SDCFans - The Unofficial Fan Site For Silver Dollar City
General Category => Other Parks => Topic started by: shavethewhales on August 28, 2007, 05:00:14 PM
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From SuperSteve's:
Hangman Up For Sale
Hangman, Frontier's Chance Slingshot drop tower, is up for sale Here on ITAL. In possible correlation with this, construction markings have been spotted on Coltrain road, the road that runs between the Wildcat and the old FC ride graveyard and employee parking lot.
Now I'm actually very surprised to see Hangman up for sale, not only because it's only 6 years old and still a fun ride, but because it's location can't really be used for anything grander unless the train is re-routed and the concert area moved. Then again, if they plan on taking out Nightmare Mine and the Rodeo Round-Up as rumored, then that leaves them with an empty plot of land stretching all the way from the train car to the scrambler, a pretty massive area. This area would be more than large enough to hold an area such as SDC's Grand Expo, or even a coaster that's twice the size or more of Silver Bullet. Thus, the few FC fanboys out there should be wetting themselves right about now.
What could the markings on Coltrain mean though? Well maybe they are indeed planning to move the concert area across the street as rumored. This would double the size of the land available for developement right inside the park. Or maybe they are planning on starting the long process of readying that side of the park for developement. That's unlikely however, as they would tackle the zoning issues first, so it's much more likely that they are doing something like moving the parking lot or the concert area there, if they are actually doing anything at all.
Then again, maybe all this means is that FC is just consolidating. I can easily see them taking out both Hangman and ErUPTion, and putting in a two or three tower S&S drop/shot tower combo in ErUPtion's place. This would eliminate the problems with ErUPTion, the complaints of roughness on Hangman, and give them one reliable, efficient, and fun ride in one move. Hopefully we can get both pieces of pie - and we likely will. I can see the new tower coming in later, with a major project occuring in the said area this year or the next.
Well, I may luck out and get a big coaster built near me in 2008 after all.
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I've never heard of this park or the rides for that matter. Sorry I can't debate with you here. :D
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Frontier City is a former Six Flags park in Oklahoma City. It was actually one of the original SF parks, and the headquarters for the entire chain were located there until last year. The park was sold last year to PARC, who have done a fairly good job with it thus far, and apparently have big plans for the place. That's good too, because the park hasn't seen a new coaster since 1991, and the last major ride that isn't an up-charge came in 2001.
It's an OK place, but it really needs something new to make it worth the entrance fee.
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I haven't had good experiences with Six Flags parks. Good thing Six Flags sold it or else I probably would've never wanted to go. But if I'm ever in Oklahoma I might have to check it out.
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Frontier City has a Schwarzkopf very similar to the Jet Scream that was at SFSTL until 1989.
The hangman coaster I'm familiar with is at OpryLand. I'm not aware of a coaster bearing that name at Frontier City.
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^The Hangman at FC isn't a coaster, it's a Chance drop tower.
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Well I went to FC's website and it looks like it's a pretty cool park. Some of the rides looked pretty old to me though.
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You can't always trust PARC's websites though. They're worst than SF in the way they use rides from other parks in their ads.
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Well that's stupid. Isn't that false advertising?
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It is, but almost every park does it. PARC, however, does it to an extreme extent, to the point that they could probably be prosecuted.
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I guess I've never been to a park website with false advertising then. I didn't know what any of FC's rides looked like though. So I wouldn't have known.
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Ihave a morbit curiousity about the long term survivial of Frontier City. I can't say why, but with so many parks closing in the south, why would FC also survive?
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FC has a big market. I mean, it pretty much controls most of the major thrill-seeking populations of Oklahoma, as they are the only theme park currently in operation in the entire state, plus southern Kansas. Besides, FC is no turd park; with a little work and a few new rides, it'll be pretty kick-ass.
They've actually had an outstanding year of attendance from what I've heard.
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If Frontier City survives, it will prove that regioinal parks have an economic place in this era. If Frontier City closes, it will prove that a really good regional park was choked to death by destination parks 3-5 hours away. I totally agree that this would be a sad message, but it might be an economic truth.
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It seems very certain now that FC will be getting a Vekoma SLC next year. There isn't exactly any solid evidence, but there are quite a few seperate rumors flying around stating that PARC will spend $5 million on a new ride next year, a huge area is being cleared out, and that they've been looking at places to fit a new coaster.
We'll have to wait just a little while longer to see, but I'm putting my money on some sort of large new coaster where Nightmare Mine is now.
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Frontier City is the perfect picture of a park that can't keep to its theming. In fact, the best theming has always been in the ride names. Otherwise, it's not much better than a traveling carnival. The shows are pretty bad, too.
This, and the patrons typically are teens and preteens running amuck, or at best a corporate party.
Nightmare is so old! The last time I went the enclosed coaster was already shut down, but on the previous visit, I noticed parts were being held together with duct tape. The coaster was falling apart when they enclosed it (I suspect they put it in the dark so people couldn't see the bailing wire.).
The dark ride is barely better than a bumper car on tracks, whirling around in a small enclosed area with bad blacklight effects.
I seem to remember the log ride is mostly in the sun ('Guess they cut down all the trees to make the logs.).
Then, for some reason, there is a Tin Lizzy ride (drive your own cars), some cheesy water slides, and a modern, money-sucking video arcade (The big pass-through building at Celebration City is similar in ways.).
The Wildcat is a mild woodie, and the Silver Bullet was all right when it was built, but again was smack in the middle of the sun all day long, with no theming at all.
All of this and the park is practically sitting on the Interstate with no attempt to hide the outside world from guests. It just feels substandard. I couldn't believe SF even considered buying it in the first place.
They used to have, before Six Flags took it over, some really great gunfights on a western main street. This was their version of street performers, and you never knew when a fight would break out. You felt like you were in the middle of the action. SF changed the gunfights into a stage show and took away the charm.
I know there was also a pretty elaborate flea circus set up on one street, but I think it was there just as decoration.
Their Halloween season was pretty good, the first time around, but then it was always the same thing year after year. I think it was the first time I'd heard of a park doing a Halloween makeover.
The best thing about FC was always the cotton candy, but I can get that other places, without having to pay for parking.
As I understood things, the Herschends sold the Oklahoma City White Water to FC, and then both went to Six Flags. White Water changed its name to White Water Bay.
Anyway, growing up in the area, I went to FC several times and always considered it to be the anti-Silver Dollar City. I always regretted that Oklahoma didn't have a decent park to show its rich history and heritage. I even worked with a different company that was on the cusp of creating a classy park like SDC for Oklahoma, but they went bankrupt in the 80s.
I do remember that Frontier City had something years ago that SDC still has not developed - a photo season pass.
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I do have to say that I loved the Wildcat and especially loved the emphasis on history in the que line.
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^^ Those memories may be a little dated. For one, Nightmare Mine has been shut down for years, and there's major talk about removing it soon. The water slides are gone now, and quite a bit of work has been done around the park throughout the recent transition from SF to PARC. It's still not that great of a place, but I think it's on the way to being a pretty fun place. Once they lower the food prices, add some new theming, build that new kiddy SLC, and shape up some general park things, it'll be alright; it's just no SDC and doesn't try to be.
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Where were they planning on building the park?
Anyway, growing up in the area, I went to FC several times and always considered it to be the anti-Silver Dollar City. I always regretted that Oklahoma didn't have a decent park to show its rich history and heritage. I even worked with a different company that was on the cusp of creating a classy park like SDC for Oklahoma, but they went bankrupt in the 80s.
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^Huh, I totally missed that when I read the post the first time - the park in question didn't happen to be the park that almost happened around the Tulsa/Bartlesville area in the 80's was it?
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What is the deal with Frontier City? Why won't they promote if they are building a roller coaster? I have never heard of a park keeping a coaster a secret. Even though it's being reported that they're building a coaster- I have my doubts. It's March 19 and no firm advertising? Wierd- do they not want season passport sales to increase?
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I just drove past there today - everything is definitely cleared out, ready for something to start, but the park opens in two weeks. Even if they were just throwing up a portable turd coaster, they'll need more time to actually build and test it. Either their planning is seriously screwed up and this new ride won't debut till the end of the season, or we're getting something considerably smaller than everyone is thinking. It was said that this new ride would be a brand new park model of whatever it is though... so I'm thinking we'll just have to wait till August to ride whatever it is.
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I went past yesterday. They have repainted the Silver Bullet back to silver and black. It looks great.
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Well it looks like FC will be getting Steel Lasso, a small Vekoma Jr. Invert for the 2008 season. Kinda weak for their 50th anniversary, but it's part of an overall move in a new direction for the park, and the ride fills a special void in their ride line-up.