PKI Jizzman Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 I'd bet the B&Ms are toast, from 1991 and 1993. They're short, not on flat ground.. and 30 years old. The park has a stunning background and looks great, Gold Striker is a top tier GCI in my opinion, it will be missed. The surrounding area is what really puzzles me. Yes there's Levi stadium right there but then the rest of the area is office park after office park and we know how quickly those are disappearing with remote work. Curious to see what comes of this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI Jizzman Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 2 minutes ago, Mike240SX said: On another note, does anyone know how much of the park they run for Winterfest? Please tell me it's everything. The main coasters run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyUD06 Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 8 minutes ago, PKI Jizzman said: The main coasters run. Main coasters as in all adult coasters and the Bayern Kurve and Enterprise? If so, I think I found my December trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_s3_ Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 15 minutes ago, PKI Jizzman said: I'd bet the B&Ms are toast, from 1991 and 1993. They're short, not on flat ground.. and 30 years old. I, personally, would doubt that they would scrap them. They can be great fillers for other parks, especially with Patriot's recent reno into a floorless. I likely see Patriot going to MiA or WoF and Flight Deck going to KD. The "not on flat ground" argument might be valid, but that can easily be accommodated for with land grating and/or a few new supports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leqant Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 Well this is very bad news for someone who lives in the area like me. I'm hoping that the park can remain open but given how valuable the land is, it's hard for Cedar Fair to not sell it. In case CGA goes, then I'd like to say thank you Great America for making me introducing and getting me into roller coasters and for all the great memories I made there. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CP_RULES Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 WoF just got a Mamba system upgrade we're all good for 15 years! Really sad news any time a major park announces a closure to be serious, though. Anyone think the pandemic had anything to do with it? I have read some grim things about the region's economy recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laqueefa Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 1 hour ago, Manic Monte said: I never get emotional over things like this, but Great America is my childhood park. Riding Flight Desk (Top Gun at the time) is what turned me into an enthusiast. I will miss this park immensely Echoing this 1000% what a sad day. With the football stadium sharing the current parking lot, I wonder what the area would be turned into... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 Normally I don’t like when this happens and everyone speculates about who’s getting what because everyone just picks their favorite park (example: Railblazer could go almost anywhere), but Flight Deck is an interesting case because there are actually very few options. Look, I get that this chain now has 3 parks that feature a B&M hyper and a B&M giga so I guess theoretically they could put 2 inverts in the same park but assuming they don’t do that there’s not much. The only parks without an invert of any kind are Kings Dominion and Valleyfair. Michigan’s Adventure and Canada’s Wonderland have inverts but they’re SLCs. Let’s eliminate Michigan’s Adventure because I think we can all agree that it’s not going there, Flight Deck (if not scrapped) is almost definitely going to one of three parks. I feel like Dominion is a heavy favorite, though Wonderland wouldn’t shock me either. They could either remove those two pieces of crap that are right next to eachother that I’ve wanted them to remove forever or just keep them both and add this anyway because they need all of the capacity that they can get. Maybe they can be the only park in the world with dueling Flight Decks. I vote for KD though if they don’t scrap it (which is also very likely). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Monte Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Yeah no way Cedar Fair sticks it out for even 5 years imo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillseeker4552 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Sad news, but I can't say I'm too surprised. I think their lack of following their ambitious expansion plan from a few years ago (which includes nixing the B&M hyper and giving it to Kings Island instead, which Cedar Fair confirmed themselves) was a sign. Given their debt from the pandemic and the extremely, extremely valuable land CGA sits on, I suppose it all makes sense. Railblazer will almost certainly be relocated since it's new and easily constructible. Everything else is sort of a wild card in my opinion. The two B&Ms are both quite old and could be approaching their service lives, and they both use the terrain slightly. Gold Striker is probably in decent shape but relocating woodies is pretty rare. I think it's safe to say Demon and Grizzly are getting scrapped. Who knows about anything else. Also, yeah, I doubt it's running for 11 more years. I'm guessing until 2024 or 2025. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redfoot12 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Aww nuts... I was thinking about finally making my first trip here next year. Hopefully it's still operating in '23, with most of the attractions still running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leqant Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 CGA's potential closure is trending on Twitter in the US at #21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasCoaster Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 4 hours ago, laqueefa said: Echoing this 1000% what a sad day. With the football stadium sharing the current parking lot, I wonder what the area would be turned into... The company that bought the land specializes in industrial real estate (warehouses mainly), so my guess is something like an amazon fulfillment center. They only bought the land in 2019, I'm curious how much earlier this would have happened had they owned the land for longer. I have to imagine that given the pandemic and the short duration of time that it didn't appreciate a ton. Being able to turn a huge profit on the land sale to offset pandemic losses on the chain as a whole is probably a good business decision, but sucks to lose my favorite local park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aueft Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 California Great America is technically my local park, so I think I was doing wishful thinking in hoping that Cedar Fair would move forward with expansion plans from when they settled the land thing a few years ago, so I was pretty surprised about the news earlier today. And given where the park is located, it is kind of hard for me to imagine the space to be used for (dense) housing (which the San Francisco bay area obviously desperately needs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 6 hours ago, coasterbill said: Grizzly is getting scrapped, but I want it to go to Dorney because I'm an asshole like that. You should have said Michigan's Adventure then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopThrill182 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 I’m shocked by this news. After CF purchased the land, I really thought they were committed to CGA long term. (Then again, I probably should've learned my lesson after Geauga Lake…) I’ve only visited CGA a couple of times, but I still have a lot of good memories of the park, and I’ve always thought it’s very attractive—particularly the entrance. Beyond losing this specific park, I hate the idea of amusement park chains being in the business of permanently closing parks. It makes me feel pessimistic about the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoppedup Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Unlikely and selfish, but I'd really love to see Carowinds get Railblazer. It would fit at the site of the old rapids ride. Or just scrap that POS Vortex. Or Nighthawk. I'm glad we visited in December. I liked all the coasters. Demon was among the smoother Arrow loopers I've been on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grsupercity Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Flight Deck to Valleyfair Railblazer to Dorney Psycho Mouse used for parts for both Mad Mouse's Gold Striker trains to KBF and WOF Delirium and Drop Zone to Michigan's Adventure Tiki Twirl to Gilroy Gardens Patriot either to WOF or its trains to Carowinds for Vortex conversion. Lucy's used for parts and rest scrapped Woodstock express sold to smaller park Grizzly trains to Kings Dominion Demon stripped of useful parts and rest scrapped I could see some of the slides move to VF since they really need them Star tower scrapped a huge selection of flats can be dispersed or sold off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper39 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Man I hope I eat my words here but y'all are crazy if you think Flight Deck will be relocated to another CF park. Railblazer, the mouse, some water park stuff and some flats probably, but everything else I'd guess would be used for parts or scrapped. MAYBE, a place like Lost Island would be interested in buying/relocating something like Flight or Gold Striker but we'll see. Sad news though, I've never been to this park nor is it very high on my bucket list but it does look like a pretty decent place so it's a shame to see it go. I just hope they're transparent over the next couple of years as to when it's actually going to close for good. I hope they don't just close for the season in 2027 then never reopen, that would be pretty crappy but wouldn't surprise me either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 I visited this park when it first opened as Marriott's Great America back in the 1970s. We almost lost it when Marriott pulled out, but the City of Santa Clara ran it for a while, before Paramount and Cedar Fair came along. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 52 minutes ago, grsupercity said: Grizzly trains to Kings Dominion If they save the Grizzly trains for literally any reason other than to start a "National Worst Coaster Trains in History" museum in Washington DC I'm going to piss myself laughing. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonni Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 This is very disappointing. My thoughts on relocation, I agree with those saying most likely only Railblazer, and the rest (of the coasters) scrapped. I dont know who to "predict" to get the double decker carousel? Maybe Cedar Point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Monte Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 ^That double decker is just too majestic to pass up. Silverwood maybe? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonni Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 ^ I would expect it to stay in the chain, but I guess thats not really a guarantee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneyislandchris Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 I mean, if they're selling the land, why wouldn't we expect them to sell the rides too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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