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Knotts Berry Farm 2023

Skyye

Mega Poster
Couldn't find a thread on this, so...

According to Screamscape, Knotts Berry Farm recently got plans approved for a 2023 attraction. The current rumor is a B&M giga coaster, with the station being located near the south end of the park.

If there already is a thread on this, sorry. Just found this interesting and I was surprised nobody started talking about it already.
 

CoasterHour

Roller Poster
Couldn't find a thread on this, so...

According to Screamscape, Knotts Berry Farm recently got plans approved for a 2023 attraction. The current rumor is a B&M giga coaster, with the station being located near the south end of the park.

If there already is a thread on this, sorry. Just found this interesting and I was surprised nobody started talking about it already.
I'm pretty optimistic this is legit despite Screamscape being very hit or miss. The good thing is we should know potentially even by early next year if this is real if prep work is happening so fingers crossed.
 

Youngster Joey

Strata Poster
I'll believe this happens when it opens. Cedar Fair seemed to be pretty clear that they were focusing their CapEx spending away from huge coasters to smaller rides with more theme.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Hasn't a "Knott's Giga" been in the rumour mill for a decade now? Always one or two years out of reach, and always the next project after the current. I will believe it when I see it, or for that matter any sensible ways to build it without breaking every noise pollution rule the park is placed under.
 

Skyye

Mega Poster
A coaster that size will take up a lot of space, and if the rumor is right, the plan would put the station somewhere on the South side of the park (personally, I’m eyeballing the closed Mystery Lodge site) with the majority of the coaster to head south, outside of the park and take up space around the southern parking lot and hotel area, with the goal of keeping it high enough so that they only need to put supports where needed in the lot to cause minimal loss of space out there.
-Screamscape
 

Rupert

Mega Poster
It just seems crazy to me (as a Brit) that they would ever get permission to build a 300 ft coaster in what is effectively a residential suburb of a big city. Sure there is a car park to build over but then across the road are plenty of homes, and a giga coaster is about as intrusive on the surrounding area as they come. I’d love to see it, and accept I don’t know the local politics or planning regulations, but it just seems a mad concept for it to ever actually happen.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Hm ... it could go, but I think the primary issue here is acoustics. The noisiest part of a (non-launched) coaster is the first drop, because of the screams of the riders. This is already an issue for coasters whose first drop faces south, as evidenced by Ghostrider, which has its drop enclosed in a tunnel to prevent noise from spreading too far. The high-pitched noises of screams carry quite far, and are quite annoying to neighbours because it's a sound you physically cannot ignore (humans have evolved to pay close attention to human screams, after all). And Knott's happens to be surrounded by neighbours on almost every side. They could get away with a lot of noise on the northeast side, because the park only borders a big road and some huge parking lots there, but to the south, and especially southwest, noise issues seem to be much more prominent. I mean, they had to put a tunnel on parts of Pony Express, because there's a residential house only 35 meters away. A Giga in the area looks like a very tough sell.
 

Skyye

Mega Poster
I have a feeling that even though its supposed to be B&M, its probably going to be unique in some way. Maybe more compact than most other B&M gigas? Especially since the dry park is only around 534.7 meters x 482.9 meters
 

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
It just seems crazy to me (as a Brit) that they would ever get permission to build a 300 ft coaster in what is effectively a residential suburb of a big city.
But see, how many of those houses were there before the park was? None? You moved to an area knowing the park was there and sure, it might not have been as big as it is now, say 40-30 years ago.... But Montezooma's has been there almost 45 years.... and Schwarzkopf coasters are loud AF.
I live right across the street from Universal Studios Florida, home to nightly fireworks. I moved in knowing full well there was a massive theme park complex, but still moved there. No sympathy to people who don't wanna see/hear a park they moved next to. (Gonna be interesting to see what happens with that new -massive- housing development going in right behind SFMM, I cant imagine living next to that Superman......)
 

Rupert

Mega Poster
No sympathy to people who don't wanna see/hear a park they moved next to.
I completely agree with this and it’s always depressing to see park expansions etc shut down as a result. I just think there’s a pretty big difference between building something like Hangtime and a giga that would be literally double the height and with a much larger footprint - the impact on surrounding properties would be much more with the suggested coaster. As @Pokemaniac says - if Pony Express was already deemed intrusive enough to require a tunnel, could they get away with a giga? I hope so but feel slightly more sceptical.

I also feel like California’s Great America’s hyper/giga was scrapped for the same reason - I might be remembering this wrong but wonder how much of an impact it would have.
 

Lori Marie Loud

Giga Poster
I completely agree with this and it’s always depressing to see park expansions etc shut down as a result. I just think there’s a pretty big difference between building something like Hangtime and a giga that would be literally double the height and with a much larger footprint - the impact on surrounding properties would be much more with the suggested coaster. As @Pokemaniac says - if Pony Express was already deemed intrusive enough to require a tunnel, could they get away with a giga? I hope so but feel slightly more sceptical.

I also feel like California’s Great America’s hyper/giga was scrapped for the same reason - I might be remembering this wrong but wonder how much of an impact it would have.
Not due to locals. In their most recent attempt, Cedar Fair attempted to put a hyper named Megabite in. They would have to earthquake proof the structure, and soon enough the price for a hyper had ballooned out of control. Cedar Fair canned the project and, not wanting to permanently shatter their relationship with B&M, transferred the funds to a different project.


And that different project was Orion.
 

opivy028

Mega Poster
Hm ... it could go, but I think the primary issue here is acoustics. The noisiest part of a (non-launched) coaster is the first drop, because of the screams of the riders. This is already an issue for coasters whose first drop faces south, as evidenced by Ghostrider, which has its drop enclosed in a tunnel to prevent noise from spreading too far. The high-pitched noises of screams carry quite far, and are quite annoying to neighbours because it's a sound you physically cannot ignore (humans have evolved to pay close attention to human screams, after all). And Knott's happens to be surrounded by neighbours on almost every side. They could get away with a lot of noise on the northeast side, because the park only borders a big road and some huge parking lots there, but to the south, and especially southwest, noise issues seem to be much more prominent. I mean, they had to put a tunnel on parts of Pony Express, because there's a residential house only 35 meters away. A Giga in the area looks like a very tough sell.
All terrific reasons to build the world’s first completely enclosed giga coaster. Don’t forget you heard it here first ;)
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
Well this is certainly interesting:-

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This image of the blueprints for a proposed Giga coaster for Knott's has been circulating Discord, do we think there is any truth behind this or utter bs?
 

Skyye

Mega Poster
Well this is certainly interesting:-

p.png


This image of the blueprints for a proposed Giga coaster for Knott's has been circulating Discord, do we think there is any truth behind this or utter bs?

Damn, you beat me to it

According to some nlc discord members, these look legit. Also the heights listed (they're kinda hard to see) are from sea level

 

JJLehto

Hyper Poster
I mean, after hearing about the "Knott's Giga" for what 10 years now? I'd be almost sad for the meme to die, but it would be cool for Knott's
To be fair the concerns were always valid: space, noise, possible eye sore (literally its smack in the middle of a city! And yes I would love this sight but not all will) and CA cities are pretty famous for very strong localized control and locals thus blocking whatever they don't like. Not sure how it's been with this park in the past. I do hope it's legit/happens though because how wild would it be?
 
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