Metz, France:

Walygator Parc - home to one of Europe's best coasters - The Monster - is being touted for closure on French forums - check out these photo's of the park, which are a little way down the following page:

Linky

Terrible.

Those actually look like photos of an abandoned theme park, very sad!

This is a shame, it could be such an amazing park!

All this photos are taken from Looopings.nl, they were in the park not so long ago!

here is the page.

Goodness!

What an absolute shame! Monster does look like a good coaster. If it does end up closing, I wonder who'd buy Monster?

Either way, it's sad to see a park fall into such a state.

Merlin, get on this, please?

This is the last thing that Merlin need to buy. Imagine how much money they'd have to spend on top of buying the park to actually restore it into something more... respectable? This park needs some serious help and soon.

BigAl wrote:

Goodness!

What an absolute shame! Monster does look like a good coaster. If it does end up closing, I wonder who'd buy Monster?

Either way, it's sad to see a park fall into such a state.

If the park does close (though if merlin have any ambition at all they'd buy this out as it shouldn't cost much to get going and has a headline attraction already, and would mean they have parks in all of the major economies of Europe bar Spain (UK, Germany, Italy and then France)) Fingers crossed for LWV to pull it out of their arse and buy Monster, would send that park into the heavens.

Well one can hope.

As much as it would be incredible to see Monster at Lightwater Valley, they don't have the funds to be able to buy, transport and install such a ride.

If a dying walygator can do it LWV must be able to  If not I hold no hope for them.

Well this is its third season of operation at Walygator so they must have purchased it in 2009. That's a large enough window for things to go downhill. Walygator is bigger than Lightwater Valley too, but Lightwater Valley is quite clearly better managed and maintained than Walygator.

Buying the Monster was actually the biggest mistake Walygator have ever done.
The coaster itself is great, as great as a B&M inverted can be, but they had no money left to build anything else (even theming for it).
They spent 5 millions euro in that coaster, it could have easily been used to improve the park.
And The Monster didn't bring them as many new guests as expected, so today the park as no money left.

just have a look at one of the news this year, it is pathetic!

They just removed a bumping cars, as you can see the green floor, and put that train...

Did anybody mention the entrance price : 30€!!!! (Europa Park, 2Hours away is 38€)

No doubt, it will be sold soon, or simply being definitly closed.

It's sad to see a park which seemed to have so much potential to be on the up following our visit during Autobarnes.  I thought the place was rundown then, but it seems to have got much much worse since .  I agree with Pierre, as nice as Monster is for enthusiasts, it was indeed a huge huge mistake for the park.  I'm quite shocked that they managed to secure the funding from local authorities/Europe etc for it to be honest, as it was quite clear from the outset that far more cash would be needed to keep the rest of the park going.

If it did close, I find it difficult to think of a park in Europe which would want to take on such a large scale coaster as Monster.  No doubt it will be another coaster heading for South America or similar - such a shame considering how awesome of a ride it is!

It would definitely be curtains for Anaconda if the park does close. The Walycoaster looks like a suitable coaster for a small European park though.

Whats going on with the Space Shot in them photo's, is it being removed, or is all that fancy queue line thing new?

If this park does close (I hope it doesn.t), I wouldn't be too surprised to see Monster relocate just down the road at Holiday Park. That park is going through a transitional period and Plopsa would have the funds for such a project. Also, it would really suit Holiday Park IMO.

darkside wrote:

If this park does close (I hope it doesn.t), I wouldn't be too surprised to see Monster relocate just down the road at Holiday Park. That park is going through a transitional period and Plopsa would have the funds for such a project. Also, it would really suit Holiday Park IMO.

I'd be surprised. It seems the opposite way from where Holiday Park is going under Plopsa. They seem to be all about the family and family-thrill rides. Everything they're doing to HP at the moment such as the new entrance is seemingly making it much magical and escapist. Monster wouldn't fit in at all! Also, I can't think of where they'd actually put it...

Agreed Sam.
I didn't write about Holiday Park in my last post. It's 1h30 from Walygator, and nearly the same size.
Holiday Park entrance price is 25€, and the park is far more interesting and nice.
But I really don't see Monster going there, as they already have a world class coaster (and what for a coaster!), and plopsa seems to be all about familly actually.

If walygator close, I don't think Monster will stay in Europe, I don't see any park buying it. Don't forget that the maintenance since 2010 is bad, and that there are surely many things to do if a park buys it.
Just seeing that they lost the trim brakes is incredible. Monster has no trim section, because the brakes were lost between Japan and France! It does make the end of the ride very intense, but I really don't find it comforting at all! If I was any european park, I wouldn't buy such a coaster, even if it's a B&M.

If Liseberg had the space then it could work there. They are a major European theme park and they don't have an inverted coaster.

What if Merlin took it and replaced either Blue Tornado or Limit with it?

As someone that's been to Liseberg I can tell you that there is no way it would fit 

The footprint alone would take up half the park and that's ignoring the fact it's not flat land.

It’d be sad if it became the first B&M to be scrapped as being a Raptor clone it’s probably one of the best B&M’s out there.

Pedro wrote:

Agreed Sam.
I didn't write about Holiday Park in my last post. It's 1h30 from Walygator, and nearly the same size.
Holiday Park entrance price is 25€, and the park is far more interesting and nice.
But I really don't see Monster going there, as they already have a world class coaster (and what for a coaster!), and plopsa seems to be all about familly actually.

If walygator close, I don't think Monster will stay in Europe, I don't see any park buying it. Don't forget that the maintenance since 2010 is bad, and that there are surely many things to do if a park buys it.
Just seeing that they lost the trim brakes is incredible. Monster has no trim section, because the brakes were lost between Japan and France! It does make the end of the ride very intense, but I really don't find it comforting at all! If I was any european park, I wouldn't buy such a coaster, even if it's a B&M.

Are you on about the MCBR? If so the ride has never had a MCBR, it was just because the Japanese park wanted to do it on the cheep so got off the shelf Raptor model but for some reason didn't get the MCBR. If you actually mean mid course trims like the ones on 13 then 

If the park does close/not get rescued then I'm sure one European park will take a punt at it as it'd be far cheaper than getting anything else of relative size and marketing prowess, even if they do have to spend a couple mill on maintenance (though I doubt it'd be a great deal of money) and actually think that a few parks might fancy a punt on it such as Drayton (they have good space and are rumoured to be looking for a new ride how better than with a 140ft beast), Holiday World (A cheep way to satisfy the thrill seekers attracted to the park because of EGF, and space isn't a problem), The Walibi parks (would kickstart whichever park gets it into life again, as they haven't had anything coaster wise, and little of anything else in 12/13 years), Europa (after a few years of heavy investment they still don't have an inverted coaster which is a big gap in their line up, financially makes sense) or one of the smaller parks that have a couple of good rides but aren't a major player?

Personally I have a feeling the park will be bought out as there's little competition in France and the park is already made, just needs TLC.

I love how this has turned from being concerned for the future of the park to just the future of one roller coaster.