Saturday, March 18, 2017

Knott's Berry Farm to Retire Boomerang Roller Coaster - For Major New Addition?


© Knott's Berry Farm
Knott's surprised everyone on social media yesterday by announcing that their Boomerang roller coaster will close forever on April 23, the end of this year's Boysenberry Festival.

Boomerang opened at the park in April of 1990, lasting 27 years and at least three different color schemes while at the park.  Boomerang is a standard model of the same name produced by Vekoma, featuring a vertical loop and boomerang element that are taken both forward and backward.

Boomerang is located within Knott's Boardwalk themed area, which experienced a major renovation a few years ago after Perilous Plunge was removed in favor of a new family coaster and two flat rides.

© Bing Maps
As for why Boomerang is being removed, Knott's is not saying yet.  If we look at an aerial of the park it appears as though a pretty large area might be being cleaned out, possibly for a 2018 attraction.

The green box contains Boomerang, which opens up a big space on its own.  Below it on this outdated map is Perilous Plunge, but that area has been heavily renovated so I don't see it being touched now.  The orange area is Rip Tide, which has also been removed and replaced with grass.

The park has had some issues with Sky Tower, in the red box along with a few games, and while only rumored could we also see that ride removed this year?  Also of note is that the former stage, in yellow, has been opened up, and replaced to where the blue X is.

Just to the north of Sky Tower is where the Boardwalk Barbecue is being rebuilt from the ground up, so that's a space that won't change.

Even if they use just the land from Boomerang and Rip Tide they have a nice space, add in Sky Tower and it's eve bigger - and if you say travel over the wide midway to where the old stage was, well we could see something really big coming.  Stay tuned!


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