CoasterGuy06

New style. The gap between the seat and arm rest is smaller and the part over your lap is much thicker. Old style (52" requirement) Note the part over your lap is smaller and the gap between the seat and arm rest is bigger. The seats/padding are different. Power Tower has the newer style but still has the 52" requirement.

Witches Wheel is a Huss ride, and they set the requirement at 54", not CP. I will say I wonder why CP hasn't lowered Power Tower's height restriction to 48" yet. When I rode it in 2012 it seemed to have the modifications made that would allow them to.

From what I have gathered, the only way the rule can go into effect this year it has to be classified as addressing player safety, otherwise it would have to wait until next year. The safety reasoning is BS, IMO. I like the theory behind the rule, but no way it passes. Exactly. I saw a tweet from ESPN's Brett McMurphy today that said Oklahoma would have been penalized 6 times vs Alabama had this rule been in place, out of 76 plays they ran (only 7.9% of plays). It makes me wonder if they should instead go back to only utilizing a 25 second clock like pre 2007 or so. That's how I feel about it. *Bama fan disclaimer* That's not really true at all. Alabama held HUNH Ole Miss to 205 yards and 0 points this year. If you take out the 109 yard missed field goal return at the end of the Iron Bowl, Alabama held Auburn to their third lowest point total of the season. Yes they had some issues with Texas A&M, but after Bama scored to go up 21-14 in the second quarter, A&M never got the ball with the chance to take the lead, and trailed 35-14 at one point after starting 14-0. Most of Bama's problems this year were not really because of the no huddle, it was their unexperienced secondary. Outside of Ha-Ha Clinton Dix, Vinnie Sunseri was the only experienced guy, and he tore his ACL against Arkansas. As a coaches son he had the heart and brains, he's just limited by he physical ability.I find it funny how some of the offensive coaches are mad at Saban for this rule, when many of them proposed things like the "Saban Rule" that prevents head coaches from visiting high school prospects at their schools in the spring simply because they wanted to be able to have more time off without possibly losing recruits to a coach willing to out work them. But why should the offense be the only one with an advantage? Almost every rule change the past few decades has been to benefit offense, so it's nice to see one potentially help defenses. College football hasn't gotten as bad as the NFL (defense wise) yet, so hopefully the My real issue with the hurry up has nothing to do with the players. It's the officials. They cannot keep up with the pace and it has a direct effect on the game. I have seen numerous times where they are not in place because the ball was spotted for play before all officials were in place and miss easy calls like illegal shifts/formations, ineligible man down field, etc.. I've also seen teams try to slip their offensive substitutions while the officials are running to spot the ball at their speed, hoping the won't notice and allow the defense to also sub. Gus Malzhan did it a couple of time in the Iron Bowl where he was yelling at the officials for standing over the ball to allow Bama to sub on defense instead of letting his team snap it, even though the rule is they have to allow the defense sub if the offense subs. The Big 12 experimented with adding an extra official this year, and his responsibility was only to mark the ball for play so the other officials could get in the correct place before the snap. I would like to see how the conference felt that turned out and see if it should be expanded to all FBS conferences this year. Short version: It won't pass, but they need to do something to help officials adjust to the hurry up.

I'm in.

Julio Jones ate his Wheaties this morning.

Great point. Now that they have the bankruptcy behind them, hopefully they can keep the executive team as in tact as possible for a while so they can actually have that focus.

I've never really bought into that rumor because at the end of the day, once a park owns a ride, it isn't in the control of the ride manufacturer how the park chooses to operate, maintain or modify the ride, unless they have some sort of specific contract for those kind of things, which I believe Six Flags handles totally in-house. I'd imagine Six Flags consulted B&M on this conversion, but I can't find any reason to believe that they would need their approval to be able to move forward with this kind of project. American Eagle is a perfect example. PTC has stated they do not support their current trains to be run backwards, but SFGAm has done it several times.

With the backwards Batman news no coming out about SFGAm, does SFStL pull it out too, as was rumored back in the fall?

^That's my thought as well. By announcing an end date they are giving themselves an out if problems arise/it proves to be unpopular. If it is wildly successful they can always pull a Cher and extend the "tour"

When did it hit $30? I paid $16 last year. I have a hard time seeing that they raised it $14 in less than a year. Six Flags is also including parking in all Gold Season passes this year. Single gold passes are $89.99 compared to Carowinds $87 (also includes parking). *Edit*- just checked SFOG's website: One-Day Parking $20.00 Preferred Parking $25.00 Valet Parking $35.00 Season Parking $55.00 Valid at Six Flags Over Georgia only.

Just to point out on the "all they care about is coasters" argument: They are building a grand total of four coasters next year, and two of those are relocated ones. Four other parks are getting flat/water rides, two parks major show updates, SFGADv is redoing the Safari tour,and five waterparks are getting new additions. While they did basically only build coasters at one time (in 1999 they built a total of 18 coasters between their 18 US parks and 14 in 2000), they have turned it around recently. Yes, you can argue that SFMM has gone back to only "Xtreme Rides" like the early 2000s, but they did try to go the family route. It's didn't work and they smartly chose to go back to what does work for them. Can't hate on them for that.

I wonder if there either has been some kind of litigation between CF and Mondial (that we haven't heard about), or if there will be some in the future.

A lot of the hate carries over from the old Six Flags days. Premier Parks, IMO, destroyed the Six Flags brand when they flagged small parks like DL, EG, KK, etc. then basically left them there to rot. Up until 2004 or so the parks were in ROUGH shape. They very rarely painted old rides, they built coaster after coaster every year, and it was not uncommon to find the parks either running fewer trains or to be extremely short staffed. I'm going to cover a few of the issues people complain about with Six Flags. For most of these I'm going to compare them to Cedar Fair, because as a whole they have more in common with each other than say Disney, Busch, or even Herschend parks. L_ockers: People got so worked up over this, but CF does this too. Kings Island has them for Flight or Fear and Firehawk, and Cedar Point has them for TTD and Millennium Force. Difference? No one b****es about the CF parks AND their lockers are a minimum of $2, not $1 like Six Flags. As a former ride operator, I LOVE these things. People bring so much utter crap with them to a ride platform, which can REALLY slow down operations. Nothing pissed me off more than getting ready to dispatch a train and then someone started yelling at you because they realized they still had their phone, iPod, camera, keys, wallet, etc. in their pockets. One train operations/closed rides: I'm going back to 2002 on this and the park I'm going to use (only SF with a lot of visits in this time frame) is SFOG. The only time I've visited when a coaster was closed the entire day was this year while Georgia Cyclone was getting topper track, and early season visits with Deja Vu (self explanatory there). Every time I have been and a ride was down they were either actively working on it, or the ride was down due to some kind of weather issue. I have visited one time when EVERY coaster was one train. It was in the 40s and every single train was going out with a handful of people. Every park would do the same thing. Every other time everything has been running multiple trains, with the exception of Ninja a couple of times (walk on) or at Deep South Bash 2011 when they were working on Mindbender's second train. Compare this to the following CF parks that I have spent at least 3 or more days at in the same time frame: Carowinds, KI, KD, and CP. Carowinds: on two visits in 2010 (including opening day) EVERY single coaster was running ALL trains. The second visit was Easter Sunday and besides Intimidator and Nighthawk, everything was a walk on. My visit this year was slightly different though. The park was not overly crowded, but for some reason Thunder Road only ran one train on each side and Intimidator dropped from 3 train operation down to 2 mid day. This caused the wait time to increase by 10-15 minutes. Kings Dominion (2002, opening weekend 2010). Opening weekend 2010 was PATHETIC. Hurler and Shockwave did not open for the year for several weeks, Rebel Yell was only running one side, Backlot SC had ONE train on the track, the other two were nowhere to be found. We waited in line for an hour just so I could get the credit. Grizzly was one train with 30+ minute waits, Volcano was 1 train, Dominator was 2 trains but with pathetic dispatches. We timed several in a row and the quickest one was 4.5 minutes. The. Quickest. One. All this, and virtually NOBODY called the park out on this in the trip reports here that weekend. Imagine the uproar if that had been at a Six Flags! Kings Island (2 days each in 2010 and 2011, 1 day this year)- 2010 park absolutely dead, all trains running except for Blue Racer (down all day both days), and The Beast (2 trains both days) 2011- moderately busy- ALL trains running on all rides 2012- Crowds in between dead and moderately busy- again, ALL trains running. Cedar Point (2 days each in 2010 and 2012)- All trains running each visit. The only two exceptions are Gemini (only one side running on 3.5 of those days), and Magnum this year (2 trains both days with a full station, while Mean Streak and Iron Dragon each had 3 running barely full. Maybe maintenance issues?). So the same issues happen at some parks at BOTH chains, yet CF seems to get an unfair pass. I'll even throw Dollywood in here. On my second visit this year Wild Eagle was running one train with the wait ranging from 25-40 minutes throughout the day. My last ride the person at the station split was doing a terrible crowd control, as the station was so packed you couldn't move. People still give them a pass because they're Dollywood. Park upkeep/advertising/theming etc: Six Flags has REALLY stepped it up the last few years. Just look at what coasters they've painted since 2004 or so: SFOG: Scorcher, Batman, GASM, Ninja, and Mindbender, etc. SFMM: X2, Viper, Batman, Superman, Ninja, etc. SFDK: All the non kiddie steel coasters SFNE: Bizarro, Flashback, Mind Eraser, etc. SFFT: Superman, Poltergeist, Boomerang, etc. Cedar Fair rarely paints rides it seems, and when they do it seems like they do it in parts (3 years for MF, 2 years for Magnum, 2 years for Talon, only Anaconda's brake run in 2010, only Xcelerator's supports, only Vortex (KI) rails, etc.). Why does Six Flags get so much hate for for this, yet again most CF parks get a pass? I'll admit Six Flags does way more with advertising, but it's a money maker for them. Maybe I'm just use to it because of the internet, TV, sporting events, etc. It really doesn't bother me to see Mindbender's train plastered with hair products or Georgia Scorcher covered in blue natural gas flames. I think it would bother me if it were to be done on an actual heavy themed ride, but Six Flags doesn't really do that, and that's ok. They have done a much better job recently of landscaping/theming their rides. Honestly, I would much rather CF and Six Flags buy a major ride, give it a good looking station and nice landscaping (Diamondback, Maverick, X-Flight, Dare Devil Dive, Lex Luthor, etc.) than buy a crappy ride and try to really theme it (Dark Knight). TL:DR Summary: I think many people forget that Six Flags isn't Disney/Universal. You can't expect that level of quality when you don't pay for it. That would be like going to Red Lobster and expecting 5 star food there. Not going to happen. Their gate prices reflect what you can expect, IMO. I paid $45.99 for my 2012 SF Season pass. I paid $66.99 for a two day CP ticket, $60+ for a one day Dollywood ticket, and $29.99 for my one day Kings Island ticket. I feel like I got the best value for Six Flags for the money spent. They aren't perfect, but they are a far cry from the Six Flags of 1998-2005 or so. Unfortunately for Six Flags, it is VERY hard to shake a negative reputation, which is why they get so much hate. I'm really not as big of a Six Flags fanboy as my last few posts make me out to be. I just hate seeing everyone "gang up" on something

And that's the point. Nobody cares how much cash SF has in the bank. Their philosophy for running amusement parks has no business even sitting at the same lunch table as the SW parks. But they've even stated that their philosophy is based on running a regional based them park company. We really have no way of knowing if they would treat destination parks the same way (and I really doubt we ever will know). Based on what I read up on Apollo during their attempt to takeover CF I really doubt the parks are in their price range either. I seem to recall they liked buying companies that weren't doing so well (CF was not doing well at the time), and attempting to essentially flip them pretty quickly. Sea World is doing too well at the moment to really fit that model.

The quality of Six Flags today isn't overall better than they were from 1998 (the buy out) until Burke/Story were ousted in 2005? Sure, it's not Busch/Universal/Disney quality, but given the price difference between at the gates at those parks to Six Flags, I can't really fault them for it.

Here's the photo they tweeted out:

2013- Used Boomerang coaster 2012- New waterslide/Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast 2011- New Starflyer 2010- No new attraction/general improvements 2009- New waterslide 2008- New GCI wooden coaster 2007- New Gerstlauer spinning coaster 2006- Used Intamin freefall, new kids area (mix of new and used rides) 2005- New waterslide That's six years with a brand new attraction, one year with a mix of new and used, one year with just a used attraction, and another season with no new rides/slides. It's not like they have received used ride after used ride like Six Flags Astroworld did before closing, or how Dorney Park has been getting from CF the past few years.

SFWOA happened because they took a small/medium sized park, spent well over $100 million on the property in just two seasons by adding 5 coasters, waterpark expansion, and buying the neighbor, and cut their potential admission revenue in half at the same time by combining all the parks at one time. Throw in really crappy operations and you have a recipe for disaster. Outside of Disney/Universal parks, I don't think there is a single park in America than can get an actual return on a $100 million investment. That wouldn't happen in San Antonio if for some strange reason this actually goes through.

Well they did try that approach with Mr. Freeze this year. How many years in a row can you do that before your target audience gets tired of there not being an actual new ride put in?

If it's no closer to reopening then they should have just removed the Feb 1 date they had listed and put up some kind of "Windseeker is temporarily closed" message on the ride's page.. I know we all love to hate on SFMM, but at least they have been pretty good to update their website when rides are down for extended periods of time.

^Attendance for the Six Flags chain has risen from 23.3 million chain wide in 2009 to 25.6 (projected) in 2012 according to an investor release from last month. Let's stop acting like Six Flags instantly means death for any park they touch. This isn't the same broke Six Flags from a few seasons ago. Yes, it would require them to add more debt to buy the parks (which is why I don't see them going through with the purchase), but they are in a much better financial shape now.

"Come check out our new Boomerang coaster" will bring in more guests than "well, we painted our 18 year old Batman coaster, so come check that out." The more guests/money they can bring in, the larger the budget they can justify for more/bigger improvements.

Knott's website no longer lists Windseeker as closed. Maybe they are close to reopening the ride?

^If you look over the past couple of years Six Flags has been slowly raising gate and season pass prices while lowering discount rates. They'll never be Disney high, but I suspect you will eventually see them more in line with parks like Cedar Fair.

^^ If I was in charge, I would co-brand the park. Leave it as SFDK, but bring back killer whales (obviously using the Shamu name this time), and branding the Sea part of the park as Sea World at Six Flags or something like that, much like you would have Hurricane Harbor at a park like SFGAm, SFNE, SFA, etc.