Jump to content

The Son of Beast Discussion Thread


BoddaH1994
 Share

Recommended Posts

They said they'd make a decision after the season's out, but that still doesn't mean any kind of announcement's coming soon. It's very unlikely you'll hear anything until AT LEAST the start of the new year.

I would say news on SoB will be non-existant till close to opening day 2010.

If you guys are right on the announcement, then the only option I can see for SOB 2010 would be SBNO

- If the decision is to remove, why wait?

- If the decision is to try one more time to fix, there is a lot of planning and effort followed by testing; all of which I'd expect to take a significant amount of time

Not to mention that, unless settled, early next month there is another Son of Beast trial set to begin...

I struggle a little with seeing a significant connection between the current trials/settlements from the 2006 accident and any decision on the rides future

- It has been estalished that in 2006, the ride experienced a failure that resulted in injuries to ~27 people. Many claims from this incident have settled, some are open lawsuits, but both Kings Island and the State Dept of Agriculture believe that the problems that led to the failure in 2006 were resolved prior to the ride reopening in 2007

- What has caused the park (and/or Cedar Fair, its insurance carriers, etc...) to keep the ride closed in 2009 (my belief) is the ride experience and risk of further injuries like was suffered by the woman in May

Bottom line, as was stated many many pages ago, whatever decision and announcement are eventually made on SoB will be driven by the economics of the situation. KI/CF will evaluate costs of the various options (including costs to fix, maintain, insure, remove, "replace", etc...) versus the economic benefits (including attendance) and public relations benefits/risks. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you guys are right on the announcement, then the only option I can see for SOB 2010 would be SBNO

- If the decision is to remove, why wait?

I would think the biggest reason to wait would be money.

Deconstruction costs will not be small, and I highly doubt CF has that cost in their 2010 budget.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to mention that, unless settled, early next month there is another Son of Beast trial set to begin...

I struggle a little with seeing a significant connection between the current trials/settlements from the 2006 accident and any decision on the rides future

- It has been estalished that in 2006, the ride experienced a failure that resulted in injuries to ~27 people. Many claims from this incident have settled, some are open lawsuits, but both Kings Island and the State Dept of Agriculture believe that the problems that led to the failure in 2006 were resolved prior to the ride reopening in 2007

- What has caused the park (and/or Cedar Fair, its insurance carriers, etc...) to keep the ride closed in 2009 (my belief) is the ride experience and risk of further injuries like was suffered by the woman in May

Bottom line, as was stated many many pages ago, whatever decision and announcement are eventually made on SoB will be driven by the economics of the situation. KI/CF will evaluate costs of the various options (including costs to fix, maintain, insure, remove, "replace", etc...) versus the economic benefits (including attendance) and public relations benefits/risks. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

I would think the park would wait for a handful of reasons, but relating to the trial... I imagine that Cedar Fair wouldn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to the ride while a trial was on-going. If the park were to decide to shut down SOB permanently (or for the 2010 season, or any specified period of time), imagine the bad publicity that would bring.

While a trial is looming/in process, with a plaintiff claiming that the park is responsible for injuries sustained from riding an unsafe ride... the park goes and closes the ride, admitting its not fit to run (be that for safety reasons or maintenance costs or insurance costs). To the public, that looks like the park screaming "This ride is too rough and unsafe!". Not the sort of thing you want happening in the midst of a trial about said ride.

There's really no reason to make a major announcement about the ride while a trial relating to SOB is about to be in full-swing. That's just unneeded, most likely damaging, attention the park would be drawing to itself at a very bad time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow this thread has reached 105 pages.

What is the record for pages on one post??

And will SOB-SBNO replace H1n1 next year? :)

The longest thread I've seen the board have is the "Rumor Coaster for 2009" thread, starting towards the end of 2007. I recall it having around 400 pages or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow this thread has reached 105 pages.

What is the record for pages on one post??

And will SOB-SBNO replace H1n1 next year? :)

The longest thread I've seen the board have is the "Rumor Coaster for 2009" thread, starting towards the end of 2007. I recall it having around 400 pages or so.

I think that thread is still around for somereson not super sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's around 450 something, I can't remember exactly, but it was set by the "Rumor Coaster for 2009" topic, started in late October 2007, closed August 6 2008.

I could have sworn the Diamondback Construction Thread had at least 1000...

edit-

Dback Construction Thread-

497

http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14571

Rumor Coaster 2009

446

http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11233

Diamondback for the WIN!!!

This is from earlier in the thread

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got another serious case of Whogivesacrap coming on.

Nice post, Tchu. I think you're right on the money with that one. Best to just wait till all this blows over and once the heart of the off-season has set in and no one is thinking about amusement parks, then let the cat out of the bag.

Dvo, getting back on point because some people are more concerned with the fun numbers on this site than the topics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting (and thanks to McSalsa, who helped make this possible):

Your welcome. ;):lol:

PS: For anyone who doesn't understand what this video is (HUH!?!?), it was from opening day 2000. Son of Beast was still "finishing up" construction and did not open along with the park that year, instead it had to wait a few more days/weeks until it debuted in (I think) early May 2000. It was then closed once again after riders complained of roughness. A few weeks later, it was open once more, and got much better reviews. I made my very first KI Trip sometime in August 2000 and Son of Beast was running all day that day. My cousin rode it and declared it "the best ride in the park" if I remember correctly, a 10/10 (he gave original Beast a 9). By 2003, however, the bad reviews started to come in, then the '06 accident hit and Son of Beast has been on a downhill spiral ever since. I think this guy sums it up correctly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_oaGXcdWgs#movie_player

This video may be about Holiday World's Voyage, but the comment made at 2:20 is very fitting- some coasters just start off great (in fact, I don't think there are many at all that are considered bad when they open) but give it a few years and the best and worst will begin to show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why did they consider it opening day for SOB if it had not been its debut yet? I'm not following.......

I believe it was the park's opening day, and thus the first time the public could get close to Son of Beast. So it was in essence, Opening Day 2000 that was meant by the video's opening caption. The logo placement was coincidental.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

found this interesting. went to Werner Stengels website here and this is under the history section. When you go to the projects section, you see Son of Beast mentioned, but not here. I know they don't put every little detail into the timeline, but i think its odd that the record breaking coaster would be not only omitted but the whole year skipped and all that is mentioned are the prefab coasters...

1999

Establishing of the patent of the new, improved, pre-fabricated and long-lasting wooden roller coaster track. Realizations so far: "Colossos", Heide Park, Germany and "Balder", Liseberg, Sweden.

Colossos, Heide Park

1999 Establishing of the patent of a "Freefall Tower for a Roller Coaster".

2001 Werner Stengel retired from his daily operations and has appointed long year employees Harald Wanner and Andreas Wild to Managing Directors.

Werner Stengel still works as a consultant to the industry and of course as an consultant to the office he founded back in 1965

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...