California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

After Look at Wodan! I really would LOVE! to see a GCI project go in to this park!

If they put in that GCI coaster, I can guarantee a huge jump in attendance with the proper marketing & advertising. CGA's marketers who do the TV ads say they have a tough time doing it because there is no new product to talk about.

Yeah its hard to make something stale look appealing, a fresh new coaster would look very attractive.

Yup, I've heard that before...actually, I had a small Q&A with CGA for a class project (Was taking a recreation and leisure class) and received a similar answer when I asked about marketing a park without major additions.

Oh, and random photo to add, I thought of yesterday or whenever CGA posted the photo and mentioned "Planking." And reading a Facebook comment on the photo drove me this direction

Did someone say planking?

Time to dig this up from the depths of the boards, came across this on permit page today...Hello GCI!

http://smartpermit.santaclaraca.gov/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=PLN2012-09049

2/14/2012

Description:

Architectural Review of revised plans for a wood coaster ride

structure to be constructed in northern portion of park;

Reference previous planning cases: PLN2008-06835 &

PLN2009-07829

So could this still be in the same spot? After all, it does note 'revised' plans...so I'm wondering if it could still even be GCI or if it could be something else of a 'quieter' type, or if it will even feature the same layout. At this point, lots of unknowns and questions other than we now know something seems to be coming to CGA.

The Northern part of the park looks more like the catering area behind Flight Deck in this Google Maps image:

maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.398083,-121.9732&z=17&t=h&hl=en

FYI: I lined it up so that North is straight up in Google Earth before getting the link to Google Maps.

Hmm...there is a lot of empty space over the lagoon....

The Northern part of the park is the main gate area which includes Star Tower, which is where the proposed coaster was supposed to go back in 2009. Pretend your at Psycho Mouse and look to the front of the part. Flight Deck would be considered the east part of the park.

I forgot where I saw it, not sure if it was here or elsewhere but I do remember seeing some low-res image of another proposed spot for the coaster, dominating the Redwood Amphitheater spot...which is probably more north than the Whizzer site or Flight Deck. But we've got a ways to go anyway. At this point, it is however fun to try and guess where the coaster could be.

Well, that had me doing a double take. I think my skepticism of this park is understandable.

I will be so, so happy if this goes through. I suppose in a way it's not even that far-fetched, if indeed at all?

Well, that had me doing a double take. I think my skepticism of this park is understandable.

 

I will be so, so happy if this goes through. I suppose in a way it's not even that far-fetched, if indeed at all?

I know, right? I was skimming through the list before I got lazy and did a CTRL+F for the term "2012" when I saw restroom renovation, event going until Jan 2012...and then the news I posted on the previous page. Elsewhere on that page I had also seen an architectural review from 2009 so I had to take 3 or 4 looks to make sure I was seeing things right.

It's kind of funny because just about exactly a year ago (give or take a couple weeks) we were given the sad news of Invertigo leaving us and this year, some activity on the Lost Coaster of Silicon Valley. Lastly, someone mentioned way back when this thread started that CF is good with long term plans...maybe this is evidence to that post?

^I feel like at some point in the last couple years, the park insinuated that the woodie project wasn't truly dead, though that didn't exactly inspire much faith on my part. If not, then there was at least strong speculation from a source or two. But maybe that was true all along and it's only now that the information is surfacing again.

the outlook of the park hasn't been the greatest for the past decade it seems. With Paramount selling off their parks, then Cedar Fair offloading some of their properties, it always seemed like CGA has always been fighting to avoid the axe. Just when it seemed like the park would get something new, the local businesses and the deal with the 49'ers ended up throwing another wrench into the progress of the park. I'd like to see these new revised plans get approved and the project signal a beginning of a new era for the park. This will be an interesting park to watch in the coming years.

It feels like the park finally has some certainty on it's future. It was only a matter of time before coaster rumors started coming out. I would love to see the GCI coaster built, but then again I'd like to see the park get any major addition that isn't related to the water park.

Time to dig this up from the depths of the boards, came across this on permit page today...Hello GCI!

 

http://smartpermit.santaclaraca.gov/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=PLN2012-09049

2/14/2012

Description:

Architectural Review of revised plans for a wood coaster ride

structure to be constructed in northern portion of park;

Reference previous planning cases: PLN2008-06835 &

PLN2009-07829

 

So could this still be in the same spot? After all, it does note 'revised' plans...so I'm wondering if it could still even be GCI or if it could be something else of a 'quieter' type, or if it will even feature the same layout. At this point, lots of unknowns and questions other than we now know something seems to be coming to CGA.

Thanks for posting this, I completely missed it until this morning. Nice to see some potentially positive news out of the park.

The Whizzer location is considered the northern section of the park, it's right next to the enterance. Also, hooray for CGA! Too bad I'm moving to So Cal right before this gets built.

I have great hope that the park will finally will have a new coaster for the 2013 season! I know that the permit listing doesn't confirm anything but I have a strong feeling that the park will have a new addition!

I know it's wishfull thinking but are Intamin P&P's quiet

^Not when they "fart" but hey, the more fart the better!

*I really hope people know about the "prefab fart"

Ah yes the Intamin Fart! That would be great for neighboring offices to hear! Rrrrippp!

That fart is a signal of airtime!

I doubt the woodie would be built by Intamin. There is no reason why they would not build the proposed GCI coaster, it fit the terrain and fits well with CGA. We're just lucky Cedar Fair is starting to care about CGA, though that doesn't mean we'll be wishing for extraordinary coasters being built when a few months ago we were wishing that CGA wouldn't become a parking lot.

^The reason why I believe an Intamin is possible now is the fact Intamin woodies are so insanely quiet, it is rediculious. El Toro makes so little noise, you can be standing right next to the track, and barely notice the train going by. Rally, the loudest noise you can hear is the Intamin Fart.

^The reason why I believe an Intamin is possible now is the fact Intamin woodies are so insanely quiet, it is rediculious. El Toro makes so little noise, you can be standing right next to the track, and barely notice the train going by. Rally, the loudest noise you can hear is the Intamin Fart.

If they want to quiet the GCI down, have that one turn next to the office building have the Pony Express cover. (When I'm saying Pony Express, I'm meaning the coaster in Knott's)

The L.A. Times has posted a story about the proposed coaster which they say would indeed be from GCI...

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/themeparks/la-trb-californias-great-america-wooden-coaster-02201215,0,6148224.story

After a decade of difficulty and uncertainty, California's Great America has dusted off plans for an oft-delayed wooden roller coaster in hopes of reversing the Santa Clara amusement park's declining fortunes.

Scheduled to debut in 2013, the Great Coasters International wooden coaster would send riders whirling into a one-of-a-kind twist around the Star Tower observation deck near the park's entrance, officials confirmed.

The 3,100-foot-long ride would include a terrain-hugging S-turn, a high-speed station fly-by and a series of zero-G camelbacks and bunny hops at speeds topping 50 mph aboard Millennium Flyer trains.

Originally scheduled to open in 2009, the 108-foot-tall cloverleaf-shaped coaster was repeatedly delayed over noise concerns, a contentious football stadium proposal and the pending sale of the Bay Area amusement park.

In December, parent company Cedar Fair announced plans to remain as the long-term owner of California's Great America after the sale of the park fell through. A month later, Cedar Fair signed an agreement allowing construction of the San Francisco 49ers' new football stadium in the amusement park's overflow parking lot.

That leaves the noise concerns of neighbors, which could resurface on March 7 when city officials begin reviewing plans for the proposed coaster. Last year, the park received an extension of a previously approved height variance for the ride, according to Screamscape.

California's Great America has removed three coasters in the past decade, a period when the park added no new coasters, according to Roller Coaster Database.

Correct me if I'm wrong but last time when noise was an issue, didn't they get that squared away but the 49ers situation and uncertainty pulled the plug on this project? Hopefully we won't see a revisit of the whiney neighbor syndrome.