SDCFans - The Unofficial Fan Site For Silver Dollar City
General Category => Other Parks => Topic started by: shavethewhales on September 06, 2007, 06:09:12 PM
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Screamscape is reporting that the Herschends may be looking at buying two florida theme parks: Cypress Gardens and Wild Adventures. However, sources are scarce and this is a very unlikely situation as both parks are a far cry away from what the other Herschend parks are like, but then again, the Herschends are always trying to branch out more and do different things, so who knows what will happen.
If the Herschends did buy the parks... Well, I dunno, I guess the corporation would feel yet more spread out and the fears of the parks loosing their individualized charms may be realized. Who knows though, maybe CG and WA could turn into great parks that would benefit the chain, but with CG's financial troubles that are pretty much unsolvable without massive downgrades, it might be a waste of money.
We'll see what happens on the 25th. Hopefully some park chain will come to the aid of these two parks, as they are really nice places, just not Herschend quality.
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Doesn't mean that they can't bring it up to Herschend quality. I've heard of both of these parks but I don't know anything about them.
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The rumors are true! http://www.theledger.com/article/20070908/NEWS/709080402/1004/news
The Herschends have sent in a bid of $35 million for both parks. A low sum, but the Herschends are wise business people, they know how much it will take to get the parks up to where they want them. Besides, they may end up stripping CG of it's rides and just promoting the gardens, as the amusement side can't compete with Orlando and Tampa Bay, at least not at the size it is. I guess they could diversify the place by adding theming, live entertainment, and shopping, but it would still be hard to keep people flowing in when Disney World and Busch Gardens Africa are right next door.
I'll welcome Wild Adventures into the chain though. It needs some work, but from what I've heard, it's a nice place.
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That is very interesting. Are either of the park's website saying anything about it?
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Not yet, it's not really a thing to advertise.
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I think it is whenever the previous owners were in debt over 100 million dollars and the parks are going into the hands of a very respectable company.
Just my opinion though. ::)
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Doh! I didn't read the article close enough, the Herschends have only bid on WA. Awesome, that should be a great park.
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Did they already buy CG or is it just a bid also?
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They've only bid on WA, from what I can tell.
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I looked at Wild Adventure's website and it looks like a really cool little park. I'm not a fan of the Bugville thing though. Especially at the entrance to the park. Hopefully the Herschend's would do away with that.
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In the editorial that led to this discussion, I thought there was an interesting point: "Why didn't SDC buy Wild West World?" I think that this is too easy. The only reason they should buy that park is if they want the rides. The park was under-developed and currently has the worst public relations problem in the world. Nobody will buy a season passport to that park next year. Furthermore, it probably is considered to be in the same market as SDC and could only cause competition for CC.
Frontier City MIGHT have been a better idea. BUT, again, Frontier City might still be in competition with SDC. I'm sure SDC has a map somewhere that details exactly how far their influence reaches.
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^WWW does have a terrible reputation now, but the fact that it was under-developed would have been more of a blessing than a curse to the Herschends. Just like with Branson USA, they could have stripped the place from top to bottom and started over again with a brand new park. They wouldn't even have to worry so much about relation issues then, seeing as SDC and DW are extremely well respected.
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Okay. But do you think that there is a market to support that park even if it was finished? What is DW?
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Dollywood.
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Okay. But do you think that there is a market to support that park even if it was finished? What is DW?
Sure, there's Wichita and it's metro, which has about 450,000 - 500,000 people. Then there's plenty of surrounding areas to draw from, albeit none of them being really notable, but they could reach another 100,000 people or more pretty easily.
That's enough for a small to mid-sized park easily, seeing as Bell's and many others have prospered under smaller markets for decades. The thing is, the park probably wouldn't have ever really taken off.
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What I can't understand, is when WWW was being planned, there was a ton of competition. Bells and Joyland were still in business. All-Stars was there and had a more serious roller coaster than a spinning mouse in storage. Furthermore, there was the rumor of a major park being built on the Kansas side of KC. Were they (WWW) expecting to put everyone else out of business? What were they thinking? Did they know that the other parks were on their way out?
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Yeah, but Bell's is pretty much a neighborhood park, Joyland was already practically gone, and All-Star is just a fairground with batting cages. As for a real park, there wouldn't have been much competition if WWW had had a bit more invested or had a major star attraction of some type.
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It's complete: Wild Adventures is now officially part of the Herschend Chain.
I'm waiting on edge to see what they'll do with the place. There's so much to do to get it up to par with the other parks - and it's more than just the theme, the entire park is pretty crappy comparatively. It's just like Branson USA.
Will they go all out and pop out another Celebration City? Or will they go lazier and pure-profit oriented this time around and just run the park like before? Surely not...
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Branson USA was one crappy place. I don't think the Herschend's will let this place die out. They'll bring it back.
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Yeah, I was just looking at some pics of the place and it does look pretty good already, though not compared to the other HFEC parks. With an old-time southern-georgia swamp theme, this place could really be the next big winner in the HFEC chain. I mean, the place is already southern, and in a swamp, all they need is HFEC's old time charm, and the theming studio is only half-way across the state.
Wouldn't it be nice if they moved the Boomerang or the SLC out of WA and into CC? WA would have more room for a new headline attraction to start the new ownership off well, and CC would benefit greatly from any new looping steel coaster, though a Vekoma isn't exactly ideal.
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That is a very good idea. I hate boomerangs. Their very boring. But it's just the type of ride that would work at CC.
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I begging. . .pleading- if Hershends read this- please never destroy the originality of CC current coaster supply with a boomerang. I have read people write that they don't know what Jack Rabbit is doing at CC. Let me insert here that even though Jack Rabbit is odd, I personally kind of like it in a very querky way. I don't get the coaster to some degree, but when I see the junk that CedarFair and Six Flags builds in multiple parks, I accept Jack Rabbit as a risk- but still a very rare coaster that is a descent addition to the other 2 coasters in the park. I think that people gripe that they don't like the rides that are added in a particular year, but it is hard to clearly state the CC has made a mistake. CC has made "editor's choice" type decisions. A Boomerang would be a mistake. There are too many of them in the country already.
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^Meh, I too love the Jack Rabbit, and I hope it stays for many more seasons, but seeing as most people these days seem to think that any slight bump on a roller coaster qualifies it as brutal, it's just not a viable ride for CC. Besides, for it's small capacity it sure takes up a lot of room, power, and it doesn't exactly look good on the brochures.
Now take a Boomerang, sure, we hate them because they are everywhere and almost everyone has ridden multiple copies, but from the park's perspective, and especially CC's, it's a thrilling, compact, cheap, good-looking ride that is easy to get parts for and has great capacity. Some guests may notice that it's a copy, but who cares? As far as CC is concerned, a major looping coaster is a major looping coaster, it'll be a huge marketing hit and will look fantastic on the brochures and on the skyline.
Besides, look at the position CC is in: this year they took in a rusted piece of crap and fixed it up - that was their big new ride for this year, and it was a huge marketing bonanza for the park. Think of the effects a boomerang would have. They just don't seem to have many options right now.
Of course, hopefully they would keep the Jack Rabbit and place the Boomerang in the employee parking lot, that would be a perfect scenario.
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Do you really believe that The Stinger was the hit of the summer? I went soley to see the Sea Lion show. I did not ride Stinger and have no intention of ever riding it. If you're looking for family friendly and something visible, how about moving Swamp Thing. The closest simular ride is OH. CC is clearly aiming at families with children and not thrills. Otherwise, why do they open so late and close so early?
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^The Stinger may not have impressed either you or me, but it certainly did give the park something to advertise about for what I'm guessing was a very, very low price. CC seems to be more immersed with families at the moment, but I'm sure that nothing would help them more than a large new looping coaster. Believe it or not, having a large looping coaster on the brochures creates a feeling of a bigger and better park, which in turn appeals to families of all types. Of course, they still need to add things for the younger families that they have been trying to switch much of their guest base to, but there's still hope that they can widen that base out and appeal to thrill seekers again.
I hope that made sense.
Anyway, it's likely that they won't take much or anything out of WA anyway. At most, I would expect to see either Gold Rush or Tiger Terror come to CC, but you just never know what's going to happen with the Herschends.
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I would like to see a stronger theme throughout Wild Adventures. HFE has always prized itself as being the story tellers of America, I am wondering how this park will fit in to their plan. Maybe a type of Theodore Roosevelt Safari theme would work?
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Now that's a cool idea. Did SDC have a lot of survey questions to that effect a couple of years ago? Maybe this is one their mind. Roosevelt's Safari could be an awesome theme. I'm thinking of a Teddy Bear wearing a T-shirt and reading glasses.