Roller Coaster Rollback item question

I only visit this site every now and then, so I may have missed this if it was ever discussed before. I happened to see on Roller Coaster Rollback that back in July of 1996, Time-Warner announced plans to build a Six Flags park on the Connecticut-Rhode Island border. Does anyone know why this park was never built or plans scrapped? Thanks in advance fo any answers.

There were may factors, I believe, but I think the main cause was the purchace soon after of Six Flags by Premier Parks....Permier already had a park up there, so why build another.

ANother cause was VERY strong local opposition. People were freaking out over the place, especially the 400 foot rollercoaster (single track clone of S:TE) A local paper ran a piece of concept artwork they drew with a 400 foot rollercoaster, which I believe was also shown to the city counsel as part of the opposition. The picture showed a giant 400 foot wooden roller coaster, not a giant antenna tower like it would have been.

Jeff, I'm not even sure a 400 foot WOODEN coaster would be as loud as another STE! :)

Brian, who's picturing a 400 foot wooden coaster with half awe, half trepidation. *** Edited 8/28/2004 6:01:26 PM UTC by Homey G.***

lol...true...that thing at SFMM is LOUD! I just remember laughing at this drawing of what a 400 foot (wooden) coaster would look like in their back yards...it was funny :)

A 400-foot wooden coaster... I can just imagine climbing the lift hill with kids in the back seat going "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

Put some Son of Beast trains on it and you'll be in for a great time! ;)

Thanks for the replys. Its amazing how the "not in my backyard" mentality has kept many theme parks from being built. Back in the mid 1970's Marriott wanted to build a Great America park in Howard Co., Maryland, about 40 minutes from Baltimore. That area was rural back then, now 30 years later with development out of control in the exact area where the park would have been built, I wonder how many are now thinking that an amusement park wouldn't have been so bad? In recent years the NIMBY brigade has kept proposals by Disney and other groups from building a theme park on the long defunct Bainbridge Naval Training Station in Cecil Co., Maryland off of I-95. The land has to be enviromentally cleaned before it can be put to use and only Disney seems to have the cash to make it happen. I'm really surprised that SFA has been able to build and expand in recent years. Way back in the early 1970's when that park started as a drive through safari park, there was nothing out there. Even in the Wild World years that area was still kind of remote. It's only been within the last 15 years or so that the homes have sprang up near the park, along with the complaints of noise, traffic, etc. Here's a thought, if you don't like the idea of an amusement park as a neighbor, don't buy a house down the road from it.

I would say that most anti-park people don't move into a park area, but rather have one built/grown around them, i.e. Alton Towers.