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Michigan's Adventure closing Be-Bop Boulevard (Antique Cars) on August 11!

Kw6sTheater said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1159109688836968448

I always dread to see antique cars removed, as they're some of my favorite rides in amusement parks aside from the obvious roller coaster and flat ride. I'm rather doubtful that Be-Bop Boulevard will be replaced with anything except perhaps a state of the art trash can, but I'll keep my eyes peeled on this statement.
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I think the Q2 Stock Holders call with the 140 million investment into Cedar Fair in 2020 gives us anticipation that Kings Island isn't the only park destined for a coaster. I am thinking an RMC Raptor for Michigan's Adventure (Apparently it is 4 million USD??) and the Valleyfair B&M Invert
 
Kw6sTheater said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1159109688836968448

I always dread to see antique cars removed, as they're some of my favorite rides in amusement parks aside from the obvious roller coaster and flat ride. I'm rather doubtful that Be-Bop Boulevard will be replaced with anything except perhaps a state of the art trash can, but I'll keep my eyes peeled on this statement.
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I think this could be grounds to be a little more optimistic than that! Vintage cars rides tend to take up quite a bit of room, and many companies have removed them to build roller coasters before; I believe Kings Island removed their original one to build what is now Backlot Stunt Coaster, and didn't Busch Gardens Williamsburg remove one to build Griffon?

Cedar Fair also recently said that they are spending $140million on CAPEX in 2020; there was a thread created on the forum! The only major investments I can think of within the group for 2020 that we know about are the Kings Island giga and the hotel for Carowinds (I think?); a giga and a hotel combined would probably only come to about $50million at most. Using that number as an approximate benchmark, that leaves about $90million that's being spent elsewhere; with that amount of money, any park is a prime candidate for a major investment, and that includes Michigan's Adventure!

I'm thinking along similar lines to @Coaster Chall YouTube here; I'm not necessarily saying we should expect the next SteVe, but I could definitely see a lower-budget thrill coaster; maybe an RMC Raptor, or a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster/Euro-Fighter?
 
Matt N said:
I think this could be grounds to be a little more optimistic than that! Vintage cars rides tend to take up quite a bit of room, and many companies have removed them to build roller coasters before; I believe Kings Island removed their original one to build what is now Backlot Stunt Coaster, and didn't Busch Gardens Williamsburg remove one to build Griffon?

Cedar Fair also recently said that they are spending $140million on CAPEX in 2020; there was a thread created on the forum! The only major investments I can think of within the group for 2020 that we know about are the Kings Island giga and the hotel for Carowinds (I think?); a giga and a hotel combined would probably only come to about $50million at most. Using that number as an approximate benchmark, that leaves about $90million that's being spent elsewhere; with that amount of money, any park is a prime candidate for a major investment, and that includes Michigan's Adventure!

I'm thinking along similar lines to @Coaster Chall YouTube here; I'm not necessarily saying we should expect the next SteVe, but I could definitely see a lower-budget thrill coaster; maybe an RMC Raptor, or a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster/Euro-Fighter?
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The 140 Million to spend I believe is excluding the hotels. Canada's Wonderland and Carowinds hotel isn't included in the budget (btw Canada's Wonderland finally has confirmed green light on theirs)
 
As much as I'd be over the moon to see Michigan's Adventure get a new coaster, their supposed 100 foot height limit and lack of investment makes me believe otherwise. Just because a ride of decent-sized area is being removed doesn't mean that another ride will immediately come in to fill that spot; that only happens in parks with space constraints like Knott's Berry Farm, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, California's Great America and Cedar Point. Michigan's Adventure, on the contrary, has a rather surprising amount of open space per my observations on Google Earth, and could easily have retained Be-Bop Boulevard while also building a new coaster. About the fact that antique cars take up a lot of land - yes, @Matt N , Griffon and Backlot Stunt Coaster did replace antique cars at their respective parks. You might be surprised to know that one of Carowinds' 3 sets of antique cars was replaced by Vortex, and that a set of Cedar Point's antique cars was removed to make room for Valravn.
 
Kw6sTheater said:
As much as I'd be over the moon to see Michigan's Adventure get a new coaster, their supposed 100 foot height limit and lack of investment makes me believe otherwise. Just because a ride of decent-sized area is being removed doesn't mean that another ride will immediately come in to fill that spot; that only happens in parks with space constraints like Knott's Berry Farm, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, California's Great America and Cedar Point. Michigan's Adventure, on the contrary, has a rather surprising amount of open space per my observations on Google Earth, and could easily have retained Be-Bop Boulevard while also building a new coaster. About the fact that antique cars take up a lot of land - yes, @Matt N , Griffon and Backlot Stunt Coaster did replace antique cars at their respective parks. You might be surprised to know that one of Carowinds' 3 sets of antique cars was replaced by Vortex, and that a set of Cedar Point's antique cars was removed to make room for Valravn.
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Michigan's RMC Raptor could only be 6 or 7ft shorter than Railblazer. No record breaker...just a good coaster! Maybe a 10ft shorter Mystic Timbers-type GCI, a same height RMC as Joker (SFDK), Medusa Steel Coaster (SFM), Storm Chaser (Kentucky Kingdom) and Twisted Cyclone (SFOG)...
 
I just can't see MA getting an RMC raptor at all. I can't really see them getting anything new tbh but I guess this is promising. Don't actually remember seeing this ride so no idea how big the space is but it could be a decent size for something.

Hmm. My bet would be a flat of it is a ride.

They should spend that capex retracking Shivering Timbers!
 
Does the capex also include the Schlitterbahns and the newly acquired resort in Sandusky?

I can't see Michigan's Adventure getting anything substantial any time in the near future. The park isn't profitable enough, they supposedly receive a significant amount of noise complaints, and the county board is supposedly not a fan of the park, so there's no sense in Cedar Fair attempting to invest if they can't even get things approved, let alone receive a return on investment.
 
Michigan's Adventure is also somewhat in the middle of nowhere, with few metro areas to draw customers from. There's a limit to how many customers it could realistically get even with a huge new coaster and tons of marketing. That same new coaster and the same marketing would pull a lot more people to parks like Knott's, Carowinds or Kings Dominion, so it seems logical that Cedar Fair would rather spend the money on those parks instead. Michigan's Adventure also doesn't seem like it gets a lot of competition, so presumably it would get a reasonable level of attendance just by virtue of being the only park available to most of its customer base, regardless of how little money is invested there (AKA the Parques Reunidos strategy).

So yeah, I could see the park get a flat ride or something. But an RMC Raptor would be completely out of the question.
 
Tomatron said:
Whatever happened to Dorney Park's Invertigo? ?
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They ripped it to shreds...aka it's in storage ?

Michigan's Adventure suffers from similar problems as Kings Dominion, as there's just too much else to do in the area, but in this case it's non coaster related. All summer long, there are weekend migrations out of Detroit and Chicago to the beach towns all along Lake Michigan. Tons of people head that way to chill out on the beach, go boating, kayaking, hiking, fishing, and the like. The park is also less than an hour from Grand Rapids, but Grand Rapids is home to dozens of breweries, restaurants, museums, and other interesting things to attract people. I know some people make a dedicated trip to the water park, but with so many other things to do on that side of the state, not many even consider Michigan's Adventure for a weekend activity.
 
Antinos said:
They ripped it to shreds...aka it's in storage ?

Michigan's Adventure suffers from similar problems as Kings Dominion, as there's just too much else to do in the area, but in this case it's non coaster related. All summer long, there are weekend migrations out of Detroit and Chicago to the beach towns all along Lake Michigan. Tons of people head that way to chill out on the beach, go boating, kayaking, hiking, fishing, and the like. The park is also less than an hour from Grand Rapids, but Grand Rapids is home to dozens of breweries, restaurants, museums, and other interesting things to attract people. I know some people make a dedicated trip to the water park, but with so many other things to do on that side of the state, not many even consider Michigan's Adventure for a weekend activity.
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Actually, they scrapped Dorney's Invertigo.
 
Cranedude said:
Actually, they scrapped Dorney's Invertigo.
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Yes...hence the "ripped to shreds." There is a joke in there regarding certain rides that have been totally scrapped with photo proof, yet people still believe the ride was put into storage...like Shockwave and Dueling Dragons.
 
Be Bop Blvd is adjacent to the water park, and considering it’s just getting taken out now, I doubt it’s for a coaster. I’m gonna guess another hefty water park expansion with the relocation of the picnic area to closer inside the dry park.
 
EthanCoaster said:
Be Bop Blvd is adjacent to the water park, and considering it’s just getting taken out now, I doubt it’s for a coaster. I’m gonna guess another hefty water park expansion with the relocation of the picnic area to closer inside the dry park.
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As much as I'd love to think it's for a waterpark expansion, there's just a major logistical issue I have with that idea. With CGA getting South Bay Shores, that leaves Michigan's Adventure as the only Cedar Fair waterpark without a dropbox slide complex. However, CGA already has serious construction underway, while MiA hasn't even closed the ride to begin clearing for the waterslides. California obviously has much milder winters, so unlike Michigan they can work through the winter/spring, meaning MiA already has a fraction of the time CGA does and they still haven't started. That's what's leading me to believe it'll be a quick install type of thing, perhaps only the dropbox and no tube slides, restaurants, or other upgrades, but I don't see anything more than that with where they're at right now
 
The thing is, Cedar Fair can't just not invest in Michigan's Adventure forever. Coasters (especially steel) have service lives and at some point will need to be replaced or retracked at great cost. As has been pointed out the youngest coaster at this park is over 2 decades old, there needs to be investment in new hardware at some point, whether Cedar Fair likes it or not. Either that or they run the current ride portfolio to its limits and then sell or close the park.
 
kenny cook said:
As much as I'd love to think it's for a waterpark expansion, there's just a major logistical issue I have with that idea. With CGA getting South Bay Shores, that leaves Michigan's Adventure as the only Cedar Fair waterpark without a dropbox slide complex. However, CGA already has serious construction underway, while MiA hasn't even closed the ride to begin clearing for the waterslides. California obviously has much milder winters, so unlike Michigan they can work through the winter/spring, meaning MiA already has a fraction of the time CGA does and they still haven't started. That's what's leading me to believe it'll be a quick install type of thing, perhaps only the dropbox and no tube slides, restaurants, or other upgrades, but I don't see anything more than that with where they're at right now
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It’s a slide complex. They can literally go up in about a month, it won’t take that long. Why CGA started construction now when most parks start in January of the next year is beyond me.

The only reason I can think of for Great America starting now is because their expansion is more than just a slide, but even then, neither Cedar Point nor Carowinds started this early and they both opened on time.
 
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