Volume 1, No. 23. December 14, 2001
Drawing of proposed thrill ride on Stratosphere Tower. Art courtesy of the Stratosphere Casino Hotel & Tower
Broken Arrow
Arrow Dynamics, Inc., the venerable
thrill ride manufacturer in Clearfield, Utah, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
on December 3, seeking protection from creditors as it reorganizes. Details
on the cause of the action and the efforts to reorganize were sketchy as we
posted, and Arrow would not return repeated phone calls.
However, the demise of the 55-year-old compan—responsible for many of the
innovations that spawned the roller coaster explosion of the past 30 years—is
not unexpected as it had struggled to market new products in recent years. This
year proved particularly frustrating for the company. Its highly anticipated
X coaster, with passengers riding parallel to the track and flipping
360 degrees on separate axis during the ride, still sits unopened at Six Flags
Magic Mountain, who had hoped to debut it last spring. And, such was Arrow's
luck that it couldn't even get a project off the ground in Las Vegas, stymied
by political infighting and a fear of "undesirables."
The "undesirables" in question are coaster enthusiasts, just one aspect of a
weird battle over expansion at the Stratosphere Casino Hotel and Tower, a controversy
that makes the capital of glitz look downright sheltered. The victim of all
the bickering was the world's tallest and fastest thrill ride by Arrow, a project
worth between $15 million and $20 million. Twelve-seat cars would be lifted
in an elevator to a height of 740 feet (225 meters) and drop down at 122 mph
(195 km/h) across The Strip, rising up another 416-foot tower (126 meters).
"We want to build an attraction that would draw people downtown, utilize the
tower and take advantage of what we have here," said Stratosphere's public relations
manager, Michael Gilmartin, who described the ride as "a giant fish hook." "The
city of Las Vegas is in desperate need of attractions to compete with the south
end of The Strip and to bring people back downtown again." The 1,149-foot Stratosphere
tower (350 meters) already has the High Roller coaster and S&S Big
Shot on its roof.
So, Stratosphere officials were taken back when city officials nixed the plan
(the south end of The Strip, where most of the recent expansion has occurred,
lies outside the city limits and is governed by the county). "The Planning Department
gave us a couple dozen stipulations; we met all those and they recommended the
Planning Commission approve it," Gilmartin said of Stratosphere's thrill ride.
The Planning Commission, citing everything from potential noise levels to aesthetic
damage of the Las Vegas skyline, turned the project down twice, and the City
Council refused to overturn the commission decision. "It's become a political
issue," Gilmartin said. "It has nothing to do with logic." Those arguing the
ride would be too loud, for example, didn't account for the fact that the ride
would be built next to a hotel. "We would not build a thrill ride that's going
to drive people out of here saying 'Give me my money back, that damn ride kept
me up all night.' We're not stupid," Gilmartin said
.
Using economic and scientific studies, the Stratosphere staff adequately answered
the concerns, Gilmartin said, but the most confounding argument was the one
put forward by a planning commissioner who said, "If you guys build this, it's
going to bring tattooed, pierced teen-agers and undesirables to the area." "I
enjoy thrill rides," said Gilmartin, who sky dives and bunjee jumps and also
has a resume that prominently features his role as a political lobbyist. "I
laughed because I thought, 'Wait a minute, does that make me an undesirable?'
I've been dealing with this thing for the last three months, and this whole
thing is all about misconceptions of amusement ride crowds." Members of coaster
enthusiast organizations also took exception to being labeled an unsavory lot
and mounted an e-mail and letter-writing campaign supporting the project.
All to no avail. The hotel has currently shelved the giant fish hook pending
a redesign of the ride or a shift in political alignments.