Six Flags selling Astroworld

Maybe They will put a deal together with a city that wants a park but doesn't have one If some city gives them the land and they move the rides from here they can build a new park with used rides.Minimal investment plus some city and state gives them tax breaks.The tax breaks could be more than it would cost to move rides so they could make money and pay off debt.

Can you say Six Flags Over Tallahasee.

The Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown MSA has a population of 5.2 million as of the 2004 U.S. Census estimate.

Those of you calling for Batman to be moved to be your park, by all means, come yank it out yourself. I'm not sure if it's as bad as Iron Wolf (head trama, I just remember they both hurt like hell), but I can definitely say it never gave a comfortable ride in Houston and don't know why anyone would want it. I'd say all the other coasters before I saved Batman.

And as far as Six Flags over (Insert City here)...the common theme in this thread is that most people expect more parks to be sold off before this is all said and done. But sure, lets put a Six Flags in Tallahasee...that ought to make Six Flags an even more attractive company for people/companies thinking of buying the chain. What's a little more debt anyway?

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You are correct that the Houston area is not the fourth largest market. It is actually the 6th or 7th largest.

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According to this site, it's 11th. Also of interest on that site is that it's not the only large city without a major amusement park close by (at least two cities larger than Houston don't have one nearby, and arguably more).

-Nate
*** This post was edited by coasterdude318 9/13/2005 10:29:47 PM ***

LOL coasterguts....I think I was complaining about *lack of adequate facilities near Batwing* from the time I first SAW the flyer next to Supes, realized I had a LONG wait ahead....and trekked all the way back to find a restroom....that's been quite a few years now...and the capacity of Batwing really SHOULDN'T be any lower than for Stealth, er, Borg, or for X-Flight....yet somehow it is....hmmmm..... ;)

Every large metropolitan area needs SOME sort of amusement venue, even if it's a smaller FEC with just a coaster or two, a la Boomers with DBH...at least (at most?) Houston still has good food...and the Rockets and Astros. No rocket coaster, but Rocket Roger Clemens is still there...

Currently, ride-wise, Houston will be left with a couple flat rides like at Kemah and the downtown Aquarium and our yearly Rodeo carnival visit by Ray Cammack Shows with the travelling Hi-Miler. Splashtown is a pretty uninspired water park that's barely worth the drive to most Houstonians. Galveston will have a Schlitterbahn in the near future, but there will no longer be any large amusement ride attractions in the area.

Astroworld had begun to acquire an image over the past ten years as a run down place which certainly didn't help the park obtain the best attendance one would expect in a huge metropolitan area like Houston, but then that's entirely Premiere's fault for being so stingy with the upkeep of the place between 1998-2003.

With Premiere at the reigns we LOST more attractions than we gained. Attractions like Excalibur, Skyscreamer, Texas Tornado, AquaArena Theater, Adventure Rivers, The Astroneedle, The Great Texas Longhorn Review, Horizons, the Batcave/Discovery Mountain, the vintage shooting gallery, etc were replaced by merely Serial Thriller in 1999 and eventually in 2003 we got SWAT and Diablo Falls.

Pretty pathetic, Premiere raped a large percentage of the family friendly attractions out of the park and two of our rollercoasters and all we got for 5 years was a mediocre SLC to show for it. Under THESE conditions, Astroworld really performed rather admireably. They invested next to nothing and it turned them a tidy profit.

I do not think that this decision was made due to not being able to park over the labor day long weekend. I think it was in the works for months if not even years.

AS was stated earlier, this could prove to be a very good thing for SFI. They get rid of a park that was more bad than good. They could not invest in it as they did not have room to expand, and the parking was becoming more of a problem as the days went on. On top of that, they can take some of the rides and distribute them to other SF parks as new capital improvements without spending alot of captial (can you say SF ride rotation program?). This could bring in new customers to some the SF parks that have not recieved any new major improvements in a long time like SFFT, SFDL, SFKK, SFA or even the non-SF parks like Frontier City or Enchanted Village.

Also, I think that all of the rides will be re-used. someone said that the Tidal Wave will be in the scrap heap, but not every park has a shoot the chutes and would love to get one cheap, or even free. I would bet that every salvageable ride will be sent to other SF parks or property.

The Labor Day parking had nothing to do with it. The park could have opened and parked people but it would have interfered with the relief efforts going on at Reliant so they chose to stay closed and out of the way for the weekend. While Volunteering at the Dome, I saw Helicopters using the SFAW parking area so they made a good, compassionate move. Parking on NFL Game Days and during the Livestock Show and Rodeo had everything to do with it.

Edit - Also, If you really think this is a good move, imagine it were your home park and tell me how you would feel.
*** This post was edited by Coaster Cynic 9/14/2005 1:28:02 PM ***

Tidal Wave was the prototype splash ride from the New Orleans World's Fair and is in bad shape. It'll be scrapped. A lot of rides made it to Astroworld because of the park's repuation for having a top notch maintenance staff. You'd NEED one to keep the scrap heaps SFTP kept sending us running. I'd be surprised if more than half the rides from Astroworld find new life elsewhere.

Here's a fantastic article about the situation as a whole.

http://biz.yahoo.com/fool/050913/112661955605.html?.v=1

Rick has his finger pretty much on The pulse of this industry and tends to be right alot more than he is wrong.

I support Tidal Wave being scrapped.

If you saw it monthly you would realize it's probably had it day! Same goes for the Bamboo Shoot. Both nice rides, but very very used! Although fine stable, I am not sure either would actually physically even survive a move.

*** This post was edited by Markieb 9/14/2005 7:18:41 PM ***

That article really sums it up. Instead of maintaining and improving the property to capitalize on the revitalized area in the long term, they are chosing the short term option of closing the park.

Before Six Flags got reign of this park, it was really a well-done, well-themed park. You don't have to be big to be successful (Holiday World), you just have to create a wonderful environment and a great experience for the guests. Six Flags detheming and ride removal provides quite the opposite.

Personally i don't think Six Flags is in debt. I was born in Houston and went to six flags 10 times a year at least for about 10 years. The park was nice, the rides were fun, but this place has had its time. I recentlly quit going because of what has become of it. No offense to any black people but this parked was over crowded with blacks because it was a cheap day care center for working parents. The park was also in one of the worst parts of town. People getting shot at fright fest isn't really my idea of good, family fun. But with how valuable the land is why would they not close the park? With reliant stadium there the land is worth a ton of money. I'm sad to see Astroworld go but its probally for the best. At least six flags over texas is still open.(Currently in Dallas).