Kentucky Kingdom Fights for New Roller Coaster + Great New Documentary

© Kentucky Kingdom

Last week while I was away Kentucky Kingdom had a bit of a public tiff with the Fair Board over the construction of the park's new wooden roller coaster, the Kentucky Flyer.  The family sized coaster was just recently announced and the park had already started construction when the Fair Board, who is the park's landlord, told them to stop work.

The disagreement sounds like it was motivated by the existence of Kentucky Kingdom's lawsuit with the Fair Board over parking availability, and I'm not going to get into the details here.  This article sums up the initial set of news nicely.  Kentucky Kingdom sent out a detailed press release along with a few images (including how the Kentucky Flyer will look from within the water park, up top) and just one day later the Fair Board conceded and gave the park permission to continue work.

© Kentucky Kingdom

It is sad that in the middle of the resurgence of the amusement park there is still drama with the Fair Board, but at least we now got a good look at the location of the Kentucky Flyer.  The above image shows the ride's location in the park, which is back beyond the most recent expansion of the water park.  Just a bit of the ride sits on the land that has been set aside for Kentucky Kingdom to expand onto.  That land is the large red area seen above, giving the park plenty of breathing room for the future - though with proximity to the airport I don't see anything tall being built here.

While we are on the subject of Kentucky Kingdom, Coaster Studios, along with the park, created a fantastic documentary on the property's history that is a must-watch for any fan.  It traces through the history of Kentucky Kingdom, including several closures and reopenings and its current modern day success.