Dragster offically 2nd Tallest

Money and space is the key to why a 500 foot coaster won't show up at CP. TTD is about as plain as a coaster can get without taking away the thrill of other coasters. A traditional coaster that high would be very costly and might not be even worth it. They build things that other parks don't feature and don't take away the attention from their other major rides. Everything has to be unique. They can't build a 500 foot tower in Frontier Town and expect their other $25 million ride, TTD, will still attract guest. The only rides currently at CP right now that are alike are Magnum and MF. They worked hard to make MF a different experience from Magnum, they did very well too. Sorry to jump off topic.

Anyway, with that said I think the future of the park will see more rides similar to maXair. They won't break any records, but will attract guest because they are something never seen before. There's only so much you can do with the tallest and fastest coaster.

What do you mean money is one of the reasons a 500 foot coaster won't show up at the Point? I really don't think that money is an issue at Cedar Point.

There's a point when a ride isn't worth an investment that large.

I don't know that 500 feet is that barrier though.....of course that depends on the cost of the ride. If it would cost them 50 mil to do a 500 footer, then you're probably right. If it costs only like 30 or 35 then I think the investment could be justified.

I think CP takes a lot of pride in being the trend setters in the industry, first to 200, 300 and 400 is a big thing to keep up. And, I think people would be disappointed (both us nuts and others around the industry) if it wasn't CP that broke the 500 foot barrier.

I live not too far from KK and have to say as a season pass holder for this park i am unsure if it will run!! I went to CP jsut for TTD and must say it was amazing but the park it self is run better then SFGADV. I hope that SFGADV can get KK up and running and they get their act together now that they toped the dragster.

I got bored during study hall yesterday, and I saw a copy of Popular Science. It was this months issue, and it was called The Worlds Fastest. It had a section in it of the fastest things on earth. Well, under Fastest Rollercoaster, is Kingda Ka.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/currentissue

I just got another magizne subscription, I didn't realize popular scince was so cheap.

lol

It will have been 3 years since a new coaster in 2006, that is a major gap in coasters compared to the last decade, probably enough time to save up the needed money. They spent 65 mil in 4 years, with 3 coasters, it will have been 3 with no new coasters, they must have an un imaginable amount of money stored up by now, and even more if they wait till 07. Not that Im accountant but hey, its a reasonable explanation for where the money would come from.

Yeah, the money is piling up so deep that Cedar Point is running out of places to put it. Of course, Castaway Bay was free; as was the Lighthouse Point expansion. Geauga Lake was given to Cedar Fair and the Soak City upgrade was free, too. Yeah, they're saving up a ton of cash!

MrScott

That is not how it works.

After all the expenses are paid off including dividends for stock shares, there is a given amount of money left. This is the amount is used for capital investments or anything the Cedar Fair board decides to do with it. Each year it changes somewhat and they decide what parks get how much for improvements. In 2000, Cedar Point got something like 46 or 48 million. It was mostly for MF and Breakers Express. For 2004 Cedar Point got Castaway Bay and the rest of the money went to rides and improvements at other parks.

There are other things I would like Cedar Point to improve on other than rides. The improvements done to the bathrooms near Matterhorn and Wildcat were nice. Painting magnum isn't on that list though. Orange beats pink and purple anyday. (or yellow and red for that matter)

Capital expenditures are sure as hell not made from cash on hand. If that was the case they'd have no debt. The company's philosophy is that they need a relatively quick return on investment to spend the money. See my Kinzel interview.

MrScott said:
Yeah, the money is piling up so deep that Cedar Point is running out of places to put it. Of course, Castaway Bay was free; as was the Lighthouse Point expansion. Geauga Lake was given to Cedar Fair and the Soak City upgrade was free, too. Yeah, they're saving up a ton of cash!

MrScott

Am I sure none of those got income in return? All the things you just mentioned give money back to the point because people PAY to use them.

They don't make the millions they spent on Castaway Bay right away. It takes a bit of time.

-S. Eagle

I think the reason for the gap is Cedar Point has already prooven theirselves by builiding Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster that they're saving using money to build rides like MaXair, and refurbishing the midway. As many coasters as Cedar Point has I'm happy. The only coaster I see being the next project would be the worlds tallest floorless.

Now one thing is for certain. I bet with all the repairs Cedar Point has to make to Top Thrill Dragster, I'm sure they've used about 10 million or more to fix it. And with this latest case about the riders suing the park, I'm hoping Cedar Point isn't hurt by this at all.

Shawn, if CP had to pay for any of those repairs, then they got ripped off big time in the warranty department. I would hope that most of that was covered (especailly the hydraulic problems). I can understand the cable replacements being CPs responsibility, provided it wasn't caused by undue wear. I think Intamin picked up a pretty hefty bill to iron out these problems.

I think CP will make a bigger coaster, That coaster is 456 feet tall and only 8 mph faster how is that going to make it 36 more feet. They just copyed TTD its a little differnt but just about the same.

Thank you captain obvious.

Intamin paid for the repairs on TTD. CP didn't pay for any of it. Though they lost money due to the ride being closed for so long in 2003.

And you know this how?

The only way I can think of cedar point loosing money from ttd's downtime is people not buying there on ride photos from it being closed. People still went not knowing if it was going to be open or not.