So, with the Sky Striker coming, it was already announced that Dare Devil Dive (it was an additional fee anyway) was closing. At Fright Fest there are coffins showing two RIP dates 2004 and 2018. 2004 is obviously Revolution which becomes redundant with the new Sky Striker. 2018 has to be the Mardi Gras Hangover. This ride has been closed more than it has been open since 2018. The question is... are there problems with these installations that Six Flags put into back in 2018 and 2019? Would Six Flags have legal recourse for a ride that opened 5 years ago and has been closed more than opened?
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Bourbon Street Fireball at SFA has been sitting in pieces for almost the entire 2023 season. My guess is that SF is giving up on trying to maintain these carnival-grade rides that were never intended to operate under the rigors of a daily amusement park. I wouldn't be surprised if the runtime hours on these are well beyond what you would see on one used at a traveling carnival for a decade.
@ Russell - Fireball at Six Flags St. Louis was a walk on the three times I've been there, but I get your point about the run time hours.
@ the_Man - We agree, they were awful rides that should not have been installed in the first place. It's an amazing juxtaposition. Their entire ad campaign for a couple of years for SFGA was come and ride the world's largest loop coaster, now they appear to be removing it. (The smart a$$ in me would love to say that it needs to actually operate to get a poor review...LOL)
I really think Six Flags was given a bulk purchase deal they couldn't refuse, which allowed them to market brand new rides for every park in the chain over the span of 2-3 years. They've done the same thing with their spinning pendulum rides, though from a far more reputable manufacturer, though my guess is that the pendulums have cost more than the Lasron Loops. Ultimately, you get what you pay for, and it's a common refrain in the theme park industry. Purchase a cheap, or heavily discounted ride from a lower-tier manufacturer, expect to put in massive effort and money into maintaining it.
Another amazing juxtaposition was seeing the advertisement for this ride when they claimed "worlds largest loop coaster"...when I am old enough to remember when Shockwave, an actual coaster, was the world's tallest/fastest coaster with the most inversions. Shockwave was a beast, one of the most intimidating coasters in the world when it opened, and then 30 years later they tried to push this off as a record breaking coaster lol.
Shockwave was a beast when it opened in the '80!
It's now official, both Revolution and the Mardi Gras Hangover are closing following one last "Last Hangover Event" at the end of the month according to the official SFGA website. I think I've had actual hangovers that lasted longer than this Larson Loop. (Cue laugh track...)
Circling back to answer your original question I decided to reach out and ask some people in the know and they said it was to reduce operating costs, as there is a corporate initiative right now to reduce costs. Since the ride only got like 200 something riders per hour they decided it wasn't worth operating anymore.
Thanks for the additional info... Boy, I really hope SF got a heck of deal of the Larson Loops because they sure didn't get their moneys worth...
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Revolution has been a maintenance headache since it was moved from SFGAdv to SFGAm (not sure if it was more reliable at SFGAdv or not). It has gone SBNO for long periods several times during its time at SFGAm.
I have no idea about the maintenance of Larson Loops because that's well past my time, but it would be funny if they are already taking it out due to maintenance because King Chaos was also a maintenance nightmare (it was bought cheap at an auction and re-painted for SFGAm). It wouldn't surprise me if the loop rides are being taken out because they're just bad rides that get poor reviews and not worth the costs associated with operating them, they never should have been installed in the first place.