CoasterBuzz Podcast #86 posted

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Jeff, Greg, Mike and Pat review this week's news in the amusement industry.

New park in Ontario, locals hope replacement of some lost jobs.
Washington Post does a piece on the guys who do the daily maintenance on wood coasters. Jeff would be too lazy, Pat would be scared of the heights, Mike would love it.
Stupid alleged criminal of the week: Woman steals $75,000 from Kings Island. Hello, did she not think of the auditing?
Hong Kong Disneyland not hitting numbers, offering discounted student passes. Why do people criticize Disney for slow starts at new parks?
Kennywood closes their dark ride, and we look forward to seeing what they do with that space going forward.
Six Flags gets into the kids publishing business. Expanding the media empire or just creative marketing?
Developer who wants to build a new park in Michigan outed as a bit of a failure by local paper. Because the location wasn't a dumb choice to begin with!
It has been really wet all across the Midwest.
The flyer is up for the CoasterBuzz Club Fall Affair. Download it now!

I think that Six Flags is trying to make a media company move here. Shapiro has made it clear in the past that he wants his amusement parks to have a "Disney" feel. Why wouldn't you try to expand into other types of business? It worked for Disney.

Granted, I'm not sure Six Flags has the brand name quality to pull something like this off, but it's definitely what they are trying to do.

The difference is that Disney was a media company that decided to build theme parks, while Six Flags is an amusement park chain that wants to expand into other media. I doubt Disney would go far if they just stuck the Disney logo on things, and nor will Six Flags. What Disney has is brands (movies, TV shows, and characters) that can sell merchandise, while Six Flags has roller coasters. While rides may move "I survived" t-shirts in the gift shops, I don't see how it could attract much attention outside of the parks.

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