Parks back off on new ride investments this year

To no surprise this is an off-year for parks. The weather was a factor (keyword: WAS) in the first part of the season as it seemed to rain a lot on the Eastern half of the US during May & June... but July & August were fairly dry.

But there has to be other factors in this, and to blame it all on 9/11 just seems silly.

I'd be willing to bet 9/11 has actually helped local parks since it cut down on long-distance travel.

As long as your name didn't start with "Six," I agree.

I think we will see more of the same next year.

I suspect you are right. After the ride construction boom, I think we are due for several flat years, though a few parks might astonish us with something really new.

Hopefully this will allow parks to divert budget funding from new rides to general park and customer service improvements. I think those of us in Southern California can agree that there is nothing we want more than to see SFMM paint a few rides and buildings, retrain staff, improve the quality of its food service, and generally clean the park up.

Gotta keep those investors happy for a while. When the stock prices go back up, they can get a lower interest rate for the next greatest thing. I don't know how parks managed as much expansion as they did in the 90's even with the booming economy.

I think Jim is right, parks will have a few creative rides to keep us right, this year, Storm Runner, next year perhaps the new B&M's going into BGT and DP.

I'm with Jan, i couldn't believe how parks could have afforded as much as they did within the past 10 years, expansion was unbelievable, and maybe now they're starting to reap the benefits fo the high crowds during those "high" years.

MM does need its improvements though I doubt very little will get done. "Good Enough" or "Atleast It Works" seems to be the theme of the park, and attitudes of the employees in Valencia.

The economy is still on shaky ground with what's going on in Iraq and Afganistan, and lots of people in the northeast (Ohio especially) lost jobs, meaning little money to spend for activities and recreation/vacation. Here in California times will be very tough the next few years as we here suffer with the massive state budget deficit and high gas prices that will put a damper on extended trips. It's going to be a rough ride for many of us, as well as parks.