Southland Giants Will Vie With New Multimillion-Dollar Rides : Cheap Thrills Not Enough, Theme Parks Say

Knott’s Berry Farm is planning on soaking its patrons next year.

Literally.

Wild Water Wilderness--a $10-million, 3.5-acre themed area featuring a fast-paced and very wet water rapids ride--will be announced today. The project--the most expensive in Knott’s history--will open next Memorial Day in time to compete with new multimillion-dollar attractions at three other major Southern California amusement parks.

Cheap thrills, in an era of intensive competition for recreation dollars, are apparently a thing of the past. Amusement parks are adding increasingly costly rides and attractions in an effort to keep their customers coming back.

Universal Studios plans to shake more profits from patrons in a simulated eight-point earthquake. Magic Mountain hopes dollars will drop out of consumer pockets from a roller coaster suspended from an overhead track. And Disneyland expects to charm cash from riders with a Splash Mountain flume that features animated characters from one of its hit movies.

These planned rides, along with a series of new attractions that opened within the last year at the same parks, reflect a belief that exciting--if not downright frightening--innovations can add anywhere from 2% to 10% to a park’s attendance during a ride’s first year, amusement industry experts said.

Disneyland, for example, expects record attendance this year of nearly 13 million people after spending a reported $47 million to add Captain Eo in September, 1986, and Star Tours last January. The opening of Splash Mountain in January, 1989, should draw “several hundred thousand people easily” to the Anaheim park’s gates, spokesman Bob Roth said.

The attendance increases are significant in a market that, while probably the most competitive and sophisticated in the leisure-time industry, has seen limited growth in recent years.

About 235 million Americans last year visited the nation’s 400 amusement parks, according to the International Assn. of Amusement Parks & Attractions. Of those, about 27 million visited Southern California’s five major attractions and spent close to $900 million, estimated Joseph Schillaci, president of Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia.

Although combined attendance figures have not changed appreciably for several years, competition for patrons has increased dramatically as parks have sought to maintain--and even increase--their share of customers.

The newest contender for more of that business, Knott’s Wild Water Wilderness, will start off innocently enough with a “ranger”-led stroll through a lush forest inhabited by pheasant and quail and along a river stocked with striped bass and catfish.

Patrons will careen down a simulated white-water rapids--hitting boulders, waterfalls, geysers, and cliffs. As many as 1,500 guests per hour will take the six-minute trip down the river, bouncing, tossing, spinning and getting soaked.

“There’s nonstop motion and turbulence,” said Terry E. Van Gorder, Knott’s president and chief operating officer. “And people just love getting drenched.”

Experience at other amusement parks suggests that Van Gorder is right. At least a dozen similar rides have been added at parks across the United States. In fact, Knott’s six-passenger rubber rafts are very similar to a raft ride at Magic Mountain in Valencia.

Key to Strategy

“It’s the best family ride that’s ever been invented in our business for the medium-sized park,” said Larry B. Cochran, president of Six Flags Corp. in Arlington, Tex.--which has river raft rides in all seven of its parks.

That family appeal is the key to Knott’s strategy.

To grab a bigger slice of amusement park customers, Knott’s has been trying to attract a wider audience. A river-raft ride will appeal to very young children and senior citizens--unlike stomach-churning roller coasters and other instruments of terror.

Moreover, the location of Wild Water Wilderness, in the southwest corner of Knott’s, should serve as a magnet for patrons. “We’ll have strategic key elements in all four corners of the park to pull people across,” Van Gorder said. On their way to the big thrills, patrons must wander past food stands, shops and other rides.

Wild Water Wilderness will have a retail hook, too. Raincoats, towels and ponchos will be sold right outside its entrance.

The strategy is similar to one used successfully as part of the $7 million Kingdom of the Dinosaurs attraction at Knott’s. Since it opened in May, the ride into the past has not only boosted attendance by 10%, but also generated $1 million in sales of stuffed plush dinosaurs, dinosaur soap, dinosaur maps and dinosaur dishes. That, in turn, has helped boost total sales of in-park merchandise by 25% to 27% this year.

And more people visiting the 23 prehistoric beasts also means more food sales, which this year jumped 25%.

Kingdom of the Dinosaurs--a jungle ride featuring a herd of 23 beasts that hiss, snap, chomp and roar as visitors pass by--was a big factor in making 1987 the most profitable year in the park’s 47-year history, Van Gorder said.

The park outperformed its attendance projections by more than 200,000 visitors this year. “We know we took market share away from everyone this summer,” he said.

As a result, Knott’s estimates that 10% more patrons passed through its turnstiles this year. That would bring 1987 park attendance to around 4 million--about where it stood before stiffer competition caused the park’s popularity to slide in the late 1970s.

The dinosaurs have proven so successful, in fact, that Knott’s management has reversed its long-term strategy.

Instead of proceeding with a $5-million revamping of an outdoor retail center adjacent to the park, management has decided that Knott’s should stick to what it knows best: amusement rides.

“We want to maximize the park first,” Van Gorder said in an interview.

If Wild Water Wilderness is as popular as Van Gorder hopes, Knott’s turnstiles will click 2% to 3% more next year. The ride will mark the halfway mark for Knott’s 10-year, $100-million master plan, which was masterminded by Van Gorder after he joined Knott’s six years ago.

Not Far Behind

Wild Water Wilderness will be Knott’s last major expansion, bringing the park to 37 acres. A new, unannounced themed area is slated for 1991 on the existing grounds.

The other parks are not far behind. Disneyland plans to make a big splash of its own with Splash Mountain, a flume ride featuring characters from Disney’s “Song of the South” movie and a 50-foot drop at the end. Universal Studios will have patrons shimmying and shaking on a tram ride when Earthquake opens next year.

And Magic Mountain in Valencia will unleash Ninja--a menacing white-knuckler that will swing thrill-seekers from side to side in suspended roller-coaster cars zipping through trees at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour.

Which of these expensive new attractions will thrill and chill the greatest number of riders--and keep them coming back for more--remains to be seen. But Van Gorder insists that Knott’s has an advantage.

“There’s an earthy texture to Knott’s. . . . Disney is artificial in a way. Knott’s is farm-like. It’s just more natural. It’s just real.”

In a splashy sort of way.

THE TOP 10 U.S. AMUSEMENT PARKS

Ranking is based in 1986 attendance

Visitors Attraction Location in millions Disney World, Orlando, Fla. 22.4 Epcot Center Disneyland Anaheim 12.0 Sea World (Fla.) Orlando, Fla. 4.0 Universal Studios Tour Universal City 3.8 Knott’s Berry Farm Buena Park 3.5 Sea World (Calif.) San Diego 3.1 Six Flags Great Adventure Jackson, N.J. 2.9 The Dark Continent Tampa, Fla. 2.7 of Busch Gardens Kings Island Kings Island, Ohio 2.8 Six Flags Magic Mountain Valencia 2.8

Source: Amusement Business