All Wheels Extreme

Just a quick question. Forgive my ignorance, but I am anxious to know if all Wheels extreme is going to be at Cedar Point this year, as it is one of their best live shows. Was very sad they demolished the stadium, but if they're going to still have it where would it be? Is there no news on this yet? I would actually be very sad if they do not have this show anymore, it was like their best show til Luminosity came along. Sorry if the answer is already known, I could not find the answer anywhere

It's obvious that there has to be some type of announcement sometime about the demolition of the stadium and Sandcastle Suites. What are there plans? It should come soon. I cannot see land for Sandcastle being for anything other than a resort expansion. I hope they are going to expand Lighthouse Point. But if that was the case I wouldn't imagine it would take more than just this offseason to do. All Wheels Extreme was my favorite show the park offered other than Skeleton Crew.

Based on the past couple of years, CP has issued some announcements on the same day as Winter Chill Out. So there's a good chance that we will hear about the future of AWE at WCO, which is February 24th.

I agree that something will be said at Winter Chill Out, but I would like to put my speculations out.

First of all, this is what Tony said in the blog post regarding the stadium's demolition:

"If you’re curious about the 'All Wheels Extreme' show that called this venue home, we’ll have more on our entire entertainment lineup for 2018 as we get into the new year."

This seems like neither a confirmation nor denial that All Wheels Extreme will return. I think that the park wants to keep it, as it was fairly popular (I also personally want to see it return, as it was my favorite show, but I'll try not to be biased). They just knew they would demolish the stadium for future planning (either to open up the beach or look at new ride investments) and would decide on AWE's fate as they planned for this year.

Personally, however, I don't see room anywhere in the park. With Good Time Theater and the Aquatic Stadium gone, CP does not have a large stage besides the Luminosity stage, which they use both for a Peanuts show around the late afternoon and Luminosity (obviously). Where could you fit a full-sized ramp, trampolines, hanging bars, etc. anywhere in the park and still have adequate room for seating besides the Luminosity stage? Bearing this in mind, putting all that on the Luminosity stage, then removing it for Luminosity every night just seems really inefficient.

Therefore, I think they're going to scrap the show. Where could they have room to make a permanent home for it and have good spacing for crowds that see the show? If they do end up building a new home for it, it would be smaller than the Aquatic Stadium and would probably be on the Dragster or Main Midway (it fits best thematically there), but I wouldn't bet on it.

If they want the show to continue for this season they could go with a temporary setup similar to what All Wheels Extreme used at Valleyfair last season. The temporary setup could be a placeholder before whatever happens to the stadium space in the future.

It's possible that All Wheels Extreme could move into the Celebration Plaza area with a variation on the setup used for Nytewalkers at California's Great America. Perhaps elements from AWE and Luminosity would be combined for a new nighttime show.

I did see in one of the December tour videos that they removed the bleachers in Celebration Plaza. Maybe they will expand that area?

They better put those bleachers back by May. It gets so crowded at Celebration Plaza during Luminosity; I remember speed-walking to get a Millennium night ride before closing and it must've taken me two whole minutes to weave through the crowds. No bleachers just means people have to stand more (which no one wants after walking and standing all day) and the midway will get absolutely clogged.

I mean, I'd love to see the plaza expanded to include AWE, but people need places to sit.

Luminosity was announced during the 2012 tour. This is what we saw on Feb 25th. They have time to build a new stage if they so choose.

Wow, time flies! If you would have asked me when Luminosity started, I would have said 2014.

ValravnCP said:

I did see in one of the December tour videos that they removed the bleachers in Celebration Plaza. Maybe they will expand that area?

They remove the bleachers every off season. They will be back when the park opens.

It's very possible there is already a new stage in the works. It may be incorporated into the new boardwalk. I'm sure we'll find out at WCO.

LightDark18 said:

They better put those bleachers back by May. It gets so crowded at Celebration Plaza during Luminosity; I remember speed-walking to get a Millennium night ride before closing and it must've taken me two whole minutes to weave through the crowds. No bleachers just means people have to stand more (which no one wants after walking and standing all day) and the midway will get absolutely clogged.

I mean, I'd love to see the plaza expanded to include AWE, but people need places to sit.

Oh, so they remove it every off season. Darn, there goes my hope. Those bleachers are pretty bad and I wish they would redo the seating. They are off to the side, the view of the stage is blocked by poles from most seats, and they are too small so they fill up an hour and a half before the show starts. If they did build a new stage there, it's not like they would completely omit seating anyway. I really hope they can find a place for AWE.

The whole thing is a bad idea. Traffic-wise, viewing-wise, seating-wise. It nice to have a big show, and it’s pretty good, but the placement seems like an afterthought. The idea was to make it a big, centrally located street party, but on busy days if you’re just trying to get by there it sucks.

And miss ya, Wildcat.

You can see in the first webcam right now that the location where AWE was, is still a pile of dirt, sadly.

As far as construction timelines go they can leave that pile there. Clean up the pile in a day. There is going to be a mess to clean up after the construction process also. Most touring productions can build a stage in 8 hours before an outdoor concert. I've been on a few of them. So if the half-pipes and trampolines are built offsite and transferred to the site can go from a grass area to full blown show in 10 hours. I'm sure Cedar Point isn't going to go the way of weekend festival program for their year long entertainment show. But these shows go in and out of multiple venues 3 times over a weeks time with limited help. I would say that if they want to keep All Wheels Extreme they will put the permanent stage and seating up in less than 2 weeks time. That gives them plenty of time to implement the shows stage and seating at a snails pace. They don't open from Monday thru Thursday until the 3rd week of May. I'd bet on the show being in the same general footprint or on the boardwalk between the parking lot and the resort entrance. Wouldn't that help their resort sales if you had to leave the park and go out the resort entrance by Windseeker to see the most popular show at CP. I think after seeing the show there would be a few that would walk through the resorts and enter the park at the Maverick entrance. If they had the funds to stay at the resort but didn't know of it, that would expand their clients of the hotel.

I'm not sure of the logistics but I could see the AWE moving more toward the beach/boardwalk. Maybe place bleachers on the beach for viewing the show.

I don't see a reason to waste beach view real estate with all the equipment that goes into putting on a show like AWE. Hell, they could put it in the most obscure corner of the park with no view at all and I think that would almost be better than trying to watch a show like AWE with a lake-view behind it.

Also a consideration is wind. The stadium blocked a lot of that. If you put AWE near the beach with no protection I could see many shows being canceled for wind conditions.

They need to just accept that Celebration Plaza doesn't work. Remove the stage and make that a nice midway with landscaping. It's a bottleneck. That whole area has fences and pipes and just seems like a construction zone that was thrown together and never finished.

Build a stage where the stadium was that is open and ties in the new Boardwalk and beach. This makes more sense, as it will not interrupt traffic flow. It also allows for people on the beach during Cedar Point nights to view the show. Build the stage in such a way that it can house All Wheels Extreme during the day, and work for Luminosity at night.

With the new Boardwalk, when the show ends people can exit the park via this path.

MaverickLaunch said:

Also a consideration is wind. The stadium blocked a lot of that. If you put AWE near the beach with no protection I could see many shows being canceled for wind conditions.

That is a very valid point, I didn't think of that. With Windseeker already going down for wind, lol, I would hate to see a show cancelled for wind.

Luminosity gets cancelled for inclement weather.