lamardozier

This way they are not down 1 coaster for a year. Instead, they can remove Excalibur and replace it with a front gate coaster in the same year.

So I think I figured out what they're going to do at Valleyfair the next 2 years. In 2019, they will remove Looping Starship (that's why we got a Larson Loop) and will expand the waterpark, but will NOT bulldoze Excalibur at that time nor create a new parking lot. Then it will not cost that much. A similar expansion as what Hersheypark got this year. Then finally in 2020, they will 1) remove dinosaurs alive, 2) remove excalibur, 3) bulldoze the front AND back entrances and create new entrances in the front and back, along with a new front gate coaster. This coaster will likely not be something expensive like a B+M, but either a cheaper Raptor or Infinity. QED.

Some disappointing news to share with us Valleyfair fans. I went to the B-52s concert tonight at the Minnesota Zoo and guess who was there? Dave Frazier, former GM of Valleyfair. You may recall that he and VF parted ways earlier this year and he accepted a position at the zoo: http://www.swnewsmedia.com/shakopee_valley_news/news/business/valleyfair-names-new-vice-president-and-general-manager/article_4a7503a8-1855-51ca-96ea-3c4bf25a8501.html Before the concert started I spotted him, and his wife went into the bathroom and so I went up and chatted with him then (so as not to interrupt their evening together). I asked him as much as I could about Valleyfair before she reappeared. Here's the information I was able to extract from him in no particular order: * He mentioned that the brand study was completed and they found that the word "family" came up more often than any other study they did. So they think of Valleyfair more of a family park. * He said as a result, Valleyfair will "never get a $50 million roller coaster like the other parks" * He mentioned that the zoning approval at California's Great America immediately put CGA as a priority next in line for expansion and now any expansion at Valleyfair is on the back burner and much farther out. * He said it seems that North Star is attracting new people to the park, so that's promising. * He said he had his own vision for Valleyfair (didn't mention what it was) but said that there are 3 layers of management above him which made approval for anything difficult (Matt Ouimet, Rob Decker, and someone else), and they had their own vision. Maybe Frazier's vision was more family oriented than managements'? * He said the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers plans at VF meant that they could patch up the area of the current parking lot that always gets flooded, and then re-route the service road around Excalibur. But he also said it wasn't a guarantee that Excalibur would be replaced with a parking lot, and instead they may just use that land for the water park expansion. * It seems like the family oriented nature of the brand study meant that a water park expansion is a much higher priority than a new coaster, since water parks are more family friendly. * So many more questions I didn't get to ask, like whether Dinos Alive would be replaced with a front gate coaster, whether High Roller would be RMC'd, why family means tame rides when I see little kids going on Steel Venom, etc. So that's the info I was able to obtain. It seems CGA is a much higher priority than any Valleyfair expansion, and VF will always be considered a family park. Not exactly the best news for us coaster fans. In the meantime, enjoy this documentary about Renegade being built! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKSV9tnRnkM