SFNO/Jazzland Discussion Thread

[KileyJoJoStacie]

How would it make sense to move it to SFFT? Seaworld has a BTR clone right down the road.

I said basically the same thing, but a friend pointed out that SW also has a river rapids ride, a log flume, and a water park, all generically like the ones at FT.

 

From the standpoint of local competition and trying to 'lure' people to FT, having BTR would make one less reason for someone to go to SW instead of FT.

 

Course, I'm a bit biased... I live in SA and I "live" at FT. And I would love to have a B&M Inverted at the park!

 

I dont think the GP would be able to sense that Great White and BTR are the same exact coaster. I say put it at SFFT.

[Firestarter]

Anyone know of the status of this ride dismantle or of it's definite destination?

[speedracer]

^ Next Wednesday SF will announce SFDK which will include SFNO's B:TR to replace Kong . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope!

[matteocrepaldi]

I wish that it could go to SFKK but it looks like they made the choice.

[Primogen18]

If they put it in a park with another batman, it wouldn't be racing Batmans, they'd paint one red and call it Batman & Robin: The Chiller: The Revenge... Maybe it's going to GAdv...

[calcajun]

Although we all know SFI does not want this park, in the end they will likely buy out their lease.

 

Just like most New Orleanians, SFI is experiencing the same battle with Insurance carriers

 

 

Link to story

http://www.nola.com/business/t-p/index.ssf?/base/money-1/116953830415500.xml&coll=1

 

 

Six Flags removes Batman from its New Orleans park

Company suing its insurers over Katrina claim

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

By Rebecca Mowbray

 

Six Flags Inc. has removed the Batman ride from its still-shuttered New Orleans amusement park to see whether the ride can be refurbished and sent to a functioning park.

 

"This ride is one of the few items that are potentially salvageable, so we were assessing a few possibilities to refurbish it," said Wendy Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the New York company. "Since we still have no timeline for reopening the park, at this point, we're investigating whether it makes sense to use the ride in another park."

 

In recent weeks, fans of Six Flags have spied a crane through the tangle of dead branches surrounding the park, which has been closed since Hurricane Katrina. Many wondered whether a decision had been reached to dismantle the rides and sell them for scrap.

Goldberg said no long-term decisions have been made about the park, and her company recently filed suit against its insurers over its Katrina claim.

 

Six Flags took over the former Jazzland Theme Park out of bankruptcy in 2002 and entered into a 75-year lease with the city, which owned the property and the rides that were on it when the park was purchased. The company invested $25 million in new rides -- including the Batman ride -- and rebranded it as a Six Flags entity in 2003.

 

Last year, Six Flags made a settlement offer to the city to permanently close the park and get out of the deal, but Mayor Ray Nagin said he planned to hold Six Flags to its agreement to operate the park.

 

Goldberg declined to comment on the status of any negotiations between Six Flags and the city.

 

The New Orleans City Hall was unable to make someone available for an interview after several days of requests. A public records request seeking all documents and correspondence about the park since June 1, 2006, yielded no new information.

 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the city is current on its payments of a Section 108 loan that was used to build the park. The city must pay $2.4 million a year until 2017 on the loan; the city pays $1 million a year, and Six Flags pays $1.4 million a year in rent.

 

Last year, Six Flags continued to pay rent. The city would not say whether the company remains current on its rent payments.

 

In the meantime, Six Flags filed a breach of contract lawsuit Nov. 30 in federal court in New Orleans against seven excess insurers.

 

The company estimates it suffered more than $150 million in losses from damage to the park itself and interruptions to its business operations, according to the suit.

 

Six Flags has received $25 million in insurance from its primary insurer, but has gotten into fights with its excess insurers about whether flood damage is covered on the remaining $175 million in coverage.

 

Six Flags says its excess policies have "all risk" coverage, and neither a named storm, a weather catastrophe nor a flood are listed in the exclusions. The company says the excess insurers should pay everything beyond a 3 percent named-storm deductible.

 

But in June, the company that handled the adjustments for the excess insurers told Six Flags that there is a $2.5 million limit on flood coverage on the excess insurance policy and denied the rest of the claim, according to the suit.

 

By the excess insurers' reading of the situation, Six Flags is entitled to no more than $27.5 million in flood coverage from all of its insurance coverage. Six Flags says the excess insurers are responsible for the entire loss beyond the deductible because the flood and hurricane wind damages were not specifically excluded.

 

Six Flags asks the court to declare that the excess insurers are obligated to pay their Katrina claim damages, plus bill them for penalties and legal costs.

 

The excess insurers have not yet answered the complaint.

 

Notes to the company's third quarter earnings filed Nov. 9 raise the possibility that the park could be smaller if it is rebuilt. "We are contractually committed to rebuilding the park, but only to the extent of insurance proceeds received, including proceeds from the damage to the lessor's assets."

 

In other words, whatever Six Flags is able to recover from insurance, there could be disputes about how much Six Flags gets, how much the city gets, and what sort of park, if any, emerges.

[coasterman1992]

what do they plan on doing with their boomerang? off topic but i saw it in the background

[Alexander Nagel]

Before reading this my take on this was the park would never reopen (at least by six flags). After reading this i'd say that it could happen at least with a portion of the park rebuilt at first.

 

But it won't happen until or if six flags gets all of it's insurance money. I don't think Six Flags will get out of the contract with the city any time soon though, at least with Major Ray Nagin is around. Which a guess is bad thing for Six Flags seeing they are so far in the red. While I want them to do what they have to do get out of debt (without seeing another pointless AstroWorld deal though), I also think it for the good for the city that the park opens within a few years.

 

I think removing Batman is a bad thing and makes me contradict myself to think more that Six Flags has no plans to reopen the park. It's one of the few things that could have been refurbished the fastest. I guess that they could always reinstall it though, if the footing weren't damaged by the storm and flood and the removal of the ride.

 

I just really think it's important for the park to reopen. People are coming back to the city....people are rebuilding. Six Flags should do the same. But at the same time I don't think they need more than half of the park for the time being, because while people are coming back to the city, it's going to take 10 more years until the city is even close to being rebuilt.

 

It's a messed up situation, no doubt. It's great that they have been getting money from renting out the parking lot to government, but i'd hope they will have the park operating at some level by the latest 09. It seems it's all riding on whether or no they get there insurance money. They have to spend the money on the park if they get the money thought....right?

[calcajun]

I don't think SFNO will be returning.

No one in their right mind would try to attempt it at this time.

 

Jazzland didn't make it and SFNO did not do well enough or SFI would not have been saying it could go either way a year ago depending on Ins payout.

 

Others have said it long ago, if it were not for the disaster SFI probably would have put SFNO up for sale.

[mike robinson]

They can probably spend the insurance money on whatever they want, however in this case I bet it will go to buying out the lease with NO.

 

Six Flags has no intention of re-opening SFNO and even if Katrina had never happened I would bet SFNO would have been on the block along with the other properties that were just sold.

[almightyfire]

I remember riding BTR the first year it opened at SFMM. That was the best coaster I had ever been on in my life. Since then I have been on soo many inverted coasters that BTR is a kiddie ride now. It is not tall enough nor long enough. That is one thing I hate about Six Flags, they order 5 of the same rides and put them in too many parks close together. I go to SFOT twice a year and never get in that line because the loading time is too slow and if u blink the ride is over too soon. I would luv to see another coaster at SFOT but not BTR it is a replica of too many other inverted coasters. Serial Thriller at Astroworld was identical to 4 other inverted coasters at Sixs Flags parks, like a Guena Lake.

[Wes]

See, to me Batman is one of the few inverts that really holds up. It's intense, it has a great layout, and it runs great! I rank BTR really high on my list.

[Scaparri]

^Same here. I feel like it gets a bad rap sometimes because it is a clone. The ride is nuts though. It may be on the short side, but sometimes I don't always think that's a bad thing. Instead of dying out, it kicks you 'til the very end.

[kraxleRIDAH]

Add me to the list of Batman fans. There's no doubt about it...it's a great coaster, which was part of the reason why Six Flags plopped a whole bunch of them in their parks over the past 15 years or so.

 

I think it's true that because this ride has been multiplied over the world, it's not really touted about or appreciated as much. Clone schmone, Batman rocks.

[fakestar]

Maybe I'm getting old, but does anyone else find it absolutely nuts that Batman is 15 years old? Talk about longevity... hard to say anyone's done a MUCH better take on an invert since then. There are absolutely SOMEWHAT better inverted coasters out there, but what a tremendous design all the same.

[dwerling]

Any news on where it is going/went? Just curious

[verticalzero]

A new SFNO Update

 

Link: http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl030807khsixflags.2fdffa34.html

 

More than 18 months after Hurricane Katrina, the future is still uncertain for Six Flags New Orleans, the theme park flooded by Hurricane Katrina.

 

At the Six Flags site in eastern New Orleans, one of the areas hardest hit by Katrina, rides that sat for weeks in water are idle, while the parking lot has been turned into a staging point for distribution of Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers.

 

 

The park's official web site tells visitors only that Six Flags won't be open again in 2007 and the company, which leases the site from the city, is still haggling over Katrina damage.

 

 

"We're still trying to resolve an issue with our insurer. We have filed litigation," said Wendy Goldberg, a spokesman for New York-based Six Flags Inc. "But until that's resolved, it's premature to try to make any decisions" about the park's future.

 

 

Ever since it opened under different owners in 2000, the park has failed to live up to financial projections. Touting what was then known as Jazzland Theme Park as an economic development project that would boost tourism, Jazzland received a $25.3 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. After Jazzland's bankruptcy in 2002, the city became liable for repayment of the loan, and most of the total is still owed.

 

 

Opening in May 2000, Jazzland reported a profitable initial season with 1.1 million visitors, but attendance dropped by nearly half in 2001, leading to the 2002 bankruptcy. Six Flags eventually bought the park for $22 million from privately held Jazzland Inc., changed its name and moved to a comic-book super-hero theme and spent at least $44 million on improvements.

 

 

Six Flags was considered by tourism officials to be a core element in part of a push to make New Orleans more of a family-destination center, along with such attractions as the Aquarium of the Americas and the Audubon Zoo. Before Katrina, about half of the Six Flags visitors were guests from out of town.

 

 

"We would be sad to lose them because they were an integral part of what the area has to offer for families traveling," said Lea Sinclair, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. "We have a lot still to offer, but they were a big part of it."

 

 

The park's future is shadowed by the parent company's results, lagging because of falling attendance and heavy debt.

 

 

On Jan. 11, in a move to cut a $2.1 billion debt load, Six Flags Inc. sold seven of its 30 North American parks -- New Orleans not among them -- for $312 million. At the time, Goldberg said the company was not actively seeking to sell any more parks.

 

 

There have been hints that Six Flags is pursuing a strategy to get out of New Orleans.

 

 

In June 2006, Mayor Ray Nagin said Six Flags wanted out of its 75-year lease with the city. According to published reports at the time, Six Flags offered to pay the city $10 million, along with giving the city 66 acres of land the company owns next to the park and 20 percent of any insurance proceeds above $75 million.

 

 

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the parent company said Six Flags New Orleans was covered by up to $180 million in property insurance, with a $5.5 million deductible.

 

 

This week, Goldberg refused to comment on any possible discussions, other than to say: "We will always work closely with the mayor."

[calcajun]

A friend sent me that story yesterday. I didn't bother posting it anywhere cause it is the same thing they just keep saying.

 

SFNO won't be back though.

[matteocrepaldi]

Any news on where it is going/went? Just curious

 

I just wanted to ask the same question!

[spaceace12]

Here is something interesting.

 

The city of new orleans got fema loans to repair thier parks, including the rides.

 

http://presszoom.com/story_133182.html

 

Besides the fact that SF wants out of the lease, I wonder if they could get loans to redo the park.

[kraxleRIDAH]

City Parks = Public

 

Amusement Parks = Private

 

Six Flags Inc. is bound by contract to financially operate and maintain the park. Under contract, the city has no obligation to repair it -- Six Flags on the other hand, does.

[Homer]

Here is something interesting.

 

The city of new orleans got fema loans to repair thier parks, including the rides.

 

http://presszoom.com/story_133182.html

 

Besides the fact that SF wants out of the lease, I wonder if they could get loans to redo the park.

There is a park in downtown New Orleans that has some Tivoli credit. Its located in a public park so therefore it qualifies for FEMA loans.

[spaceace12]

But what I was getting at, if SF wanted to, why couldn't they get FEMA loans to get the park open. I know SFI wants to get rid of the park.

[calcajun]

Yup, Thats City Park. That belongs to New Orleans.

 

The city does not own Six Flags.

 

Six Flags New Orleans won't be coming back.

[Drumline99]

Ok I just joined the site and just found this topic (couple of :cough: months maybe about a :cough: year late lol) but here is my take on the Six Flags New Orleans situation.

 

Ok about 2 months ago me and my family (with about 15 other people) were going to New Orleans because we were goin on a Carnival cruise and our ship departed from Julia Street Cruise Terminal in New Orleans (by the way the Cruise Terminal looks great since they rebuilt it). But there are parts of New Orleans that still look awful.

 

Well we passed by Six Flags and it still looks like the abandoned park it has been since Katrina. That sign is still just torn up and the park is just sitting there waiting for refurbishment so after about two years the park is still sitting there with nothing being done to it.

 

 

But my honest opinion is that; I really think they will get the park back up and running again; it may not be a great park at first, and it will take ALOT of work. But you never, know they could fix the park and it could end up becoming successful. Yea, they will probably have to replace some rides and some sections of the coasters but I still think it can be done. Also today I decided to do some research on the status of the park, and I read mostly the same thing again and again and that was that the Six Flags company was still getting the funds from the insurance company so they can start work on the park. The city of New Orleans is not letting them release the lease of the park early as of right now so I think the city really wants the park to open back up. I also read that they are starting to take sections of Batman and refurbish them. So it looks like they are starting to work on the park.