Mitch Rily wonders… “How much does a roller coaster cost?”
In keeping with the theme of Value, I set my inquisitive sights once again on answering a question that has been bouncing around my amused head for some time now:
How much does a roller coaster cost?
Naturally, it makes sense that every ride will come to a different cost. Taking into account all of the variables that go into creating these amazing rides, and the ever-increasing quest to build the longest/ fastest/highest/most intense ride ever, it’s no wonder that the costs of designing and building roller coasters are continuing to increase.
Every ride begins its journey as a picture in someone’s mind, a sketch on paper, and nowadays as a model on a computer. Roller coaster design companies the world over are consistently finding new ways to launch, twist, turn, invert, plummet, and stop today’s thrill riders. Whether revamping an old project or creating a brand-new style of ride, designers need to be able to turn concepts into computations and ideas into reality before anything is ever built. New designs can take up to two or three years before they make their way from virtual reality to the real world.
Once the logistics of the ride design are finalized, a physical home must be found where the ride itself will be built. Some parks are able to buy new land on which to expand, but more often than not, currently used land needs to be redesigned. Whether an old parking lot becomes a new play area or once-loved ride is retired to make way for the newest attraction, demolition and preparation takes time, energy, and of course more money.
Then there is the actual construction of the ride, assembling huge amounts of steel (and sometimes wood) into a massive spectacle of aerodynamics. Thousands upon thousands of work hours are put into shaping materials, transporting them to the ride’s site, and making sure each part is right where it is supposed to be. Every piece fitted, every bolt tightened, and every inch inspected, the ride still needs to be tested, and tested, and tested.
And we cannot forget the cost it takes to put on the finishing touches of a ride.
For some rides, it takes a company like Baynum Painting, from Covington, KY, to top off a ride with a specialized coat of colorful paint, making the ride stand out in the park’s skyline and appear new for years to come. Other rides are accessorized to the gears with backdrops, entertaining queue lines, and animatronic hosts. Themes based off the newest blockbuster movies, popular television characters, or contributing corporate sponsors are wrapped around rides, making the impending wait all part of the adventure (and the advertising).
By this time, the park takes over. Advertising and merchandising work hard to entice guests to the park’s newest addition. From buttons to billboards, cups to commercials, the new ride is plastered upon the surrounding environment. Meanwhile, the park’s maintenance crew and specialized consultants inspect and re-inspect the ride to ensure that every rider and every car is as safe and secure as can be. Where they can be reached easily, the tracks are walked by technicians, who check for anything loose, cracked, spilled, or stressed. When the tracks rise too high for easy reach, technicians often use high power binoculars from the ground below to scrutinize the ride inch by inch.
So how much does all of this cost? On average, a new roller coaster is bound to cost in the range of $2.5 to $15 million. When it was first launched at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in 1975, Space Mountain was the most expensive roller coaster ever built, with an estimated cost of $20 million dollars. Even adjusting for inflation, that is more money than the total cost of Disneyland at its induction in 1955.
For a park like Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH, such an investment is a fairly hefty high price to pay when you consider that the park is home to 16 roller coasters, the most in any park in the world. Two of these rides cost $25 million each. In 2000, the Millennium Force “giga-coaster” was not only the tallest and fastest roller coaster on the planet, it was also the most expensive roller coaster construction of its time. The Top Thrill Dragster “strata-coaster” was added to the park in 2003, standing over 420 feet tall and reaching speeds of up to 120 mph. Both rides were designed by Intamin AG of Wollerau, Switzerland, and the $50 million investment is well worth it.
But that is nothing compared to the Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima SpaLand in Mie, Japan. Named for its debut year and the year of the Dragon, this “giga-coaster” beat out the Millennium Force for height, speed, and cost, at 318 ft, 95 mph, and somewhere between $51-$55 million, respectively.* Designed by D.H. Morgan Manufacturing (now know as Chance Morgan), Steel Dragon 2000 may be the most expensive roller coaster to date, but there is no doubt that this too will pass someday.
On a side note, when they are not interested in spending that much money on contracting and building a new roller coaster, parks have been known to buy used roller coasters from each other and transplant them. As new and more expensive roller coasters are coming into parks these days, pushing older coasters out of the way, it’s very possible you might find those old coasters popping up somewhere else.
If you’ve got a question that you’d like answered, send it to [email protected].
* The records for height and speed are now held by Kingda Ka, located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. Although this Intamin “rocket coaster” stands at 456 ft with a top speed of 128 mph, its cost equaled that of the Millennium Force and the Top Thrill Dragster at a mere $25 million.
