From the Tampa Tribune today
TAMPA - The Busch Gardens amusement park is seeking approval to build a major new roller coaster attraction as well as a new 400-seat restaurant and open both by May 2005.
The roller coaster, if approved and built, would be the park's first major new thrill ride addition in three years.
Plans filed with the Tampa Department of Business and Housing Development show that the new roller coaster will include an ancient African theme. Riders will race through an old stone tower and make a precipitous drop, ending in a pool of water.
Adding such designs and thrills, common on rides at Walt Disney World in Orlando, would be a break from the five major traditional roller coasters operating at Busch Gardens.
Busch Gardens executives declined Monday to discuss specifics of the new ride, including costs to build, but they confirmed that a new attraction is planned.
It's also unclear how large or fast the proposed roller coaster will be; the state and city do not require amusement parks to file such information.
Busch Gardens' plans for a new roller coaster comes as Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom is constructing Expedition Everest. That coaster ride is scheduled for completion by early 2006.
Such an attraction could present added competition for Busch Gardens, said James Zoltak, senior editor of Amusement Business, a Nashville, Tenn.-based trade publication.
Zoltak said it is his understanding that Busch Gardens' new coaster will include a final straight downhill drop from a significant height, making it the first ``diving'' coaster in the United States.
Tim O'Brien, the author of the Amusement Park Guide, said such coasters give riders the feeling of a free fall.
``It's certainly not for anyone with vertigo,'' he said.
O'Brien said there are only two such coasters in the world. They are located in amusement parks in England and Taiwan.
As for the proposed new restaurant, plans show it sitting next to the roller coaster in the park's Stanleyville section. It will replace the existing Stanleyville Smokehouse, a 250- seat outdoor restaurant. Plans call for the new restaurant to offer primarily indoor seating.
Plans on file with the city show another new attraction in the Stanleyville area will be what's referred to as a themed tree. Plans don't disclose specific details about the attraction. But Busch Gardens' main competitor, Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom, offers a tree of life attraction, which includes an underground movie theater.
Between 1959 and 1998, Busch Gardens had a monopoly in Florida with its combination wild animal park and thrill ride concept.
But that changed in April 1998, when Animal Kingdom opened in Orlando, bringing a Hollywood entertainment approach and tough competition for Busch Gardens, owned by Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. While Busch Gardens featured an ice-skating show in its indoor theater, Disney's Animal Kingdom featured the Festival of the Lion King musical in an indoor theater, which played off its popular Broadway hit.
In April, Busch Gardens ended the ice-skating show and replaced it with Katonga, a Broadway style musical featuring an African theme.
The new stage show along with Busch Gardens' plans for a new roller coaster are evidence that the Tampa amusement park is concerned about competition from Animal Kingdom, Zoltak said.
``Busch Gardens clearly wants to position themselves with offering attractions for a wider range of visitors,'' Zoltak said.
The park has had trouble with attendance and needs new attractions to boost visitor interest, he said.
Zoltak said Busch Gardens had a 4 percent drop in attendance last year, compared to the previous year, with an estimated 4.3 million visitors.
Animal Kingdom's attendance was flat, Zoltak said, with an estimated 7.3 million visitors in 2003.
