tomahawk
Strata Poster
Re: Six Flags Magic Mountain | "Full Throttle" | multi launc
The chain, as it officially oversees the parks, does have the final say on what attractions go into said park. They inform companies X, Y, and Z that they are looking for something with features A-Z and then the companies will make pitches to the corporate R&D team to decide which is the best choice economically, realistically, and what will cater to the desired market the best.
Obviously the larger parks will typically get the larger attractions. Xcelerator was originally planned for Cedar Point, with Wicked Twister planned for Knott's Berry Farm, then the coaster wars boomed, Kinzel got a hard on when he saw that TTD was possible, and bing bang boom, attractions switched parks, things got moved, and that's how babies are made. A park like Worlds of Fun or Six Flags America would never get something TTDish, for the market they are in, the return on investment wouldn't be the same as it would for a place like SFMM or CP. The chain, and individual parks, have 5 year plans (or so is the common perception) that states when and who will get an attraction in a given year. For a somewhat easy example, let's look at SFMM.
X was a mechanics worst nightmare, the trains were too heavy, which led to loads of downtime, single train operation, extreme costs, and it was getting to the point where it was do we scrap it or refurb it. Clearly they deemed $10 million was worth keeping it (and the crowds tend to agree) so they got in touch with S&S, had them redesign the original trains to be more lightweight, gave the ride a face lift, and it is still the most popular ride in the park. That was 2008(?) So clearly that was in the works for quite a while, as they knew after all the issues once it opened, it was going to need something.
Then you have the removal of Psyclone, the most hated ride in the park by the GP. They knew it would have to go, as it donated trains to Colossus yearly for Halloween Haunt, and it was unpopular. So while they were in the process of preparing to remove it, they looked for the best options, on a corporate and park level. Employees surveyed guests (with those stupid touch pads they annoy you with at the entrance gate) and asked what they wanted to see built next, removed, etc. Then that data went to corporate where they discussed it with park management and then decisions were made. So in the end, it was removed and replaced by Terminator.
This is seen all across the park, Freefall became Green Lantern, very similar size, throughput, ride sensation, but it decreased downtime. Superman gets revamped because it was aging, ran one side only, and was losing popularity. Now the lines are always upwards of an hour and it is extremely popular again. Log Jammer was removed for this new coaster, which was unfortunate as it is the better of the two flumes IMO, but it provided the better location, as that area of the park has been neglected for quite some time.
So, in a nutshell, the corporate company controls who gets what budget for said year, and the parks work with that to try and reach goals to get certain budgets for certain attractions, while getting input from their guests. It all works as one kinda complex but kinda simple system. If that made any sense.
The chain, as it officially oversees the parks, does have the final say on what attractions go into said park. They inform companies X, Y, and Z that they are looking for something with features A-Z and then the companies will make pitches to the corporate R&D team to decide which is the best choice economically, realistically, and what will cater to the desired market the best.
Obviously the larger parks will typically get the larger attractions. Xcelerator was originally planned for Cedar Point, with Wicked Twister planned for Knott's Berry Farm, then the coaster wars boomed, Kinzel got a hard on when he saw that TTD was possible, and bing bang boom, attractions switched parks, things got moved, and that's how babies are made. A park like Worlds of Fun or Six Flags America would never get something TTDish, for the market they are in, the return on investment wouldn't be the same as it would for a place like SFMM or CP. The chain, and individual parks, have 5 year plans (or so is the common perception) that states when and who will get an attraction in a given year. For a somewhat easy example, let's look at SFMM.
X was a mechanics worst nightmare, the trains were too heavy, which led to loads of downtime, single train operation, extreme costs, and it was getting to the point where it was do we scrap it or refurb it. Clearly they deemed $10 million was worth keeping it (and the crowds tend to agree) so they got in touch with S&S, had them redesign the original trains to be more lightweight, gave the ride a face lift, and it is still the most popular ride in the park. That was 2008(?) So clearly that was in the works for quite a while, as they knew after all the issues once it opened, it was going to need something.
Then you have the removal of Psyclone, the most hated ride in the park by the GP. They knew it would have to go, as it donated trains to Colossus yearly for Halloween Haunt, and it was unpopular. So while they were in the process of preparing to remove it, they looked for the best options, on a corporate and park level. Employees surveyed guests (with those stupid touch pads they annoy you with at the entrance gate) and asked what they wanted to see built next, removed, etc. Then that data went to corporate where they discussed it with park management and then decisions were made. So in the end, it was removed and replaced by Terminator.
This is seen all across the park, Freefall became Green Lantern, very similar size, throughput, ride sensation, but it decreased downtime. Superman gets revamped because it was aging, ran one side only, and was losing popularity. Now the lines are always upwards of an hour and it is extremely popular again. Log Jammer was removed for this new coaster, which was unfortunate as it is the better of the two flumes IMO, but it provided the better location, as that area of the park has been neglected for quite some time.
So, in a nutshell, the corporate company controls who gets what budget for said year, and the parks work with that to try and reach goals to get certain budgets for certain attractions, while getting input from their guests. It all works as one kinda complex but kinda simple system. If that made any sense.
