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Cedar Fair to close California’s Great America


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18 minutes ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

A sky ride down the Coney Mall midway would probably mean the removal of many trees. That is the last thing Kings Island needs.

They could put on starting at Action Zone going over the path following it all the way to WindSeeker above the trees. It would give amazing views of the park and be relaxing for guests that don’t want Extreme thrills.

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1 hour ago, SonofBaconator said:

Possibly not. It’s all about where the poles are placed

620986EA-5D17-4273-9455-ABC7FFA01D70.png

If Kings Island wanted to keep the trees and midway games, I feel like the sky ride would have to be pretty high off the ground. With such a high sky ride, it could potentially lose its interaction with Coney Mall if it is just so high above everything.

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If Kings Island wanted to keep the trees and midway games, I feel like the sky ride would have to be pretty high off the ground. With such a high sky ride, it could potentially lose its interaction with Coney Mall if it is just so high above everything.

When the Skyride was at Coney Island, it was substantially tall, about 95’ at its tallest middle tower. However, the landscaping was so manicured it could be readily seen up and down the mall.
Coney Island had the push up-shaped ginkgo trees that didn’t provide any shade and were mostly ornamental.
So the trade off of A Skyride to maintain that Coney Island feel would include losing the trees as we know them.
Kings Dominion took their cue for Candy Apple Grove from Coney Island and had their Skyride in that section of the park


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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, it seems that if Kings Island were to ever get another Skyride, it will not be a relocated Von Roll Type 101 (VR101)
There is apparently something on the books (not sure if it’s state or federal) that prohibits these older Von Rolls from being reinstalled elsewhere other than the location they are originally installed. They have been grandfathered in. They are considered safe where they are originally installed but moving them would be considered a new installation and by sheer design alone, they would not pass current code.
The Skyride at the Oklahoma state fair is trying to be saved currently and this is one of the obstacles they are facing, that it can not be moved.
Any good news is that Kings Island can still install a new Skyride as a company by the name of Doppelmayr is still making them.
Below is the link for the Tulsa Skyride page.

https://www.tulsaskyride.org/tulsa-skyride-cannot-be-relocated-in-the-usa/


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I believe that Doppelmayr (the same company that worked on the Disney Skyliner), is the company that owns the rights to and provides spare parts to the Von Roll skyrides.

I believe so too! I’m sure Cedar Fair is well aware of them as they service their Von Rolls at CGA and Cedar Point


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  • 2 months later...

Fresno is really not a great location for a park.  It’s too far to any of the major population centers in the state.  It’s the center of the state but it’s mostly farm land, total only 2.8 million people live within a 100 mile radius of Fresno.  LA, San Jose, San Francisco are all more than a 3 hour drive away.

If Cedar Fair wants to build a replacement, and I am not sure if they do, a park outside a larger city on cheaper land makes more sense, look at Six Flags Magic Mountain for instance.  I could also see somewhere like Stockton working, it’s not a huge city, but it’s only an hour drive to Sacramento and an hour and half drive to San Jose or San Francisco.  Total it has 13 million people living in a 100 mile radius (straight line not driving distance).

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  • 2 months later...

Some information about the cancelled plans for the park.

https://www.storylandstudios.com/work/californias-great-america/

Quote

BRIEF

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company selected Storyland Studios to reimagine a portion of the California’s Great America theme park, putting our themed entertainment and architectural expertise to work.

MISSION

We redesigned roughly one-third of the park, integrating two existing areas to create the new Redwood Territory. California’s Great America opened in 1976 alongside a sister park in Chicago. At the time, it was arguably the finest non-Disney theme park in the world. Our team took a deep dive into the park’s archives, uncovering original artwork designed by Hollywood luminaries and Academy Award-winning art directors. We wanted to get back in touch with their original designs, color schemes, and authentic inspiration.

OUTCOME

We finalized full concept work for Redwood Territory. In addition to designing entry gateways, icons, attraction signs, and renaming a number of existing rides, we focused a major design effort on creating the Redwood Food and Wine Pavillion, a regional hub for food, beer, and beverages. A California arts and crafts pavilion was planned as a second cultural anchor to add to the mix of the park’s thrill attractions.

One conceptual subsection of the park was to be named Bicentennial Fair, in homage to the park’s opening year. The Action Zone would have received a retro nostalgic overlay, anchored by the Great American Revolution giantFerris wheel and a new giga coaster. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cedar Fair shifted its corporate strategy, and the park has since been sold.

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Thank you DiamondbackFan for posting the above artist conceptions, news, and report from Storyland Studios.  Quite interesting.  While this project was ended due to the sale of CGA it gives us clues to the direction of Cedar Fair in place-making, theming, new food and beverage outlets and products, and an overall plan to refresh and renew areas of existing parks.

Again, thanks for posting this article and information.  Great catch!

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Its pretty apparent that CF has been exploring all options with the park for years.  CGAM is a park they've historically been unsure of what to do with for a multitude of reasons.  Heck, even Paramount had the same struggles with the property over 20 years ago.  The Storyland Studios info reads to me as though they were simply solicited to submit a proposal to CF to potentially re-invigorate the out-of-sorts park.  Chances are, this isn't the only proposal CF received/solicited.  Proposals such as this are common among the industry, but they don't necessarily mean they ever make it past the concept stage.

Like any business, it all boils down to metrics.  Will the cost of investment yield appropriate returns and financial gains? Obviously, not in this case...   ultimately, the ground has become far more valuable than the park that sits on top of it.  

I sort of think about CGAM like that aging house in "Up" that had become surrounded by corporate businesses and modern development.  The owner hung on to it for years... but much like in the movie, they ultimately have to let it go.

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I think this was a serious plan, and we might have even seen one piece of this design be implemented.  Back in I believe 2019, the Drop Tower at CGA was repainted and the paint job was intended to make you think of a redwood tree.  The Drop Tower is in this section of the park and I believe would have been in this new redwood area.

If you check the companies very next project on the site it’s a restaurant revamp at Knott’s which was built and opened last summer.

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18 hours ago, Kenban said:

I think this was a serious plan, and we might have even seen one piece of this design be implemented.  Back in I believe 2019, the Drop Tower at CGA was repainted and the paint job was intended to make you think of a redwood tree.  The Drop Tower is in this section of the park and I believe would have been in this new redwood area.

If you check the companies very next project on the site it’s a restaurant revamp at Knott’s which was built and opened last summer.

That's really cool! I remember hearing about that repaint and thought the paint job theme was random, but now it all makes sense. And speaking of the paint job, I took a look at it on Reddit and it looks crazy cool. If it were to get relocated when CGA eventually closes, I really hope the next park keeps that color scheme as I would love to ride it looking like that! B) 

-MDMC, who has seen but has never ridden an early Intmain Drop Tower

EDIT: Never mind, I saw that it was a picture taken when they were in between the old and new colors I think (it was lime green at the very top, green after that, and then orange to the bottom and it looked really cool!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

According to the Santa Clara Permit Center, CGA is planning to install a Zamperla Windstarz ride.  https://aca-prod.accela.com/SANTACLARA/Cap/CapHome.aspx?module=Planning&TabName=Planning&TabList=Home|0|Building|1|Fire|2|Planning|3|PublicWorks|4|CodeEnforcement|5|Services|6|CurrentTabIndex|3

The Parcel number is 104-42-019 (you can search under the planning section).  In the description it says "Modification to existing ride to replace with a new ride, "Windstarz" including improvements of ride installation, new fencing, shade structure and electrical routing ad other supporting site improvements."

It will be interesting to see what ride is replaced and if that ride is relocated anywhere.  Several of the CGA flats would fit in well at KI like Bayern Kurve, Centrifuge, and Peanuts Pirates.  All of these could easily fit in the Adventure Port area (either behind the Coke Marketplace or the other area would be between the Age and Weight stand and Festhaus) and be re-themed pretty easily to that theme as well.  KI's original Bayern Kurve was originally in that area of the park.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That ride looks like a very dynamic ride, that is sure to be a family hit.  I am sure that this ride will be relocated to another Cedar Fair park, once California`s Great America closes.  It seems like almost all of the ride installations at Cedar Fair this year are from Zamperla.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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