Valley Fair: Park size to coaster ratio.

This had me wondering. Now granted, I have never been to this park before, but I get the sense that in size wise, its a relatively big park(not huge). In todays bigger scale parks the coaster count is climbing to an average of 10+ coasters.

Doesnt 5 coasters at Valleyfair seem to be a small amount for a park that size?

What park would Valleyfair compare to in size as in acres of land?

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"The Peoples Elbow" or "The Spinaroonie?. Cant decide which is the most electrifying move in sports entertainment!!! LOL

That's about right.  Their collection is a little small. 

Granted, they are not in an area with large amounts of competition.  Because of this, the capital may not be there to beef up their collection a lot.  In my opinion, a nice B&M inverted, a CCI, or some launched ride would all be nice additions to the park.

They own a lot of acres of land, but they don't use a lot of it.  You never really get the feeling of having the park feel spread out like say a Michigan's Adventure. 

I have to agree with Peabody in that the addition of any of those coasters would thrust Valleyfair into a park worthy of at least a touch of the national spotlight.
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Just wait till next year!

Valleyfair owns about 125 acres of land starting from Valleyfair commons all they way behind the Thunder Canyon area which (I belive) is about 50 acres of undeveloped land which they dont use because of flooding but I'm sure they will develope it some day and put dikes around it for flooding. Reguarding our 5 coasters we have but take a look at Bush Gardens Williamsburg they only have 6 wouldnt they be consider a medium to small market also? I would like to see Valleyfair get a world class like a new B&M inverted or a nice CCI wooden coaster would realy help the park.

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Cedar Point: The Roller Coaster Capital Of The World!

You really have to look at the market, not just the acres owned.  SFA has 8 coasters, but technically has over 400 acres of land, most of it undeveloped. That gives them over 50 acres per coaster. 

While some parks are obviously limited by their land area,  for many parks the limitation is the market not the land.  And of course a few like Indiana Beach are small, but really pack the coasters in, since their market will support it.

I think what's Chitown is saying Jim, is that VF has about the same number of coasters as Adventureland and Michigan's Adventure, but the park almost draws twice that in attendance.
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Just wait till next year!

Yeah, that was sort of my point. I probably should have specified that a little more. I am not saying VF should have 10+ coasters because the market might not support it, but 5 coasters just seems relatively small. I dont know, that park to me should probably have around 8.

Maybe CF feels differently about parks with no competition than SF because SFGAm has no competition either but still has 11 coasters. I know SFGAm pulls in more people then VF but you get my point.

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Im going to grab a cold one! WHAT? Walk to my computer! WHAT? Turn the thing on! WHAT? Log on to Coasterbuzz! WHAT? I said log on to Coasterbuzz!! WHAT?WHAT?WHAT?

You'd be surprised the comp SFGAM does haveif you live in NE Indiana you are about half way between SFGAM and CP and believ me peeps go to both, I went to school in Angola.  Also what competition did CP have until a few years ago?  PKI was about it and PKI and CP draw completely different people as for not many coasters for it's size how bout PKI, it only has 7 adult coasters, not many considering that htis has to be the biggest park in the country.
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

Reguarding Valleyfair is a small market compaired to other parks, but doesnt 8 years seem kind of long without a new coaster if you count Mad Mouse in (1999) but I'm talking about a major or world class? I would like to see if the park can build one every 4 years or maybe some new flat rides in between. We do on average draw big crowds at times on the 4th fo July and midnight closings till August.
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Wild Thing: 75Laps! Power Tower: 73 Rides. 8Years Working at Valleyfair!

*** This post was edited by The Beast on 2/11/2002. ***

I think if Valleyfair builds the "Falcon" for next year (2003) then I think I wouldn't get too antsy for the park to build another big ride for another four or five years.  I'm still getting used to the Power Tower and Mad Mouse, but Wild Thing, Excalibur, Corkscrew, and High Roller are all like old friends to me.

I'm sure by the end of this year I will have gotten more of my fair share of bonding experience with PT and definetly Mad Mouse.

I think all Valleyfair really needs to do to thrust itself into "world class" prominence is to build Falcon next year.  To me with Falcon, Wild Thing, and Excalibur at the same park enthusiasts should begin to develop a liking to the twin cities park. 

After an inverted I'd really like to see the park build a wooden twister, but time and technology will tell on that I suppose.

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Just wait till next year!

I say toss up a Boomerang.  Since we don't have any looping coasters other than a cool-in-1976 Corkscrew, it should actually be successful.  Then take the wrecking ball to the 'screw and built an invert in all that prime space.

But then again..I suppose a reroute/rebuild of the game area by the front gate might yield enough space for some B&M steel....but note my use of the word 'might'.

-'Playa

-'Playa don't say add a boomerang, that's not cool.  Well, obviously you can say it, but for some reason whenever people offer up the worst kind of coaster addition to Valleyfair I get this feeling that it could happen.  Gives me the willies just thinking about it.  Plus I love that corkscrew, its still fairly smooth and the helix before the breaks beats the pants off of anything a boomer could do.

'Playa what you might want to take a gander at is the 360 photo of Valleyfair that you can find here http://www.valleyfair.com/rides/thrillrides/powertower/facts.htm

If you take a look by High Roller and the Picnic Pavilion, there is room.  In all honesty I wouldn't be suprised if they start building towards the river more as I do believe that they own all that land.  And from what I remember flooding really doesn't worry Valleyfair as they know how to build rides and the like where flooding isn't going to have much effect. I'd like to repeat what I have heard from people in reference to Cedar Point, but it works just as easy with the 'fair "Valleyfair does not have a space problem." 

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Excalibur Crew for 2002!

I argee with Valleyfair Fan, please no Boomerangs. There have been talking about taking out antique autos and removing it to a different location in the park and placing the inverted in that spot  in the front of the park and expand it possibly towards the pinic coves. We do have a lot of land but they just dont use it as much. Valleyfair Fan, I take it your on the Excalibur Crew what are you going to be doing?
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Wild Thing: 75Laps! Power Tower: 73 Rides. 8Years Working at Valleyfair!

Actually I'm in all of Area four, but Mad Mouse Crew for 2002 just didn't sound as cool :)  I heard about moving Antique Autos too, an idea would be to just remove the Antique Autos for 2003 and then bring them back with a thrill shot or something for 2004. 
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Excalibur Crew for 2002!

"Mad Mouse crew of 2002" has a nice lil ring to it though ;P hahaha

heh...excalibur, eh? i'll make a note of that ;)

but you can't move my antique autos...nooo... antiques are nice where they are. i'm sure admissions, security and group sales likes the cars behind them too! actually. moving the antique autos wouldn't probably be a bad idea. but the landscape at the autos is just too nice to ruin.

The landscape is nice, and hopefully they'll try and reincorporate it if they ever build Falcon.  Don't give me too hard a time, I'm a rook.
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Excalibur Crew for 2002!

*** This post was edited by Valleyfair Fan on 2/12/2002. ***

Judging the location of the B&M inverts at the sister parks (CF, DP) it seems CF likes 'em as close to the gate as they can manage.  VF seems to like building them as close to Hwy 101 as they can manage.  Based on that history, it would be safe to guess they'd build it on either the antique auto site or the game area (which is really kinda dead as it is)

Of course, there's always the slight possibility they could opt for an Arrowbatic Extreme, which could go anywhere with such a small footprint...

-'Playa