Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Purely anecdotally, I, if anything, think Thorpe is the neglected child at the moment. Yes, Hyperia was a big investment at £18m, but there is currently nothing else in the pipeline that we know about. There were utterances of on-site accommodation, as well as rumours of a new flat replacing Slammer, but they don’t seem to have come to anything concrete yet.
On the topic of Horizon, I’d be surprised if the proposed building was fully canned. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had changed the attraction inside the building, but I imagine the building itself will still come in some capacity given that the spot is not known for its ease of getting planning permission on.
I still think it would be a real mistake for Towers to significantly delay Horizon. Yes, people can go on about there being “other priorities”, but it’s the major attractions that sell and keep people coming back, and if Horizon is delayed beyond 2027 (probably the earliest realistic opening date at this point), you’re looking at 10 years since the park last built a major new ride. That’s unprecedented, and given the park has traded on its major new rides for so many years, that is surely going to have an impact on the bottom line.
I get that some of what’s happened recently needed to happen, but I’m sceptical that the park can last on only refurbishments and rehashes of things from the past (even though it’s new, plenty of people have criticised Toxicator as “Ripsaw in a different colour”). They need some genuinely new, major ride blood to stay relevant and keep people coming back.
On the topic of Horizon, I’d be surprised if the proposed building was fully canned. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had changed the attraction inside the building, but I imagine the building itself will still come in some capacity given that the spot is not known for its ease of getting planning permission on.
I still think it would be a real mistake for Towers to significantly delay Horizon. Yes, people can go on about there being “other priorities”, but it’s the major attractions that sell and keep people coming back, and if Horizon is delayed beyond 2027 (probably the earliest realistic opening date at this point), you’re looking at 10 years since the park last built a major new ride. That’s unprecedented, and given the park has traded on its major new rides for so many years, that is surely going to have an impact on the bottom line.
I get that some of what’s happened recently needed to happen, but I’m sceptical that the park can last on only refurbishments and rehashes of things from the past (even though it’s new, plenty of people have criticised Toxicator as “Ripsaw in a different colour”). They need some genuinely new, major ride blood to stay relevant and keep people coming back.
) Blackstone, but also Kirkbi, the company owned by the lego family and who owns lego, at the time they owned 1/3 of the shares. this was from 2019 so thing could have changed (although I don't see much new news) but I would think that this may not be a case when a private equity company buys up a company, to then strip it bear and make a massive profit.