Coaster Costs

"How much did it cost and why" is a question I often ask myself when I see a coaster as I'm sure many other people do too. Basically this topic is all about identifying the prices theme parks paid for various good coasters and then establishing why the price was what is was. For example:

Oblivion is said to have cost Alton Towers £12 million in total. The track was around £6 million, each train cost about £1 million, and the rest was spent on the station, themeing, landscaping, marketing etc. But what would this have cost if it had been built as simply as possible all above ground, no themeing, etc.

The reason for this topic is that prices of coasters are sometimes hard to find, and I was just trying to find out what coasters were bargains and rip-offs, so that when I finally get a park of my own I know what coasters are good value for money to buy ;-).

Is it true that one of the Superman: ROS rides "only" cost $8 million while on the otherhand Hulk was around an astonishing $30 million?

DAN

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Damandan said:
Oblivion is said to have cost Alton Towers £12 million in total. The track was around £6 million, each train cost about £1 million, and the rest was spent on the station, themeing, landscaping, marketing etc. But what would this have cost if it had been built as simply as possible all above ground, no themeing, etc.

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Well, do the calculations... £6 million ($3.3 million [roughly calculated]) for the track, £1 million ($542,000 [roughly calculated]) for each train (multiplied by the 2 [i think its 2] trains) roughly equals out to around £8 million ($4.34 million [roughly calculated]), so that means that the coaster of the value would be around £4 ($2.2 million)... That seems like it would be cheaper than an any B&M Inverted made so far... I would imagine this is a bargain really...

calculations are waaaaayyy off.

£1,000,000 = $1,846,020.92

I'd be obliged if someone could confirm the S:ROS costs... I'm curious about them as well, but can't seem to find any numbers online.

If you think about pure steel weight, it makes a lot of sense. Intamin rides are going to be the cheapest in terms of the actual track as they have the most open design with smaller bars. Arrow/Vekoma track would come in the middle with a little more bulk, but still rather open, then you have the huge box-beam track of B&M. From what I've seen, not only are their rails a little larger gage than other designers, but those boxes, even if they are thin-walled require a lot of steel and more importantly, a lot more fabrication costs to bend them than a simple tube system like Vekoma/Arrow or most Intamin (which actually has a lot of straight track on a lot of their designs - that surely saves money).

B&Ms probably save a little on support structure being that relatively thin-walled tubes cost less than all that lattice work and the ensuing extra footers, bolts, welding and craftsmanship required for Intamin designs.

Basically look at it this way, the steel is expensive, no doubt (see $50mil for SD2K which basically has no themeing and is located right next to some of the cheapest steel in the world) but to build a building around it like Hulk and design that new lift system and create the videos that they did and fit it all in there at the same time as the rest of the place was going up, Hulk's staggering large number was probably 55% theme and sitework, 25% support structure (those loops are HIGH) and 20% track/engineering.

Not sure if that helps you or not, but for the most part, American-built, heavily themed coasters are at least 25 if not 50% theme costs.

Edit: quick check of RCDB: S:ROS SFDL came in at $12mil. From what I see of the pictures, there wasn't extensive sitework to be done, so figure that pure steel costs you can either get a Raptor-size B&M (well probably Talon size these days thanks to inflation and such) or a S:ROS Intamin for roughly the same price tag. *** Edited 1/13/2004 3:30:21 AM UTC by Impulse-ive***

Was SD2K's track bent at Morgan's factory in California and shipped to Japan?

I seriously doubt that any significant part of the cost goes into the raw material for steel. I would imagine precision moving parts (i.e. the train, lift, brakes) and design costs would way outshadow the difference in track design.

In building design, steel is about 10% of the cost of the building.

One thing to keep in mind is construction cost. Sure B&M's use a lot of steel in their designs, but they're much easier to construct than an Arrow or an Intamin with delicate lattice work hill supports.

-seth

I'm curious as to how much S:ROS at SFNE cost to build. The SFDL and SFA version both cost around $12 million. The one at SFNE has no straight track, and has more big drops and other elements that would make the cost higher than $12 million (I would think). *** Edited 1/13/2004 4:42:58 AM UTC by Scream Machine***

I saw who cares how much SFNE's RoS cost. They got a steal no matter what it cost.

For, the record, Steel Dragon 2000's track was bent and fitted at Moargan's plant in California, then shipped to Japan.

Thanks Ross M....I was *almost certain* that the exchange rate was reversed in those calculations...;). At 1 to 2, I should've gone to Europe years ago, LOL...

SD2K needed a LOT more construction material than most due to Japan being seismically active...

Lastly, Brain scores(goooooaaaaaallll)...SFNE's RoS is a steel steal, at ANY price...:)

Hulk was so expensive because it needed its own power supply. That cost a lot of money.

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rollergator said:

Lastly, Brain scores(goooooaaaaaallll)...SFNE's RoS is a steel steal, at ANY price...

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"Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I think so Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants Gator's size?"

$1 = £0.5424

It depends whether or not you are calculating in Euro or UK... ( I went with UK )

But then £6M roughly equals 11M US$, not 3.3M US$....just a matter of reversing the conversion rate...;)

AA, Brain is just my moniker for "Homely G"....;) Just kidding, he knows how cute he is, ROFL...

Space Mountain at DLP costed 100 millions $ (US) in total. Its opened in 1995. Why that cost?

6 trains, a building to do all around it, landscaping, theming inside and the catapult, which was based on an airplane carrier catapult (but instead of steam, its works on 2 electric motors).

I heard figures of 40 to 50 millions for California Screamin at DCA. There its obvious: its was built like a wooden coaster, but with steel!

What I don't get is how Xcelerator cost $13 million, while Storm Runner, with 3 inversions and a longer track length, only cost $10 million:

http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail1574.htm

http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail2498.htm

Guessing here....Knott's had to remove a coaster, do land prep, then build in quite restricted space. Xcelerator is also taller, and was the FIRST to utilize the new technology (at least as far as Intamin was concerned). I'd also bet that labor costs in SoCal are higher, but that shouldn't make too much of a difference...

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jomo said:
What I don't get is how Xcelerator cost $13 million, while Storm Runner, with 3 inversions and a longer track length, only cost $10 million:

http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail1574.htm

http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail2498.htm

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Maybe because of all the equipment for the launch system and the fact that it was a prototype with ne technology.