SFGAM Attendance?

Does anyone know the attendance figures for this year? Every year seems to be busier than the last, I don't even go to the park on the weekends anymore because it is so crowded. I was surprised that it did not make the top 20 in attendance. So if you have a link or information I would appreciate it.

Thanks

No hard figures, but I think I know why it felt so crowded, later in the year, at least.

Shockwave's downtime dispersed the crowd into other sections of the park. I wasn't riding Shockwave anyway (don't get me started on that ride...), and in my opinion, besides the two new rides, Raging Bull is the coaster that took most of Shockwave's non-riders. You really don't know. A couple thousand people (or so) could have been in Shockwave's line at any given time during the busy parts of the year, and I bet most of those went and rode something else. Evenly dispersed among three equally thrilling rides (the shuttles and Raging Bull), they probably caused anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of extra waiting time per ride.

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"Well, I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation." - David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
http://www.loopscrew.com

umm...excuse me, but what crowd for Shockwave? when it had a line, it never spent any significant amount of time past the steps going down before the station. if anything, it was Whizzer that created crowds late. when the news came out of it being torn down, that could have caused more people to get their last ride in. still, I seriously doubt that it had that much effect.

I may not have a hard and fast answer for the crowds, but I know it wasn't because SW was down.

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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.

Lemme see... if the lines for those three rides were 30 minutes to an hour longer, and were evenly dispersed, then that means the line for Shockwave should have been 1.5-3 hours long at that point if it had been open.

Unless you are at an extremely small park, a ride closing doesn't have a very big effect on the rest of the lines.

Anyone here subscribe to Amusement Business where they listed the attendance for the top 50 theme parks???
I also thought the park was alot busier this year than last year.

So did i and it was not because of Shockwave closing down. The person that made that comment probably had never been to SFGAM leaving all of us chicago natives scratching our heads. I will be shocked if the attendance figure is below 3 million, the park was SO crowded this year.

Yes I would also be very surprised if it is not above 3 million. It is definitely right up there with SFMM and SFGADV.

*** This post was edited by /coasterman/ on 1/7/2003. ***

Actually, it had to be below 3 million. When I sent for the annual report from Cedar Fair, they gave me a survey of the 20 most attended parks. Number 20 was Paramount's Canada's Wonderland at 2.9 million. SFGAm wasn't on the list.

I found the top 50 1999, and SFGAM was 18 with 3.1 million, I can't see how it could be lower than that.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/01/16/loc_top_50_north.html

It has to be increasing or it would not get Superman, right?

It had to be over 3 million or people were sneaking in. you dont have daily waits of

45min ae 1 hour whizzer 1.5 hours raging bull 30 min viper 15 min demon 2-3 hours deja vu 1.5 hours v2 2 hours batman,

and not have 3 million people it just doesnt add up

speaking of attendance and overcrowding at SFGA, did anyone else notice that there was almost no elbow room in the area between Batman and V2? maybe they should consider widening that midway what with two of the park's most popular rides back to back.

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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.

Yeah this year seem to be very crowded for so reason. Lines were alot longer last year you could get on Raging Bull in around an hour to an hour 1/2. This year i waited for Bull (on a Tuesday in September) for at least 2 hours. Yeah thats hard to belive that SFGAm isnt in the top 20

uhh...its #18. what I find hard to believe about the list is that SFGAd has the highest attendance aside from the Disney/Universal/Busch parks. I've never been there, but I never realized it was that popular.

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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.

I felt this year was actually alot less crowded than last year or the year before. This year I think the longest I had to wait for any coaster was almost less than 30 mins. Maybe if you guys always went on Saturdays you might feel it was busy. But I went 17 times this year and I felt maybe one or two times where it felt really busy but that all and just me talking.

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22 diffrent coasters ridden this year

Don't forget that Great Adventure is located near the largest market in the country in NYC and also is equally close to Philadelphia which is large as well.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

Its really hard to believe that SFGAd has one of the highest attendence parks. Its not that crowed of a park.The longest waits for any of the rides are around 45 mins and only crowed part is around the front gates, but thats it...except for fright fest.

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Coaster count:32
top3 wood:Boulder Dash, Wildcat, Thunderhawk
top3 steel: Steel Force, Nitro, S:ROS@ SFNE

I never went to SFGAM on a weekend day and found the lines to be alot longer than usual,except early in the year and when weather was inclement.
But i did think Fright fest was slower this year than in the past!!

Add me to the few who thought the park was actually less busy in June-July-August than the year before.

But I did notice that there weren't any "walk-on" days in May like there were the year before.

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SFGAm: 1)DV 2)V2 3)AE Blue 4)Viper 5)Bull