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Accident at Alton Towers

Potentially, yes. The license with Roald Dahl could have expired, but it would be much more costly to renovate a whole dark ride than it would be to renew a license with it again.

You have four main options of what to do in that scenario:

1) Extend the license and renew the IP contract.
2) Close the ride for the foreseeable future.
3) Renovate the ride into something else.
4) Demolish the ride completely.

The second option, which is what you're proposing is the most cost-effective way to deal with that scenario, so you could be correct.
 
^ I'd hate to believe this though, because it's not something that would have suddenly sprung up out of the blue. If Merlin/Alton had any kind of contingency planning they would have known that the IP needed renewing and would have put a plan in place that was more than just shutting it down.. Surely?? :/
 
That's the main problem with Merlin; they seem to lack foresight. Sonic and Charlie's licences both ran out this year and instead of planning for it properly they just closed one and put the old theme back on the other.

Lofty makes a good point about renewal being cheaper than are-theme, but closing it is cheaper still!
 
Oh god yeah, from what I believe, the minimum for licensing is one year, but that's for smaller ventures of any kind, it wouldn't incorporate rides. From what I can remember from the top of my head, a lot of parks try and get a good 5-10 year contract out of IP's.

The fact is, we don't know the effect last year had on the park. For all we know, they could have planned a 'small-medium investment' into the renovation of Charlie but due to budget cutting down to a reduction in attendance, it had to be scrapped, meaning all they could do was leave it?

I don't think that the reason it has shut is down to the licensing, it's very unlikely, but the fact is, it's all down to speculation at this moment in time, meaning there's no valid reason for the closing that we're gonna find out about 'from the horses mouth', we're always gonna receive a glamorised reasoning as to the actual shutting of the attractions.
 
To be fair, Merlin did, Alton didn't...

If a business is making profit, it doesn't mean they should spend extra from said profit just because they earn it? Not saying that the closing of attractions is the right thing to do, at all, just playing devil's advocate.
 
On the subject of Alton's attendance figures, I think we'll probably see that the next 2 (possibly 3) seasons are a bit of a lull. The Smiler has been so consistently reported and speculated on that it will have a huge knock on effect, possibly even after SW8 arrives. I mean, you'll still get the odd event where the park seems rammed, but it doesn't deter from the fact it won't always be so busy. Merlin must know this, or have a good idea of what to expect. I think that's why Towers Loving Care' is happening now, and it's probably kickstarted a lot of work that Merlin may have otherwise have spread over a longer period.
 
Lofty said:
Oh god yeah, from what I believe, the minimum for licensing is one year, but that's for smaller ventures of any kind, it wouldn't incorporate rides. From what I can remember from the top of my head, a lot of parks try and get a good 5-10 year contract out of IP's.

The fact is, we don't know the effect last year had on the park. For all we know, they could have planned a 'small-medium investment' into the renovation of Charlie but due to budget cutting down to a reduction in attendance, it had to be scrapped, meaning all they could do was leave it?

I don't think that the reason it has shut is down to the licensing, it's very unlikely, but the fact is, it's all down to speculation at this moment in time, meaning there's no valid reason for the closing that we're gonna find out about 'from the horses mouth', we're always gonna receive a glamorised reasoning as to the actual shutting of the attractions.
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I've said before, it seems an odd year to let the Charlie licence lapse as it's actually Dahl's centenary and lots of events are planned across the country, with film festivals, tours, plays and "Roald Dahl Day" in September. With Spielberg's BFG movie out at the start of summer it's a bandwagon they could have easily jumped on for some cheap marketing but now they're going to look a bit like party poopers.
 
Lofty said:
To be fair, Merlin did, Alton didn't...

If a business is making profit, it doesn't mean they should spend extra from said profit just because they earn it? Not saying that the closing of attractions is the right thing to do, at all, just playing devil's advocate.
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All the food and ride closures are clear signs of damage limitations, Merlin know that it's going to be a tough year for them at Alton Towers. Closing a few rides, outlets will save them hundreds of thousands of pounds this season alone.

One thing I did noticed at the park yesterday was the general friendliness of all the staff I came across and that the operations were very slickly done, hence the queues were quite short and essentially walk on. If they can keep all rides running as much as possible without hiccups and keep the same level of operations slick and staff friendly people will enjoy themselves and probably won't notice the closures that much. They'll see SW8 and get excited for next year too!
 
I think people are irked because Towers was Merlin's cash cow for a while, propping up Thorpe and Chessington, and now this has happened they've been dropped like a rancid fart.
 
Dar said:
I think people are irked because Towers was Merlin's cash cow for a while, propping up Thorpe and Chessington, and now this has happened they've been dropped like a rancid fart.
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If people are irked, it's because ticket prices have gone up but there's at least 7 fewer attractions than last year.
 
^ This.

When you say 'people are irked that Towers dropped by Merlin in favour of the other UK based parks', which is what you're insinuating, then the only people who will actually know this is enthusiasts and they get 'irked' when a vending machine becomes out of order.


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Got the cred yesterday. It's awful, but I managed to walk away from it. Agree with the aggrieved now though, should be shut down forever and demolished, so we can all have a better cred.
 
Joey said:
Oh, is there any evidence of that which I missed?

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It wasn't parking properly and many of the effects were broken, but again this is something that should have been fixed in the closed season!
 
Yeah, no more evidence than there is of the IPs running out. It's just speculation that has nothing to do with the accident :lol:

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Sorry to be off topic, quick question: Has Nemesis been open or is it still being repainted? (If you have pics pls share thanks)
 
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