Was moving Elitch Gardens the Right Decision?

[coaster57]

I might be taking a trip to Denver soon. I had heard about Elitch Gardens, but I didn't know much about it. After reading some about it, I read about its relocation. In your opinion was relocating the park a good idea?

[John Peck]

I thought the move was because the park was land-locked and the new one is much bigger.

[Geauga Dog]

Looking at Google Maps of the park they seem landlocked now being in downtown Denver.

[Goliath513]

As landlocked as they are now, the new park is much bigger and still has good potential. Moving Elitch's when they did, not such a good idea. I have always thought if they waited a few more years, they could have built it where the former Stapleton airport was since that closed the same year as the original park.

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

Yes and no. The new lot is bigger and has more room, but the owners made some stupid, STUPID decisions in the process of moving. The most fatal were the losses of Wildcat and Twister and not rebuilding them in their new location. Twister II's advertised as being a more aggressive version of the original, but it neutered most of the elements that made the original great (looking at you, double helix). The park seems just like any other kind of cookie cutter theme park now with almost all stock model rides, and really lost the charm it used to have in its old locale. Nearby Lakeside still retains some of the atmosphere, but the loss of the original Elitch's was sorely disappointing.

 

Elitch's has the potential of turning around and becoming really awesome, but it would need a lot of investment to make that happen. Not impossible, but I'm not really holding my breath. The recent additions to the waterpark have been a decent indicator of a turnaround, but I'm not too sure where it will lead.

[EGCoasterGuy]

I am an employee of the park and wish there was more room. We have creative ideas to use some of the land we have though. Will have to see what the new owners want to do.

[EGCoasterGuy]

Yes and no. The new lot is bigger and has more room, but the owners made some stupid, STUPID decisions in the process of moving. The most fatal were the losses of Wildcat and Twister and not rebuilding them in their new location. Twister II's advertised as being a more aggressive version of the original, but it neutered most of the elements that made the original great (looking at you, double helix). The park seems just like any other kind of cookie cutter theme park now with almost all stock model rides, and really lost the charm it used to have in its old locale. Nearby Lakeside still retains some of the atmosphere, but the loss of the original Elitch's was sorely disappointing.

 

Elitch's has the potential of turning around and becoming really awesome, but it would need a lot of investment to make that happen. Not impossible, but I'm not really holding my breath. The recent additions to the waterpark have been a decent indicator of a turnaround, but I'm not too sure where it will lead.

 

Mr twister was much too broken down to move. Wish they would have rebuilt it, but the cost of doing that was too high.

[DirkFunk]

The famliy who had ownership of the park had desired moving it for years and was gifted land and tax breaks to make the move. From an economic standpoint, it was absolutely the right move in so much as it provided them extra space for free and allowed them to become profitable much more quickly for being what was, in some ways, a new build park. That's rare. They then completed their goals by selling the property for $65 million dollars to Premier.

 

If you're actually a fan of going to amusement and theme parks, you might be thinking to yourself, "Hey, wait, but Elitch's sucks now!" Yes. And it has sucked for years because the corporate structure running has been fairly rotten and conditioned the locals to expect absolutely nothing good from it. It wasn't good for theme park fans. It was good for some rich people who wanted to get out of the theme park industry and didn't give a crap about preserving rides or creating the best experience possible. They literally moved some rides onto a toxic waste dump, rebuilt one of the most famous and legendary rides of all time as a steaming pile of manure, collected public money and then private money (fronted to it by banks that subsequently went belly-up and needed your money to bail them out when companies like Six Flags went bankrupt) and ensured many future generations of children to have access to luxury automobiles.

 

So yes, moving Elitch Gardens was the right decision for the few people who owned it and was pretty much a lousy outcome for everyone else.

[ragerunner2]

It will be interesting to see what the new owners will do with the park.

[blk_mamba]

I've never heard of this park or this move. The whole park just packed up and moved to another location? That is pretty rare and awesome and weird all at the same time. If the move was to be closer to Denver than it makes sense if they wanted to be closer to a major market and they if they are getting more space that is even better.

[coaster57]

I've never heard of this park or this move. The whole park just packed up and moved to another location? That is pretty rare and awesome and weird all at the same time. If the move was to be closer to Denver than it makes sense if they wanted to be closer to a major market and they if they are getting more space that is even better.

Elitch Gardens was not actually the only major park to move. King's Island was called Coney Island, and was on the river before they packed up and moved to Mason.