Concept Parting Out Fun Spot Atlanta & Rehoming ArieForce One

[Zachary]

It is funny how now that Six Flags is the one to buy it the Enthusiast seem upset that they saved this ride.

No one is upset the ride is being saved. Everyone believes that the seventh best coaster in the world—a coaster that ran for only a couple years at an obscure FEC in Atlanta, no less—deserves another chance.

I think many were just hoping/expecting that it could be bound for a smaller park with more limited resources where it would instantly become the unmistakable, unchallenged, inarguable best coaster said park could ever reasonably be expected to receive. Unfortunately, Six Flags sorta sold off most of those types of parks a year ago and the ones that arguably remain don't seem to be a great fit for this thing (Dorney, DL, KD, etc).

Basically any hand-me-down coaster is always going to be received less warmly than a custom, ground-up design and build at any flagship property—and I think that is a reasonable reaction, for the record.

 

[AmyUD06]

The more I read about John Arie Sr. the more disgusted I am by this coaster continuing to bear the name.

 

[ConolyCoasterDesigns]

The more I read about John Arie Sr. the more disgusted I am by this coaster continuing to bear the name.

When this was announced, and learned what i did about him, i was disgusted that one of his parks got such a fantastic ride. Its also why i didnt feel bad that their park underperformed and had to close. It aggravates me that Six Flags is continuing his legacy through the name.

 

[Adventure UP]

Colliwood made a great video on its potential park locations. This is a last minute decision, any major obstacles such as ride removals and removal of infrastructure are a big deal and very risky at this point. This will go to the park that it will be the easiest to build without major obstacles, or huge park layout adjustments. Great adventure is the easiest to build this. If in shoreline pier, they have all the land in parking lot next to BAK. No demolition of maintenance buildings, no attraction removals, no tree removals, no terrain issues. These components I mentioned are definitely MAJOR when considering where the installation of a last minute and massive coaster relocation will go.

 

[DH_The_ThemeParkFaniac]

I’m surprised Six Flags bought ArieForce One tbh.

 

[Zachary]

Colliwood made a great video on its potential park locations. This is a last minute decision, any major obstacles such as ride removals and removal of infrastructure are a big deal and very risky at this point. This will go to the park that it will be the easiest to build without major obstacles, or huge park layout adjustments. Great adventure is the easiest to buildup. If in shoreline pier, they have all the land in parking lot next to BAK. No demolition of maintenance buildings, no attraction removals, no tree removals, no terrain issues. These components I mentioned are definitely MAJOR when considering where the installation of a last minute and massive coaster relocation will go.

I don't know why we'd think this will be a rushed process. There's no reason to think it is slated to reopen somewhere until Spring 2028 at the earliest. Six Flags has all the time they want.

 

[Adventure UP]

I don't know why we'd think this will be a rushed process. There's no reason to think it is slated to reopen somewhere until Spring 2028. Six Flags has all the time they want.

They said 2028 or 2029. That’s only 2-3 years into this will be built and open. Not much time to plan and build a large coaster of this size. And being a relocation means working with the challenges of fitting this which there are many if you watch Collin’s video.

 

[CarolinaDog]

Surely Kings Island and Carowinds both have existing major capital projects scheduled for around 2029? I wonder if an AF1 addition will delay (if not replace) any pre-existing plans.

What a disaster it would be to have Nighthawk's replacement be delayed to cram AF1 into the park.

 

[deere839]

Surely Kings Island and Carowinds both have existing major capital projects scheduled for around 2029? I wonder if an AF1 addition will delay (if not replace) any pre-existing plans.

What a disaster it would be to have Nighthawk's replacement be delayed to cram AF1 into the park.

sadly look how long it took to replace rapids and dinos alive i could see them doing it again. plus wasnt Tormenta
rumored to be for carowinds like Bakunawa was ment for king island

 

[Zachary]

They said 2028 or 2029. That’s only 2-3 years into this will be built and open. Not much time to plan and build a large coaster of this size. And being a relocation means working with the challenges of fitting this which there are many if you watch Collin’s video.

A year and a half to two and a half years is plenty of time—especially when the vast majority of the coaster is already manufactured and sitting somewhere in the US. There's really no time crunch here.


Another thought: People think Caro may be clearing for a new maintenance/storage area, yeah? Maybe no matter where AF1 is eventually destined for, the plan is for the chain to store it at Caro? FSAA is rumored to need this thing gone pretty quickly, right? Six Flags may need a place to truck it in the short-term and Caro may be the most sensible place given its location and available land.

 

[CarolinaDog]

Another thought: People think Caro may be clearing for a new maintenance/storage area, yeah? Maybe no matter where AF1 is eventually destined for, the plan is for the chain to store it at Caro? FSAA is rumored to need this thing gone pretty quickly, right? Six Flags may need a place to truck it in the short-term and Caro may be the most sensible place given its location and available land.

Carowinds temporarily holding on to AF1 and then shipping it elsewhere would be hilarious.

Realistically, wouldn't SFOG be better for that though? They got a massive parking lot they can use.

 

[sfgadvfan91]

I've seen several variations of Great Adventure. Not nearby to play with the tool at the moment, but would it be possible to start it where Road Race is, run straight across the boardwalk by Shoreline Pier, then modify it to turn the opposite direction and fill in the gap behind Superman that seems otherwise unusable with the Shoreline Pier layout?

That seems like it'd be the best setup for it at Great Adventure of modification is on the table, and would fill a similar plot to a lot of the Wild One concepts I've seen.

 

[Zachary]

Realistically, wouldn't SFOG be better for that though? They got a massive parking lot they can use.

I admittedly don't know how much of SFOG's parking lot gets used, but it was sorta my impression that SFOG is more parking-limited than Caro? Though if the dinos area is being cleared, the appeal of storage at Caro may be that it wouldn't need to take away parking from either property?

I just figured that Caro is closer to basically any of the possible candidate parks than SFOG so there probably isn't a significant difference between storing at SFOG and Caro from a logistics standpoint on the other side of the move. I'm no expert though for sure.

It would also explain the seemingly sudden, seemingly unprompted clearing at Caro when the chain claims they haven't decided where to build AF1 yet.

 

[deere839]

I admittedly don't know how much of SFOG's parking lot gets used, but it was sorta my impression that SFOG is more parking-limited than Caro? Though if the dinos area is being cleared, the appeal of storage at Caro may be that it wouldn't need to take away parking from either property?

I just figured that Caro is closer to basically any of the possible candidate parks than SFOG so there probably isn't a significant difference between storing at SFOG and Caro from a logistics standpoint on the other side of the move. I'm no expert though for sure.

they have the abandon go carts on the side of the parking lot they can use. plus from my understanding the park has been pretty much dead this year

 

[shodowhater]

When this was announced, and learned what i did about him, i was disgusted that one of his parks got such a fantastic ride. Its also why i didnt feel bad that their park underperformed and had to close. It aggravates me that Six Flags is continuing his legacy through the name.

I just did a little bit of reading - seems like a pretty standard fare conservative boomer. The one crazy thing I did find is that, in some lawsuit, it is apparently alleged that he killed his wife????????

 

[harry580]

so, the bet is that kings island is gonna get it and it will be placed with the other half of dinosaur alive used to be

 

[CarolinaCoasters]

If they store that shit at Carowinds and don’t build it I might kill myself….

 

[deere839]

I think something like this might work for Carowinds. From what I could find this land is all owned by the park, it puts the station in a pretty good spot behind where Drop Tower was, and the terrain would work pretty well for the first half since it's going uphill there. The main issues that I could tell would be dealing with the terrain in the second half and rerouting that perimeter road, and I don't think either of those would be too too difficult to get around.

View attachment 44602

my top 2 choices for carowinds

 

[CoasterBroCam]

The more I read about John Arie Sr. the more disgusted I am by this coaster continuing to bear the name.

I don’t understand why they can’t just rename it. Is it a contractual thing? Surely if enough people complained they would.

 

[warfelg]

Ok, doing some critical thinking in real time here so sorry if this post ends up long or wandering:

Let's eliminate the parks that are leased land or at risk with CGA and SFDK. And take out the ones operated by Enchanted as well with WoF, SFStL MAA, TGE, VF, Mich Adv.

I think any form of lease back takes out La Ronde and SFMexico. I'll also toss in Qiddiya City in this even though it's basically a name leasing.

Next I want to take out the ones with an RMC already with SFoT, SFNE, SFGAmer, SFFT, KD, CP.

Next, I want to take out KBF because of space limitations.

Next I want to eliminate the "is the juice worth the squeeze" ones (aka is the value there to the park) in Dorney Park (height restrictions), Frontier City (OKC market), SFDL (although I really like this destination), and I'm adding Canada's Wonderland (potential tariff issues).

So that leaves the 3 I can make a good case for but also why not:
Kings Island - KI could really use a RMC, and is sort of a flagship for the new SF. Would be a great move for them to add for a lowered cost a great coaster to round out their collection. But the downside is with CP close enough and SV close enough, would they want both of those world class RMC's that geographically close together.

Carowinds - Like KI it could really use an RMC, it's also a flagship for the new SF, but in addition it has the already prepped spaces it could go into. The case for why not - Carowinds is a flagship park, so wouldn't you want to build them something new ground up for a RMC that would be really unique and custom to the park for the first coaster since Copperhead.

Six Flags Over Georgia - It's literally right there and it could really use an RMC. For a park in the decline, having a world class coaster there would really make a difference. The downside here is that the attendance has been declining, Atlanta isn't a major park to get to, and there would need to be some work.

That leaves me the dark horse park that hasn't been mentioned:

SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN

Needs a new coaster/goodwill
Has an RMC
Has the space
Could use new signature ride
Needs investment without high expense

While it does fail the RMC already test, there's a lot of upsides to putting AF1 here. They could use a working from day 1 signature ride that's world class that won't break the bank. Especially if SFCorp decides that X2 is more problematic than it's worth. They have a lot of places it could go with minimal ride modification. And putting the #7 coaster in this park could really give it the anchor it needs to establish (deeper and more recognizably) the West Coast coaster capital that they lack.