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Planned But Never Built: Updated Entrance Plaza


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I remember at the time (while I was working at the park) there was serious talk of changing the park's name, which would have most likely been tied in with this massive remodeling of the park's entrance. While there was never an official name mentioned, I have to wonder from the theme elements if they were thinking of a name like "Six Flags Worlds of Adventure" or something. It wouldn't surprise me if the name was developed and trademarked, then brought out of mothballs 10+ years later with Six Flags Ohio.

 

While looking at the plans all I could picture was the 1964-65 New York Worlds Fair theme center:

Unisphere_within_water_fountains.jpg

 

That would have been fitting with the same Skyride in the background!

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Constructing the main entrance to look like the NY World's Fair and than advertising it would have sparked a lot of interest from the NYC markets.

 

Changing the park name to Six Flags World of Adventure would have made sense. It would have allowed them to relate the park to Great "Adventure" while promoting it as something "new and improved". I always thought that name didn't quite fit the Ohio property, and that it might have been a left over from another proposed park. Maybe we can find out when the name "Six Flags Worlds of Adventure" was registered!

 

It was interesting to see the name pop up in Great Adventure's advertising when Hurricane Harbor was built.

 

gallery_2_43_24678.jpg

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I remember at the time (while I was working at the park) there was serious talk of changing the park's name, which would have most likely been tied in with this massive remodeling of the park's entrance. While there was never an official name mentioned, I have to wonder from the theme elements if they were thinking of a name like "Six Flags Worlds of Adventure" or something. It wouldn't surprise me if the name was developed and trademarked, then brought out of mothballs 10+ years later with Six Flags Ohio.

 

While looking at the plans all I could picture was the 1964-65 New York Worlds Fair theme center:

Unisphere_within_water_fountains.jpg

 

That would have been fitting with the same Skyride in the background!

 

PERFECT IDEA! It would be very unique to the park and not be a "copy"(there are multiple types of Main street type lands in other parks)

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Constructing the main entrance to look like the NY World's Fair and than advertising it would have sparked a lot of interest from the NYC markets.

 

Changing the park name to Six Flags World of Adventure would have made sense. It would have allowed them to relate the park to Great "Adventure" while promoting it as something "new and improved". I always thought that name didn't quite fit the Ohio property, and that it might have been a left over from another proposed park. Maybe we can find out when the name "Six Flags Worlds of Adventure" was registered!

 

It was interesting to see the name pop up in Great Adventure's advertising when Hurricane Harbor was built.

 

gallery_2_43_24678.jpg

 

I wonder if they were using that because Islands of Adventure had recently opened.

The Bugs Bunny Land style arch would have made SFGAdv's front entrance look similar to SFMM's front entrance since they have a arch.

Edited by The Master
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I've always thought the entire property should have been renamed "World's of Adventure". Six Flags Great Adventure is the name of the theme park, but also the name of the property...it would make more sense to give an overarching name to the entire property like SFWOA, and then just refer to the theme park as Six Flags Great Adventure.

 

I wonder if the globe was being relocated from Houston:

globe.jpg

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Ever since putting this spotlight together the other day, all I can think about is how AMAZING this could have been. It's funny, I hadn't seen these plans but I had thought of something very similar to this (when I mentally redesigned parts of the park), but the change I would have made would have been creating a tunnel/underpass where the two buildings are set, allowing an access road to transport people and materials backstage instead of through the park. It would have been similar to Great America's central access road.

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I'm kinda glad that never happened ( I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone ). I like the idea of walking into the forrest to get to the front gate, instead of having it in the parking lot ( although they destroyed that by cutting all the trees down anyway ).

 

I also would hate to see the fountain taken out, it's an original park icon. The globe thing has been overdone, and it's Universal's icon and they have one at their front gate. I would hate to see GA copying other park's icons.

 

The arch kinda bothers me too. If it looked anything like the Bugs Bunny Land arch. Something that big made of piping and flags would look strange, like a cheap attempt at a large structure.

 

Just my opinion.

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I'm actually kind of glad the park didn't waste resources on a new entrance gate. Great Adventure needs to add staffing to the entrance gate more than anything, and figure out a better way to cycle guests through those turnstiles more efficiently. I can't speak for the 2009 season, but the previous year was aggravating to just enter the park. It was an unruly mess past the ticket booths, and not every gate was open despite being it being a mid-June Saturday. My mother made me chuckle when she said, "This would never happen at Universal". Even with our Season Passes, it took almost 40 minutes to enter the park. On a July weekend at IOA, we entered the gate in under 5 minutes, with the included security check time factored and a park near full capacity.

 

Thank God Six Flags is bankrupt in one case. A few years ago, Six Flags's CTO discussed implementing RFID tagging into the ticketing and Season Pass system. He went on to say (paraphrased), "I'm sure ticket takers aren't looking at every photograph on Season Passes, or reading tickets to make sure they're valid". RFID Systems are ridiculously expensive to install, and can easily be read and forged. If the current system has a hard time processing paper tickets and photo-ID passes (one day the attendant claimed the system crashed, slowing down the entrance on an unrelated visit), what's going to happen when the system crashes and the RFID "cloud" can't be energized? Why invest that kind of capital, on a product you virtually give away for free?

 

P.S. I know this "spotlight" regards a 1989 project. I just want to emphasize resources need to be spent on staffing and refurbishment first. Big projects can come later. This issue has been outstanding since the 1980s.

Edited by Thunderbolt
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I actually find Six Flags to be faster than Universal and IOA when it comes to entering.IOA and Universal use use those finger scanner things,and when the tickets don't match a finger print or an error happens or something it takes awhile and is annoying.So I give Six Flags the upperhand on that one,but that's pretty much the only thing at Six Flags I prefer over Universal.

Edited by Mike13
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I always have trouble with those dumb finger scanners at Universal, and they are gross too with all those people that get scanned. Grime must build up on those scanners very quickly and probably need constant cleaning.

 

In the past GAdv has had front gate problems with the lines backing up into the ticket booth line and leaving no place for season pass holders to get in line. I really wish they would bring back a SP only front gate line like they used tohave for years.

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I was just playing with one of FlyinPhilsPhotos of the entrance plaza and with my limited Photoshop skills I did an overlay of the plan with what exists at the park to give a better idea of how it all would have fit:

 

Overlay.png

 

Maybe Phil can get a direct overhead shot to match it up better on his next flight! ;)

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I need a better match photo along with improved Photoshop skills...basically I was trying to show how the one fountain was taking over the footprint of the Emporium/Main Street Market, the big world map would have replaced the current ticket booths, the other fountains would have taken up the Outer Mall, and the "new" gate and ticket booths would have been right up to the edge of the parking lot, taking over the tram circle and planter area.

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