I Managed to have a fairly decent chat with Chad Miller of Gravity Group today so naturally quizzed him further on what was said in the TPR video.
He told me that the Woodie idea was very much Wardleys baby and numerous ideas have been thrown around. He told me the last proper communication he had with Merlin was with James Paulding at last years IAAPA, and as we all would expect he said that whilst the management at Alton are very much in support of the idea, the powers that be at Merlin just aren't interested. He then further went on to say that around the time of the last EAS they emailed Justin Platt directly about whether Alton would be interested in pursuing a project, but received no reply.
I naturally went on to tell Chad about Nick Varneys somewhat draconian marketing strategy and lack of interest in projects without a USP, and he laughed saying "the last guy to build a coaster with us has found it a marketers dream... If an inverting Wooden Coaster isn't enough of a USP then I don't know what is". We finally discussed the oft lamented idea that UK consumers have no interest in Woodies, and whilst I still think that Merlin are wrong, he recalled to me that they received a significantly lower amount of interest when exhibiting at the London EAS than at Paris the following year or any other trade show in recent years.
I proposed the idea that maybe people still associate woodies with classic Blackpool style rides, but who knows, he said hopefully one day Merlin will see the light and take the risk, but sadly only the Marketers at the top can make that call
Still, it's good to see they're still very actively interested in working with Alton... Even if Merlin don't seem quite so excited back!
