Almost twenty years ago an early dot org poster wrote an editorial entitled "Parks Change Get Over it", as pretty much an alternative view to the then "Save It All" view point many, including my (much younger) self were preaching at the time. Keep in mind the year was 1999, in the previous five years we had lost an almost incalculable number of Worlds of Fun attractions, so the collective call to "save what was left" wasn't without a logical reasoning. It prompted good discussion, but unfortunately did very little to change anything at the park itself, except get us pretty much disliked by every member of the permanent staff there.
Twenty years have passed, I have gotten older, it's a question mark on the wiser part. There are one or two out there that are still around from those early years, and many more that continue to believe like I once did, that everything should be saved, that every removal that the park has made over the last two decades has been bad. On the flip side, there are those that are just wanting to know when the next big coaster is going to be added and could give less then a hoot about some forty-five year old derelict attraction.
I have learned a few things along the way. One is that never ever discount history and what has happened in the past. The old saying "Those that don't know their own history are doomed to repeat it" is never more true than now. Case in point, the removal of the Zambezi Zinger vs the Cotton Blossom. People miss them both, at least those who were alive to remember them. However, I would argue that removal of the Zinger has had a much more profound impact on the park then Cotton Blossom ever has. People literally will not even visit the park because it was removed. Cotton Blossom, while a sad loss, is at least vaguely understandable. What can we take away from that? People are okay with SOME change, but if you try to change everything that they love they will rebel.
So what is my point? My point is that there needs to be a middle ground. We all need to strive for that, and this is true both with Worlds of Fun and the world at large. With Worlds of Fun it is important for ALL of us to realize that not everything can be saved, to realize that Worlds of Fun is a business first and foremost, but also to not forget what is truly important to what IS Worlds of Fun, what makes it our home park.
For current discussion I am going to use a few recent debatable points. Octopus and Finnish Fling are a good starting point. Fling is currently rumored to be removed at the end of this season. Octopus was removed three years ago. There was virtually no outcry over Octopus but there is over Fling. Why? They are both original rides correct? Let's look at the facts, first, there is the reasoning that it is like Zinger and Express, you could argue that the park is removing to many rides to close together. But I think its far more than that. You could also argue that Octopus is much more of a common ride than Fling is, Monster rides are much more prolific in current years then Rotors right? True, but I also don't think that's it either. I personally think that the reason Fling is causing such an uproar is for the same reason that Zinger did. The intangibles. Look at Zinger, it wasn't the world's tallest, fastest anything, there was nothing special about it that you can put on a spreadsheet. Yet, I dare anyone to argue that its removal did not have and does still not have negative repercussions on the park.
There are some things that will not fit on a balance sheet, and it is specifically THOSE things that should at least give one pause before one makes ANY decision. That's true with life too, you know. Those intangibles are usually the most important aspects of our lives when we look back on them, those things that WON'T fit on a balance or excel spreadsheet I mean.
Let's talk about another attraction at Worlds of Fun, Timberwolf. I bet the folks at Worlds of Fun and even possibly in Ohio are grappling with that wooden terror. It must look terrible on the budget, of that I am sure. What do you do? I for one do not think they would even spend one second in thought as to what anyone of us thinks about it. I would however hope that they would consider how keeping it or removing it will effect the bottom line, and not just this year, but five, ten years from now too. I would hope they would remember Zinger. Now, with that being said I do think the status quo is unsustainable. So where is the middle ground? Keep it? Termite dump it? It is with Timberwolf that I think that the middle ground is as plain as the sun in the sky (except for yesterday...) RMC it. Already two Dinn/Summers coasters have been RMC'd, Mean Streak and Texas Giant, take the old wooden track, and change it to steel rail, take an old coaster and make it new again, and I would even keep the name. The park gets two for the price of one, saves face, and gets a new coaster to promote, because that is exactly what it would be.
Seems easy right? If there is one thing I have learned over the last twenty years its that there is never an easy answer. I doubt when they were discussing removing Zinger that it was a quick, oh yep were removing it end of discussion, I am sure there was someone somewhere in that administrative building arguing to save it. Sometimes, as the crazy Worlds of Fun fan that I am, I dream of winning the big powerball and buying the park and what I would do with if I did. But then I stop to think that all of those decisions everyone critiques aren’t easy decisions, and no matter what I would do, or what decisions I would make someone would think it was the wrong one. So I get that. Removing rides are not easy decisions.
With that being said, sometimes its important to NOT do the quick easy fix, or what is right today on the balance sheet. Remember history, don't repeat it, and for goodness sake please remember who is lining those balance sheets because its not people from Ohio. It’s people, REAL people from Kansas City... well and two from Orlando too.
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