Six Flags Tennessee?

Well, Premier Parks has most of the southwest parks that operate under the name "Six Flags." The only reason they're able to do that is because of the liscense they own to use the name "Six Flags." I think the only way any of the parks would survive more than 5 years is to split them up between more finacially stable, privatized companies in the cities that the parks are in, but keeping them linked to where they are still managed by a company that acts as a hub for them.

What I'm basically saying is parks fluctuate in income and finance way too much to be all controlled by a solo-central company. Unless it has endless amounts of money stockpiled, I think a more open arrangement would be beneficial to keep the chain alive.

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Phreak223: broadband srmodband dial up is where it's at foo
Phreak223: man, dial up sucks so bad

im still curious as to why Opryland was closed.....i know it was turned into a shopping mall, but growing up i was under the impression that it was a popular vacation destination....did this decline??

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proud PKD homer :)
(currently a Dorney Park homer though...thanks to college:))

vacoasterfreak,

It was popular, but popular because of country music. I worked at the park I remember a lot of the park's focus was on shows and entertainment... the rides were sort of this 'after thought'. Most of the guests were in town because they wanted to see their favorite music star, not really there to ride coasters. Even I knew that if you wanted to ride 'good coasters' then it would require a trip to SFOG because Opryland never really understood how a good coaster would impact revenues in a positive direction. It's mindboggling to me that they never understood that, or at least they never really acted on it based on the coasters they chose to purchase in the late 80's and the 90's.

It's not so much that a good park can't be a good investment, it's that Mills Corp. was willing to pay the most money to Gaylord and it was able to pay the most because it knew it could open another of its super-regional outlet malls, open all year long, drawing 5-6 times more in annual visitors than it would as Opryland -- all done on a steady diet of rent from the various retailers as a landlord. That's what Mills does.

As for Six Flags building from scratch in the future, I think it's been able to find plenty of opportunities to pick up troubled parks for little more than the value of the prime real estate that it's sitting on. It's been no-brainers for the most part, even though the company has its debt problems. Once the older park opportunities dry up Six Flags will have to obviously build again from scratch if it wants to expand.

Kind of Funny, but I do believe Gaylord sold out there part in Opry Mills around 4 Months ago. As of Now on the old OLUSA site, they only fully own the General Jackson and the Opryland Hotel.. or, um, excuse me, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I'm not sure who owns WSM and the Grand Ole Opry Now. I think it might be CBS.

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"Grit Your Teeth, Bare The Load, Enjoy your ride, on Thunder Road"

I personnally don't see what the issue is. Tennessee has a great park of Dollywood. Minnesota has nothing other than ValleyFair which Cedar Fair should improve other than putting an impulse in. The twin cities is the largest growing city in the U.S. It has the nice qualities of Chicago, but doesn't have all of the crime issues and all the problems of a city. Six Flags should come in and plop a six flags in Apple Valley where land is cheap, or Cedar Fair should try to make their parks well rounded instead of just focusing on Cedar Point. I do realize that Cedar Point and SFMM do have quite a bit of competition but why not put TTD in ValleyFair - the head of marketing at valleyfair said that it would pull in more people. No more people would come to ValleyFair than last year except the locals. People are not going to travel to MN just to go on an impulse where they can ride one in almost any other SF park. They should have built a M&B stand up or floorless - that would have attracted people. You tenniseeians are fine when you have a decent park like dollywood and all MN has is crap. Although I do admit that Wild Thing is the best Hyper Coaster built by Morgan Manufacturing I have been on. (I did not like Steel Dragon 2000, steel phantom was okay, Mamba was great but not same as Wild thing, also Magnum XL 200 is about equal with all the tunnels, although the drop on Wild Thing is the best.) Corkscrew sucks, Highroller is a great woodie, Excalibur is one of the best coasters I have been on (I have been on around 100-150 something like that). I have been on impulses and they are slow capacity, short ride, boring pieces of metal - I am sorry to offend you people who appreciate them. At least Cedar Fair could have put in something like Wicked Twister) Life goes on. Anyway, think about the other poor parks (ie Michigan's Adventure, ValleyFair, etc.) before you complain about your park, and besides, all six flags parks let you achieve are sturdier feet, maybe 6 rides in a day, and a large collection of thrills to the eyes. Cedar Fair needs to hire some coaster freaks to explain what Minnesotans want! Impulses are only good for the impulsive time you are on the repulsive coaster.

ok i can't even believe i'm responding to this post but here we go:

coasterMNguy... said:
"but why not put TTD in ValleyFair - the head of marketing at valleyfair said that it would pull in more people."

that ride would pull in more people at any park. but the truth is, cedar fair's flagship park is cedar point because of attendance, size of the regional market, etc. plus parks often build rides in succession from the same manufacturer if successful. for instance: raptor then mantis @ cp or tomb raider then delirium @ pki or even mf then wicked twister then ttd @ cp again.

"People are not going to travel to MN just to go on an impulse where they can ride one in almost any other SF park.

last time i checked there are only 5 impulses in the united states, correct me if i'm wrong. 3 of these five are located in six flags park. that means that approximately 7% of all 6 flags parks have impulses...hardly "almost any other."

"I have been on impulses and they are slow capacity, short ride, boring pieces of metal - I am sorry to offend you people who appreciate them. At least Cedar Fair could have put in something like Wicked Twister) Life goes on."

this statement doesn't even make sense...

"Impulses are only good for the impulsive time you are on the repulsive coaster."

what?

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seek first to understand
then to be understood

Premier Parks is Six Flags. It's all one corporation which owns all of the parks. I don't think that they've shelled out major cash to purchase a US park since 1998 or 99. Both LaRonde and SFNO are deals where SF either manages or was virtually given the park in order to keep it going. Their only real investment in these parks has been the new rides. In the case of SFNO they will be servicing some of the previous debt though.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that Premier Parks own *all* of the Six Flags parks. When I was in the PP office last week, I saw a list of inventory for the SF parks, however, I was suprised to see that SFKK and SFGAdv wern't on the list. Like I said, I'm not sure. I can easily just go 3 miles from here up to the office and ask. lol.

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Phreak223: broadband srmodband dial up is where it's at foo
Phreak223: man, dial up sucks so bad

Dukeis#1, you are incorrect.
Gaylord sold their share of Opry Mills back in June 2002.
Gaylord still owns the Grand Ole Opry. In fact, they're planning $7.5 million for renovation.
Gaylord also owns several other properties in the Nashville area. See here (the WSM sell was just announced a couple weeks ago, and not a done deal yet I imagine, so is still on their list).

coasterfreaky, I worked there too. I'm sure you got your share of "Where is [insert famous country music singer name]?" from the park guests, that I got. They expected all the stars to be hanging out at the park every day. Seems I remember Opryland had more older guests than you see at other parks.?
Not only did they not expand much by adding rides, but nothing in the rest of the park ever really changed much over the years. It took 20 years to add a major coaster (Wabash in '75, Hangman in '95). I didn't consider Chaos major (or fun).

Again, I bet Dollywood is a great park, as 100% of the reviews say, but me not having gone there yet says something. I plan to go, but it hasn't been a priority. Some of you get to visit several parks a year or even go on marathon trips to several parks in one week, getting your share of coasters in, so a park like Dollywood is a nice break from the action, but I don't get to visit many parks, so my first inclination is to go to where the action is. I do want to go to DW, but it's still a little bit down my list. And remember, Dollywood IMO has one major (not counting the indoor) coaster. As someone else said, I also believe coaster quality over quantity is generally better, however I tend to prefer making the drive to a park with several decent coasters, over a park with *one* good coaster, and only one major coaster, period. Adding only one more decent sized (ie. no Wild Mouse) coaster would be a great thing for Dollywood.
Also remember Holiday World and SFKK are closer to Nashville than DW is, and SFOG only 30mins further than DW.

coasterMNguy, quit smoking that stuff.
*** This post was edited by Raptor Pilot 4/25/2003 11:00:43 AM ***

Bosshawk, just wanted to let you know I caught your joke, even if nobody else did.

CoasterMNguy, may I please have some of whatever you're on?

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SRM 2003-Look for the guy with my name on his chest

Funny... :-)

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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

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Mamba was great but not same as Wild thing, also Magnum XL 200 is about equal with all the tunnels, although the drop on Wild Thing is the best.) Corkscrew sucks, Highroller is a great woodie, Excalibur is one of the best coasters I have been on (I have been on around 100-150 something like that).

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Hate to burst your bubble BUT Mamba is MUCH BETTER than Wild Thing. Even with the brakes on Mamba has more airtime than WT has with just moderate braking. But VF LOVES to use so many brakes to the point that the life is sucked out of the ride. High Roller is a great woodie when running good but this is very very rare since again VF's loves excessive braking more than most park and are scare of intense rides. Of course Corkscrew sucks. Easily the TAMEST Arrow Corkscrew ever made with such a shallow first drop and the speed bump does nothing. I agree that Excalibur is easily the best ride in the park for intensity but again it is way too short. Could be a world class ride with a few more ejector hills like the one in the middle of the ride. Great first drop even with the four trim brakes it still works!! Now just replace the crappy Arrow trains with Morgan trains and you've got a HUGE improvement to the ride!!

Mark W. Baruth, I was hoping at least one person did but I was beginning to lose all hope. Thank you for catching that. :)

To all you people that think I'm insane for saying that, I was just whining for what I wanted and what I said was totally unrealistic. It was just a dreamy vision that I had that I wanted to see people's reaction. I'm not that dumb with a relative in Cedar Fair's corporation.

CoasterMNguy, if you have a relative in Cedar Fair's corporation maybe you can get VF to lighten up on the brakes on WT & HR.