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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2025 Discussion

Funcone said:
Maybe Disney will buy Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It's already got the Alice in Wonderland ride. They'd just need to change everything else.
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More chance of pigs flying, Brexit being a success and HS2 not being delayed again. All at the same time.
 
Also Merlin already have a strong presence in Blackpool with their midways. It would actually make sense for them to take over the park if it comes to it.

Even if they sell to somebody else.....I just don't see how this can be avoided. Amanda doesn't have deep enough pockets to compete anymore and the Industry is leaving her behind.
 
I've always imagined that if PBR ever got sold, it would be to Parques, as they already have a foothold in Blackpool with the zoo. Merlin would be too controversial of a pick, and I'm not sure Merlin would touch PBR, regarding maintenance upkeep, with a ten-foot pole. Maybe the Looping Group could buy them with the rate that they've been expanding at the moment, with WMSP, Drayton, Pleasurewood and PBR, they'd be a strong counter-weight to the Merlin parks.
 
The Beach have obviously seen the weather forecast and are offering bogofs on family tickets for this weekend...one adult gets a kid ticket free.
Don't think I have ever seen bogofs over the Easter bank holidays before, it is usually peak prices.
Things must be bad.
 
Two words. Twisted. Colossus! One of my favourite coasters (when they get the hill timing right). Can completely see RMC making a great conversion of the Nash, even including an inversion or two or a high five around the back.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
I've always imagined that if PBR ever got sold, it would be to Parques, as they already have a foothold in Blackpool with the zoo. Merlin would be too controversial of a pick, and I'm not sure Merlin would touch PBR, regarding maintenance upkeep, with a ten-foot pole. Maybe the Looping Group could buy them with the rate that they've been expanding at the moment, with WMSP, Drayton, Pleasurewood and PBR, they'd be a strong counter-weight to the Merlin parks.
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Parques would be good for sure. There are plenty of operators who would be interested at the right price I'm sure.

Regarding Merlin though......I don't think the maintenance would be massively off-putting for them as I think they'd rip out the older rides gradually anyway and add better ones a lot more frequently than PB can currently do. They might see it being a bit too close to Towers though to even bother.

Just can't see a path out of this for PB now, what with taking on more debt and having a world class UK Theme park only 6 years away now. They are going to have to go some to turn this around now.
 
rob666 said:
The Beach have obviously seen the weather forecast and are offering bogofs on family tickets for this weekend...one adult gets a kid ticket free.
Don't think I have ever seen bogofs over the Easter bank holidays before, it is usually peak prices.
Things must be bad.
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Going into Easter weekend with Big One, Dipper and Avalanche potentially all on 1 train is going to be interesting.
 
Smiley said:
Two words. Twisted. Colossus! One of my favourite coasters (when they get the hill timing right). Can completely see RMC making a great conversion of the Nash, even including an inversion or two or a high five around the back.
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I think it would be a great solution but there's no way they can afford to do it.
 
Even if they could RMC The Grand National (which I don't think they could, now it's a listed building), I don't think it'd end up anything like Twisted Colossus.
Going off RCDB, here are some comparisons between The Grand National and Colossus (pre RMC).

Height: Grand National 62ft, Colossus 125ft.
Speed: Grand National 40mph, Colossus 62mph
Length: Grand National 3,302ft, Colossus 8,650ft

Grand National - Pleasure Beach Resort (Blackpool, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom)

Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.
rcdb.com

Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California, United States)

Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.
rcdb.com

Colossus was a much bigger ride, and The Grand National doesn't have much opportunity to expand its footprint. It might be possible to RMC it, but it'd be one of the smaller RMCs.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
I've always imagined that if PBR ever got sold, it would be to Parques, as they already have a foothold in Blackpool with the zoo. Merlin would be too controversial of a pick, and I'm not sure Merlin would touch PBR, regarding maintenance upkeep, with a ten-foot pole. Maybe the Looping Group could buy them with the rate that they've been expanding at the moment, with WMSP, Drayton, Pleasurewood and PBR, they'd be a strong counter-weight to the Merlin parks.
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Mack family leaving Mrs T. O. B. E as managing Director.
 
Benjsh said:
Yeah not replacing it at all would be awful but leaving it SBNO is even worse. Again it will come down to costs. It's not like it's insanely popular ride anymore either. Most punters know it's painful and not the coaster it used to be or even close.

Avalanche will come to it's end soon too and already whispers that it might not have long left. I personally think Amanda is going to have to sell the park to people with much deeper pockets sooner rather than later. The industry has outgrown her and her family and they haven't reacted to trends quickly enough. Taking on more debt in that place just seems crazy to me also but they appear to be doing it.
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I think leaving it as SBNO may not be that bad (most of it is outside the park). when I went (last year) it was quite popular with most trains being full (this was a quiet day, there was no queue for icon, there was a small queue for the big one and no queue for dipper)

I don't think the amusment industry is getting that expensive, you look back in 1994 what £12mil got the big one, compared to some of the rides AT has installed (differnt ground is easier for foundations) but £16mil for the wickerman (last completly new ride), considering inflation it was £4million (2018 pounds) more expensive to build the big one.

I don't think they have been priced out, they have just not invested that well in new attractions spending a tone of rides and screwed themselves by removing teh non rider pass, PPR etc.
 
flyingguitar said:
I don't think the amusment industry is getting that expensive, you look back in 1994 what £12mil got the big one, compared to some of the rides AT has installed (differnt ground is easier for foundations) but £16mil for the wickerman (last completly new ride), considering inflation it was £4million (2018 pounds) more expensive to build the big one.
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With all due respect, you are comparing the construction costs for what was then the world's tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster ever built, with a fairly generic woodie.

The Big One was new, it was constructed on difficult terrain, it was a relative feat of Mechanical engineering.

The Wicker Man, whilst it has a fun layout, is the same woodie that GCI have been selling for 20 or so years.

Your maths is also slightly off. Adjusted for inflation The Big One's £12 million cost, in 1994, is equivalent to £20 million in 2018.

The Wicker Man's £16 million cost, in 2018, is equivalent to £10 million in 1994.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
With all due respect, you are comparing the construction costs for what was then the world's tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster ever built, with a fairly generic woodie.

The Big One was new, it was constructed on difficult terrain, it was a relative feat of Mechanical engineering.

The Wicker Man, whilst it has a fun layout, is the same woodie that GCI have been selling for 20 or so years.

Your maths is also slightly off. Adjusted for inflation The Big One's £12 million cost, in 1994, is equivalent to £20 million in 2018.

The Wicker Man's £16 million cost, in 2018, is equivalent to £10 million in 1994.
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ok, the smiler at £18 million in 2013 was the same price as the big one with inflation, 13 in 2010 at £15mil was £1.5mil less than the big one interms of inflation

also for the inflation I used this: https://www.inflationtool.com/british-pound?amount=12000000&year1=1994&year2=2018&frequency=yearly

and I did specify £4mill in 2018 pounds (when comparing them you have to be consistent with your years, I have used the opening years for each of ones above)

My point was although that the price of amusement rides isn't much increasing in the uk compared to inflation (TBH I am surprised AT are still spending less than £20 mill per ride, would have expected that to rise to like £30mill) and all those rides were AT rides with theming associated costs, BPB has much less theming so they would probably not build big bob, or the marmalizer saving costs.
 
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Nice and sunny day here in the NW today. Beautiful in Manchester so I assume it's pretty nice in Blackpool too. It's also the kids holidays and the park is typically busy this week every year.
 
Interesting point that no one has picked up on from their most recent accounts is that equity for the overall company actually increased 250000 compared to previous years accounts. This is due to amounts being restated for a previous year and im no expert but they appear to have wrote off debt owed between themselves which in some ways has benefited them but in others could have contributed to loss on paper of some accounts. The loss/debt on paper means nothing and they have been in a much worse place in the past. They have a very clever group of companies and accounts and by owing each other money and interest means even if they actually lose money in true terms they dont when you look at the full accounting picture. In terms of equity they are in a better place than they have been for a very long time. If the new investment can be backed up with further improvements to marketing, customer perception, communications and mainly operations then they could be in a very strong place in 2/3 years to invest big again before universal opens- guessing that’s the plan. It’s a risk with all cost increases but they are clearly trying and you have to give them that. Improvements still needed though. Also as many have said I don’t think it will affect them. Many pleasure beach customers complain about paying £30 and waiting more than 30 minutes for a ride and only getting on 8-10 rides in a day. Even if they can afford to go to universal it will be a one and done with cost or when they only get on 2/3 rides in day. All they need to do is get the people that live and visit Blackpool and nearby to come and come more and they will be good. They could even benefit from European travellers visiting universal and making visits to multiple parks while they are in the uk.
On a negative note If there isn’t an improvement to operations/ number of rides open / coasters back on more than 1 train by Saturday looking at comments online from today I think they will have a riot on their hands at guest services and will affect the rest of this season from bad reviews
Apologies for long posts but don’t get much time to read/ comment on here
 
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