What to build in a new theme park?

Often when a new theme park opens, or within its first few years, it will create a star attraction to pull in the crowds. For example, Oakwood (a small welsh theme park for people that don't know) built Megaphobia, and Universal Islands of Adventure (with its slightly bigger budget) built The Incredible Hulk and Dueling Dragons.

I was wondering what is the best 'crowd puller(s)' to have in a park in its early years while it tries to establish itself. Obviously it depends on finance, planning permission, park situation and size, plus numerous other factors, but these obstacles can be navigated around and have been done so with some success in the past, eg. Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the Big One (many enthusiasts may not like it but its effects were unbelievable upping the attendance of the park by 25% in the year it was introduced). So what does it take?

a large but not over the budget ride. for example (UK one's here), Megaphobia was buit, but it was no 20mil super coaster, it was a decent priced ride which upped attendance but over 50% i think. Collosus at Thorpe PArk as well... Thorpe Park had nothing, despite being in the UK's biggest metro area, their attendance wasn't too spectacular. Collosus was introduced and attendance sky-rocketed. Now They have installed Inferno and crowds are huge all year round... this has lead to Tussauds planning for another 'big' ride in the next few years!

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Colossus [1]
Nemesis: Inferno [6]

I think it takes a big rollercoaster or a tall drop ride to make the park known from a distance and if the ride is a quality ride people will see it and want to come back to ride it over and over again.

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Mike
Favorite Wood: Viper at SFGAM,Shivering Timbers
Favorite Steel: Magnum and Raging Bull

it take lots and lots of speed, a HUGE drop and many twists!

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Ultimate Jedi Master

The inverted coaster seems to be one of the most popular rides to have in new parks at the moment, e.g. Batman: La Fuga at Warner Brothers World Madrid, Dueling Dragons at Universal IOA, and Batman: The Ride at Six Flags New Orleans. I think an originally designed inverted along with a good, twisted, air time filled hyper coaster would have people flocking to a park. You could argue that an even better coaster to have is a protoype but the unreliabilty that comes with them makes them risky, e.g. X and Stealth.

Flat rides are also important too. Top Spin, Frisbee, and freefall tower would be suitable to start with for thrill seekers in my eyes.

Rumour of the Day: Port Aventura to build B&M 4D coaster in 2005? check out http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail2403.htm

I think that after Talon opened at Dorney Park, there attendance went up. Now they getting 10 new water slides and who knows what else.

I would venture to say that while IOA's stars are DD and Hulk to enthusiasts, Spiderman is definitely their biggest headlining attraction. I mean $200m is a heck of a lot more than anyone spends on a coaster.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff

But think if they DID spend 200 Mil on a coaster....

wow.
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Do you bleed Blue?

I would think a good collection of flats and maybe one to three coasters would suffice for an upstart theme park. The coasters would be, if I built my own, would be a wood twister, a mid-sized steel looper, and a junior wood coaster for the kids.

I don't think breaking any sort of height or speed records is a necessity. Look at Holiday World as an example.

X Factor