SFNO Reopening 2008?

Come on, this is so unrealistic. The rides were sitting in crap for an extended period of time. All of the electrical, motors, pumps etc. probably all got destroyed. How many millions of dollars would it take to replace all that stuff?

Interesting enough, B:TR at SFNO is the first B&M left unattended in history. Oddly enough, its the only B&M that was been disassembled and reassembled before too.

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gomez said:
Interesting enough, B:TR at SFNO is the first B&M left unattended in history. Oddly enough, its the only B&M that was been disassembled and reassembled before too.

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AND from what I understand, it's also the only coaster (besides MAYBE the Boomerang) that's in good enough shape to perhaps reopen (elsewhere, natch). It was built way off the ground, and none of the mechanicals were submerged. Look for Batman The Ride debuting at The Great Escape or somewhere else that doesn't have it in 2008, if they determine that Six Flags - and not the city of New Orleans - owns it. *** Edited 9/27/2006 5:46:31 PM UTC by Vincent Greene***

The lease agreement says the city owns Batman: The Ride, and Six Flags "deal" in July said the city would keep the ride along with all others. The insurance money they receive will total $32.5 million. As of June 2006 they received $8 million of it. This is IN ADDITION to business interruption, which was valued at several million dollars from what I've heard. According to SEC filings, the reported value of damaged assets is $32.5 million. It will probably cost more to replace them though (how much more is unknown). It's not like Six Flags isn't getting any money out of this. They had insurance for a reason (it had a special hurricane clause that actually allows Six Flags to collect more insurance money than had it only been a rain flood event). Batman's PLC was destroyed by the storm's flood waters. There are no rides that have any current operable abilities. The only roller coaster that was not submerged by water was Batman: The Ride, and the only flat ride that was somewhat untouched by the water was Lex Luthor's Invertatron (its computer housing was also flooded). Someone on Screamscape reports that Six Flags will be meeting with the city again this week. Possibly to discuss another exit strategy (which I am pretty sure the city will shoot down). The city really really wants all businesses to come back, and since they have such great leverage on Six Flags due to the contract, I don't see them backing down unless Six Flags offers a whole lot of cash to them.

^Yeah, but where are the employees and customers supposed to come from? You can't have an amusement park without both of those.

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Intamin Fan said:
^Yeah, but where are the employees and customers supposed to come from? You can't have an amusement park without both of those.

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Plenty of Six Flags parks get by without employees - one look at the closed rides around the chain should prove that - and it's mere speculation that they wouldn't have any customers. Without Astroworld, SFNO in theory has a much larger area to draw upon than they did when it was open, ironically enough.

Personally, if Six Flags signed an iron clad contract, I think Nagin should hold them to the letter of it. Life isn't fair.

I fully believe the customer base is here. The workforce is the real big issue. But it would take the park a long time to rebuild, especially since they haven't even started anything yet. By 2008 things may be a lot closer to normal. I can attest that things are moving a lot quicker now. New Orleans East (where SFNO is) may have been hit very hard, but things are moving along there. Some apartment complexes have even already been repaired and reopened.

If anything the New Orleans recovery may result in a stronger customer base for the park. By the end of 2007 it is said that condominium space in New Orleans will be doubled as new high rise condos are built in downtown and abandoned buildings are converted into studio-type condos. A lot of the apartments that were damaged by the storm are being rebuild and sold as condos as well.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens, but I definitely never have had my hopes up. Never thought I'd ever see such a situation unfold.

The rest of the country likely doesn't understand how tough it is to find employees here. I live north of the city (north of Lake Ponchatrain) in a fairly affluent city of about 30,000. The city has more people than before Katrina...a LOT more. The rest of the Parish (county) has about 200,000 other people currently living in it. We're busting at the seams....but, an example of the staffing:

My closest Wendys, in the middle of a HUGE residential and commercial area on the major street, which does smashing business still usually can't stay open past 5:30 PM...there's not enough staff. Most Fast food joints are paying a starting salary of $10/hr with as much as $500 monthly bonuses....they still can't get enough staff. There's plenty of population here, just mostly career types, and not store workers, etc.

My 2 or 3 visits to SFNO found staffing which would have lost an intellegence, maturity, or competency battle with Koko the Gorilla. I doubt they would do better now. *** Edited 9/28/2006 5:03:01 AM UTC by Peabody***

Uhhh.... that blind chick is hot! ;)

lol....wow...I forgot about that :)

Last I heard, Nagin would probably rather have Hershey move in....

lol...nice. Nagin's beyond retarded....between that and insulting NYC about ground zera I don't know how his staffers even let him out of his cage....I think they would be too afraid to have him open his mouth.

Of course, it's hilarious to watch him try to apologize after he says stupid sh*t. :)