Southport Cyclone destroyed!

Another piece of History shot to hell...

I'm thinking that a near-future trip to Blackpool may be in order before it becomes another Cedar Point.

This sucks. I loved that coaster, it was so charming and such fun. I hate it when things like this happen, although I'm not surprised that it happened at a park owned by BPPB rather than a more conventional theme park. Let's hope that the new ride at Blackpool will come close to making up for this tragedy.
M

^^

How does a second hand SLC sound?

Why tho? I'm alittle lost the owners of the park wanted to get rid of it? also on RCDB all the rides closed 9/5/06 so it was already closed... right?

I think Blackpool wants to sell the property for redevelopment, and to keep anyone from intervening and wanting to keep the park open, they got rid of what they could as fast as they could.

Does anyone have pictures of the ride/site now that it is gone? Not that I WANT to see them...

^^ I get the feeling that 9/5/06 was the day the park was closing "for the season" anyway....just turned out the closure turned out to be for eternity. :(

Can we force Amanda to change her last name? She's putting a real dark cloud over the name Thompson...

I thought that the park was closed suddenly?

It was, the website still has it scheduled for weekend opening til early November.

:(

---

keep anyone from intervening and wanting to keep the park open

---

I know this is an unpopular opinion around here, but there isn't much that anyone can do if a private owner of an amusement facility decides to turn it into condos. If there were so many people wanting to keep the park open that it was more profitable as a park than as housing, a factory, or any other darn thing, then it would still be a park. It's really that simple.

I think the quick destruction has less to do with any concern about picketing or protests, and more to do with wanting to get on with whatever plans they have for the property. You guys act as though if you'd only gotten there in time, it could have been saved. Perhaps after several months, maybe some other operator would decide to buy the ride, but in the meantime the current owner is losing time, and therefore money.

The big soulless commercial parks may be the scourge of the earth, but they draw the masses, and most of these charming places don't. You're not going to change that any more than you'll suddenly get the television viewing public to wake up tomorrow finally understanding that most of what is on TV is total crap, and that they really ought to be giving a lot more money to PBS.

Heck, even within the big soulless commercial parks, charming is trumped by glitz. How does Mean Streak generate more ridership than Blue Streak? It's a horrible ride in a bad location. Yet, it got more than 100,000 extra turnstile clicks than the vastly superior, better located, but smaller and older ride in 2005.

The land isn't owned by BPB, it's leased from the local council.

How dumb... what a retard do distroy it! why build it in the first place? and who is going to pay for condos without anything to do their?

bad quality but here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R9ip2yrYv8

found on that page

I'm not sure why there is all of the criticism of BPB. Its the most quirky and nostalgic park East of Kennywood.

That park has a ton of classic and one of a kind rides that are awesome to still have running. They are doing a great job of protecting amusement park history.

I disagree Brian. With land values being what they are nowadays, even the most profitable park could be justifiably sacraficed for development. At what point is it no longer good business sense but simply greed? I guess I'm one of those enthusiasts that puts passion ahead of business... within reason, of course.

Matt, have you seen what BPB has been doing lately? Look at all the classic rides they removed in the past two years and then think about how well they're doing when it comes to protecting amusement park history. Blackpool used to remind me of Kennywood but lately the owners seem compelled to do away with anything historic. It's really sad.

---

At what point is it no longer good business sense but simply greed?

---

You assume there is a difference.

^ Actually, I'd say that point is somewhere between the quarterly balance sheet and longer-range thinking...and most companies these days really don't look past the next earnings reports. Which kinda helps explain why "the old SFI" got themselves in the situation they did. ;)

There is a difference- a line, if you will- that exists between good business and greed, but today's society has mostly erased that line. The need to tweak things to get every penny of profit out of them has definitely had a negative impact on a lot of things.

the Cyclone is not yet completely destroyed. I am a Southport resident myself, I went to take a picture tonight.

Check out www.southport.gb.com for the latest news.

It would seem that there is still some hope. This ride is magic.

Good luck Matthew, and thanks for the pics...

"Save our Cyclone" indeed!