SFNO/Jazzland Discussion Thread

[Arrow Dynamics fan]

Even Danny Rogers believes that this project is a bad idea now.

 

http://unofficialjazzlandinfo.yuku.com/topic/2220/Industrial-Development-Board-launches-selection-process-dev#.UuwQFHn5Eas

 

Got a call this AM from the IDB you would think after all the park has been through and as bad as it now is inside it should just be bulldozed but no again someone must be found to rebuild it! Good Luck who ever, your going to need it!

 

Thanks

Danny

The real question is why would it be a good idea? What does it have going for it? It has failed twice and spent one and a half times as long closed as it was opened. It's a sunk cost.

[gisco]

^Exactly!

[XYZ]

Louisiana - (3/4/14) Consider me surprised, but it seems a new group has come forward to file a proposal with the city of New Orleans to redevelop the former Six Flags New Orleans theme park site as… an all new theme park called Jazzland once again. They’ve already created an official Facebook page for the proposed Jazzland Park, put up a JazzlandPark.com website, and you can also download their proposal to the city in PDF form to take a closer look at what is planned.

The new proposal is from a group called TPC-NOLA, which is a subsidiary of The Paidia Company, a local Louisiana company involved with themed entertainment projects. To be honest, the only time I’ve heard of The Paidia Company to date was that they were selected as one of the final four proposals to redevelop Rye Playland, where their plan involved working with Merlin to bring a Legoland park to the site.

So what do they have planned to bring Jazzland back to life? The proposal says they have 90% of the financing in place, and plan to spend $50 million in Phase 1 to open the theme park and the “back backlot” for a proposed film studio backlot project. Their plan for the park is to try and keep it open year-round to take advantage of the mild winters and year-round tourism and convention crowds in the area. Of the $50 million needed to reopen the park, nearly half would go towards the attractions budget: $4 million to repair rides that can be saved, $15 million towards brand new attractions and another $3.4 million to install new performance theaters.

The park will also have four themed lands: The Beach, The Bayou, The Quarter and Sportsman’s Paradise. The Quarter will serve as the entrance area to the park and feature a heavy music theme, including a 4D theater attraction called the Voodoo Queen’s Battle of the Bands and a dark ride themed to the Imagination Movers and a Showboat themed theater.

Sportsman’s Paradise, themed to the great outdoors, will feature an interactive Hunting themed dark ride, Mudhoggin’ (a 4x4 version of the classic car ride), Red River Run (new River Rapids ride), a Fire Engine themed suspended roller coaster that will have water elements to interact with the nearby rapids ride below it. The existing “Jester” coaster will be restored and re-themed as Driskill Mountains, complete with black bear encounters.

The Beach section of the park will feature the MegaZeph coaster once again, with a plan to restore and reopen the coaster from The Gravity Group, who will install new Timberliner trains with an on-board audio soundtrack system. They envision having Better Than Ezra to perform the coaster’s new musical soundtrack. Other attractions in The Beach will include a drop tower enclosed inside a light house themed structure and Sea of Love: a boat ride through the former games building that will feature scenes of sunsets, moonlight and cupids as a modern take on the old Tunnel of Love rides from long ago. The former Jocco’s building will be expanded and turned into a modern day Laff-in-the-Dark ride, a former games building will become a Haunted House and the old Spillway Splashout will be replaced with a new Wild Maus coaster. Other new rides to be added include a Ferris wheel, carousel, wave swinger, bumper cars and more.

The Bayou will feature a brand new Simulator film attraction, the refurbished and expanded log flume will become the Sugar Flume with a ride into a sugar mill, refurbished pirate ships and airboat rides and more.

Beyond that, they also plan to open the Baritone Beach Waterpark as future expansion along with the Backlot Shoppes, a mixed use retail site that will be located next to the Backlot production area.

So what do you think? I like the idea and I like the vision and theme for the park… but I guess the real questions I have fall more along the lines of:

Should this site be used for a theme park again?

Has the New Orleans area recovered enough to support having its own theme park?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see if they get support from the city to move ahead or not, because if time has proven anything, it seems like no one else has come up with anything better to do with the site since Katrina.

 

http://www.screamscape.com/html/us_news.htm#Louisiana

 

http://www.jazzlandpark.com/rfp/tpc-nola_jazzland_proposal_for_rfp_final.pdf

[11slataus]

I'm pretty shocked that Jester and Mega Zeph would even be considered operable. I thought that Six Flags would have waltzed off with any salvageable coaster possible. That being said, any hope for Mega Zeph's return would be epic! Based on Robb's POV video, those bunny hills look reminiscent of Boulder Dash. No word on the Boomerang? Not that it really matters that much.

[Shavethewhales]

I read through some of the proposal. Once again it is very amateurish in nature... It's a decent concept for sure, but as usual there's no power or money behind it so it's not even worth really discussing at this point. Almost looks like a really dedicated older enthusiast put it together. I kind of doubt 'The Paidia Company' is actually a real company and not just someone trying to break into the amusement business by posting proposals whenever the opportunity arises. Sorry, but it takes a bit more than that.

[Cyrbuzz]

I guess until we see some actual work begin on the site, this is just another in a long list of ideas unrealized. I have to agree that having failed twice even before the storm that they would be better off letting nature reclaim the site.

[Pyrozooka0]

me and my family where driving back from New Orleans, and as we passed SFNO, I noticed that Mega Zeph was in suspiciously good shape for a coaster that had a hill collapse due to wood rot. Jester and the boomerang looked like they where doing OK for abandoned rides too.

[goatdan]

^ Hunh?

 

MegaZeph's structure was made of steel, so I have no idea how it could have had a hill collapse due to wood rot. Source?

[GrapesLie]

I would love this to happen! Hell I always want to see a park succeed, However this has a lot of hurdles till/if it happens. I wish them the best of luck though!

[Meteornotes]

Hard Rock Park is more likely to re-open than this place. It's just not a good location for a park. Jazzland went bankrupt, and I'm sure Six Flags would have figured out a way to get out of this property. Plus I'm sure they are way underestimating the amount of money it would take to clean this place up. Really don't see this happening.

 

dt

[vacoaster09]

I think with the addition of the water park the park has a chance... the water park should be more of the focus in my opinion as i'm sure it will be a huge attendance driver. The one thing that SFNO and the Original Jazzland never had was a waterpark. Outside of that, I think the lack of competition in the area benefits the park despite the location (proximity to the city).

[Pyrozooka0]

^ Hunh?

 

MegaZeph's structure was made of steel, so I have no idea how it could have had a hill collapse due to wood rot. Source?

 

The wood rot part was me guessing why one of the hills collapsed, as I didnt realise it had a steel structure at the time of the post.

[gisco]

Nice idea but this doesn't have a chance for a number of reasons. First and foremost is they do not have financing in place. If you read through the proposal you will find a letter from the finance company. It states that they do not have funds at the present time and are waiting to see what they are allocated in May of this year. Then they will decide if this project or some other project will get the funds. So the 90% of the financing in place is bogus. They have two major hurdles ahead.

 

Second they are grossly under estimating what it would take to get this park back in operating condition. Just look at what KK is spending and that park was in much better shape. Add to the fact that no survey has been done to see what kind of shape any of the structures or rides are in yet. It is a complete guess on what it will take $$$ wise to repair or replace the infrastructure.

 

Third is that they grossly over estimate the attendance. They are estimating figures that are the same as when the park was a full blown park with a much larger population in the area. They are not going to even come close to those attendance figures with a smaller incomplete park with a smaller population.

 

Fourth a lot of the tourism to NO is to party. These are not families with kids. These are not people who will go to the theme park.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

Round and round we go....

[vacoaster09]

Nice idea but this doesn't have a chance for a number of reasons. First and foremost is they do not have financing in place. If you read through the proposal you will find a letter from the finance company. It states that they do not have funds at the present time and are waiting to see what they are allocated in May of this year. Then they will decide if this project or some other project will get the funds. So the 90% of the financing in place is bogus. They have two major hurdles ahead.

 

Second they are grossly under estimating what it would take to get this park back in operating condition. Just look at what KK is spending and that park was in much better shape. Add to the fact that no survey has been done to see what kind of shape any of the structures or rides are in yet. It is a complete guess on what it will take $$$ wise to repair or replace the infrastructure.

 

Third is that they grossly over estimate the attendance. They are estimating figures that are the same as when the park was a full blown park with a much larger population in the area. They are not going to even come close to those attendance figures with a smaller incomplete park with a smaller population.

 

Fourth a lot of the tourism to NO is to party. These are not families with kids. These are not people who will go to the theme park.

 

Corrected: I thought the report said they brought Gravity Group to assess the structure of MegaZeph last year since GG still have folks who were originally involved in the coasters design/construction. I have been following the group on facebook who submitted this proposal and this isn't the first one they have submitted correct, I though in a previous effort they did have someone check the park out. I might be mistaken.

Edited March 6, 2014 by vacoaster09

[stingrock23]

Zero chance this happens.

[jedimaster1227]

^That depends on how desperate the city is to make use of the land.

[ArizonaGuy]

Exactly. If they get something up and running there then that means lots of tax revenue for the city. Tax the hell out of tourist.

[ZeroGravity55]

I thought the report said they brought GCI to assess the structure of MegaZeph last year.

 

Actually said it was The Gravity Group. Said something about restoring the ride, adding a tunnel, and a set of Timberliners if I read correctly.

[Vonni]

So, IF this were to happen, how many of you would go to the Park its re-opening year?

[gerstlaueringvar]

Steel structure, Gravity Group, Timberliners, repair... I'm getting a bad feeling.

 

The plan doesn't seem realistic enough. If the typhoon attacked the park due to it's location, putting money into this park and wait for it getting attacked again is not a good idea. Plus, where are all those horror movie going to shoot if the park reopens? SFNO must be one of the creepiest place in this planet.

[BigBomer]

So, IF this were to happen, how many of you would go to the Park its re-opening year?

I am 100% skeptical but since it's only a skip, jump, and a hop away I'd probably end up going. But I doubt it gets past where it's at...

[GrapesLie]

^I say earliest, and this is if everything went perfectly they would reopen late 2015 early 2016.

[Vonni]

I just cant see it happenimg, but I also felt the same way about KK. That was a completely different scenario and circumstance though.

[NTA_Shawn]

This is my home park and would love to see it open back up. What people didn't realize is there is a lot of room for them to expand the park for a concert venue, hotel, water park etc... I think the park is on like 80 or so acres and have 150 or so acres empty or available for expansion.

 

The Mega Zeph is a steel structure and its galvanized, so it shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. The wood track could use some smoothing out on the back run of it as it gave you a jolt more than air time. In some places on the train it actually hurt to ride. I believe they did some work on it in the past, but it wasn't enough. The Jester needs to stay as it was fun to ride a coaster in reverse. The Wild Mouse needs to be ditched and replaced with a more thrilling flat ride. The area where Batman was would make a good location for a larger inverted coaster. Being close to the parking lot entrance, a large eye catching coaster is needed. The dark rides they have planned sound quite interesting as well. But, they will need better shade options than what SF had to offer. The July & August heat was almost unbearable, so a longer flume ride with another splash down would be more appreciated. The spinning pendulum ride should be replaced with an inverted type where your feet hang. Considering its location on the lake shore would make for a more thrilling ride. More kiddie rides will be needed as well. Ones with high capacity to keep the lines moving.

 

Another thing they are going to have to deal with is overall park security. I have heard rumors of people getting mugged in the park and parking lot. I went to Jazzland and SFNO numerous times and the only time I heard of anything bad happening was when the power went out in the park. I was there that night and was not a fun situation to be in. But the area the park is in is not the best of locations so a strong park security and a no tolerance on "riff raff" will have to be enforced with an iron fist.