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[Swoosh]

In about 5 years time, the current location of M&C will be moved north west to that huge plot of land that was cleared for staging of Outlaw Run.  The vacated area will become the next plot of land that the park will expand into and will eventually create a loop connecting the new Stagecoach area to Grand Expo with a possible "crossing" at the "elbow" of Geyser Gulch.

No themes or rides were discussed just that this is the current long term plans for the park.

[oldsdcer]

M&C?

[oldsdcer]

Never mind , I just hit me. Maintenance and Construction.

[Junior]

Well, I can tell you from the perspective of a former employee, this is major...a new area of the park opening up on property that has to be completely redeveloped because of existing structures. The lake will be surrounded completely with development. Go all the way back to the beginning of my Flickr site and see how undeveloped the land around the lake was in the 1970s. http://www.flickr.com/photos/juniordugan    (Lake Silver, 78 & RDDB Wharf, 83)
I knew the park was having trouble finding usable land (something not on a hillside) and this really confirms it. Some of this redeveloped property will sit right alongside Highway 76. That disheartens me quite a bit. However, they did a pretty good job with GE, and although it is too close to the Indian Point/Hwy 76 junction for my liking, most of the time you cannot see the outside world from inside the park. Hmm, will they relocate some of the railroad tracks to open up the property on the backside of the lake so a new diving bell could be put in? Wishful thinking, I guess.

[shavethewhales]

We'll see what happens. The new Outlaw area is nicely set up for expansion in that direction, but I wouldn't expect them to move into the maintenance area for another 10-15 years at the soonest. There's still a lot of space to put stuff within the current area of the park, including the waterboggin area and the area behind GE. There's also various things they could redevelop, such as what is left of the landing and the treehouse. I don't see them going through the pain of moving all of that maintenance stuff until they really need too. The park is already pretty big to get around, you don't want it to get so big that you can't get across it easily.

[Swoosh]

The M&C is what will be moved within 5 years, not the expansion starting.  Sorry, my wording was a little off.

[Wildfire]

Actually the park is currently pretty small in comparison to many other parks.  We went to Cedar Point a couple years ago.  I would guess you could fit 3 SDC's inside Cedar Point.

[chittlins]

It only makes sense to add a loop to ease congestion along the streets. The city has grown that it needs a bypass. Makes my wish of a working roundhouse for the train much more appealing and actually fit into the late 1800s theme perfectly. You hide in plain site.

I'd lile to see a themed area where the rides interact as the share the same footprint and keeps the park from sprawl.

[Colby Cox]

Actually the park is currently pretty small in comparison to many other parks.  We went to Cedar Point a couple years ago.  I would guess you could fit 3 SDC's inside Cedar Point.

If we are talking land, Cedar Point is not all that huge. It seems pretty big because of how they utilize what they have, but I don't think I would say that there would be room for 3 SDCs inside it.

[Joy]

If you wanna talk fitting SDC into other parks, Disney is probably the best for comparison.

Silver Dollar City is 61 acres currently. You can fit 8.4 SDCs into Animal Kingdom (510 acres) [the safari alone covers 110 acres]; 4.9 into Epcot (300 acres); 2.2 into Hollywood Studios (135 acres); 1.9 into Magic Kingdom (117 acres); and 1.4 into Disneyland (85 acres). <NOTE: The acreages are what I found online, so I don't know exactly how accurate they are.>

Disney has the advantage of flat land. SDC is on top of a mountain, as well as a huge cave. So considering that, I'm really rather impressed at how far SDC has been able to expand thus far. As for Cedar Point, being that it's on a peninsula (right?), they have to cram a whole lot of stuff into a tiny area. SDC, on the other hand, has breathing room, which I like, because it means it doesn't feel overrun with stuff.

[Swoosh]

You're short changing SDC.  You should be counting the cave footprint into that figure as it is an attraction at the park.

[Wildfire]

Cedar point is 364 acres so actually you could fit about 6 sdc's into it.

[shavethewhales]

I don't think comparing acreages really works with what I was referring too earlier. When I was talking about size, I was speaking in terms of how much area guests can cover in a days visit and how much effort it takes to maintain. SDC may not have as much pathway footage to go one circuit around the park as I was thinking earlier, but it is more difficult to get around than most parks, and it probably takes more effort to take care of due to all the trees and the fact that it's more difficult to move equipment around. Just some thoughts as to why you won't see them rushing to add another loop around the backside of the park anytime soon.

Anyway though, I drove past CC today and the S&S tower and SuperSplash are still sitting pretty. I'm going to go ahead and place my bets now that those two rides come over to SDC in either 2014 or 15 as a pair probably as an expansion off the backside of GE. My second guess is an adventure mountain style concept, perhaps with some sort of derivation such as the water effects that they have at Stone Mountain.

[KBCraig]

"But iffen' you's to take it an roll it out flat, Law almighty only knows how much land you'd have!"

(Sorry if that's not exact, it's been 30 years since I recited Preachin' Bill for a college speech course.)

[Pudgy Jones]

I think the important thing to remember here is that size doesn't matter!