With Wild Oasis' recent announcement, I have to wonder- why did Scorpion close? For those of you that don't know, Wild Oasis is Busch Gardens' most recent land opening in 2025 and will basically be a reskin of Jungala, an older land that closed with the park in 2020 and never reopened. It was a kids' area with large netted pathways, a kids' launched drop tower, and a splash pad. Wild Oasis is going to give the closed area a refurbishment,which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but raises two points of concern.
My first point is that when Scorpion (the park's classic Schwartzkopf looper) closed, everybody thought that it and the surrounding area would be immediately developed, especially because the announcement of it's closure was so rushed. The area around the former Scorpion was surrounded by abandoned carnival stands, so adding a new coaster or a few smaller flat rides was to be expected. However, Busch Gardens' 2025 announcement was for Wild Oasis in a completely different area of the park, making fans wonder what Scorpion was even closed for.
The second point I'd like to make is the direction that the Busch Gardens (and SeaWorld) parks are going on. The last major development in the two Florida parks were family coasters, and BG Williamsburg also opened one pretty recently. With the announcement of Wild Oasis, it makes me wonder why United Parks is putting investments into smaller rides and lands when Epic Universe's opening date draws nearer. If the Florida Busch Gardens and SeaWorld parks want to survive, they should be building innovative E-ticket attractions and not kiddie rides, especially when these parks are coaster parks and can't rely on IP and theming.
It's no secret that United Parks is planning on running these parks into the ground and I'm not exactly surprised at this announcement, but it makes me wonder what the long term plan, if any, is.
I suppose you have to ask the question of whether Theme Parks should be concentrating on coasters alone or on a range of attractions that will appeal to everyone.
This is just a follow up but I just noticed that SeaWorld just announced an unnamed Arctic Flying Theater, further proving my point of United Parks building less and less coasters and thrills. I do actually think this is a more positive improvement but my point stands.