City and County now involved to save SFMM

[Zorro825]

Originally Posted by TacAlert

No deal yet.

Today's Daily News article (07/20/06)
http://www.dailynews.com/santaclarita/ci_4071405

I hope they get something done. I would really hate for this park to close. It holds so many memories for me.

[TacAlert]

According to history (scvhistory.com), NL&F sold Magic Mountain in 1979, so its been 27 years since they had any say in the park.

[Big Drunk Dave @ DL]

Originally Posted by Jspider

while i'm not a fan of SFMM I do think that it should remain open

it has a few good rides X,Revolution and possibly Tatsu (haven't been on Tatsu yet)

and it brings decent balance to the park offerings around the area

I wish Universal would buy it or even Busch so that we could see an extention of Sea World or Universal type experiences

it'd be cool to see Universal push out of Hollywood and start building real experiences in Magic Mountain with the the space and all


either way though if Magic Mountain closes I'm betting Six Flags will remove at least a few of it's coasters (or whoever buys the place sells them) I just hope it doesn't become more houses

This is really scary. I hope it remains or receive a government loan ala the Airline industries. I think it's a good asset and I can see Universal capitalizing on it for its space. USH as none, and I don't see it expanding to bring anymore tourist in. Maybe I'm wrong, and people still goto USH for the tram tour, but that alone, plus Back to the Future, T2, JP, Mummy, or even Shriek, cannot attract anymore 'guests' to that 'dinky' 'resort.'

[JediJournalist]

I recal reading a while back, that Magic Mountain was originally built by Newhall Land & Farming and SeaWorld. They formed a partnership in order to build the park, but that Newhall Land & Farming took over day to day operations of the park before Six Flags bought it.
It would be interesting to see what SeaWorld's parent company, Anheuser Busch, would do if they got their hands on it.
A Busch Gardens on the west coast would be nice. Having never been to either Busch Gardens park, I think it's safe to assume that they have great themed thrill rides and animal exhibits.
I know the other two Busch Gardens have an African and European theme, why not them this one around Latin America or Asia? That way, many existing rides could keep their themeing.
I don't see Universal wanting to have anything to do with this park, although I would love to see and Islands of Adventure West.
The only corporation I would realistically trust to manage Magic Mountain is Cedar Fair. True, they do own Knott's Berry Farm to the south, but maybe if they bought Sx Flags, they could leave Knott's as it is... a "family park" and concentrate on the existing thrill rides at Magic Mountain.
To those who say Magic Mountain and Knott's are too close to each other, consider that Cedar Fair recently bought Geauga Lake, a regional park that was also formerly owned by Six Flags in Aurora, Ohio about 90 miles from it's flagship park in Sandusky.
Valencia and Buena Park are about 55 miles apart, so it's not as much as the Ohio parks, but it would still merit a purchase by Cedar Fair.
Then again, they recently purchased Paramount Parks, so I don't think they have money to spend on another park.
Whatever Six Flags decides to do, I hope Magic Mountain stays as is, thrill rides and all.

[Asterix]

Well, I'm torn. On the one hand I don't think the taxpayers should be burdened with the energy subsidy for a privately-owned business; if it isn't profitable, it should fold. The legal priorities are getting really weird these days; if an individual is in financial trouble, he can't use bankruptcy to get out of debt, but if a big company needs money they are allowed to walk all over everyone. Private businesses can even pick the property they like and throw you off of it...

On the other hand, pretty soon everything imaginable will be sold to real estate developers; there won't be any kind of towns or communities left. I guess it's up to the government(s) to maintain a certain amount of beautiful spaces so there is some sense of live-ability.

I had always thought that if Disneyland fell on hard times and went begging to the government to bail them out, I would be against that. But now I'm not so sure; it's probably important to the morale of Americans to have Disneyland remain open. Six Flags is a pretty major landmark in that area, even if you don't go inside, it always makes me smile when I pass it on the freeway. But how much do we want to be forced to pay for it, without them asking whether we want to pay for it? I don't know.

[figment1986]

I have no idea is Busch Entertainment is even interested in another park... rumors say they probably have looked into it.. but rumors in this case might be wishful thinking... but imagine if they do.. the current company is different form the older company, look at what they have been building now.... (Ignore shows..) Themed areas with attractions.. They can turn a park around.. (I'm just waiting to see what they do with Griffon at Williamsburg)

[Jspider]

sometimes I wonder if we'll see a purchaser come from out of nowere and continue to run the park

I bring this up because I was thinking randomly just yesterday about how so many people have always wanted Nintendo to have it's own theme park

it'd be hillarious if Nintendo bought it (highly unlikly but just being random) Loony Toons area would become Pokemon themed and then they could build a Princes Peaches castle as an entryway/hotel (like TDS has a hotel over it's entrance)

I can dream can't I :P

I'm still hoping that Magic Mountain remains as a theme park and I hope somebody can buy the place and turn it around

it's alot of land and they have some good coasters

[Neon Cactus]

Just read the article and it echoes a lot of my thoughts on it. I would assume the government would have more interest in keeping Magic Mountain open than turned into more housing. It's a major employer for the area.

I'd like to see it stay open for purely selfish reasons also, since it was my first job and a great coaster park. Clearly it needs to be cleaned up a bit, but I've always had fun there and never felt unsafe.

I hope they figure something out to keep it open.

[pineapplewhipaddict]

I really doubt it will be kept open. Valencia is all about real estate, now...homes being built and sold down there and close by is a major racking-in of cash flow. Wherever you go now, if there's an empty lot, it's bought out and homes are stuck there. I don't like it myself, but there's such a high demand for housing in Southern California...they're packing the housing in. I don't think Six Flags can be helped from this fate.

I'd personally love to see Disney buy out this area and build their talked-about water park there, instead of Long Beach.

[Alchimedes]

The City of Santa Clara did a decent enough job until Paramount came and took over. And when I say this, not as is if Paramount was bad, but the city ran it fine. It would be a terrible pity if MM closed. I have memories of Marriott's, and I would never want the park to close for more real estate.

[tloolgb]

Originally Posted by figment1986

I have no idea is Busch Entertainment is even interested in another park... )

I don't think Busch will find it entertaining enough to hold thier buying ideas once they look into it. Busch Gardens parks are known as the cleanest in the world, held to high standards, and with two parks they can do that very well. Why do they want a 3rd one where so much is against them (teens, years of grime, aura of distaster around the park). Especially since Busch can run great parks with only 4 coasters (BGE) and for what the Valencia land must cost it might be more worth it for Busch to start anew...

...that is if they even want to go back out to the LA area again.

[Jspider]

Originally Posted by tloolgb

I don't think Busch will find it entertaining enough to hold thier buying ideas once they look into it. Busch Gardens parks are known as the cleanest in the world, held to high standards, and with two parks they can do that very well. Why do they want a 3rd one where so much is against them (teens, years of grime, aura of distaster around the park). Especially since Busch can run great parks with only 4 coasters (BGE) and for what the Valencia land must cost it might be more worth it for Busch to start anew...

...that is if they even want to go back out to the LA area again.

ummm are you forgetting that Busch owns and runs all the Seaworld adventure parks also :P

seriously go down to Seaworld and you'll see signs everywere of Busch congradulating themselves for being the last major american brewery or something of that sort

if Busch bought Magic Mountain they wouldn't neccessarily need to bring it under the Busch gardens name immediatly they could always slowly bring it in after first raising it to their higher standards

there are places in Six flags were you can see how nice gardens and other things used to be around it but they're all long since gone, busch might be able to restore alot of that over time maybe sacrifice a few of the coasters in order to raise quality for the rest of the park

[Darkbeer]

Heck, it would be full circle, SeaWorld was the original partner with the Newhall Land Company in designing and building the park.....

[tloolgb]

Originally Posted by Jspider

ummm are you forgetting that Busch owns and runs all the Seaworld adventure parks also :P

seriously go down to Seaworld and you'll see signs everywere of Busch congradulating themselves for being the last major american brewery or something of that sort

No, not forgetting that. I said two Busch Gardens not two Busch parks. Difference.

[flynnibus]

Originally Posted by SoCAFalcon

For a city or a county to let the park be sold to developers would but crazy, They would be loosing millions of dollars in sales tax and any tourist money, they would only get a percent property tax that the state gives them,

?? The county collects property tax.. not the state. The county/city also get a cut of other taxes generated in their districts.

plus the city or county would have to provide water, sewer, trash, fire, roads, police etc. to the new community, the property tax don't cover half of that.

Uhh.. those services are all paid for by the residents. Water/Sewer you pay to the utility. Trash you pay to your trash company. Roads? Its one property.. and you can make the developer proffer up improvement funds.

What do they get? Income generating residents who need to spend their money. A tax base.. and more draw for businesses.. who in turn pay taxes, etc and the cycle continues.