Ninety-six seconds.
That’s how long passengers will be held captive on 689 metres of adrenaline-boosting coaster track—at speeds approaching 90 kilometres an hour—when Montreal’s La Ronde amusement park debuts its latest thrill ride this month.
It’s not so much that La Ronde executives wanted a new attraction for the park right now—they needed one. The importance of the as-yet-unnamed roller coaster is underscored by the fact that construction continued on the $10-million ride even though La Ronde’s U.S. parent company—Six Flags—has been operating under bankruptcy protection for most of the last year. “You don’t build, people stop coming,” says theme park consultant Dennis Speigel. “This is a mature industry, and we’ve reached maximum penetration in most markets. You can’t afford to lose people.”
In the United States, more than 340 million people visited theme parks last year, more than double the attendance numbers for the four major professional sports leagues in North America. But even as the turnstiles spun, many amusement parks were spiralling into debt, the result of aggressive expansion and consolidation plans that were under way when the recession hit. When Six Flags filed for Chapter 11, it was $2 billion (U.S.) in debt. “Theme parks remain wildly popular but also wildly expensive to run,” says Robert Niles, who manages Themeparkinsider.com. As such, parks like La Ronde and Toronto’s Canada’s Wonderland (the latter is owned by Ohio’s Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. but may have a new owner soon) have found some unlikely saviours: private equity investors, who are among the few players with pockets deep enough to cover the debt while new attractions are being rolled out.
It’s unclear yet who will own La Ronde when the summer crowds begin to arrive, but whoever it is will be looking to squeeze the balance sheets. About 50% of the industry’s revenues come from admission fees, with the remainder from concession stands and the attractions that patrons pay extra to visit.
La Ronde hopes its upstart coaster, along with a new Terminator X-themed laser tag attraction, will draw 3% more people to the park.
Anyway you look at it, La Ronde will have a white-knuckle ride.
