In the seven years since the Ride Entertainment Group purchased Skycoaster®, the world’s most popular up-charge attraction, Skycoaster® has proven its amazing staying power. Anchored by a solid management and safety team, Skycoaster® attractions can now be found on six continents around the globe. With two new installations opening in 2013, and Kennywood, our original amusement park location still selling out flights during the summer, Skycoaster® truly has become the world’s thrill ride.
A key part of the Skycoaster® success has been its integration into the Ride Entertainment Group of Companies. Ride Entertainment CEO Ed Hiller said, “Skycoaster® has been a wonderful acquisition for us. We have used them as part of our revenue share program through Entertainment Finance Group, and Entertainment Management Group, our technical arm, has worked on several different Skycoaster® projects for customers. However, the real key to our success has been the people that came with Skycoaster®. Mike Gutknecht, Director of Skycoaster®, and Jason Anderson, Assistant Director of Skycoaster®, have been real assets to our team.”
One of the new-for-2013 installations will be at Wet N Wild in Sydney, Australia. This will be the second Skycoaster® with the Village Roadshow group and the first location to unveil the all-new Skycoaster® design. “We are particularly excited about our second Australian installation”, said Gutknecht. “We started with a clean sheet of paper on this project and are very proud of the engineering we’ve put into it. This particular dual Skycoaster® will stand 251 feet tall and will have significantly less steel than any other Skycoaster® of similar size. This was necessary to help us meet the extremely stringent Australian wind codes”
Gutknecht is overseeing the design and engineering of the new Skycoaster® arch and towers. “The Australia project has really given us the opportunity to grow our capabilities,” he said.
Jason Anderson is enjoying his tenth year with the company. He said, “It has been great working here, especially as a part of the Ride Entertainment team.” Anderson oversees the safety and certification side of the enviable Skycoaster® program. “Our collection of customers is really a great family. A key component of our unique safety system is bringing all of our parks and vendors together each year for Skycoaster® University. Here we discuss the proper methods of operation and safety to ensure that each site offers the best guest experience possible.”
Hiller is happy that the future remains bright for Skycoaster® and the Ride Entertainment Group as a whole. “Ride Entertainment started as a sales company and has grown into a full service amusement park business with sales, revenue share, installation and operations divisions. We have seen a lot of change over the past few years and I look forward to continued business growth throughout the industry,” he said.