Frontier City

[shavethewhales]

Wonder if Frontier City will be sold since Six Flags did not own Frontier city and just managed it. Maybe the owners of frontier city will possibly sell to them? Frontier city is the odd one out of all the six flags properties since Six Flags did not own Frontier City.

Why would the owners sell it? Nothing changes operationally for them. I mean, the place is still an undersized, outdated, and outclassed facility compared to just about any other park serving a major market, but it is what it is. They will continue to use it to sell passes to the larger parks. If you buy a SF membership at FC, it is good at all their parks. I bought one and visited Magic Mountain north of LA earlier this year and got my money's worth there.

Very doubtful that FC will benefit in any way from this new arrangement. The status quo will be maintained until the Vinita park starts to eat into it and they are forced to actually invest in the place. Every ride at FC is old and tired. I enjoy the classics as much as anyone and can appreciate the Schwartzkopf masterpiece that is the Silver Bullet, but I doubt many other people care about the historic interest of a 1980's era german carnival coaster.

The last time FC got a major new ride was several years ago. It was actually a used ride taken from another park that replaced a ride at FC that was arguably much better. The new ride barely works and isn't that popular on the rare occasions when it is open.

A major new ride would do wonders for the park, but then they would have to follow it with other large investments. From SF's perspective, better to invest into the Texas park where they actually own the property (sort of, there's a complicated ownership setup there too, but it's much more in SF's favor)

[Brett]

[Laramie]

Remembered what my cousins in the DFW area said when they visited OKC some years ago. We took them to Frontier City and told them that it was no Six Flags.

They enjoyed FC more than they did Six Flags because they didn't have to wait in long lines for 30 minutes for a particular ride. I was surprised by their response; it suddenly occurred to me that was the same complaint my relatives here had when they went to Six Flags.

[chssooner]

They filed bankruptcy in 2009; what does this have to do with 2023?

[jn1780]

They filed bankruptcy in 2009; what does this have to do with 2023?

Look past the title. Bright Sun films makes great videos about the history of companies and buildings. The merger happened because Six Flags was still struggling even after the bankruptcy and this allowed Cedar Point to move in.

[Zorba]

Why would the owners sell it? Nothing changes operationally for them. I mean, the place is still an undersized, outdated, and outclassed facility compared to just about any other park serving a major market, but it is what it is. They will continue to use it to sell passes to the larger parks. If you buy a SF membership at FC, it is good at all their parks. I bought one and visited Magic Mountain north of LA earlier this year and got my money's worth there.

Very doubtful that FC will benefit in any way from this new arrangement. The status quo will be maintained until the Vinita park starts to eat into it and they are forced to actually invest in the place. Every ride at FC is old and tired. I enjoy the classics as much as anyone and can appreciate the Schwartzkopf masterpiece that is the Silver Bullet, but I doubt many other people care about the historic interest of a 1980's era german carnival coaster.

The last time FC got a major new ride was several years ago. It was actually a used ride taken from another park that replaced a ride at FC that was arguably much better. The new ride barely works and isn't that popular on the rare occasions when it is open.

A major new ride would do wonders for the park, but then they would have to follow it with other large investments. From SF's perspective, better to invest into the Texas park where they actually own the property (sort of, there's a complicated ownership setup there too, but it's much more in SF's favor)

The basic pass only includes Six Flags Over Texas now, you have to get the Diamond pass to get all parks. FC has the worst example of every type they operate, except for the Silver Bullet and the Wildcat. Neither of which are amazing examples, but not horrible. That being said, I still get a lot of value out of my passes every year and my biggest complaint is the anti-lean ride operations. I can only take so much just insanely slow ride ops before I have to call it a day.

[bison34]

So is this park done trying to add new rides or attractions?

A lot theme parks have been adding new rides and coasters to try to make their parks better, but I guess Sis Flags (or whoever owns them now) just feels this park has no room for improvement. It's sad. I went to Kings Dominion near Richmond, VA this summer, and I went even disgrace that park by trying to compare the two. I wish OKC could get a couple new coasters for Frontier City. Would really liven up the park.

White Water Bay is a very good water park, but Frontier City leaves more to be desired.

[bombermwc]

One thing I'll give Frontier City over Six Flags over Texas is the state of the maintenance of the buildings/park in general. FC is well maintained. The building paint is kept up, the structures dont look like they are rotting, etc. The last few times I've been at SFoT, the place looked like it was facing a LOT of deferred maintenance. Peeling paint, rotting wood on buildings, etc. Lots of trash around. In general, it was looking old and worn.

FC really should focus more on the thrill ride market. There's not really a lot of land to add much in the terms of roller coasters, but they could pack in more of those thrill rides (if they maintain them). To me, one of the problems on that front is that they just move around old rides from other parks to FC and never buy new. So the ride maintenance aspect becomes a problem. It's the only park in the state and it just really isn't performing like it is.

[Snowman]

The land directly west of FC is farmland, so tripling the size could be relatively easily, and if wanted to go the whole mile west there are only a couple dozen more buildings/properties on all that land. Which they already have a large portion used for storing either things they have purchased to install later, or have decommissioned. So may own the land already or the owner has been willing to come to decades long terms with them. They could go the route of having portion of the road closed, build segments of rides over the road, and/or pedestrian bridges over road.

[Bellaboo]

^^^
EPR Parks owns 53.74 acres west of Frontier City. EPR Parks is listed as Frontier City on 56.94 acres.

So yes over 100 acres owned by FC.

[shavethewhales]

At one point they looked at building in the "boneyard" across the street, but the nearby homeowners WILL fight any expansion of FC outside their current footprint.

There's still not much willpower to expand the park anyway. There's tons they COULD do within the current footprint to revive the park. Problem is that there is not much competition for things to do in the OKC metro, plus they don't want to cannibalize from SFOT attendance too much. They see OKC as being part of the Dallas market, so there's not much ROI from investment towards growing FC.

Plus, the ownership is weird. SF doesn't outright own FC (or SFOT, actually). Six Flags is just a management firm for FC, while the actual property is held in some sort of real estate REIT/portfolio holding company.

Regardless, I agree FC is past due for ANYTHING NEW. All ownership and investors involved would benefit greatly from growing FC and adding something worthwhile to drive attendance back up. Since the park is so slow most of the year, they could double attendance easily with a new coaster. I've been watching FC for decades now, and this current drought of new rides is one of the worst I've ever seen. At least in the old SF days, the park would switch out a ride or two occasionally and trade with other SF parks.

They've been investing in general park maintenance for years now. This year they apparently added an enclosed waiting area for Silver Bullet, a ride that has been at the park for decades. Getting tired of seeing them do nothing but stack up paint layers on old rides.

[Jake]

Just gotta wait for the Chickasaws to add some rides near OKANA eventually. Only half-joking.

[bamarsha]

Just gotta wait for the Chickasaws to add some rides near OKANA eventually. Only half-joking.

Isn't there supposed to be a massive park in Vinita? Or did that die? Not quite the metro, but still close enough to take away the destination of SF.

[Jake]

Isn't there supposed to be a massive park in Vinita? Or did that die? Not quite the metro, but still close enough to take away the destination of SF.

I think there's a better chance of Legends Tower happening than the park in Vinita. The Chickasaws at least have a track record of actually building cool, nice things.

[caaokc]

I’ve wanted them to build ONE badass roller coaster for years. It’s a shame they haven’t

[irishtate]

I'm sure there's some post about it in this thread, but don't really care to go search........ Has there ever been any talk about re-opening he old Nightmare Mine ride? Seems like a waste of space that could either be torn down to make room for something else or re-opened.

[jn1780]

I'm sure there's some post about it in this thread, but don't really care to go search........ Has there ever been any talk about re-opening he old Nightmare Mine ride? Seems like a waste of space that could either be torn down to make room for something else or re-opened.

They use that building for fright fest now. There hasn't been a coaster inside it for years.

[Jeepnokc]

They use that building for fright fest now. There hasn't been a coaster inside it for years.

In 1984/1985, it was Rock Mountain. Dance club basically. I was the deejay there for part of the time. I also ran the fireworks show every day.

[scottk]

They use that building for fright fest now. There hasn't been a coaster inside it for years.

One can reminisce....I think this is from the very early 90's?

[PhiAlpha]

I'm sure there's some post about it in this thread, but don't really care to go search........ Has there ever been any talk about re-opening he old Nightmare Mine ride? Seems like a waste of space that could either be torn down to make room for something else or re-opened.

The nightmare is disassembled in the Frontier City bone yard. According to a guy I know who was fairly high up at frontier city for a long time…it was in such terrible shape that it wasn’t salvageable and it was a good thing that it was retired lol.

[jn1780]

The nightmare is disassembled in the Frontier City bone yard. According to a guy I know who was fairly high up at frontier city for a long time…it was in such terrible shape that it wasn’t salvageable and it was a good thing that it was retired lol.

Speaking of the bone yard, That place is pilling up with old rides. I think the rate of rides ending up there is faster than the rate of new rides in the actual park.

They did recently put new siding on the building, Probably because the old siding was rotting out.

[ChowRunner]

The nightmare is disassembled in the Frontier City bone yard. According to a guy I know who was fairly high up at frontier city for a long time…it was in such terrible shape that it wasn’t salvageable and it was a good thing that it was retired lol.

If I remember correctly the Nightmare roller coaster was just the Orange Blossom Special which was relocated from the front of the park. I think the Orange Blossom Special was in the location of the kids area before it was moved and the building built around it.

[shavethewhales]

^Your memory is correct. RCDB has some photos of it when it was outside: https://rcdb.com/157.htm

They did replace the hardware with a similar coaster at one point, but apparently that caused even more issues, leading to it's closure.

I've always thought it was surprising they didn't try to re-open it. The type of coaster the building was built for is still widely available on used markets. They could have also put something else in there. Better yet, they could take the building down and really open up the space for something else.

[OKC B-Man]

^Your memory is correct. RCDB has some photos of it when it was outside: https://rcdb.com/157.htm

They did replace the hardware with a similar coaster at one point, but apparently that caused even more issues, leading to it's closure.

I've always thought it was surprising they didn't try to re-open it. The type of coaster the building was built for is still widely available on used markets. They could have also put something else in there. Better yet, they could take the building down and really open up the space for something else.

Thanks for posting that link. Definitely interesting looking through & seeing the history of some of the rides. I had no idea it was that common for rides to me moved from park to park like that. I never would have thought it was possible/economical to relocate wooden coasters like the wildcat either.