Kennywood announces Steel Curtain roller coaster as anchor to Steelers Country football themed area

I wouldn't expect many people outside of the enthusiast community to even be aware of this right now, considering the announcement was made just last week. Has there been any local news coverage about it? Football season is just around the corner. The Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the most devoted fan bases in the NFL. I expect we'll see a lot more Steelers jerseys at Kennywood and more Kennywood T-shirts being worn at Heinz Field next season. I'm sure there will be many who find it "stupid". A forum dedicated to roller coasters would be the first place I would expect to find that opinion.

Well, and anecdotally I suppose, my Pittsburgh friend who is sitting right here with me right now, said it was on the news and in the paper. And it got real attention. And there’s excitement and discussion.

It was definitely covered by the local news. Just get a look at this positivity from the Post Gazette comment section!

Kennywood = The Poor Man’s Disney. That place is so run down and inhabited by the cretins on society.

We`re running out of places where we can avoid this Stiller cr*p but after all, they do play 8 games a year here. Great looking coaster though.

LAME-O! No historical charm of the Log Jammer. No green water. No wonderful musty smells. No memories.

Welcome to Yinzerwood.

Bring back The Log Jammer or else we're boycotting Kennywood, and I speak for tens of thousands who feel the same way!

Do you have to be a thug to ride it..

Where's the Penguin Country and Pirate Country section of Kennywood? This is incredibly stupid and ignores the other professional teams that are part of Pittsburgh. Why not just call it Black & Gold Country and recognize all the teams.

Just because they paint Steelers on it doesn't make it unique. These corporate rides are a dime a dozen

They're taking away all vestiges of this historical landmark. Boycott. And what about Joe Magarac? Now we'll see corporate logos of Thomas the Train on the steel mills across the river. Watch for it.

Boo. I miss the Log Jammer. And the Steel Phantom was awesome. Why honor the Hiders and Dividers? Kennywood is just alienating many long-time customers.

I could cherry pick a bunch of positive reviews if I cared enough to.

This one is my personal favorite: "Just because they paint Steelers on it doesn't make it unique. These corporate rides are a dime a dozen."

That's hilarious. The original poster lost any and all credibility they may have had in just two sentences.

It appears that the majority of those comments are either from people who didn't like Kennywood and/or the Steelers in the first place. The rest seem to be people that are still butt-hurt about the removal of Log Jammer.

Is it me or does this thing look it was at least inspired by Alan Schilke/RMC? The out and back section that goes over the water is very similar to the middle section of Goliath at Six Flags: Great America. I'm aware of the relationship between Schilke/RMC and S&S. It appears to have his fingerprints on it.

Wow. I had no idea.
What I know for sure is when they build the Buckeye Nation area of Columbus’ brand new, sparkling, bigger than Disneyland theme park no one will complain.

Looks to me like it's 10 comments from 2 people. The enthusiast pissed about the removal of a "classic" ride, and the guy who doesn't like people who don't look like him.

Any one older than 13 knows not to trust an internet comments section.

And anyone who says that Steel Phantom was awesome clearly doesn’t get a vote...on anything. ;)

You can’t please everyone. I still tend to believe, Steelers or not, kids will love the idea of being able to run drills at a mock NFL training camp. Or even the entry tunnel.

I don’t see how building theming on a billion dollar, beloved industry could go wrong. But yeah, it’s no floating log.

The overwhelming sentiment I get from people is that "it was better when I went as a kid". They don't care about new things because it ruins the park they knew. If Parques Reunidos wanted to win the local market back — if that's even a thing they need to do — they could have just made "The Log Jams Again" with the same exact layout as the original and called it a day.

Everybody wants it to be the same as when they were a kid. Everybody complains when nothing changes.

Everybody sucks.

super7* said:

Can someone inform a non-football fan if "Steel Curtain" has another meaning? Its a dreadful name for a roller coaster. The word "curtain" does not imply excitement in any way shape or form. It actually brings up images of communism as it is close to Iron Curtain.

The original name of the Steel Curtain that was given to the roided up defensive line that the Steelers had in 1970's. The name itself was in fact a play on the idea of the "Iron Curtain" but the twist being the "steel" aspect, which was an important part of Pittsburgh's economy.

Now, if Kennywood really wanted to knock the ride out of the park and make the ride cinematic, they could make it nostalgic to the 70's, and have theming that paid homage to the Cold War fears and paid homage to the 70's Steelers team.

Yes a Cold War themed coaster sounds so amazing. /s

Only a couple offensive lineman used steroids-and they were not illegal then. No one on the defense used them. Joe Greene did not even lift weights in the 70s. At least 3 more players on the defense should be in the Hall of Fame but the media bias against the Steelers prevents it.There has not nor will there ever be a better defense.

Double Dip = Terry Bradshaw 😀

I mentioned once to a relative that lives in Pittsburgh that I would like to visit Kennywood some time and their reaction was "Why? It's kind of a dump." Well...I'd still like to check it out at least once.

Kind of a dump? Hardly. I was just there and construction not withstanding, the park is still as great as ever. The only thing I noticed was that there seemed to be a few stands that weren’t open which was odd to me for that point in the season.

Don’t know what your relative’s frame of reference was, but Kennywood is still a great place to make memories in my book.

I’ve noticed similar comments over the last several years, usually from locals. And there have been a few incidents perhaps leading people to believe that it’s turned into a rather rough place. Maybe it goes back to that “it’s just not the same as it used to be” thing that was brought up earlier.
Another thing is that people are more well travelled these days, with Disney being a popular destination (well, amongst those of us who aren’t too poor to go) and naturally a place like Kennywood can’t hold a candle. And I’m certain there is a percentage of locals who suffer from Home Park Burnout as well.
My last visit was the year Black Widow opened and I recall thinking that the park didn’t have quite hold the same “charm” as I remembered. Newer installations like Sky Rocket and Black Widow seems very chain-linky and not very imaginative. But never mind. For me there’s still plenty to love about the park, the rides are great, and I’ll always hold it dear.

I think my relative's frame of reference was that I'm at Cedar Point all the time and so they assume I would be disappointed at anything less spectacular which is not the case.