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I have a few theories. None of its concrete evidence and is pure conjecture on my part. - The failure of the Swarm. We all know that Merlin were initially disappointed by the Swarms first season. Many reasons were cited (which I'm sure those in the know can find) but essentially, I think this lack of interest in the new coaster dented confidence in what the park could do. Baring in mind, 2011 saw one of the biggest years the park had and that was on the back of Storm Surge. Cheaper investment bought massive returns. - The next Big thing. I think Thorpe has fallen into the trap that Six Flags did. By appealing solely to the thrill sector you severely limit interest. Teenagers want the next big thing and in the 00s, Thorpe easily provided that thrill. Hit after hit, success after success. Coasters galore, several years where we got two flat rides. That investment was unsustainable. Now though, rides like Colossus, Inferno, Tidal Wave, Detonator & Vortex are old hat. They are unmaintained and look their age. Thorpe were unable to drum up interest with The Swarm, Derren Brown opened late and was pretty weak and the less said about the reliance on IP to drive interest the better. The park has a real image problem which leads me to.. - Branding. Thorpe has a huge perception problem. Is it a thrill park, is it a park for up for it families, do we make X a family coaster then two years later refurbish it for adults. Do we change our market to families and then close the biggest family ride we've got (Loggers Leap). Do we advertise our park in our 2019 advert or have an image of goats, donuts and a hotel room. None of this evokes excitement. It smacks of a park throwing anything, everything at the wall to see what sticks and new general managers are not given enough time to evolve/change the place before they are fired and a new one bought in. - The Smiler crash. Ironically, four years later, I feel like the crash has had this weird echoing effect at Thorpe compared to the other two main Merlin parks. It's almost like it never recovered from the initial drop in attendance whilst Alton has recovered well thanks to Wicker Man and Chessington never saw the drop because of its family audience. You could say the lack of investment is really hurting Thorpe right now but then there seems to be no steps to change this. - The park itself. It's fallen a long way since the hefty days of 2006. If they are to recover the place they need to sort out their offering. Having abandoned flat rides and log flumes standing doesn't help, neither does the game stalls or the lack of maintenance and paint jobs on their rollercoasters. The basics need to be sorted for Thorpe to recover. Chessington was exactly the same way in the 00's but that now feels like the strongest Merlin park IMO. If Thorpe can sort this then they might be able to get back to the top.

Hello guys, Been a regular of the forums for many years but decided to ask the burning question this morning... just what has happened to the park? Thorpe Park a few years ago was arguably the best park in the UK, it was going from strength to strength in terms of investments and then all of sudden we get IACGMOOH, bouncezilla, the year of the walking dead etc They even pulled The Big Top off the Fright Nights bill which from what I understand was a favourite by many I assume 2020 will be just as poor in regards to the parks line up / investments as no planning has been put through for a coaster or even a new flat ride... Any information regarding the reasons behind the decline of the park would be interesting to hear...

Well DBGT is simply the biggest white elephant project in the history of the theme park industry. The ride will most likely be gone before it hits 10 years of operation whereas a solid coaster would have cost roughly the same (if not less) and guaranteed longevity. There lies the problem with a lot of the parks recent investments. They do NOT have a long term future. Tatty short term investment after tatty short term investment aswell as white elephant projects like DBGT as opposed to solid ride investments are a major reason behind why Thorpe are in the doldrums as much as they are right now.

Alton Towers: STARGAZING PODS, WICKERMAN, DUNGEONS, CUCKOO RE-THEME? Chessington: CAROUSEL, TIGER ROCK + AREA RE-THEME, GRUFFALO, ROTB, NEW ROADS Legoland: CASTLE HOTEL, NINJAGO RIDE, MAD HOUSE, JUNIOR COASTER Thorpe Park: used flats, twd:tr, half day operational dbgt:rotd

Yeah, the one with the Gerstlauer trains.... 10 Million probably sounds more like a accurate price but that is still way cheaper than most coasters. Especially on the scale of New Texas Giant. Sure it was a conversation, though conversations aren't much cheaper than ground up RMC's anyway.. RMCing a coaster literally just re-uses parts of the layout and parts of the supports.. Outlaw Run (groundup RMC woodie) cost 10 million too.. (according to RCDB)..

Nice! Maybe the loud lift hills are unique to the hyper RMCs! Blimey! No wonder Thorpe aren't getting one, it is probably too noisy to get planning permission haha.

Merlin should just sell Thorpe if they don't want to invest in it any more. Preferably while it still has value before they completely run it into the ground.

Wickerman in the back row is just plain amazing. I really hope Merlin decide to build more GCI's

There is a difference between being innovative and being plain stupid. If the park worked with some of the smaller and cheaper manufacturers such as Chance, S&S, RMC, they could get great rides for peanuts. What Thorpe and Merlin have been doing recently isn't innovative or interesting, its a waste of money.

Couldn't agree more Joshua. You hit it on the head. Thorpe need to become a "good amusement park" rather than a theme park. Hit the Six Flags / Cedar Point model and you're onto a winner by being different enough to Chessie and LEGOLAND just around the corner..

Is that not what they did with the ghost train?

You also have an element of Global business strategy going into play here too: 1. Nick V will only invest if it guarantees 25% return on investment (as quoted in an interview he did last year). This was not the case for the last 2 big investments, so there is an element of caution with Thorpe. Once bitten, twice shy, third time reluctant. 2. The strategy of Merlin is to add bedrooms and hotels. This is where the majority of the investment is happening because this is where the majority of the capital comes from - the rest of the investments are kept low key where possible and the parks hardware investment has ground to pretty much a halt except for special circumstances. It is safe business / revenue generation. Thorpe is limited to what it can do in this space because of location, available space etc. Compare Thorpe Shark to the hotels at Windsor, Chessie, Alton and Gardaland. As a result, you have a park that seems neglected because they aren't getting huge investments for hardware (other than DBGT) nor are they getting the hotel investments either. 3. IP's generally work. When you get the right one. Peppa Pig in Europe has been a massive hit at the parks and the World Of Play new openings are huge around the world. Sadly, Merlin will never have the UK license so has to settle for other IPs instead. Saw broke the mould and was a success. But piggy-packing on some-ones IP is less risky than creating your own - arguably the lazy, "quick win" option, but if it works you're a fool to not exploit it. 4. Thorpe seem to be becoming the Six Flags option of Merlin. They are going down the generic, lifeless, soul-less way of running a park as an experiment because they have no specialism - Chessie with the zoo; LEGOLAND with, well, Lego; Alton and the Towers, Gardaland being a bit like Disney, Heide Park being beautiful etc, Thorpe has no anchor and while it is so close to Chessie and LEGOLAND I don't think it ever will have one. But, they are now stuck in a rutt of this way of working doesn't work andno-one is willing to give up the capital to break them out of the cycle because of the toxic "you must perform financially in order to be given money to better yourself" attitudes that modern businesses have. I'd love it if Merlin were to just say "Right, here's £100 million. Sweep the entire park and make it great again within a year so that we can ramp up profits next year" but it won't happen. 5. I have a feeling that the new "owners" will not be as restrictive as playing shareholder politics. They are going to be investing for the strength of their business and not the perceptions and opinions of shareholders. This may see an uplift in investments in due course. But, don't hold your breath 6. MMM seem to play it safe with investments and there are no rumblings anywhere of us working with pioneering or elite ride manufacturers. And while Merlin have the perception that rollercoasters bring in more people than flat rides (which are by large more expensive to maintain for the investment they require in comparison), we will always see the decline in flats and ramping up of coasters of varying quality. Maybe if they were more daring, we would see an RMC spring up at Thorpe.. or a Mack Launcher at Chessie.

You legend! I cannot believe you've got it in one!

Reload by Sebastian Ingrosso & Tommy Trash? I think they played the instrumental version in X.

Heh, nice. Looks like it could be a copy of Baa Express at Europa? Nice little investment for the park tbh. Good to see, and I'm sure it'll work for the park. Woo.

The £18 million is going on theming to fully enclose the ride so it feels like you are actually at THORPE PARK whilst at Flamingo Land. Evidently, it isn't cheap to recreate the back of XNWO's building and fill a pit with concrete, whilst also creating a lake with a SBNO old boat-come-scare maze.

Funny that - it's almost as if they haven't put a new coaster in for 7 years!

Most of what the posts above me say are completely correct, but here's my two cents. Lack of image: Thorpe Park don't really have a clear audience now. At least back in 2012 they had a image and demographic, in 2019 the park have huge indentity problems and the new adverts and tagline just scream soul-less. Chessington and Alton are not perfect but any means but they have a clear brand and a clear target market which they both do well, Thorpe is the vanilla ice cream of branding at Merlin. IP's that make no sense: Gruffalo and Room On The Broom make somewhat sense. IAC, Angry Birds, and TWD literally felt just Thorpe picked their IP from a hat. Do we need a half arsed area themed to Angry Birds? HELL NO. IAC was another example of Thorpe slapping on a short IP for a short lived attraction that shouldn't exist in the first place. Poor small, medium, and large investments: For small investments we got IAC and a bunch of reused unthemed little flat rides which were placed pretty blindly.. For medium investments we got Angry Birds and the best family ride re-themed to something scary, for large we got DBGT- one of the biggest fails in Merlin history. 13 million spent on something that probably won't make it past ten years of operation. Neglected parts of the park: Colossus's new concrete look, Swarm's wood in the station, Inferno's queueline, Old Town in general, Slammer.. The park feels so neglected, Thorpe right now feels like the unwanted redhead child of Merlin.. I think what Mark said was very true in that Chessington was in a similar position for a while, things can change. Though I feel like Thorpe really has a dug itself a hole and its going to take some hefty investments and clean up to recover what is the current mess of the park. I think replacing Loggers and Slammer with new attractions would be a good first step, that area is crying for a refurb, its needed a refurb for like 4 years now..

RAP

I will buy everyone on this forum a drink at the local spoons if Big Top returns. I will actually go through it butt naked if it did. Time to just accept that it’s gone for good. *sees the lineup announcement for Fright nights. Well guess that’s me sticking to Alton Towers Scarefest and Tulleys Shocktoberfest