Rumor Project 2026 (?): New Land Concepts Leaked

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Zachary

Zachary

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Sep 23, 2009
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Maybe Herschend does intend to care about Kentucky Kingdom after all! Some of these concepts look absolutely amazing—the derby one in particular. A new S&S Steeplechase and some sort of interactive (dark?) ride? YES PLEASE. Plus, the Kentucky Derby is so iconically associated with the region—it just has to be the right theme.

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Zachary said:
Maybe Herschend does intend to care about Kentucky Kingdom after all! Some of these concepts look absolutely amazing—the derby one in particular. A new S&S Steeplechase and some sort of interactive (dark?) ride? YES PLEASE. Plus, the Kentucky Derby is so iconically associated with the region—it just has to be the right theme.

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Deleted tweets?
 
God damn it, I didn't save them. @BuckeyeCoaster posted them on Twitter but yeah, they seem to have deleted them.

There was a derby themed land with a steeplechase and an interactive derby ride, a firefighter themed land with some ride rethemes (including Storm Chaser), a Kentucky lake-themed water park expansion, and a few other things. One of the concepts had a different family coaster listed (type not specified) and another had a starflyer.

Hopefully Buckeye Coasters (or someone else who doesn't care about protecting their access to media events) will repost them.
 
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love everything about this. these new rethemes seem to fix all of the dead, lifeless areas of the park while upgrading the already beautiful areas. Part of me thinks that this is low key their 5 year plan and they will hopefully built one or two of these lands every other year. I say one or two since it really seems like building one of these lands forces another land to come into reality. for example, Fun, Farm, and Family requires the removal of a few flats like the swinging ship and happy swing, but they are to be rebuilt in other areas of the park like Kentucky grove which is already a well established lush area of the park that wouldn't require much changes.
 
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The Thunder Run/Storm Chaser area features a surprising stretch of low-key garden areas with large, well established (if a bit wild) oak leaf hydrangeas/other specimen plants which seem pretty happy to be there. Didn't expect to see that during my first visit.

Somebody, at some point, cared enough to specify those rather than cheaping out with lesser plants.

I'd love to see either the Downs or Grove concepts expand those gardens.
 
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Kingdakev said:
Part of me thinks that this is low key their 5 year plan and they will hopefully built one or two of these lands every other year.
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This was my thought too. Since all of the proposals are seemingly for different areas of the park, this feels very much like "which of our renovations should we prioritize" rather than "which option is best."

Five year plan is probably way too aggressive—I think we could only hope to see one of these materialize every few years—but I do agree that these concepts likely show Herschend's long-term vision for the property.
 
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Looks like those Board plans indicate the signature road through the park is getting axed. Hope they use this chance to de-stupid the "entrance" to the back half of the park... I really don't like the way it dumps out almost directly into the wave pool.

Though I don't think it's possible to entirely separate the dry park from waterpark back there, I'd like to see them at least attempt to.
 
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CoasterMac said:
Though I don't think it's possible to entirely separate the dry park from waterpark back there, I'd like to see them at least attempt to.
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Yeah. There are so many years of inertia behind the absolutely abominable park layout that it would be incredibly difficult to fully undo, but I'd like them to at least move in the direction of doing so. Maybe 20 years down the line it could actually pay dividends.
 
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its wouldn't be as difficult as some would think. even using the current layout of the parking lot and roads, it would be very simple to do.

Color Key:
Green is there current road that would be eliminated.
Blue- New entry road that would cut through an existing parking lot that is used for over flow.
Red- Multiple exit paths that use current road network.
Orange- New pick up drop off location.

The remaining parking lot could be used for the new coaster steeplechase coaster another other park expansions.
Screenshot 2024-01-04 093939.png .

The remaining parking lot could be used for the new steeplechase coaster another other park expansions. Minimum road work would need to be done. Mainly just repainting showing the traffic pattern and a area to block off for pick up/drop off. Now would the state fair board approve it? That's a good question. There are also other way to include additional entrances and exits if needed for the state fair throughout the entirety of the property.
 
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There's a big announcement happening tomorrow at around 1:30. It sounds like they may be hyping this up for this year, not next, which makes no sense to me, but it certainly adds the interesting factor.
 
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Connor Conant said:
There's a big announcement happening tomorrow at around 1:30. It sounds like they may be hyping this up for this year, not next, which makes no sense to me, but it certainly adds the interesting factor.
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It was for their new Christmas event... not for the new proposed rides/areas...
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maybe they would still do it, I mean, remember when they tried to build a wooden coster but was rejected but happened again, maybe its be the same thing
 
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