KDCOASTERFAN

Wether or not the economy improves SFI will still be in trouble as they simply don't have the cash on hand to make the necessary improvements(adding new rides where needed as opposed to simply where wanted) that will bring people back into the parks.Ever wonder why I stopped going after 2007? That's right it was because of the rides(or lack thereof) being added to the park & that had been an ongoing problem since 2002 when the previous managment went on a "let's give rides to SFGRAM,SFGRADV & SFMM every year & screw the rest" spree that Shapiro seems hellbent to continue. The bankruptcy protection may just give them the needed cash to make these improvements but they have to be made in the right places,not the wrong ones for any positive outcome to be achieved. Agreed. Shapiro has been avoiding other parks like SFKK for a long time and no new rides have been put in for a long while. The park could be a big money maker if they add more attraction and clean it up a bit. Heck, Kentucky doesn't have any major amusement or theme parks beside Six Flags. True but that trend actually started with former CEO Keirian Burke beginning with the 2002 season & really hasn't stopped since.

Wether or not the economy improves SFI will still be in trouble as they simply don't have the cash on hand to make the necessary improvements(adding new rides where needed as opposed to simply where wanted) that will bring people back into the parks.Ever wonder why I stopped going after 2007? That's right it was because of the rides(or lack thereof) being added to the park & that had been an ongoing problem since 2002 when the previous managment went on a "let's give rides to SFGRAM,SFGRADV & SFMM every year & screw the rest" spree that Shapiro seems hellbent to continue. The bankruptcy protection may just give them the needed cash to make these improvements but they have to be made in the right places,not the wrong ones for any positive outcome to be achieved.

Perhaps SFI can come out of this in such a way as to be able to pay down their debt while keeping the parks in operation & then begin rebuilding the chain from the ground up starting in 2010? The debt is what's holding them back from being able to make the necessary cap ex improvements in the parks(has been for years) that are needed to bring in the customers & increase revenues.

How many times have we been through this? CF didn't ruin GL,SFI did right up to the point at which they sold the park to CF but WOF & VF don't exactly have such a bad reputation attatched to them so why try to sell them?

If they sell off WOF I'd love to see patriot get relocated to KD seeing as how it was a recent installation....of course this would never happen however but one can still dream about it.

Exactly & CF didn't go on a massive international park buying spree unlike SFI so their debt load isn't as high.CGA is somewhat of a loss simply because the neighbors put up such a fight over the smallest little additions to the park,which costs CF time & money to litigate & this is why paramount probably didn't invest all that much cap ex into the place when they were in charge as well.

I'm glad they dropped rebel yell's backward operation as it didn't really add much(other than pain) to the ride experience.AFAIK KD only runs one show in the FX theatre right now & that is the spongebob 3D show,which was quite fun when I saw it last season.

What happened was that Premier parks had already aqquired 13 parks by the time they bought SF from time warner 10 years ago,those parks were :Frontier city,Adventure world(now SFA) Elitch gardens,Kentucky kingdom,Darien lake,GL,TGE,MW(now SFDK & leased by the city) Riverside(now SFNE) Wyndot lake, SFM & La Ronde. Not all of the parks were "flagged" only DL,AW,KK, SFO/WOA & EG in 99 so those parks plus the unflagged ones added up on the operating & cap ex costs alone & when added to the parks TW had in the SF chain at the time it became too much & then as if things weren't bad enough Premier foolishly began buying parks iin Europe which drove their operating/cap ex costs even higher & they couldn't keep up & as a result not more than three years later many parks fell out of f avor with management which leads us to the delema we're in now with attendance drops at the parks that have been skipped over for new rides year after year. Management foolishly ignores the fact that the lost revenue from the parks they keep ignoring isn't magically being offset by the profits made at the parks that they spoil rotten year after year with new rides & that is what's hurting them financially right now.

It's no mystery since SFA decided to get rid of the ride following a mechanical malfunction back in 07.Just look for another boring stage or costume character dressing room to take it's place since SF doesn't want to add rides to the park.

As much as I favor the new administration I seriously doubt that Obama would agree to a bailout of the amusement industry.

Well keep in mind that gas prices HAVE come down to reasonable levels in recent months but if the parks don't have anything substantial to offer,especially in terms of operations & customer service then their attendance & profits are still gonna fall way short of expectations. CF doesn't seem to be hurting,at least nowhere near as bad as SF & their parks seem to turn a decent profit.....could it be that they provide gasp! a better experience that justifies the expense to the consumer than SF?

SFDK is a California park so it's not gonna go anywhere,SFNE gets spoiled these days because Shapiro has family up there(and by getting the better of the three superman hypers have built up their fan base & popularity) while TGE just seems to be getting more simply because they(SFI) want to screw us over. All three of these parks started out with Premiere in the years leading up to the SF buyout a decade ago,of course they weren't built from the ground up by premiere they were just parks in the premiere parks chain when the SF buyout took place.

They only manage SFOT & SFOG so those two are safe.SFSTL is owned & run just the same as the remainder of the parks however.

GL was messed up long before CF got hold of it,if SFI hadn't screwed it up they never would've wanted to sell it in the first place....speaking of which ever notice that it has been the former premiere parks(with the exception of SFDK & SFNE) that have been neglected in terms of new ride installations?

2006?Try more like 2002.That's when the previous management began to drastically cut back on cap ex & many of the smaller parks(like SFA)suffered as a result.

The park has spent WAY too much time updating the waterpark(simply because it's cost effective) & needs to focus more of it's capital back into the ride park for a good while,it's this imbalance along with poor operations of the rides they do have that led me to give up on the park after years of supporting it in the hopes that things would improve,now that may involve removing unreliable rides of course but Shapiro needs to wake up & realize that when a ride is removed for reliability issues it should be replaced with a new ride & not just wasted green space. One of the main obstacles to the park's chances for improvement is that Shapiro/Snyder promised change when they took over but have so far failed to deliver on that promise,choosing instead to continue many of,if not all of the policies put in place by the previous ownership that have turned the park into the mess that it is today,the most important of all is in playing favorites with which parks get rides every season & which ones don't.

Just added it to my faves list & will try to join when I get a chance.

After CF got burned by SF in Ohio I doubt that they'd be interested in purchasing another SF park again.

Great pics,I've gotta upload a few of mine from last season myself. In some of those late night shots the lighting almost brings out the original "Ohio" colors rather than the new ones.

Nice park,what EP's were used?

I ordered mine online,got my voucher printed out & I'm ready for processing on my first visit.....can't wait to get some laps in on Dominator & Grizz in a couple of months.

I havn't decided yet wether I'm going on opening day or not.How are opening day operations in terms of getting major rides up & running?

It's not just the lack of coasters but it's the removal of one ride after another without replacing them that really sends the message that the park is going downhill.If they really cared about the park in the manner they care about say SFNE then they would've replaced iron eagle with a new flat & not some dumb show stage,same goes for the enterprise that was right across the midway from IE.The waterpark upgrade was needed but SFI has to keep in mind that NOT everybody is drawn to a themepark just to go to the waterpark alone,some people want thrill rides & coasters & as a result the park has gone horribly off balance in it's offerings,add to that the fact that new ride installations of any type are getting further spaced apart while in the beginning it wasn't like that.

I think it's a definite improvement over the two previous color schemes that this ride has had in it's life span so far.

The first half isn't too bad but the second half is horrid,perhaps if they got rid of the butterfly element the ride would improve,but not by much.