What area really needs a theme park?

I just did a quick search of the forums and didn't find a similar topic, so here goes:

What are some areas that really need a theme park?

I live in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is fortunate enough to be less than three hours away from 3 major theme parks (King's Dominion, Busch Gardens Europe, and Six Flags America). However, none of these are closer than 1 hour 20 minutes away. For a city recently named the "Best City in America to Live In", I would think we'd have at least a small park to open here. Any other locations that you live in that are just unfortunately far from any amusement parks, but are large enough to support its own?

Houston,Texas our nearest theme parks are 3 hours away.

Houston,Texas our nearest theme parks are 3 hours away.

Not counting the Kemah Boardwalk?

Northern Florida has no parks either, save for one water park.

I don't live in either place, but I think both the Las Vegas area and the greater Phoenix area could use a better park than what's already there. The population can certainly support it.

Eric

No doubt - Pacific Northwest. Closest parks are Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo, CA) and Silverwood (ID).

Pyallup and it's single wooden coaster doesn't count. (It's only open for the State Fair, anyways.

Long Island, New York. Granted we do have Adventureland in Farmingdale, but that place is a dump and doesn't offer much in the roller coaster department. By the way, I'm counting any of the Coney Island parks as New York City theme parks instead of Long Island parks.

Vegas, to me was and still is a surprise on some level. They have a huge tourist base, a year round season. The only thing there now is Circus Circus, and scattered attractions around the area. MGM made a go of it on small scale a few years back. I suppose with So Cal having Disney, Cedar Fair, Seaworld, Legoland, Universal, SF - none of the major companies would build there because it would eat into their CA properties customer base.

I think Disney even rejected building a DVC there.

Easy: Phoenix Metro. We've got one small park with two OD Hopkins coasters to satisfy an area of nearly 4 million people...

Despite the attempts to build a park south of here, which came to naut, it would be a good place for a semi-enclosed park, but I pipe dream on that one...

R.D.

Even though it has some parks within a reasonable driving distance, the Raleigh-Durham Triangle area could use a park. They have the state fair every year in Raleigh and that thing is PACKED to the gills every night. It has a huge college crowd so it could easily draw in summer time employees, the area as a whole I believe has about 1.2 million people within an easy driving distance, and the weather is typically really nice. I've always thought a park would work well in that area.

I think the Colorado Springs area needs a smallish park. Sure Elitch's is only an hour away, but we get enough tourists to support a theme park (Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge, Skiing, etc.). They were planning on opening an indoor waterpark here, but the plans kinda fell through but are once again resurfacing. Hopefully that will finally be accomplished

I wouldn't mind that 'Wild Escape' amusement park near Wheeling, WV opening eventually, as long as it doesn't have a drastic effect on Kennywood. It would just be nice to have another decent option that isn't 3+ hours away.

As I live in the Bay Area where there are at least 4 theme parks all within an hour or less from me (CGA's the closest at being 25 minutes away), I think that there could be a lot more locations like this. Outside of the bay area, the next closest parks are 6 hours away. Northern CA (Like Shasta area) could use some parks up there as well as the valley (Sacramento, Fresno, etc). I see it as this: having a local park allows parents to easily take their kids to the park for the day without having to fork over a bunch of cash for a hotel.

I think the Memphis/Mid-South could support a smaller amusement park. The closest parks we have are Magic Springs and SFStL. Libertyland didn't survive because it was located in an undesireable part of town. I think even a small waterpark would do great here, especially duing the summer months.

Nashville please. We miss Oprahland.

I agree with the Pacific Northwest. I think even a place like Boise could use a medium sized park. ...Maybe like a southern version of Silverwood.

I guess Vancouver could use another park than Playland/PNE. Or atleast put some coasters back into Stanley Park.

Stanley Park used to have a wooden coaster years ago: http://rcdb.com/5739.htm

What about Australia? I live in Los Angeles, and visited Melbourne last December. I had a huge argument with my friend's mother over if either Melbourne or Sydney could support a major amusement park. She stated that the economy isn't right for one, and I can't really argue against that because I don't have any knowledge on the Australian economy. I do know that if you built a decent park with like 5 new rides, like a Gravity Group woody, an Intamin, B&M, etc etc, that it would be extremely popular.

Sure there's the Gold Coast, but that's just one area out of the whole continent.

^Sydney did have Australia's Wonderland/Wonderland Sydney, which was billed as the largest theme park in the Southern Hemisphere but from what I could get out of reading its history the lack of new additions helped with its demise. It's still a park I find quite fascinating.

As for the States, Indianapolis always comes to mind. With direct access to Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Fort Wayne, and Chicago, which are within an easy day's drive, there is a huge potential for a nice sized regional theme park. Too bad the Garfield park never materialized.

^ Im not to sure that that would work. Having said that Cincinnati and Chicago all have large parks near them or in them already. And Holiday World and Indiana Beach are about the same distace from Indy. Also, I think that Holiday World and Indiana Beach would suffer becuase of a park in Indianapolis beacuse it would work till it got rundown or something happens. Look at what happened to Old Indiana near Thorntown, one accident and the entire park was closed.

I agree with somewhere in the Northwest.

Northwest does have a park, a mediocre one, but still. http://rcdb.com/4690.htm

The Quad Cities. Mt. Olympus and Adventureland are each 3 hours away with Great America being about 3 to 4 hours depending on traffic.

Miami/ Fort Lauderdale needs a real theme park... You think there would be one, after all it is a huge tourist destination with the world's two biggest Cruise ship ports.

^ Im not to sure that that would work. Having said that Cincinnati and Chicago all have large parks near them or in them already. And Holiday World and Indiana Beach are about the same distace from Indy. Also, I think that Holiday World and Indiana Beach would suffer becuase of a park in Indianapolis beacuse it would work till it got rundown or something happens. Look at what happened to Old Indiana near Thorntown, one accident and the entire park was closed.

Using Microsoft Streets and Trips, Holiday World is at least 2.5 to 3 hours away. Kings Island is about 2 hours, SFGAm is about 3.5 to 4 hours and Indiana Beach is about 1.5 hours. Other than Indiana Beach these parks are within a healthy distance that a new park could succeed. I wouldn't forsee Holiday World suffering but maybe step up their game even moreso than they are doing now (and what they've been doing these past few years have been quite remarkable for a park its size).

If Old Indiana never had the accident they might still be in business today and I wonder how that park would have been developed through the years. That's another park I find fascinating due to so little being known about it.

^ I was little when I went to Old Indiana but my mother being her overly protective, take 50 pics a minute self, I have a ton of pictures (mostly from the miniture train since I am a very, very large Thomas fan) but I dont have anything to copy them and then post them as I am on a laptop. I wonder about that too, what would Old Indiana be like today if that stupid accident had not happened. It's like the operater of that tower that hurt that little girl, it was all operater error. I remember some things and one thing was that my mother wouldn't have let me on that thing (mini train) if she thought that it looked dangerous. The train flipped becuase that stupid operater was going to fast and he should have known how fast the train was going. Sure, the train derailed several times but think of all the toy trains that derail for no apparent reason and that was what the train was: a toy. Sure it was in an amusement park, but look at Walt Disney, he had the same scale and everything and he used them as toys. I think that if Six Flags would have invested in the park it would have done better than SFKK. However, I here things all the time about how people around here dont mind driving 3 to 4 hours to get to a park and make a day trip of it. Hell, all the high schools around here have an after prom trip every year to kings island. Sure its a long day but its worth it. Dont get me wrong, I think that a theme park in Indy would be lovely but I think that it would be a waste since we have so many other things around that are a day or two trips.