Dan Koch leads purchase of Alabama's Splash Adventure

I haven't been there since its inaugural year in 1998. I enjoyed the park and felt it had potential. Looking forward to seeing what they do with the park!

kevin38 said:

As near as I can figure upwards of 100 million was put into this park.

and it sold a few year ago for 5 million (out of bankruptcy)

As long as the price was less than 10 million

I think it is a steal.

If you've never been you might think it was a steal. Not sure where that original $100MM went, but the fact that the original "brain" behind the deal is sitting in jail for some type of fraud unrelated to the park, should be the first clue. The original park was poorly designed, poorly planned, and poorly run. The ONLY thing the dry side had going for it was the Rampage (and I say that from a business perspective, not a coaster nerd point of view).

The Dry side had been abandoned and I believe everything besides the Rampage was removed a long time ago (none of it was permanent anyway besides the horribly flawed rapids ride, which I can not imagine that the Koch's would ever operate). So whatever portion of $100MM was spent on the dry side is (I believe) now only a huge parking lot, an overbuilt entrance feature , and a woefully sad "Main Street" and paths to nowhere.

I'm sure that the Koch's have done their diligence, and see the underperforming water park as an undervalued asset, and any future Dry Side development as an upside. I wish them the best.

Was their Boomerang scrapped? I'm surprised no one bought it (that I know of), since as bad as they are, so many parks still buy used ones, due to the lower-than-most moving/building cost and small footprint I assume.

We went in '05 and Rampage was the only minor glimmer of hope in the park (and even then, it was one train with the back roped off...but with ride ops routinely ducking the rope and climbing in). It was dirty, the rides were in disrepair and the operations felt generally unsafe. Went again in '07 and things were about the same.

Wanted: Dan Koch to post on here and tell us all about how this went down and what plans they have for the park (using a disguised username if necessary).

I'm glad to hear they plan to have Rampage up and running again. I visited this park in October of 2000, I purchased their Season Pass because it included Jazzland, and was also good for Silver Springs and their adjacent Waterpark.

Have to chuckle to myself that KK was deemed in poor shape to the point of "unrecoverable" but that Visionland is seen as an eye-opening opportunity. Certainly if I had passed on KK, VL would have long since been in my rear-view mirror.

Things change when you're at war with your family, I suppose.

Having grown up spoiled by being close to Cedar Point I'm glad my new home in Nashville is finally having parks nearby reopen. Getting back both KK and VL is making me optimistic about future day trip possibilities. I'm curious if that five year strategic plan budgets for a moderate sized coaster to pair with Rampage once rebuilt.