Just before parks shut down around the world and Six Flags' management took defensive action to protect the company against any hostile takeover, the company's largest theme park filed plans for what had been scheduled to be its new roller coaster for 2021.
Six Flags Magic Mountain filed plans with Los Angeles County for a new roller coaster that appears to be an RMC Raptor, based upon the proposed track layout. If built, this would be the second RMC single-rail coaster in California, following Cedar Fair park California Great America's Railblazer. Six Flags has two other Raptors in its portfolio: the original Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio and the Jersey Devil coaster now under construction at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
The proposed coaster would use the old station building from the dismantled Green Lantern: First Flight, the Intamin ZacSpin that Magic Mountain opened in 2011 and closed in 2017. The new coaster would straddle the site of the often-closed Tidal Wave shoot-the-chutes ride, running between the Riddler's Revenge and Batman The Ride coasters.
The question at this point is, will Six Flags go ahead with these plans? The company just announced big cuts to its 2020 capital spending, deferring or eliminating at least $40-50 million of projects scheduled for this year. Even though the plans filed with LA County labeled the proposed coaster "2021," the fact that Six Flags filed these plans already this year suggests that it might have been looking to start construction in 2020, potentially placing this project among those now deferred or eliminated.
Given the uncertainty over the industry's immediate future right now, it's likely that all plans for any new attractions in 2021 and beyond are back on the table at pretty much every theme park company around the world. Parks will need to see when the can reopen and what their revenue and financial situation look like after that before committing millions of dollars to new projects.
But it's nice to see what Six Flags was thinking for Magic Mountain, which needed a new coaster to replace Green Lantern as it looks to maintain its world record for coaster count. An RMC Raptor is a designed that was pitched by many as a lower-budget alternative for smaller parks, but pretty much anything fits in Six Flags Magic Mountain's diverse coaster portfolio.
Finally, a reminder that for when the parks do reopen, our travel partner has discounted tickets to Six Flags Magic Mountain as well as dozens of other parks and attractions around the country.
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I've been saying it elsewhere...this looks like it would be a great coaster, but I don't think it's really the sort of coaster SFMM needs right now. In a park with several "best in class" rides, a Raptor just doesn't stand out. Obviously I'm happy with my my local Six Flags getting a very good ride if it indeed happens, but it's not something I personally would have chosen for the park.
I agree with AJ as I would usually make my yearly trip to Magic Mountain from the Bay Area. AJ is there any reason why Magic Mountain has yet to get another Hyper Coaster such as Fury 325 or an Orion type of coaster? I know there are height restrictions in NO CAL but does is this the only thing preventing a coaster like that coming to CA? It seems they have the space for one.
Madvaz, it's primarily down to cost. Six Flags has a chainwide budget for new capital expenditures of around $70 million to spread to 15 parks, and a ride like Fury is a $30+ million investment. That's not an amount Six Flags can afford to spend on a single park. Most of the major coasters Six Flags is willing to buy right now are in the $10-15 million range, and given the primarily local audience of the parks they tend to do just as well at bringing in guests as a bigger coaster would.
@AJ. That make sense and here I am thinking it has to do with CA height restrictions. I know CA finally getting their first dive coaster ( I rode Shiekra the season it was opened), so you can imagine the look I got from family and friends describing it. It would be nice to see one of those Hyper Coaster finally make their way over to CA.
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Man I’m so glad its not that Mack Power splash coaster that was rumored to come to SFMM, and I’m not sure if building it instead of a raptor would be much cheaper so I have hopes they’ll go through with it. I’m kinda sad though because now I know that a T-tex won’t be coming to the park