Bye bye Astroworld! - CoasterBuzz

^I was thinking along those terms as well. :-)

-Tina

At least Astroworld isn't A Crow Left of the Murder by Incubus or Six Flags would be paying the city to take the park off its hands. =p

+Danny

^Incubus? Sweet. Great album!

Mamoosh said:
Six Flags selling Astroworld is the equivalent of turning in some old CDs at a used CD store for cash so you can pay off your cell phone bill.

Except your old CDs are worth next to nothing.

Instagram, Ryan Rides on YouTube

Jeffrey R Smith said:
Take the 100 mil you make from selling the land...invest it in any reasonable conservative bond/market fund...there is a good chance you make better returns than operating an amusement park in the short and long term! You also have a hell of a lot less headaches (parking/insurance/lawsuits/etc)! There is a certain cost/benefit ratio in which selling is the reasonable route.
Moosh was right the first time around in my opinion! I wish this were not the case. How many other parks are at or near the same situation?

That only works if you are allowed to invest the 100 million and dont have to immediately fork it over to pay interest on your outstanding loans. That money disappears as quickly as Six Flags gets it.

How about, Six Flags Williams Grove, now that is catchy!

Andrea ;-)
www.coastergal.com

Keep SF the hell away from Williams Grove! Keep them the hell away from Pennsylvania! WG isn't all that far above the ground to be run into by SF management. They could probably do that within a month.

Let me rephrase... keep the suits away, but drop off any cool rides you don't know what to do with.

BTW, 1.9 million to 1.6 million is only a 16% decrease, not 26-- it's still about 1 person in 6 though, as opposed to 1 in 4.

I don't want the suits either, just the cool rides. Imagine gliding over the tree tops in a coaster around the park. A few cool flat rides to appeal to families and it will be as crowded everyday as it was on Labor Day weekend. Really, I am not that crazy.

Andrea ;-)
www.coastergal.com

RatherGoodBear said:
BTW, 1.9 million to 1.6 million is only a 16% decrease, not 26-- it's still about 1 person in 6 though, as opposed to 1 in 4.

You're right. When I edited, I accidentally changed the figure for SFAW's attendance, not SFGAm's. Using those figures, SFAW's attendance dropped 16%. SFGAm's attendance dropped 26%. I've gone back and fixed it.

Now that we know SFAW's attendance was actually 1.4 million for 2004, however, we realize they both dropped by roughly 26%.

-Nate

Look at it this way. During the same time period:

DP's annual attendance grew and hovered around the million-and-a-half mark, during which they spent $26 million on coasters alone.

SFAW's annual attendance dropped and hovered around the million-and-a-half mark, during which they didn't spend $26 million on coasters.

So which park was the money-losing failure? I say neither.

But SF had a choice: Either to spend big bucks bringing the park's aging facilities up to snuff without assurance they could even park the customers to pay it off, or sell the valuable land underneath it.

And there's your answer.

-'Playa

*** Edited 9/14/2005 10:34:38 PM UTC by CoastaPlaya***

NOTE: Severe fecal impaction may render the above words highly debatable.

I think the argument that footers are expensive doesn't hold a lot of weight considering how many coasters and rides have been moved over the years, and not just at Six Flags parks. An expense? Yes, but still a lot cheaper than buying a whole new coaster.

A whole new coaster also has the advantage of being more reliable (maintenance costs) and usually more marketable.

Notice that Shockwave from Chicago never found a new home. It was big, it would have cost a fortune to re-install, and frankly it was an old steel ride no one really wanted that much (not even Astroworld!). Sometimes it makes more sense to build a new ride than move an old one.

I fully expect relatively a relatively new ride like Serial Thriller will be moved. That's the only steel coaster at Astroworld that's relatively new, however. Depending on what kind of shape they are in, Ultra Twister, Batman the Escape, and Greezed Lightnin MIGHT get new homes because they're old but somewhat different. BTE and GL could just as easily enter the "spare parts rotation program". XLR8 will definitely end up as scrap metal. Mayan Mindbender, Serpent, and Viper are small fry enough to be basically inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

I'll miss them all, but truly the only two rollercoasters at SFAW I'm sad about are Texas Cyclone and Greezed Lightnin. That the Cyclone will probably face demolition seems curiously ambivalent on this forum.

Fierce Pancake said:
A whole new coaster also has the advantage of being more reliable (maintenance costs) and usually more marketable.
Notice that Shockwave from Chicago never found a new home. It was big, it would have cost a fortune to re-install, and frankly it was an old steel ride no one really wanted that much (not even Astroworld!). Sometimes it makes more sense to build a new ride than move an old one.

Not always true. Think X, TTD, Kingda Ka, Deja Vu were all new and are maintence nightmares.

Shockwave was scrapped due to the maintainace costs. It had weekly welding, its design was alter to fit in that space, wheel blowouts, even structural falure on one of its trains. Not because it was to large. Many other old coaster have moved over the years. Tidal wave (AKA Viper, Greezed lightnin') from SFGAm has moved twice and the footers on those shuttle loops are enormous.

True, brand new rides aren't a guarantee unless they're B&M.

I think that they should keep Astrworld because maybe its good money.

GoldenTower said:
I think that they should keep Astrworld because maybe its good money.

It's a tad late for that!

Incidentally, I think they should take all the rides and melt them down and create a GINORMOUS attraction that will attract millions from around the globe! Yeah yeah...that would be AWESOME! But maybe not so much if I was actually sober when thinking about it! ;)

I expect the trains from Texas Cyclone to be sent to La Ronde, since I heard they've been looking for Morgan trains with Ratcheting lap bars for Monstre for a while. If B:TE is not moved, the trains are going to La Ronde too, along with Serpent train (La Ronde is the only other park in the chain to have an Intamin/GTEC Stand-up and them or SFOT will have Serpent).

As for flats? Scrap... unless a park jumps on the opportunity to "Fill" a spot in their line-up. The SWAT and Diablo Falls will get relocated. I expect the Shoot the Chutes to go to Great Escape, since they don't have one.

^You don't think that the flats could go to the non-flagged parks? ie. Frontier City, Wyandot Lake, Great Escape, Enchanted Village

A couple of us are planning a last-minute trip to SFAW to experience the park before it's gone forever. In order to do the trip as cheaply as possible, we're looking at the possibility of flying into Houston and visiting the park without renting a car.

Would any of the locals (or those familiar with the area) be able to tell me how easy it is to get from the airport (Bush) to SFAW and back?

I know there's a public transportation/light rail system in Houston. How easy is it to use (specifically to get from Bush to downtown to SFAW)?

I appreciate any and all feedback.

-Nate

Hey Coasterdude, when are you thinking of going? I'd like to go but have no one to go with.