To build a theme park

[BACKYARD_HERO]

Reading anther topic on here about Golden age theme park got me thinking about if i was going to design my own theme park how would i build a theme park that was going to be a profitable business.

What sort of attractions would the park need ?

What could you do to make a new park stand up and be noticed ?

I would look at this as a privately owned park not a billion dollar franchise so throwing money on the new biggest best roller coaster wouldn't be an option.

could such a park even exist in today's economy ?

[OrientExpressForever]

I think a major part of the process would be to consider the fairly recent new parks that folded shortly after opening and try to figure out what they did wrong so you don't make the same mistakes. Both Hard Rock Park/Freestyle Music Park and Wild West World suffered extreme cost overruns and opened with too much debt and not enough operating capital.

 

This is purely my opinion, but I think it is important to have enough capital to build the park and sustain operating expenses for the entire first year. I would not use bank loans or other forms of debt to fund it, but rather private investors and commercial sponsors who would allow you to build and operate the park as you see fit without threatening to shut you down within the first year of business.

 

You also wouldn't need to open with a ton of coasters and brand new rides. I would budget a good chunk of money $5 - 7 Million for a world-class custom built wood coaster that would serve to draw in enthusiasts and tourists alike, (something that Wild West World sorely lacked). You could then invest in a couple of used major coasters and a used kiddie coaster to round out the first year collection. I would choose a couple of other signature attractions, perhaps a custom dark ride and a water ride of some type and a handful of new flat rides that are proven to be popular. I would then add a good selection of used flat rides of all varieties so that you can be sure there are plenty of rides for your guests.

 

Other important things to consider are non-ride attractions, shows, games, restaurants/food stands, etc. Also, the location of the park is a major factor. I think it would be necessary for it to be located in/near a major city and close to/visible from a major highway.

 

I hope this helps. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to build a park and over the years my dream has adjusted from starting as a massive $2+ Billion dollar project, to something a little more down to earth and achievable, similar to what I have suggested here, which could be done for $200-300 Million.

[BACKYARD_HERO]

this is exactly the same sort of thoughts i had after starting to look into it, i also think theming plays a big part of a good theme park but this can get difficult for a private park to find the rights to something know to the public like a cartoon character.

[boardwalkbullet91507]

One word.... Aquatrax. There's your main attraction.

[Geauga Dog]

Before you even start it's best to get a feasibility study done to determine if the park will work at the location(s) you select. Hopefully you'll have more than one location in mind when searching for the perfect site. You can't just plop a bunch of rides down in an empty lot and open the doors (even though that has probably happened in the past). The feasibility study will give you all the numbers to determine the best size for your park based on the estimated number of guests your park could draw, your potential attractions, as well as its budget.

 

I agree with studying those parks that have been built and failed and learn from the mistakes they've made. I'd would also study those successful parks that may be around the same size as the park you'd like to build to see what they do right. What may work at a mega-themer may not necessarily work for a small to mid-size park you plan to build.

 

As for attractions it's key to offer a good variety for every member of the family. The tried and true classics (Scrambler, Tilt-A-Whirl, Flying Scooters, Bumper Cars, Carousel) as well as some of the newer flats (Mega Disk-O, Frisbee, Top Spin, Air Race) could make a nice mix for guests to enjoy. A log flume is a necessity (a big mistake when Hard Rock/Freestyle was first built) as people are going to look for something to get wet on in the peak of summer.

 

If the budget allows I'd at least consider having two to three coasters - a major adult coaster, a wild mouse, and/or a kid/family coaster. A ride like SFStL's American Thunder is a nice size wood coaster for a starter park or rebuilding a classic coaster from a long gone local park may bring attention just for nostalgia's sake (I'd love to see the old Euclid Beach Thriller rebuilt as it looked like a great dogleg out and back coaster with plenty of airtime).

 

As for making your park stand out you'll have to look at what your potential competition does or doesn't do. Special events tend to draw good crowds. As an example Geauga Lake used to have an Oktoberfest the third weekend in September with outside food vendors, live entertainment, beer slides, ice sculpting and grape stomping. It was always a big event for them and something its competition (CP and Kennywood) did not offer. It was a tradition that lasted 30+ years.

 

A park could exist in this economy as it seems plenty of people are enjoying "staycations" by enjoying local parks more than traveling long distances. Just be sure the admission price justifies what you offer.

 

I, too, have had the dream to build a new park and have drawn up a few ideas for a mid-size family-style park. I estimate the first phase at around $160-$180 million.

[Anything]

The in-park retail is key, admission prices can't be the be all and end all of turnover.

[Jhcbiinoc]

I've actually thought about this a few times before. To build a new theme park in the present economic climate which could sustain itself, there are quite a few factors to be considered, and the planning would depend upon factors such as location, target market/demographic, and a multitude of other factors best handled through honest and meticulous market research. That being said, I can just say what I would do if planning a new park given the current economy and the way things have been trending.

 

Number one consideration would be location. There are only a handful of metropolitan areas remaining which could support and sustain a decent sized park, and beyond those, the only areas which I feel would work are areas which already possess a potential market, such as areas with heavy tourist traffic. (Hard Rock Park aka Freestyle Music Park aka abandoned ride parking lot could have been very successful had it been thought through more carefully and marketed correctly, but that's another story.) In the heavy tourist traffic areas, even more careful planning would be required: for example, if I were planning a theme park type attraction in Las Vegas or the surrounding area, it would likely be one with a handful of "extreme" thrill rides/coasters catering to that market, rather than attempting to do what MGM Grand Adventures did. But for the case of this example, I will stick with what I would do for a "something for the whole family" park catering to all ages from kids to teens to adults.

 

Second factor would be balance. I would definitely want a varied assortment of rides, from rides just for kids to rides for the entire family to a few extreme rides as well as a good balance of entertainment and non-ride options. Not only that, I would want to have them spread out so that all of the rides for younger kids are not isolated to one small area but alongside the other attractions.

 

Third factor would be the capability to make a decent investment at the outset with a thought out expansion plan. I would want to go for value and quality of the rides more than the amount.

 

For coasters, I would have two "major" coasters to open with: a major wooden coaster, and a major steel coaster with inversions. For the wood coaster, I would definitely go with a GCI of decent size and length, maybe around 100-120 feet tall and anywhere from 3200-3600 feet long budgeted at about $10-12 million. For the steel coaster, I would definitely go with a B&M-either a floorless, inverted or more than likely, a wingrider given their "wow" factor to most of the GP with 4-6 inversions, not a "record breaker" but but something anywhere from 130-150 feet high and a decent layout anywhere from 3200-3500 feet long to appeal to the thrillseker demographic-which would likely run anywhere from $16-22 million (a big investment, but worth it in the long run as they are reliable, high capacity and the GP eats them up.) In addition, there would have to be some kind of family coaster-maybe a custom Wild Mouse or spinning coaster from MACK but something the family could enjoy together, and a coaster just for small kids.

 

The only other really big and pricey ride I would want to start out with would be one of the S&S turbo drop towers, it wouldn't have to be a record breaker but maybe something about 175-200 feet tall as kind of an "icon" ride and the other major "big thrill ride". Beyond that, I'd probably want a good assortment of flat rides (not sure exactly which ones, but maybe an S&S 40-seat Screaming Swing and one of the Zamperla Air Race rides to cover the high thrill ones, as well as milder ones like a wave swinger, disko, a carousel and a few others). And there would have to be water rides-I would definitely want a classic log flume, a rapids ride and a splash battle. A good dark ride attraction of some sort and some just for younger kids ride would round out the initial ride assortment.

 

That's at least $150 million in rides alone and likely more once you factor in theming and all of the other necessities. But I feel it would be worth it based on the value and the variety. As part of the five or ten year expansion plan, I would want to plan to add a balance of family and thrill rides including a second wooden coaster, a B&M hyper, a family launch coaster, etc. depending on how the park did.

 

But rides are only one factor. I would also want a good variety of entertainment, with at least three venues for major live shows of some type, at least one of them indoors, as well as smaller venues. I would hope to have one entertainment option in each themed area. There would also need to be a good assortment of quality dining options with a variety of menus, mostly counter but at least one family sit-down restaurant, as well as shopping venues (a great place to maximize profits) and arcades/gaming options. I would want to offer as many guest services at no charge as possible, and create as much positive incentive for people to stay in-park as possible.

 

Altogether, that is several hundred million, and especially when you consider not only theming and facilities but three other imperatives to any type of project such as this being successful:

 

1. Operating budget. IMHO the ENTIRE operation budget needs to be carefully thought through and planned for before profits. I think it is better to underestimate projected attendance and expect the best while having the backup in case first few years expectations cannot be met.

 

2. Marketing. A good marketing campaign combined with promotional tie ins with vendors and products if need be to get people in the gate is a critical part of any budget for a theme park.

 

3. Quality staffing, and the time and resources to train, manage and compensate them properly; IMHO and experience happy employees=happy customers=profitable success.

 

And after all of that, there are likely factors I overlooked. Others have offered some good points here as well.

 

Sorry to ramble on, those are just thoughts I have had. There is still room for new parks, but whoever elects to take it on would really need to remain focused and remember the saying I have always liked: "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail".

[Chroniq]

In order-

 

Location- Because honestly that's about 60 percent of the equation.. Some areas have a high enough population density that are interested in recreational pursuits and have enough throwaway capital to make a theme park feasible and some don't.

Example = Detroit - NO, Metro New York - Yes.

 

Research - Feasibility studies and research into your key demographics. IE: how many there are per capita within a 100 mile radius "as the crow flies", what their budget is for recreational activities and what other recreational choices currently exist..Research can provide you with the information to provide the correct ride mix to your park, staffing levels, and areas to market.

Example - Hard Rock Park -No (because this resort community already has recreational choices that made this community a tourist area, and a feasibility study would have shown that the failed outlet mall where hard rock park was built would lead to a failed theme park) Orlando circa 1972- Yes A significantly growing retirement community with free time and money plus the lure of cheap land, tax breaks, great weather, and pre built infrastructure.

 

 

Cost- If you believe your theme park can pull in $20 million a year profit after taxes, your initial expenditure should be no more than $300,000,000 (and conservatively should be closer to $150 million) .. Historically, the majority of failed theme parks spent way too much on capital expenditures so cash flow became an issue in the near term and they defaulted on loans.

Example: Hard Rock Park- NO- (cost was 40-50 times expected annual profit) Yes - Splish Splash in New York (cost was 4 times expected annual profit)

 

Edited to say: I should have read the entire thread before I posted because the above poster basically covered the fundamentals.

 

-chris "that's business" con

[johnychen]

One of my dreams is to build a theme park in Houston, TX. It is the perfect location for one.

 

I wish I had the money to transform the abandoned Astrodome into a year round theme park with air conditioning. There is no competition at the moment and being the fourth largest city without a theme park it should be a no brainer to make money.

 

The astrodome is located on the light rail which will be great for tourists and locals alike.

 

The only obstacle is to get past the local politics that are preventing a project to flourish in the Astrodome. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has a lot of power here and I think they want the dome destroyed.

[Aceattack52]

Let me answer you're last question first.

 

could such a park even exist in today's economy ?

 

Absolutely. I was reading an article the other day that Six Flags has been doing slightly better since the crash and burn that was the economy back in 2008. They attributed it to an abundance if people wanting to spend a couple hundred on a full day at Six Flags as apposed to a few thousand on a full weekend ski trip out west. Now, if you live at the top of a mountain in Colorado, then maybe a fun day on the slopes is better money-wise, but for those in a big city like NYC or LA, Six Flags is a good option for family entertainment as apposed to even a small to moderate size trip.

 

This is a pretty bug question.

 

What could you do to make a new park stand up and be noticed ?

 

I actually need to answer this in two parts. The first being location of your park. If a couple hundred thousand people pass your park on their way to work to in and out of the state, then you better believe they are going to notice it. In my opinion, Six Flags Over Texas is in one of the best places you could put a park. It's right in the middle of this conglomeration that is three cities. Dallas, Arlington, and Fort Worth. There is a lot of people living in this area and even more people passing the park on the highway. The two loops of Shockwave adds to the effect. In contrast, if you have a park built in rural Georgia, you better believe there isn't going to be very high attendance numbers.

The other part about getting your park noticed is to get some good attractions in there, which I will get to in the next paragraph, and to completely advertise the hell out of it. Why is Coke so successful? In the early 1900's, when they realized they had a dynamite product, they launched an insanely aggressive marketing campaign. It worked, because the money earned due to marketing is a direct function of the amount of money put into the marketing. Still today, Coke has a lot of advertising going, even though they may not really need it because they have such a good product and they don't necessarily need to remind people that it's there. The same can be seen for Six Flags, they have an aggressive marketing campaign during the summer, when they are operational. There is a key component to the marketing strategy, however. You have to have a good product, a product people really want, or a product that promises something that you can't get anywhere else. What other drink, of any kind, is as good as a Coke? Where else can you get exciting thrills, of any kind, really, other than Six Flags. I'm not even talking coasters. This is why the attractions you have at the park is also very important. I'll get to that now, since really that's the last thing I was looking to cover.

 

First of all, having a $20 million, nice, B&M hyper coaster, would be ideal. Or maybe even like a Leviathan or Kingda Ka type deal would be great. But you want to stay small, which is great because investing that much money, although it would be a pretty safe investment, you probably don't have liquid funds quite like that. Investing in a monster like that is probably pretty safe because how much value does a steel structure lose over time? It's not like a car where 30% of the parts on it will eventually wear out over time, it's just steel. Plus, a park may actually pay slightly more than what you paid the manufacturer because the coaster is already made and they don't have to have a large amount of money tied up while the ride is being made. Although there is the issue of transportation, and taking the ride down, and the fact that there may be compatibility issues with the new site. ANYWAYS, you need good rides. This will definitely require research of current trends in theme park rides, ect. When Six Flags Over Georgia opened, the first ever log flume was at Six Flags Over Texas and it was a huge success, so what do you think appeared at Six Flags Over Georgia? Another thing that was popular were these flat rides such as go karts, things like that, so those also went in. I would say, you need a pretty good array of flat rides. Don't worry so much about coasters. You need to appeal to every person that would even consider your park. A coaster is a pretty important aspect for getting people in the door, so I would say a little mine train type thing or a wild mouse or something like that would be excellent, don't go too big in the beginning.

 

Keep in mind, to do anything, you have to have quite a but in liquid cash. To build Six Flags Over Georgia all-in-all, I think it was somewhere in the $15 million range, which was probably a lot more more back in 1966, but still a lot by today's standards. I read somewhere that six flags gets out a good $1.2-$1.5 billion to start up a new park from scratch. But keep in mind, they want a $16 million B&M, and some other big expensive coasters to be there on opening day to get people in right a way. They are a corporation, so they can do that with relative ease. The only reason they don't open up new parks left and right, is because if there were a few parks per state, there wouldn't be enough people to fill those parks. Plus there is a degree of risk in any investment, and a multi-billion or million dollar theme park is certainly no exception.

[Miracleman]

 

I wish I had the money to transform the abandoned Astrodome into a year round theme park with air conditioning. There is no competition at the moment and being the fourth largest city without a theme park it should be a no brainer to make money.

 

 

They could call it ... Astroworld! (I kid. I kid.)

 

In all seriousness though, Houston desperately needs a theme park and I think that the first company to get a major theme park up can and will reap the benefits. It is the fourth largest city in the USA, and Greater Houston the 5th largest metropolitan area in the US. Also, according to Forbes, it is one of the top ten most visited cities in the US. The climate, while fairly hot in the summer, is conducive to a park that can be open, if not year round, at least 10-11 months out of the year. It is the largest US city without a major theme park and climate-wise is an excellent option for a theme park. This isn't going to be a case of 'if' another theme park gets built in Houston, but rather 'when.' I think it would be better to build a park a little further out from the city that way they can buy extra land for room to grow the park. Somewhere to the north on I-45 or to the west on I-10 would be ideal. (There is already Kemah and Galveston Pleasure Pier to the east and south of Houston.) That way if the park is successful and able to expand and become a destination park it could more easily attract visitors from the Big D or San Antone.

 

As far as what to put in a start up park, I think that most of the ideas here have been good. However, I would think that the park should have a "face" or mascot. Something marketable to excite the kids and provide plenty of photo opportunities. A mascot can do a lot for a park especially with bringing in the families. It may even be better to get some sort of licensed character or property. There are sure to be some that could be affordable to a start up, and a recognized property could lend some legitimacy to investors and family visitors.