park. Putting it in at Dorney that already has 2 inverts makes about as much sense as putting a 30 year old drop tower into a park that already has 2 S&S towers. MiAdv would be to similar to their last new coaster, the SLC.

[6Flags4Evr]

MAJOR UPDATE!

Dorney Park has just sumitted plans to the local township for a 138ft ride (exact height of Invertigo) to be built for the 2012 season. Looks like Dorney might very well be the new home for Invertigo. Sorry Valleyfair .

[tp41190]

I was snooping around some pages and found out it's actually going to go to Kings Island.

[FParker185]

Dueling Invertigo's.... I like it!

unfortunately....
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/eastpen ... 5707.story

[Necropolis]

ok Im gonna act amateur here for a sec but Darn!!! I thought we were gonna get this coaster. Its def too late for us to get a new coaster this year anyway. Ok Im gonna stop complaining about our park not getting a new coaster. Its kinda starting to sound childish almost in a way or cliche. lol

[BLADE]

^ We aren't a Cedar Fair park. That's one big reason why it is not coming here!

[6Flags4Evr]

I wonder if this will turn into the "Chang" situation we went through? Think about it. Dorney is now the so called "denstination" for Invertigo and they already have land clearing for the ride just like we did for Chang. Before you know it, pieces of Inverigo lets say a blue support and a piece of catwalk from the lift will arrive at the park and be sitting behind Steel Force and everyone will assume Dorney is the "official" new home for the ride. Now when Dick Kinzel retires, the new CEO will come in and say "Oh no! Valleyfair will benifit from the ride better!" and before people can blink the plans for the ride change entirly and Invertigo is "stollen" from Dorney. Then Dorney fans cry and say "Don't worry, 2013 will be our year!"

[FParker185]

That is always a legitimate possibility albeit unlikely.

[6Flags4Evr]

Dorney Park has now been approved to build a new inverted coaster says the village. Dorney however has not confirmed it's Invertigo but said it's an attraction from another Cedar Fair park. More info is said to be realesed this summer about the coaster.

[6Flags4Evr]

There is a photo of some of Invertigo's train on a truck headed toward dorney park that can be found on News Plus Notes. Dorney Fans start getting excited!

[FParker185]

I don't imagine anyone within a 300 mile radius of Dorney is going to be excited about getting the parts of an Invertigo that was removed from it's original park due to an accident.. They are probably marginally more excited about the used standup about 90 miles down the road. Hopefully they paint it to match the last new addition, their 30+ year old drop tower