Hey, at least we're not mourning the demolition of Frontier City in favor of upscale housing on the site, which could've been a real possiblity, since it is east Edmond.

We could be like Houston.....their theme park was closed, and now they don't have one.

Well it depends...Was their best ride in Houston similar to this seemingly lame Duck Hunt robbery one? :cool18:

Hopefully it's on to bigger and better after this one

Hopefully it's on to bigger and better after this one

Obviously.

I am glad to see their focused on drawing the locals to the park because the locals are what make the park a success.

I am glad to see their focused on drawing the locals to the park because the locals are what make the park a success.

Absolutely. I love the tone of this management company. They clearly seem to know what it's going to take.

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I used to be pretty good at the Duck Hunt game, and remember the dog that would pop up and laugh at you when you would miss the ducks? When I was in junior high and couldn't drive four hours to Arlington or one hour to FC , I would play that Duck Hunt game.

Drove by last week on I-40 and noticed they had painted the giant 3 slides on the far east end of the property as well as some other slides had received a fresh coat of paint. The place looked freshly mowed and cleaned up quite a bit. Hopefully the improvements will continue. I should specify, this was at White Water and I'm talking about the three giant green slides plus the 2 pluges that come off of it. They re-painted each slide a different color instead of all being green and the pluges being tan. They weren't finished and you could tell a huge difference between the new paint, and the sun faded paint.

Last weekend Frontier City was packed, or at least I've never seen so many cars there. Parking was overflowing out onto empty lots north of the park.

Hey, at least we're not mourning the demolition of Frontier City in favor of upscale housing on the site, which could've been a real possiblity, since it is east Edmond.

We could be like Houston.....their theme park was closed, and now they don't have one.

Yupp. And it gets boring.

Last weekend Frontier City was packed, or at least I've never seen so many cars there. Parking was overflowing out onto empty lots north of the park.

On Friday there had to be at least 50 school buses in the parking lot. The gates where closed to the public and every ride on the I-35 side was running and had a long line. My guess is they must have had a field trip day for the schools.

I was reading that the new owners of frontier city is planning on expanding the park with addtional 40 more acres they own next to the existing park.. The park is planning on adding 3 new roller costers and a dozen or so new attractions.. Does anybody know any more information on this... I looked at web sites and they do metnion expanding but doesnt go any further

That's news to me. But they'd be smart to do something before FC drifts it's mediocrity into nothingness.

Where did you read this? It's exactly what they need to do to compete.

Honestly I don't see why Oklahoma City doesn't have a better park than they do. It seems that there are lots of very nice parks in places that are a fraction of the size of OKC.

Valdosta, GA (pop. 45,000)
Wild Adventures (http://www.wildadventures.net)

Bowling Green, KY (pop. 53,000)
Beech Bend Amusement Park Drag Racing Stock Car Racing Oval Track Racing Water Park Splash Lagoon Campgrounds Amusement Park (http://www.beechbend.com)

Pigeon Forge, TN (pop. 5,784)
Dolly Parton's Great Smoky Mountain family Amusement Park (http://www.dollywood.com)

Chattanooga, TN (metro pop. 461,565)
Welcome To Lake Winnepesaukah Amusement Park! (http://www.lakewinnie.com)

Wisconsin Dells, WI (pop. 2,418)
Welcome To Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park, Wisconsin Dells (http://www.mtolympusthemepark.com)

Sandusky, OH (pop. 27,844)
Cedar Point Amusement Park, The Roller Coaster Capital of the World! (http://www.cedarpoint.com)

Those are all tourist destinations, not unlike Branson.

Those are all tourist destinations, not unlike Branson.

And your point is? Why can't OKC be a tourist destination? Pigeon Forge might be a tourist destination but I can assure you Sandusky, Bowling Green, and Valdosta ARE NOT tourist destinations.

Sandusky is but the other 2 I will agree. Alot of summer homes in Sandusky area.

Bowling Green and Valdosta being exceptions, those parks were built because those smaller cities were major regional destinations. If you look at simlar size cities to us (a much better comparison) such as Little Rock, Tulsa, Wichita, Albuquerque, Austin, etc.--we have them all beat with Frontier City. It's not a BAD theme park, just a smaller one.

Not trying to be a snob here, but if we are looking at moving our city into the next tier, we should not be comparing ourselves to Tulsa, Wichita or Little Rock, all of which are smaller than we are. Austin maybe. Albuqurque I admit I don't know much about.

I don't really care about amusement parks but regardless of what we are talking about, if we are comparing ourselves with other cities, let's see about Kansas City, Charlotte, Cincinatti, etc. That's where we want to be sooner rather than later.

I never said we should be happy where we are. Frontier City needs to be bigger, so it IS on par with Kansas City's Worlds of Fun or San Antonio's Fiesta Texas.

I just get tired of people acting like Frontier City's barely a step above Celebration Station.

JBrown,
Agreed. We were making the same point in different ways I think, which is, just because what OKC has is better than Wichita, Tulsa, etc. does not mean it is where it should be based on where we are now or where we want to be in 10-20 years.

I think that some in OKC (not talking about you or anyone on this forum) settle for just being better than Wichita, Tulsa, etc. and don't think about the fact that in 20 years OKC will be the size of present-day KC and that is where we should be looking, when deciding what to build, how high to reach, etc.

Sandusky is but the other 2 I will agree. Alot of summer homes in Sandusky area.

Yes, but does the population swell to 1.2 million? Yes some people spend their summers in the Sandusky area, probably not as many as there use to be, but many people come to Sandusky for the amusement park. It is a tourist attraction of regional draw because of the rides that are there. I hope this is what Frontier City can be come.

Based on the traffic and long lines at Cedar Point in Sandusky.. it seemed like 1.2 million people!

True, the only reason I would ever have gone to Sandusky, Ohio is due to the best roller coasters in the world... and yes, we dropped a pretty penny there and I would have much rather spent it here instead of driving 30 hours!

OKC could use some tourist money from amusement parks.

Cedar Fair planned out Cedar Point perfectly. Sandusky was picked and was successful because it drew on the already popular tourist traffic to Ohio's "North Coast" and it was essentially equal distance between Toledo and Cleveland. It had little competition with Geauga Lake and Sea World in Aurora (Cleveland) and Kings Island in Cincinnati. Sea World closed, sold to Six Flags that bought GL. Six Flags sold to Cedar Fair...and now they are downsizing it again.

Essentially no park has had the ability to compete against Cedar Point up there. That area of Ohio is very strong with toursim though. A lot of summer homes and boaters from Maumee Bay east to the Islands (including every drinkers dream - Put-In-Bay) to just about Cleveland.

Can OKC put something like this together? Absolutely...but they need some unique and creative. Not something stereotypical and run down.

I just get tired of people acting like Frontier City's barely a step above Celebration Station.

Great news about a possible expansion. Its about time that the park (which has so much potential) actually start showing it. People consider it only a step above Celebration Station because they get tired of paying the high price to go year after year and never seeing any new serious rides or attractions. If it wasn't for the concerts, I don't understand why anybody would even go as stagnant as it is and a real Six Flags park being so close. Its about time OKC get a serious theme park. I don't see why OKC couldn't be a regional destination for all of Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, southern Kansas, and Ft. Smith/West Arkansas.

In all actuality, I would like to see a combined Frontier City/White Water park at a more convenient location in the city. It needs to be in a place more accessible by people visiting OKC for other reasons (conventions, etc) to increase tourist attendance as well as local attendance.

Agreed. There is no reason why the two parks should be seperated. Would love to see both parks moved to a new location with a couple hundred of acres to play with. However, that's probably not very realistic. The southern banks of the Oklahoma River would be nice, because then they could introduce other attractions like ski shows and boat shows. Not to mention, the stadium seating that would go in would be great for the other events along the river. Then every evening during the summer, they can have a laser/light/fireworks show along the river to entertain both sides of the river.

i read it on the frontier city thrills website. called Frontier City Thrills.com l "An Official Fan Site" l (http://www.frontiercitythrills.com) in there forum section.. I also just typed randon stuff on yahoo about frontier city ad things popped up

Okay so far, the new owners of frontier city is planning and in stages of dismantling, the nightmare roller coaster, the twister, the thing that lifts and drops really fast, almost all of the cheap carnival rides, and they are expanding into a new area, rumors are that we will have at least 3 state of the art rides that will debute next year and put frontier city on the map for a a top notch amusement park.. I cant wait to see if comes to light.

I went to Busch Gardens in Virginia a few weekends ago and road the Griffin. Wow! I hope they add some state of the art coasters to Frontier City.

The Griffin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8RiTck6EEM)

Ha, .. I scoff at the Griffin .. lol - just kidding.. it looks awesome.

But, check out the Dragster! whoooo baby!!

"Riders begin their epic journey aboard this whopping 42-story screamer by securing themselves into ultra-cool trains that resemble top fuel dragsters. The train then moves into a "starting line" position, where it is launched forward, reaching 120 mph in approximately four seconds. The train then zooms straight up the 420-foot-tall hill on track that rotates 90 degrees, crests the coaster's apex and then free falls back to Earth. But hold on, this isn't your father's roller coaster. As the train races 400 feet to the ground, the track twists an unbelievable 270 degrees – what a rush! Riders then return to the station to begin regaling their friends with stories of the greatest ride of their lives."

I don't know these people.. but these are the best absolute rides I've ever been on in my life.. and I'll ride anything, anywhere! A big thumbs up!

YouTube - Top Thrill Dragster - Cedar Point (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgyfCvMsEk4)

Ha,ha, people rode the Millenium at Dusk and came off with bugs plastered all over them!

We rode it anyway, cuz a little bug splatter won't deter us! I started off with my arms held up and within 5 seconds, my arms were covered with bug guts..yuk.. so I spent the rest of the ride with my sweatshirt pulled up over my face!

Thankfully, I had ridden it a few times already!

YouTube - Millenium Force @ Cedar Point, OH - On Ride POV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1yBKJtfxY)

Okay so far, the new owners of frontier city is planning and in stages of dismantling, the nightmare roller coaster, the twister, the thing that lifts and drops really fast, almost all of the cheap carnival rides, and they are expanding into a new area, rumors are that we will have at least 3 state of the art rides that will debute next year and put frontier city on the map for a a top notch amusement park.. I cant wait to see if comes to light.

Where are you getting this information? Exactly which rides are being dismantled?

the web site frontier city thrills.. is where most of the info comes from...on the forum

Cedar Point is definitely a park that is hard to beat...would be great if Frontier City could be half as good.

That would actually entice me to visit the park. I haven't been since '99 or 2000...

This is mostly a rumor, actually. I work in theme park development and catch wind on most large scale projects. While Frontier City is expanding next year, it will be in the form of improvements to current offerings and maybe a few ride additions for the 50th anniversary. PARC Management, who bought the park last year from Six Flags, is focused on improving parking opportunities as well as theme elements. The major focus will be converting the park from thrill-based into a family park atmosphere.

With that said, I am skeptical about PARC's plans for improvement. I really just do not see Frontier City pulling out of its current predicament. The park was designed very poorly and would need complete overhauls in certain areas just to make them viable for new attractions. Second, Six Flags ran most of the structures and rides into the ground. The reason that the Tomahawk was removed was that the gearbox shattered spraying oil and metal everywhere. It was too expensive to repair, however this problem could have been avoided with foreseeing maintenance.

As for Frontier City's comparison to the parks mentioned, the big difference is that most of those parks that aren't "tourist destinations" are very much en route to big tourist destinations. Wild Adventures in GA is advertised heavily on the route from Atlanta to Orlando, FL. Frontier City relies heavily on a local base, however, most of the locals have been burned by Six Flags' heavy handed approach to theme park operation such as high prices and dirty facilities.

Currently, Frontier City barely makes more than is spent on keeping the small collection of rides and buildings functionable. Before Frontier City can truly expand, PARC needs to win back the city and get some revenue in. Things they need to focus on are; improving the "theme," changing the variety and increasing the value of food offerings, creating more of a family atmosphere, and removing current inconveniences such as parking problems and accessibility issues. The park also needs to offer some fresh new attractions. Working against Frontier City, however, is the view in the theme park industry that OKC is a very small city incapable of supporting a bigger amusement venture, and that Frontier City is a very sub-par park.

Frontier City has potential, but it has a long way to go. I personally believe that the park can't flourish unless a local company buys it who understands the potential the OKC community holds and the desperation for entertainment here. Only then can the OKC market truly be served accordingly.

You are probably right.

But at least PARC is investing more than Six Flags was. It's a step in the right direction.

True! Six Flags spent the bare minimum, and rides that were slated to go here were used for the other, more prominent parks. Such a shame.

PARC has been improving things. Improvement, however big or small, is something Frontier City hasn't seen in a while.

I thought that new Quick Draw attraction was a step in the right direction.

I was just there Friday night. I saw the process of taking down the Nightmare, that will never run again. They already own all of that land around the park, no need to purchase more. Only about 20% of what they now own is being used. I saw the plans for at least 2 rides planned for opening next year. I don't know if I think it will be ready for next year, but they definitely grabbed my attention!! They will improve the park just on their own merit...but there are a ton of things in the works for that place. Now, if they just follow through with all the plans I saw THEN I would be impressed.

Sounds to me like the only way to reinvent Frontier City is to rename it in conjunction with its "refocus" away from a thrill park. If you have to fix its image, then go whole hog and ditch the name and the baggage associated with it.

As far as Six Flags operation goes, I will say that in our trip to SFOT this year, we were *very* pleasantly surprised to see a much cleaner park, better food offerings, and that some attention to details like paint and general fixup had been paid. Nothing overwhelming or shocking, but good enough to notice, as though someone actually cared about the place.

I'm sorry to say, but until they make MAJOR changes to that place FC, will be seen as an overblown Celebration Station.

Moving away from a thrill-based park is probably the right step. As much as I like thrill parks, FC's location isn't prime enough to attract the kind of rides first-tier thrill parks get. Plus OKC really isn't a top tourist destination yet, and thats not necissarily a bad thing as many top tourist destinations (i.e. Vegas, Branson) are not the ideal places to live. As was said, FC needs to win back the locals, then start focus on bringing in tourism. The West End district in Dallas is a great example of why local support is necissary.

Agreed. Frontier City, as currently built will never be able to be a tourist friendly park due to the limitations in its design. It's better marketed as a local entertainment venue.

I may be horribly wrong, but I also doubt they'll expand into the lot west of them. They'd have to find some way of getting people across Coltrane Rd. and get the backside of the property re-zoned for an amusement. There's also the problem with the fact that there are multiple neighborhoods building right up to the property line. Building back there now would certainly draw fire about noise violations and such.

> the park can't flourish unless a local company buys it who understands
> the potential the OKC community holds and the desperation for
> entertainment here.

Not that it really matters, but isn't that what the park had for several years prior to the most recent ownership change?

Not exactly. Premiere Parks Inc. was a shadow of its former self when they switched over to Six Flags in the 90's. When the mass acquisition of all the Six Flags parks started taking place, Frontier City was pretty much forgotten. The corporate offices were right next door yet non of the execs ever set foot there. Even if they did, they didn't care anymore.

Before Premiere decided to expand, Frontier City was in much better shape than it is now. They used to serve BBQ and good food in the parks, the rides were maintained, prices were lower.

As time moved on, you had people running the company who didn't understand why people go to theme parks in the first place.

Back in the early '90s the park tried to exand to their undeveloped property and the homeowners in the area stopped the plan. That is probably why the Diamond Back was built in the parking lot and not across the street on the vacant land. The problem with their current location is how far North it is. Sort of like "Out of sight, out of mind". In the 5 years I lived in OKC the only advertising I ever remember were on Coke cans and a billboard on I-35 south of Purcell. They should move somewhere near downtown. However, their current land is only good for housing or maybe a large truckstop. With the downtown in the hosing market they probably wouldn't get much for the land.

I agree that their current spot kind of sucks.

I agree that the location sucks. Frontier City would have a hard time moving due to the costs. A thrill park is a wonderful thing for a tourist attraction. I love the concept of Frontier City! When I was a child, I loved to go there. If part of a MAPS project was to move White Water and Frontier City closer to Bricktown or the river, and help to improve. I would be all for it!! It would be a huge boost to our city's image to have a cool water/thrill park setting!

There is no reason why the park can't be very successful on the edge of town. If they improve it and expand it, then people will come.

Worlds of Fun is on the edge of KC.
Six Flags is outside of Dallas and Fort Worth
Fiesta Texas is on the edge of San Antonio
Disney World was way out in the boonies when it was built.

If the park is nice, location is not that big of a deal. Hotels and retail will be attracted to the area. It's much more practical to expand and improve the current location.

I agree jbrown, and I'm not in favor of the city and our tax money supporting a private company to move their operations to a better location unless it's a major Fortune 500 company from out of state wanting to relocate a large HQ with lots of high paying jobs to downtown OKC. Even then I don't think that is a MAPS sort of project but rather some sort of fund. MAPS should be public works projects unless we create some sort of economic development fund as one of the projects.

I would love to see Frontier City be remodeled and rebranded. I know its probably a pipe dream, but it truly could be a good regional park for the south Kansas, west Texas, eastern Arkansas area. I think a Universal Studios (Island of Adventure type park would help. It would take some investment, but you could see the area maybe turn into less of an eyesore when you come from I-44 and I-35.

Then you could actually have the adventure district (Zoo, Omniplex, Remington, theme and water park, Tinseltown, along with the Hotel amenities to match).

metro and jbrown, you both have a good point. I stand corrected!!

Just read it and wow, it's so wrong in so many ways. The factual errors are way out of line.

Posting a link... Frontier City - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_City)

Steve, feel free to tell us what is wrong.

I know that Frontier City wasn't opened in response to the loss of Delmar Gardens and Springlake because Delmar had closed in 1910 or so, long before Frontier City, and Springlake and Wedgewood were still going strong in 1958.
Also, I doubt Premier Parks even existed when Frontier City opened.

The beauty of Wikipedia, you can modify incorrect information.

Yes, that's true. But the beauty of this thread is it can serve as a reminder that Wikipedia is not a good source of information.

so bringing up frontier city, did you here parc management is having problems. the magic springs park they own, most of there rides have been shut down this season, plus they replaced a high up personal person, I went to frontier city 2 weeks ago, and it looked okay, even though the log ride was shut down and i did notice they dont have many log flumes that are in working condition left, they closed the inidan river canoe ride in tiny timber town, all it has is plants and weeds grown into the ride which i thought was wierd, why leave a ride to where people can see weeds and plants taking over it, seems like a creepy closed park area. well im talking the kids again since we bought season passes for one day price, cant beat that..

Sorry to hear that. It would be a shame to lose Oklahoma's last amusement park. One has to wonder about the future for amusement parks across the country. Coney Island, I saw, is about to lose Dreamland.
One final weekend: Back rent still unpaid, Coney Island's Dreamland reopens for Labor Day (http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/09/04/2009-09-04_not_a_dream_coney_park_open_again.html)

Frontier City was cobbled together from things left over from the Semi-centennial Fair. I THINK it was all bought by a local plastic surgeon (Dr Dunn, maybe) and moved to it's present location. I might should have read it before I posted this, but I didn't. I'll do it now.

Frontier City was cobbled together from things left over from the Semi-centennial Fair. I THINK it was all bought by a local plastic surgeon (Dr Dunn, maybe) and moved to it's present location. I might should have read it before I posted this, but I didn't. I'll do it now.

Well, they got the 1958 part and State Fair parts right.

Well, they got the 1958 part and State Fair parts right.
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Somewhere in my piles of "Junk" I have some pictures of the Semi-Centennial...1957....And, yes there was an old frontier town in the pictures. The two guys who owned the candy shop at Frontier City were in the '57 centennial and they moved to the present location with the move. They have both since passed away....The move was to get the rest of the fairgrounds available to build the State Fairgrounds as we know it today. The race track put the demise to the old Taft Stadium Stock Car Races....those were fun and exciting......

General, dig those babies up for the next southside meeting. In exchange, I'll bring gallys of the Skirvin book for you folks to get an advance look of (that's the reason I've been absent the past couple of months).