Oakwood Discussion

[owenstreet7]

You mean like Camelot, Belle Vue and Morecambe...Granada Studios even?
All well located with significant attractions, all dead.
Parks have to invest and evolve or they lose custom, Oakwood didn't, it stagnated for years.
It whiffed of corpse for years before the actual death, which was well predicted.

I'd say the main difference between those and Drayton Manor is that the latter is well known on a national basis with Shockwave, Apocalypse, Maelstrom, Stormforce 10 and Thomas Land.

The others like Camelot and Morecambe are known similarly to the likes of Pleasurewood Hills, Flambards and Oakwood which would catch the attention of tourists and locals.

I'd say that Drayton Manor catches the attention for people to go on trips to in the same way as Merlin, Paultons and BPB even with the overinvestment in Thomas Land and the neglect in the main park including not investing in what made Drayton Manor famous, the headliners. Thomas came afterwards and made it more famous for a younger audience.

I'm not so sure about Belle Vue as that was over 45 years ago.

Granada Studios was primarily very similar to the Warner Bros Studio Tour with the primary attraction being the tour of a set for Coronation Street. The key difference was that it had rides.

With Oakwood, I think if they carried on the investments akin to what was done in the 90s and 00s, it would've survived and had a niche that primarily Thorpe Park serve.

I'm not saying that Knightmare and Megafobia aren't significant but their parks don't quite have the same reputation nationally as Drayton Manor.

Another key difference was that Drayton didn't primarily (if at all) invest in secondhand rides which a lot of the parks mentioned seem to have done. That might change with Looping in the future.

Oakwood didn't seem to do that before Aspro but they ended up going into the secondhand market after Aspro acquired them.

 

[Matt N]

My point about Drayton Manor wasn’t about “closure” per se; perhaps I worded that poorly.

My point was more that that park had an excellent location and still managed to go bankrupt. Regardless of what Drayton Manor had going for it, they still had to call in the administrators, and still couldn’t continue as a going concern in their prior form. Whatever you can say about its location or Thomas, that point still stands; had Looping Group or some other company not saved it, the park would have gone under like Oakwood has. It was destined for failure under the Bryans, and indeed, the forums were hotly debating the possibility of the park’s demise in the late 2010s, with many comparisons made to the failed American Adventure at that point in time.

It’s also worth remembering that Drayton Manor did very little outside of Thomas Land during the late 2000s and 2010s. The only notable additions to the rest of the park I can think of in that time are Accelerator and Air Race, and a great amount went. The hotel was also built outside the park, and it’s often been said that that was the start of the park’s demise as a family owned business.

My overall point was more that Drayton in the 2010s is proof that a good location can’t save a park from financial failure. To link back to the topic at hand, it’s why I feel that long term underinvestment and financial mismanagement are likely the bigger factors in Oakwood’s demise than its location.

 

[Quantum]

Oakwood and Camelot share some similarities though Camelot was in a better location. Both were well run and popular parks until a takeover changed the trajectory of the park. Both had safety incidents, both removed popular rides and both died a slow lingering death by underinvestment.

Sadly I don't see this being the last major park to close, there may be another one or two in the next 5 years.

 

[DistortAMG]

Oakwood and Camelot share some similarities though Camelot was in a better location. Both were well run and popular parks until a takeover changed the trajectory of the park. Both had safety incidents, both removed popular rides and both died a slow lingering death by underinvestment.

Sadly I don't see this being the last major park to close, there may be another one or two in the next 5 years.

But Oakwood isn't and was never a major park, not even a second tier park?

I'm guessing Megaphobia will be torn down, that's the biggest casualty from this.

 

[venny]

I’d suggest Oakwood was viewed as a big player back in the late 90s/00s. At the point they were installing Drenched and Bounce, there was significant interest in the park and it felt like they were becoming a big player.

I agree there are some parallels with Camelot’s decline, but there was at least an effort by the management buy-out to give Camelot one last push. Oakwood on the other hand feels to have been almost an intentionally managed decline.

 

[JamesP]

Yes, in the very early 00’s Oakwood was a top ten UK park in terms of attendance. And the biggest tourist attraction in Wales.

 

[owenstreet7]

I’d suggest Oakwood was viewed as a big player back in the late 90s/00s. At the point they were installing Drenched and Bounce, there was significant interest in the park and it felt like they were becoming a big player.

I agree there are some parallels with Camelot’s decline, but there was at least an effort by the management buy-out to give Camelot one last push. Oakwood on the other hand feels to have been almost an intentionally managed decline.

It's probably a minor factor but with Frontierland and Camelot, they were themed to a specific theme which may or may not have contributed to the decline of those parks.

With Camelot, wasn't it bought out by a property developer who leased the park to the operators and intended to close the park anyway to redevelop into housing?

 

[Quantum]

I remember speaking to a member to staff at Camelot prior to it's sale who advised sed of several new rides that were coming to the park but never materialised as Granada sold the park. I still believe Camelot could have been a survived if they invested in new rides shortly after takeover. Oakwood has felt like a slow death, I'm still puzzled as to where this 25 Million was spent as it clear most of it wasn't on rides.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I remember speaking to a member to staff at Camelot prior to it's sale who advised sed of several new rides that were coming to the park but never materialised as Granada sold the park. I still believe Camelot could have been a survived if they invested in new rides shortly after takeover. Oakwood has felt like a slow death, I'm still puzzled as to where this 25 Million was spent as it clear most of it wasn't on rides.

"£25 million since its takeover in 2008", would equate to £1.47 million per year. Most likely the actual running costs to keep the park standing still per year. Employee costs, business rates, energy costs, etc.