Cedar Fair to make belated jump onto RMC bandwagon?

For now it's speculative, though Screamscape is reporting GhostRider may be poised to receive a full RMC topper track conversion for the 75th anniversary of Knott's Berry Farm's Ghost Town area. This would be possible regardless of whatever contract may exist between Six Flags and RMC because that is applicable to the Iron Horse tech only (and I can't imagine could be lasting much longer - it has been said that the price for said conversion will increase after the contract is up).

Given Cedar Fair is a classier company than Six Flags, the topper track makes sense for them as they'd be able to preserve their existing woodies while drastically improving ride experience. Lance even goes so far as to mention that should 2016 see a GhostRider refurb that Mean Streak would be a shoe-in for a glamorous RMC makeover as well.

Thoughts/comments/complaints? As far as I'm concerned, this is an exciting proposition and probably a better solution for aging wooden coasters than converting them to hybrids.

There's no contract between RMC and SF, why do people keep thinking this exists. Anyway, a Ghost Rider retracking would be really good with its current layout. I'd kill them if they changed anything though.

^What has lead you to believe there isn't one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnu0G-h ... be&t=1m32s

From the horse's mouth.

I am curious if Cedar Fair would opt to preserve GhostRider's layout, from what I gather there is some level of deference toward it among the management at Knott's so the layout will probably stay the same. I doubt that would be the case with Mean Streak, though.

^I didn't hear anything confirming a rumor of a contract... If there is one, that is a terrible business model by RMC.

"Six Flags exclusive" as in they're the only ones who've done it. Sorry to burst your bubble but that's just more six flags crap.

^ I was going to post that. Some retracking would be great for the aging woodies. It could turn Thunderhawk into a painful ride back to an enjoyable one....while we're at it take out the trim on the bunny hop.

With the amount of business Six Flags has brought, an exclusivity contract securing that business would not have been a bad idea. If not a 'contract' per se, I guess Six Flags may have secured exclusivity simply by way of basically monopolizing RMC's production capabilities up until now.

Six Flags is the most organic fit for Iron Horse conversions, with lots of aging woodies and little desire to preserve them. Maybe Cedar Fair will bring a more balanced approach ?????????????????????

[Paradox]

Maybe they did something similar to Cedar Point's deal with B&M when Raptor was built?

The price of these conversions will drastically increase after 2016, so we may see them less often in the future

^ I know construction costs in general rise every year, but where is everyone seeing that it will increase that much?

Oh, maybe because Six Flags and RMC had an agreement (not a contract of course, never) that so many Iron Horse conversions would be done for x amount per, and since Six Flags purchased in bulk that amount was lower than it would be otherwise.

It came from Alan Shilke. He basically said that thy gave SF a deal since they got the company off the ground and brought attention to them. Now that they're a fully fledged company they're charging more, building more and hiring more.

I wonder how much costs will rise. Hasn't each RMC project been around the $10M mark so far? It's a bargain for the quality of product delivered.

[Coasterkidmwm]

coasterdave wrote:

^I didn't hear anything confirming a rumor of a contract... If there is one, that is a terrible business model by RMC.

I mean some companies have a no-competition clause that lasts a couple years but yeah severely limiting yourself isn't the greatest of ideas. Did they retrack more parts of Mean Streak in the off season?