Is The Coaster boom over??

I believe that Rctycoon2K's numbers are world wide not US. US numbers are much closer to MHammer's. US coaster construction is tailing off much faster than the rest of the world. Still it looks great to those of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's when the annual total for the US was often less than 5 and demolitions exceeded new rides.

I can't see the economy, as it stands today, hindering new coaster growth in the local markets. Look at the last recession, most parks seemed to build right through it, because even if traveling expenses were down people still went to their local park.

meangene said:
I can't see the economy, as it stands today, hindering new coaster growth in the local markets. Look at the last recession, most parks seemed to build right through it, because even if traveling expenses were down people still went to their local park.

That is the way I see it too. The economy really is not as bad right now as the media would have you belive, and it really has no effect on ride construction. People cut down on long distance travel last year, but still went on vacation, they just stayed closer to home, thus the smaller, local parks had breakthrough years.

I think there are several reasons for a decline in new construction. Parks are a little weary of new ideas with X being such a disaster for Six Flags this past year. Many of the smaller parks have the coasters they feel they need, and with attendence up even without a new ride, why put one in? Finally, there are less manufacturers to choose from, particually for affordable coaster construction, with CCI going belly up and Arrow on the verge.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

*** This post was edited by Black 7 on 11/30/2002. ***

Vertigo said:
Doesn't anybody miss World of Coasters?

Absolutely not. It was a joke. It was never updated. The only reason anyone ever thought anything of it was because of the domain name. Damn shame he didn't sell the domain name so it could be put to better use by someone who has been going three years strong (yeah, I made an offer on it).

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Climbing as we fall, we dare to hold on to our fate, and steal away our destiny to catch ourselves with quiet grace" - The Stairs, INXS

Jeff, you may have made an offer on WoC...(yes, I was on that too, ROFL). But IMO you did better with your own site. I liked WoC, and it was one of my first *coaster favorites*, but there really weren't updates or anything...the *look* on WoC was its best feature...

bill, wondering why I seem to have experience on all these OLD sites....;)

Sure it was annoying that the WoC was never updated in its last year or so, but the content of the site was amazing. Every park listed, with a list and stats of every coaster, plus several trip reports for each park made the site a very valuable tool for me. The WoC was just one huge all-encompassing site that really had everything you ever wanted or needed to know. Toward the end Jim never updated after Eric left and he was burnt out, but in its day the updates were frequent and huge. Plus, I miss some of the people who used to belong to Coaster-Talk and just disappeared. The WoC was a fantastic site with an awesome navigation system - IMO nothing ever came close.

-Nate

Jim Fisher, who ever said that we were just talking about united states?

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Shaun Rajewski
Rctycoon2k
http://www.rctycoon2k.com
"a recently crowned person in the 'know'"

Rctycoon2k:

I was refering to the United States coaster boom not worldwide.

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WHAT?!?! Are You talking to me!

*Many* parks added coasters in 1998 - 2000. I don't think that it is wrong to say 1/2 - 3/4 of the parks in the USA added coasters. You *cannot* expect smaller parks or even larger parks to add a coaster every two years. Also, many of the coasters were very large, too. (X, Deja Vu, Millennium Force, Apollo's Chariot, Gwazi, SoB, etc.) *Will* we see another coaster boom? Of course. Will it be *now*? No. 2010? *Maybe.*

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Säubern Sie mit Milch?

Actually, it *probably* won't even be here in the States...

bill, simply *overjoyed* that more people are getting into the *spirit*...(or is that *the spirits*?)...;)

Well *I*, for one, am not *sure* whether it is *spirit* or *spirits.* ;) I didn't even put that many in on purpose!

*** This post was edited by S00perGIR on 11/30/2002. ***

The economy drives it all, folks.

ophthodoc- You are quite right that the economy drives it. But it would be a massive shift in consumer tastes OR a massive failure in the economy for people not to have the spending money they have currently. Either way i can't see the coaster's popularity waining with either the public or the parks. They will continue to appear. Now the real question is, will the industry continue to consolidate into a few nega companies?? or will the parks start to break off again for more efficient operations.

True enough ophthodoc, but our parks really have *for the most part* saturated the US market to a degree that I don't *believe* we'll have another boom like this one again. In Europe, there was some *lag* in coaster-building, and Asia perhaps even moreso. But I really think (not that I'm happy to say it) that our *major expansion* in coasters has peaked, and is in decline....sure, there will still be parks getting coasters, and even a few new parks (Thrillopolis, anyone), but for the most part, even a new business expansion would result in more of those "dreaded" non-coaster rides...;)

To say that the U.S. market is saturated is a bit extreme if you ask me. There are large population areas with little coaster coverage. On top of it i have seen no evidence that the people in Ohio or So Cal have seen their fill of rides. I would argue that there will NEVER be a completely saturated market anywhere.

But that aside, even if the market can and is saturated then there will be a period of time when the current hits of today need to be overhauled or removed because of age and wear. Look at all of the Arrows taking a hike now. Some day you'll see the same for all these dumpy little Vekomas and even the great B&Ms. At that point there will be someone to come in and replace them.

Rctycoon2k: I was just trying to clarify the dramatic differences in the 2 sets of numbers. Either set is equally valid for it's purpose.

What they do show is that the rest of the world lagged somewhat behind the US on the coaster construction boom. This seems to be true on both the upside and the downside.