Mystery Construction

Wednesday while at Skyhawk, I saw a man making sketches of the area around Skyhawk. He was measuring with a metal tape. I saw him take measurements of the roof over the lockers. I moved close enough to him to see his sketch. He'd drawn the layout of Skyhawk and the general area around it. I don't know what this means, but he was checking things out. He was not a surveyor.

djDaemon said:
Supposively, you're talking out of your posterior.

Must... resist... temptation to point out irony...

BRcoastrpsycho34 said:
...I mean supposively my new giga at KD is going to cost $30-35 million

Who are these "alot of people"? I'll put money on them having grown up under power lines with imported chinese toys and paint chipping on all the walls.

^^ I've got to agree with Jugga on that one. That ride actually looks painful.

I actually would hate to see a flyer go in, I don't care who manufactures it. There are a lot of other things I would rather have instead.

Ryan

I'd prefer a good ride over a crappy one as well. :)

Any idea who the mystery "sketch artist" that people have seemed to notice roaming the skyhawk grounds???

Think we will be seeing an "artist's rendition" of the 2010 flume pretty soon???

Please, in the name of Yahweh, please don't let it be a flyer. The only thing a new flyer would do for me is slightly reduce lines at other recent attractions.

dj, I have to disagree somewhat. Although one park's cap ex doesn't directly dictate another park's cap ex, it does come from the same finite bucket of money. Put it this way: Cedar Fair spent $62 million in cap ex for its entire chain this year.

If it were to repeat with something comparable for next season -- which I don't find too crazy given the economy and CF's ongoing difficulties in digesting the Paramount purchase debt -- then that would leave about $32 million for every other park but Kings Dominion (assuming a giga runs a rock bottom $30 mils these days).

Considering that Carowinds also is apparently getting a new attraction for 2010, that further reduces the pot available to all the other parks in the chain. Let's say they get a new woodie for a bargain basement $8 million. That leaves roughly $22 million. And given that CW, which got Behemoth last year, received nothing new in 2009, that park is probably due for at least a new flat next year as well -- better knock off another $3 - 4 million, at least. So the pot shrinks further.

Bottom line: I bet this new attraction, whatever it is, will peg out at no more than a $15 million investment. Which I'm not complaining about. It's a sizeable amount given NE Ohio's economic status right now.

Looking from this view: Frontier View I think you could turn the old Frontier sky ride building into a new ride's house and send it's trains right out towards Millie Island. If the new ride has a small (but tall) footprint, CCMR might even be able to stay!

Except where do you put the queue? A coaster at Cedar Point needs a queue at least the size of Wicked Twister, and if its a "big" coaster it needs to be the size of Magnum/Raptor/Maverick/MF/TTD.

Inside the bathrooms of course, therefore getting rid of the biggest problem with long lines. ;)

In all seriousness though, if CP wants to put a queue somewhere I'm sure they could fit it in.

Ensign Smith said:
Please, in the name of Yahweh, please don't let it be a flyer. The only thing a new flyer would do for me is slightly reduce lines at other recent attractions.

dj, I have to disagree somewhat. Although one park's cap ex doesn't directly dictate another park's cap ex, it does come from the same finite bucket of money. Put it this way: Cedar Fair spent $62 million in cap ex for its entire chain this year.

If it were to repeat with something comparable for next season -- which I don't find too crazy given the economy and CF's ongoing difficulties in digesting the Paramount purchase debt -- then that would leave about $32 million for every other park but Kings Dominion (assuming a giga runs a rock bottom $30 mils these days).

Considering that Carowinds also is apparently getting a new attraction for 2010, that further reduces the pot available to all the other parks in the chain. Let's say they get a new woodie for a bargain basement $8 million. That leaves roughly $22 million. And given that CW, which got Behemoth last year, received nothing new in 2009, that park is probably due for at least a new flat next year as well -- better knock off another $3 - 4 million, at least. So the pot shrinks further.

Bottom line: I bet this new attraction, whatever it is, will peg out at no more than a $15 million investment. Which I'm not complaining about. It's a sizeable amount given NE Ohio's economic status right now.

I think your completely wrong on this one. Kinzel has already stated in interviews that their capital investment program for this year is quite impressive. So ignore what other parks are doing especially after a year where the capital investments were much lower than normal. Just my opinion but I believe carowinds is getting a B&M hyper by the temporary fencing along the whole parking lot so if you don't believe me about ignoring what other parks are doing better subtract $22 million for carowinds.

So when was the last time anybody noticed any signifigant changes of any kind, like mid-May? I'm starting to think this isn't anythin big at all. (last time I said that we got Maverick) We keep seeing the same pictures of Millenium Island and that area, I haven't seen anything new in a while. Maybe it's all hype...

Or maybe they can construct it in the off season. They just want to get the prelim tree clearing done last year. Or, they were able to delay the construction of the project fka project 2009 but not the landscaping prep.

^^Caleb, every ride before Maverick was pretty much constructed in the off season. They don't need to start now.

I think they will announce what they are doing in early September. KD is announcing their giga in August. They already have track and supports on site which will bring the announcement earlier. CP just has a pile of dirt and missing trees so they can release info later.

mwatts3, obviously I hope that cap ex is up this year -- more new rides, new stuff, it's all good. I guess I would just find it a little surprising if they jacked it up in the same year the dividend got slashed in half. I know, I know...two supposedly independent moves, but I can't help but think they do relate at some arcane, fiscal decision level.

I guess it's plausible that they could return cap ex to the level it had been at in 2007-2008, $80 million or so. Of course, in those seasons (and this year, as well) CF made much use of Geauga Lake assets throughout the chain. Now that that well is dry, the chain should theoretically increase cap ex to $100 million +, if Kinzel wants to maintain the same level of investment in the remaining parks.

Hmm maybe the island is a decoy and that is not where the new ride is going.

That's a lot of money to spend on clearing land to throw a decoy at the 14 people who care.

I still hopt it is a floorless drop coaster. Only bigger and better than griffon (which was awesome!)

Matt pretty much has it. There's that BIG footer marked "new coaster" laying right in the middle of the main midway along with the 20 pieces of track and supports that no body has commented on. I guess that land clearing turned out to be a VERY good decoy.;)

Oh and little birdie told me when the "announcement" should be. And it's sooner than you might think.;)