CCI closes its doors
Posted
Amusement Business reports that Custom Coasters Intl. has ceased operations, the owner citing personal reasons.
Visit AB's breaking news.
Uhhhhh no, those are american staples and something most everyone knows, only enthusiasts know what CCI was.
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Track Record: 110 and counting.....
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This season:
2 parks
28 rides
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R.I.P CCI 7/18/02 So long and thanks for all the thrills via Chris Segura who says come celebrate the life by riding the ghost with the most.
"Excitement, Adventure. A Jedi Craves Not These Things." *** This post was edited by lbwmobster on 7/18/2002. ***
It'd be cool if the employees split into two different companies, making tons and tons of great coasters in competition with each other (hey, I can dream can't I). Well, at least it's pretty certain that the employees will continue in the coaster business, and whenever a giant like this falls, another company picks up where it left off.
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Top books:"Rusty Bedsprings" by I.P. Nitely,"Half-Mile to the Outhouse" by Willy Maykit and Betty Wont, and "Spots on the Wall" by Huflung Pu.
Very sad indeed. I haven't felt this way since Kirt Cobain blew his brains out. Maybe it will be the begining of something good though, like a new company or more GCI's.
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Im the #1 Canobie Lake Park Fan!!!These are my top 3 coasters:
1. S:RoS @ SFNE 2. Yankee Cannonball 3. Cyclone
The name may be gone, but the heart behind it is still there. They are living, breathing humans swarming with ideas. The amusement industry is going to watch this very carefully, and once one of those designers comes out from behind and starts their own new company, we will see many parks swarm to them.
I figure we will have new ex-CCI engineer designed coasters here within a year or two. *** This post was edited by john peck on 7/19/2002. ***
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The Graveyard:
1. Arrow 2. Vekoma 3. CCI
Ok, you have a group of engineers of various kinds. Most have been designing coasters for the majority of the last 7 years. Some are going to go back to building stadiums and bridges, yet many others are going to realise "Hang on, I spent 7 years perfecting skills that are relatively in demand. I'm not just going to go back to a moderately-high paid job, when I can get an an extremely high-paid job in this industry".
They will either find a job in another firm within the industry, or start up their own company. They say personal reasons for the closing. If that is true (like others, I'm not believing), then it would be unlikely the rights will be able to be purchased by ex-employees.
Hey, I just did some maths. I said they've built 45 coasters, averaging $2.5m (probably much more with rides like GhostRider tossed in), that's a total of $112m for the whole 7 years, including construction costs. I'd say that they had around 20% profit on each ride (lord knows how correct that is - in my current industry, 500%+ is average). Therefore, over 7 years, they had $22.5m profit, or $3m/year. I'll say they employed say 15 people directly (labourers etc. pay is from the other 80%), that is around $200,000/year for each person. I'd only hope that they've been putting all additional profits into the bank to minimise their reliance on third parties, or paying of loans/investors. Considering I'd think (going by Australian averages) that each engineer is on around $100,000 or so, then the remainder of this would obviously go directly or indirectly to third parties.
And, as for the CCI Website thread in General Buzz, what can I say is that I was wrong - at least I was a little more optimistic at the time.
Maybe he's left, so he can collect all the resources, and then put it all into Arrow. ;)
Seriously, all I guess I can say now (having waffled on and on above), is "darn" - that sums it all up for me.
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So what if the best coaster in Australia is a second hand Arrow?
I see a "Phoenix" or "Lazarus" coaster in the future... Give them a few years. I'll be worth the wait, I'm sure.
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Current favorite coasters:
Wooden: 1) Beast 2) Raven 3) Son of Beast 4) The Boss 5) Timber Wolf
Steel: 1) Raging Bull 2) Millennium Force 3) V2 4) Wild Thing 5) Mr. Freeze
Visit: http://www.dynamicgroove.com
GCI is a spin off of CCI. Mike Boodley and Clair Hain are out there building AWESOME, QUALITY coasters.
RCCA only goes into business when they can make a buck. They just walked off of the Madrid coaster without being done leaving Six Flags in a pinch to finish it themselves.
Coasterworks is now with PAX building the woodie in Russia.
Remember, When any park has a problem out there with their coaster they call GCI to fix it.
I wish Denise and all their employees the best.
RCCA only goes into business when they can make a buck.
Is that what you do in business? Make a buck? Who knew!
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
7/27: Subdivision Cam becomes party cam at the year's hottest Ohio luau!
While bad news, its also good news. If GCI remains, that means they will be building more coasters. Their twisters are not only great riding (no brakes, at least a hershey), the a so much better to look at than out-n-backs. Even their version of a double out-n-back (lightning racer) looks like a work of twisted wooden art. If GCI stays around, there is nothing to worry about, there are plenty of high quality wooden coasters to come.
I agree GCI will probably take over and work hard, I feel that they never got the respect they deserved even after they produced such a great coaster as lightning racer. and i can understand , because Denise Dinn comes from a line a of great coaster designers so thats why there reputaition and everyone will miss them.I have ridden CCI's and i am going to miss them , i mean my favorite ride was the Great White roller coaster, with a first drop under boardwalk and tunels and up the lift hill and drop towards the beach of atlantic ocean what a great view during any time of the day or night. it really brings backa nostaliga what riding a wooden coaster means.
Thanks for all the airtime and goodluck
jp.
What will GCI take over? If no one wants to buy a wood coaster they can't build a wood coaster.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
7/27: Subdivision Cam becomes party cam at the year's hottest Ohio luau!
I'm in total agreement, John Peck. I hope that many of the formal employees create a new company and that Denise associates with a good company if she decides to.
What will GCI take over? If no one wants to buy a wood coaster they can't build a wood coaster.
What i meant, was that i think GCI as of right now , in the next year or so will now have an opportunity, to show the parks and the coaster community what they are able to design now, and maybe they will be able to get more of there designs into parks that want wood coasters. I hope that maybe Denise woudl work with Clair Haan and Mike Boodley again at GCI and make some nice smooth woodies with Millenium Flyer trains. but most importantly I hope that all of the custom coaster employees are able to find work in this hard economy,becasue with teh way the amusement industry is going, there won't be even handfull of ride manufactures if things keep going this badly unfortunatly because we would have lost many talented engineers and designers due to too many lawsuits and other legal preceedings. I just think that if parks take a risk on new technology they shouldn't be able blame the manufacturer especially when they were the ones who came up with the ideas. . I just pray that everyone at CCI and Arrow and even Vekoma are able to find jobs and keep this wonderfull industry going, .
thanks for your time
WoodFan
Yeup. Such a shocker I didn't even cry. ;) So many great woodies of theirs will go up in value because of this ;) :)
- Shivering Timbers
- The Raven
- Boulder Dash
- Rampage
- GhostRider
- Tremors
- The Legend
- Great White
- The Boss
- Megaphobia
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