Family buys more than 100 acres in Broken Arrow for upcoming 'amazing venture'

[Rattle Trap]

https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/family-buys-more-than-100-acres-in-broken-arrow-for-upcoming-amazing-venture

The article seems to be alluding to something like Bell's opening back up. Anyone have any more info on this?

[tulsabug]

It could also be like the Freedom Georgia Initiative where black families pooled their money and bought 100 acres in Georgia or some giant Noah's Ark recreation or Jethro Bodine's Beverly Hillbillies Mansion and Casino is finally going to happen or maybe just maybe if we're really lucky... the world's first Collectible Spoon Museum.

Yea so I have no valid information whatsoever about this. 

[shavethewhales]

I do believe it's Bell's. After numerous setbacks over the years, I think they finally have a partner, financing, and location to get something off the ground. Might not be very big at first, but hopefully it will grow back to something like what we had before. Hopefully even better.

Announcement should be coming tomorrow morning.

[tulsabug]

Conan!!! Robbie Bell business plan - stat!!!!

[SXSW]

Interested to know who their financial backers are because 100 acres is a significant buy.  Where is this exactly on the Creek Turnpike? 

Between this and the OKANA resort announcement in OKC those are some ambitious projects, exciting to see.

[Rattle Trap]

Confirmed to be Bell's. I got to watch part of the news conference and it actually sounds pretty awesome! They're bringing back all the favorite rides, adding a water park, adding VR entertainment, a kid park, and much more. They'll be open 10 months out of the year and will be trying to minimize the impact on the land itself, leaving trees where they can, etc.

If executed well this will be fantastic.

[tulsabug]

Confirmed to be Bell's. I got to watch part of the news conference and it actually sounds pretty awesome! They're bringing back all the favorite rides, adding a water park, adding VR entertainment, a kid park, and much more. They'll be open 10 months out of the year and will be trying to minimize the impact on the land itself, leaving trees where they can, etc.

If executed well this will be fantastic.

There has got to be some serious money behind this - I can only guess $100m+. Wonder who they got to put up that kind of dough?

[shavethewhales]

They have a partner, but I haven't figured out who it is yet. Several of their previous attempts were thwarted when partners pulled out or in one case died unexpectedly. They aren't doing this by themselves. I just hope they have the operations side handled well. These days it is much more technical than it was in the days of paper ride tickets at the old Bell's. People will expect to pay for everything through their phone, for one thing. Staffing is also a major challenge, and they were never good at it in the old days from what I hear. Still, I think Bell's got too much flak back in the old days. It operated reasonably well in spite of things. Six Flags Over Texas has many of the same issues that people complained about with Bell's, but they get 10% of the flak just because they are bigger and better known.

I'm ecstatic about this project. I have been dying for Tulsa to get an amusement park again. No joke, I was looking into doing something myself in a few years if Bell's never came back.

[patric]

BROKEN ARROW — Bell's Amusement Park will be returning, 15 years after it closed in Tulsa, to a 100-acre property in Broken Arrow.

The park is expected to be 10 times the size of the original Bell's, with new rides as well as old favorites. Smaller children will have a piece of the park with size-appropriate rides, as well.

The revived Bell's, with a water park, will be open about 10 months out of the year near Kenosha (71st) Street and the Creek Turnpike.

Bell’s Amusement Park closed after the 2006 season at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds when the county didn’t renew the park’s lease after it operated there since 1951. A much smaller version of the park briefly operated in 2013 in the parking lot of Swick’s Flea Market in west Tulsa.

The county commission in 2006 indicated they opted against renewing Bell's lease at the Tulsa Expo Square fairgrounds because of issues related to the park's business plan. The de facto closure became a point of contention during the next election when a member of the Bell family challenged one of the county commissioners who had made the call.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/bells-amusement-park-being-revived-in-broken-arrow-family-announces-with-city-officials/article_403ac4e8-3d7a-11ec-b361-178f1f816e9b.html

[tulsabug]

There has got to be some serious money behind this - I can only guess $100m+. Wonder who they got to put up that kind of dough?

The more I think about it maybe my $100m estimate was a bit low. To compete among the larger amusement parks in the US, of which this would admittedly be on the smaller end of that spectrum (not saying that as an insult), Bell's is going to need at least 5 major roller coasters. Frontier City is half the size and they have 5 coasters so Bell's needs to equal that just as a starting point. They, of course, have the Zingo which according to articles I found from a few years back put the cost at $5m to bring that back up - and then they have the Wildcat which really doesn't register as a major coaster. Heck - Knott's Berry Farm is only 57 acres and they have 9 coasters. It's really starting to look closer to $250m or more since they can easily have $50-$100m in just coasters. Should be interesting to watch where it goes from here.

[shavethewhales]

^LOL. Why are they competing with all the big parks in the US? Seems like a big assumption that they are trying to be a national draw right off the bat. Look up Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque as a great example of a local amusement park with a small selection of rides and a star wooden roller coaster. https://rcdb.com/4661.htm There are plenty of other examples.

Next year there is a new theme park opening up in Iowa that is relatively small, but will be extensively themed and is owned by an existing water park just down the road. They aren't trying to compete nationally either.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E51VLv6ZHs&ab_channel=ParkPros

Speaking of Iowa, Adventureland in Des Moines is exactly the kind of park that I hope Bell's will grow into. For a small park they have some great roller coasters and an amazing water park.

When you say they need "5 major roller coasters" and start talking about FC, I have to laugh. Frontier City's coasters are a joke to anyone except coaster enthusiasts who appreciate their odd history. Silver Bullet is part of Anton Schwartzkopf's legacy, and I love it, but it's nothing to write home about especially by today's standards. The wildcat is actually a "relocated" wooden coaster from Missouri, but when they rebuilt it they didn't have room for the turnaround and second half, so the ride is an pathetic shadow of it's former self.  The Diamondback is actually a pretty fun classic Arrow shuttle coaster, and one of the last of it's kind left in the world (the exact same coaster model used to be in many parks). None of those rides would be considered a star attraction at basically any other park in the US, even most of the small parks. The state of Oklahoma is absolutely starved for a good roller coaster like Zingo.

It's true that they'll need tens of millions of capital to build what they are talking about, but it's not true that they'll need 100's of millions of front to get started. I think it would be smart to start with the kiddie section and the water park and phase the rest in over a period of 5 to 10 years. Start by targeting the Tulsa metro, then NE OK, then expand from there as the park grows.

When we talk about investment and land size, there's so much more in the details than people realize. Disney's Magic Kingdom gets 20 million visitors per year with just a few "small" roller coasters and an area of just 107 acres. Silver Dollar City gets a bit over 2 million guests per year and is still the main economic engine of the Branson area. I don't know what numbers FC is putting up these days, but it's probably just under a million per year. At one point it was half a million per year before the original Six Flags bankruptcy.

[Jacobei]

I can't imagine my family driving that far for Bells. I mean, 21st and Yale was already a hump. 251st st and east Jesus interests me as much as proctology exam performed by rotor-outer.

[TheArtist]

Heck I have always wanted to do a theme park and Rollercoasters are down on my list of attractions. I personally don't like them lol, but know that others do so would try to have one or two.  I mostly like the rides that are like a magical, story/themed adventure, small rollercoaster feel perhaps.  Then there are the new rides today like some of the Harry Potter ones at Universal that are basically a giant robotic arm on a track that "swoops and throws you around" through a storyline.  I could barely handle the Avitar Ride at Disney and it doesn't even really go anywhere! Rode it once, then the next time I went, got in line and just before we had to get in the contraption, my nerves got the best of me and I had to slink out and leave the group lol.  (I can barely handle swings at a playground so it takes some work to get me on most rides lol) But, that kind of themed attraction/ride is what I really like and well done, those can have longer wait times with more people wanting to get on than the standard rollercoasters.

[tulsabug]

^LOL. Why are they competing with all the big parks in the US? Seems like a big assumption that they are trying to be a national draw right off the bat. Look up Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque as a great example of a local amusement park with a small selection of rides and a star wooden roller coaster. https://rcdb.com/4661.htm There are plenty of other examples.

Next year there is a new theme park opening up in Iowa that is relatively small, but will be extensively themed and is owned by an existing water park just down the road. They aren't trying to compete nationally either.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E51VLv6ZHs&ab_channel=ParkPros

Speaking of Iowa, Adventureland in Des Moines is exactly the kind of park that I hope Bell's will grow into. For a small park they have some great roller coasters and an amazing water park.

When you say they need "5 major roller coasters" and start talking about FC, I have to laugh. Frontier City's coasters are a joke to anyone except coaster enthusiasts who appreciate their odd history. Silver Bullet is part of Anton Schwartzkopf's legacy, and I love it, but it's nothing to write home about especially by today's standards. The wildcat is actually a "relocated" wooden coaster from Missouri, but when they rebuilt it they didn't have room for the turnaround and second half, so the ride is an pathetic shadow of it's former self.  The Diamondback is actually a pretty fun classic Arrow shuttle coaster, and one of the last of it's kind left in the world (the exact same coaster model used to be in many parks). None of those rides would be considered a star attraction at basically any other park in the US, even most of the small parks. The state of Oklahoma is absolutely starved for a good roller coaster like Zingo.

It's true that they'll need tens of millions of capital to build what they are talking about, but it's not true that they'll need 100's of millions of front to get started. I think it would be smart to start with the kiddie section and the water park and phase the rest in over a period of 5 to 10 years. Start by targeting the Tulsa metro, then NE OK, then expand from there as the park grows.

When we talk about investment and land size, there's so much more in the details than people realize. Disney's Magic Kingdom gets 20 million visitors per year with just a few "small" roller coasters and an area of just 107 acres. Silver Dollar City gets a bit over 2 million guests per year and is still the main economic engine of the Branson area. I don't know what numbers FC is putting up these days, but it's probably just under a million per year. At one point it was half a million per year before the original Six Flags bankruptcy.

They're not directly competing with all the big parks but I think they are against FC and SDC. I doubt anyone is going to load the family truckster up to drive across country to Tulsa for an amusement park but within a 200 mile or so range probably so - and probably probably probably so from OKC. I know they're going to have to build up and I don't expect a dozen coasters from the get-go but I'm surprised they didn't say "we're rebuilding Zingo and then adding a new sister roller coaster" as an opener. Surely a new large attraction, like what they were trying to build at the Expo location, has got to happen initially. At least here they aren't going to get the local neighbors wahwahwahing about noise from a coaster.

And I agree with everything you're saying but I still think the initial budget is going to have to be north of $100m. Since we know they've got $4m in land and at least $5m just in the Zingo and I can't imagine a 25-acre water park can be had for less than $50m. Heck - a wave pool is going to set them back $20m by itself if not more. Just revitalizing the old Bell's rides isn't going to be cheap since they weren't in the best of shape when they closed 15 years ago.

Also - Disney's Magic Kingdom is a funny point - it has 4 decent coasters with a 5th opening soon (TRON) and honestly Slinky Dog Dash is probably on the cusp. Plus it's Disney so they could open a 100-acre park in the desert with no rides no water and no bathrooms and still draw 20m people a year. 

Just rebuilding the old Bell's with a water park and an "event center" sounds pretty boring to me. Guess we'll have to see if anything gets built at all since the press conference didn't even have any initial plans which was surprising and also not surprising.

[tulsabug]

Heck I have always wanted to do a theme park and Rollercoasters are down on my list of attractions. I personally don't like them lol, but know that others do so would try to have one or two.  I mostly like the rides that are like a magical, story/themed adventure, small rollercoaster feel perhaps.  Then there are the new rides today like some of the Harry Potter ones at Universal that are basically a giant robotic arm on a track that "swoops and throws you around" through a storyline.  I could barely handle the Avitar Ride at Disney and it doesn't even really go anywhere! Rode it once, then the next time I went, got in line and just before we had to get in the contraption, my nerves got the best of me and I had to slink out and leave the group lol.  (I can barely handle swings at a playground so it takes some work to get me on most rides lol) But, that kind of themed attraction/ride is what I really like and well done, those can have longer wait times with more people wanting to get on than the standard rollercoasters.

I would totally buy season tickets to a Decopolis Amusement Park. Maybe you should call Robby Bell up.