I am just so sad that a small group of people, not even living in this area, are taking a stand against the roller coaster using irrelevant arguments, such as "Kolmården should always just be a zoo just as it is". The problem is that the park is now privately owned and need profit to be economically sustainable. As the weather is in Sweden, the park can only get income during June, July and August, but the elephants, dolphins etc. needs both care, food, heated facilities and training during the whole year - which is a very large outlay. Kolmården needs a larger target group so they can get more visitors. This means they can invest in more attractions and animal exhibits. Bamses World which we can see on the photos in this thread will secure the smaller children and wildfire the older children. All together Kolmården will be able to attract the whole family. This is why the CEO said that Kolmården dosen't have any future without Wildfire or other further expansions. It won't be economically justifiable to spend more money on animal exhibit without any increase in visitors. Since 2007 Kolmården spent 550 millions Swedish crowns (around 55 million US dollars) in development in the park.
Now we're just waiting for the environment court to take up this case. The owners have the economical strength to wait and build it to 2017 if necessary - and I am sure it will be built - but it will be the first time Parks and Resorts isn't done with a project 1 May when season starts - even after a rough winter. It will be disappointing for the park, but I am sure it will be a huge success anyway when it's done.
I thought I might go through what the appeal from Kolmården contains:
- None of the reasons Länsstyrelsen highlights makes Wildfire in need of a zoning plan.
- Wildfire is one single project and should not be put together with other park development and their impact.
- Wildfire is going to be built in an already highly exploited area and can not be comparable with building in untouched nature.
- Wildfire will be built in one of the worlds largest and most visited zoo-areas, right next to other attractions including a roller coaster.
- Wildfire will not be as high as it looks on paper, it will only be 33 meters over land - the drop will be 57 meters because of the terrain.
-Questions regarding the infrastructure and parking with an increase in visitors should not be taken in to account in this separate project. A solution is under way by the City of Norrköping.
Sweden is the worlds most bureaucratic country and this can take some time but I am sure it will be built - hopefully opening 2016.
Hope you got a better picture of the situation, and welcome to Sweden when it's done