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[202X] Project Horizon (SW9?): Planning Approved

Nah it always was going to be a coaster. The gap in major developments fits with the SW / new major coaster pattern.

Also the size of building nailed it for me. It's bigger than the Spinball plot as someone pointed out the other day.

No idea what type it will be though but it will be a coaster for sure.
 
Seeing as Flavios ride will probably go to make way for this (rather than moved), maybe this will be an extension to TWODW and this will be a spinning coaster themed to Flavios ballroom dancing and the building's interior made to look like Blackpool Tower ballroom! 🤣
 
Honestly ever since post 1994, it is rare for Towers to build that's not a SW though they don't happen that often such as Rita, Spinball etc. So in someway this might help in the ride's favour for had it been SW9, the pressure for this to be some truly special would have been on and we might have all been dissatisfied...again. But by not having that tag on it, it might not be hampered by said pressure so it actually might allow Towers to have a bit freedom to have a bit more fun and hopefully not a coaster that is not themed to a dark and evil theme. Suprise no one has brought the latter up yet for a theme.
 
AT86 said:
Quick moment to appreciate the Twirling Toadstool op cabin and old Charlie boat current rotting on the Horizon site.

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I know it's not seen by the public but deary me, seen the local dump near my place look neater than this!

Another factor that with that area always being a dead area ever since Coaster Corner closed, having a coaster there would undoubtedly give that area the attention grab it needs by the GP, say what you like about too many coasters on the park though I can see the need for one here which arguably perhaps needs it more than other areas on the park.

As I said before if this ride is a hit and probably gets major queues, I have no doubt that reusing the Dungeons building for yet another make over for an actual dark ride to help out with crowds and capacity and has at the very least been looked at as a phase 2 for the area maybe?
 
£12.5m clearly isn't an SW project, so building a reasonably large scale dark coaster outside of this formula is not a bad thing at all!

That said, I have even more serious concerns than ever about the theme and coherency of the building. As if Cloud Cuckoo Walliams Dungeon Land wasn't as much of a car crash already as is, throwing up a modern looking building with an entrance structure right in the middle of it all will make it far worse than it already is.
 
It's hard to tell whether £12.5m equates to an SW-scale project or not... it's either a very low cost SW/major year or a very high cost off-year. What actually is the price threshold for an SW/major CAPEX year? I was always led to believe that it was £10m, but the conversation about £12.5m "not equalling an SW" suggests otherwise.

I have a theory... could the "SW9" budget possibly have been split between the Nemesis retrack and this ride? Many have argued that the park doesn't need SW9 right now, and while neither the Nemesis retrack nor this ride would equate to a typical SW-scale project, they would match or exceed an SW budget put together and are both things that were said to be needed more than an SW.

Although with Merlin investing like hell at the moment, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw SW9 come along in 2026! Chessington allegedly had £60m allocated to it between 2022 and 2026, so if Towers has a similar budget to play with in that timeframe, then I could certainly see SW9 coming along just after Project Horizon!
 
It states very clearly that it's a construction budget.

Once you add the marketing costs, it'll inflate exponentially to a budget that's very typical of a new major attraction at a Merlin park.

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Nosferatu said:
It states very clearly that it's a construction budget.

Once you add the marketing costs, it'll inflate exponentially to a budget that's very typical of a new major attraction at a Merlin park.

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For some idea, Wicker Man's was listed as £16m... and £16m was what Merlin marketed it as.

I think it's likely that Merlin put the full attraction budget in there. They could have excluded marketing costs or whatever, but past history suggests otherwise; for other rides like Wicker Man, Merlin threw in the "full" budget for their planning applications.

For what it's worth, Exodus' equivalent listed figure was £17.5m. So regardless of what Merlin have listed on both, Project Horizon will cost around £5m less than Project Exodus.
 
I mean if its an indoor coaster it's not going to be anything mind blowing. The building isn't that big in coaster terms so it isn't likely to be a world class ride like smiler and nemmy.
 
Nosferatu said:
It states very clearly that it's a construction budget.

Once you add the marketing costs, it'll inflate exponentially to a budget that's very typical of a new major attraction at a Merlin park.

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Oblivion’s marketing budget was £5m, so add on the £12.5m construction budget and you do have SW levels of investment here.

Whether the park will use the SW term though - I’m not so sure.
 
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