Future Industry Speculation Thread

[CrashCoaster]

Hi everyone. I thought I'd create a thread where we can speculate on what parks may be adding in the future, and what we'd like to see come to said parks, and other people's opinions on these, as to what could be a likely thing to happen. As well as other industry possibilities, such as the future of parks, rides, manufactures, etc, instead of cluttering up the forum with topics for each individual tiny thing.

For starters, what stand-ups could we see getting turned into floorless coasters in the future? Out of the ones left, I think Vortex at Carowinds will be the next to have the treatment, possibly as soon as next year or the year after. Possibly Georgia Scorcher too, since it wont need another repaint as it is currently undergoing one, and should only require the new trains.

Also, Alton Towers flat rides. What and where could we see come to the park? I'd like to see something along the lines of an ABC Tourbillon in the Ripsaw site, however I think this is fairly unlikely. Perhaps a Screamin' swing or Afterburner? Only time will tell.

 

[Kw6sTheater]

I hope Georgia Scorcher DOESN'T get the floorless trains, as I enjoy it how it is quite a lot; but since the repaint is happening right now, I think 2020 will be that year. As you said Six Flags can give Georgia Scorcher a new name & theme with only having to replace the trains, rather than the Apocalypse to Firebird transformation (new trains, new paint, new name, etc.) is being done.

I actually like Vortex at Carowinds; I'd be kind of sad to see it get the floorless conversion, to be honest!

 

[Ethan]

Also, Alton Towers flat rides. What and where could we see come to the park? I'd like to see something along the lines of an ABC Tourbillon in the Ripsaw site, however I think this is fairly unlikely. Perhaps a Screamin' swing or Afterburner? Only time will tell.

I'd put money on nothing replacing Ripsaw, especially not a Screamin Swing. Loud, tall, and I'd say Rush is too well-known for it to not just feel boring.

 

[tomahawk]

Raptor clones are gonna invade SF parks faster than Larson Loops.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Pokemaniac]

Raptor clones are gonna invade SF parks faster than Larson Loops.

You made me look it up, and whoa, those Larson Loops were built at a pretty astonishing rate. Five Larson Loops were built in Six Flags parks during their debut year of 2015, and four more the year after. So it's actually too late for the Raptors to match that invasion rate; Six Flags built one Raptor last year and none this year.

Also, regarding stand-ups, I guess Riddler at SFMM is in a sort of awkward spot. A floorless conversion would just make it redundant with Scream!, so I don't see it being converted any time soon. If a conversion does happen, either Riddler or Scream! would probably be moved to another park. But Riddler is already 20 years old, so maybe Six Flags will just let it operate until it reaches the end of its service life, then replace it.

Come to think of it, SFMM in general is in a sort of awkward spot ride-wise. They built six big coasters (and one kiddie coaster) in nine years between 1994 and 2003. We're talking six really big ones; Scream! at 45.7 meters tall is the second smallest of the bunch (the smallest being Batman the Ride). These coasters are at a bigger scale than anything Six Flags has built post-crash aside from Goliath at SFGAm, and they're starting to push 20-25 years in age. Who knows how long their service lives will be, but if they are aging at approximately the same rate, SFMM will have one hell of a job replacing them in pretty short order when they start kicking the bucket.

Come to think of it some more, Six Flags as a whole is in that same awkward spot. The chain built 63 coasters in that same nine-year period, 23 of them in 1999 and 2000 alone. When the time comes for the 1990's coasters to croak, a lot of their parks will need to replace most of the backbone of their ride lineup in only a few short years, presumably at an astronomical cost if they want to do it like-for-like, as in, keeping rides of mostly the same scale as the ones that go away. The required investment would be unlike anything we've seen since they crashed in 2007. Only 3 of their 20 tallest coasters have been built in the past ten years.

I wonder how Six Flags will weather that challenge? Will their parks maintain the number and size of coasters they're known for today? Will the rides get service life extensions so the same coasters can be operated for several more decades? Or will they scale down, replacing 40-meter multiloopers with yet more S&S Free Flys or Wild Mouses or similar coasters (whose plural names mess up the conventions of the English language), hoping the public won't mind? It'll be exciting to see. For the record, I still think it'll be another ten years or so before the first big early 90's coasters meet the end of their operational service life, but when that happens it will happen in a lot of parks simultaneously, and each consequent year will see several big coasters in need of attention. Given the advances in coaster technology since then, I bet some of them will be replaced with pretty spectacular stuff, though.

 

[tomahawk]

You made me look it up, and whoa, those Larson Loops were built at a pretty astonishing rate. Five Larson Loops were built in Six Flags parks during their debut year of 2015, and four more the year after. So it's actually too late for the Raptors to match that invasion rate; Six Flags built one Raptor last year and none this year.

Also, regarding stand-ups, I guess Riddler at SFMM is in a sort of awkward spot. A floorless conversion would just make it redundant with Scream!, so I don't see it being converted any time soon. If a conversion does happen, either Riddler or Scream! would probably be moved to another park. But Riddler is already 20 years old, so maybe Six Flags will just let it operate until it reaches the end of its service life, then replace it.

Come to think of it, SFMM in general is in a sort of awkward spot ride-wise. They built six big coasters (and one kiddie coaster) in nine years between 1994 and 2003. We're talking six really big ones; Scream! at 45.7 meters tall is the second smallest of the bunch (the smallest being Batman the Ride). These coasters are at a bigger scale than anything Six Flags has built post-crash aside from Goliath at SFGAm, and they're starting to push 20-25 years in age. Who knows how long their service lives will be, but if they are aging at approximately the same rate, SFMM will have one hell of a job replacing them in pretty short order when they start kicking the bucket.

Come to think of it some more, Six Flags as a whole is in that same awkward spot. The chain built 63 coasters in that same nine-year period, 23 of them in 1999 and 2000 alone. When the time comes for the 1990's coasters to croak, a lot of their parks will need to replace most of the backbone of their ride lineup in only a few short years, presumably at an astronomical cost if they want to do it like-for-like, as in, keeping rides of mostly the same scale as the ones that go away. The required investment would be unlike anything we've seen since they crashed in 2007. Only 3 of their 20 tallest coasters have been built in the past ten years.

I wonder how Six Flags will weather that challenge? Will their parks maintain the number and size of coasters they're known for today? Will the rides get service life extensions so the same coasters can be operated for several more decades? Or will they scale down, replacing 40-meter multiloopers with yet more S&S Free Flys or Wild Mouses or similar coasters (whose plural names mess up the conventions of the English language), hoping the public won't mind? It'll be exciting to see. For the record, I still think it'll be another ten years or so before the first big early 90's coasters meet the end of their operational service life, but when that happens it will happen in a lot of parks simultaneously, and each consequent year will see several big coasters in need of attention. Given the advances in coaster technology since then, I bet some of them will be replaced with pretty spectacular stuff, though.

I think that's where the generally cost effective models will come into play. Especially single rail. I fully expect to see Intamin have their own variety in the next 5 years or so. It would drastically cut down the cost of manufacturing those larger coasters (in theory) and allow for something large and intense in a relatively small footprint.

We won't be seeing coasters like Goliath and Titan that take up so much room with massive lift hills to reach a similar height, or with such a straight drop. The advancements in the past 15 years will allow a ride of similar size to use half(?) the footprint. Those two jump to mind so quickly as being very drawn out.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk