Ever wanted to create your very own amusement park? Now you can! The Theme Park Draft is back for the 2013 season! Choose all of your favorite rides and place them in your very own park. After 15 rounds of voting, YOU choose who has the been ride lineup in their park!

THE SIGNUP DEADLINE IS APPROACHING!

For rules and signup details click HERE

COASTER-net's Ride Gallery team is busy working on our newest additions to the Ride Gallery Database--Flat Rides. For years we've featured only coasters, but now we are looking forward to adding articles on every major flat ride we can cover as well. We've kicked off our project with articles from Carowinds and Dorney park (the homeparks of our two Ride Gallery Authors). We'll definitely have more as well, but for now, here's a sampling of the kinds of articles you can expect from parks all around the USA and Canada: Scream Weaver at Carowinds Windseeker at Carowinds Demon Drop at Dorney Park Domiator at Dorney Park Coming Soon: Additional Rides from Family Kingdom Amusement Park and Dorney Park

Are you ready for a challenge? Our Quizmaster has laid out 8 of the toughest questions he can think of to "Blow Your Brain" with this month's latest Coaster Quiz. The BeastFan and Danny Miller were not stumped by the Quizmaster last month as both got all eight questions right, so they will both be receiving a $5 credit to use in our COASTER-net Store. Will the Quizmaster stump you or will he be thwarted by you and the other Members of COASTER-net once again? Challenge yourself and your friends to yet another amazing quiz. Do you think you have what it takes to be a Quizmaster?

It’s official, the lockout is now over and mechanics at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom can get back to work. For nearly the past 6 weeks, mechanics at the park have been locked out and picketing in front of the park after their union demanded better wages and working conditions. Early last week, we reported that the two sides were set to meet with a mediator to help the two sides come to an agreement. Now, that agreement has been reached, but Six Flags isn’t out of the woods yet. Amongst the biggest complaint from workers was the $17.50/hr wage they were receiving, with few if any raises over the years despite the rising cost of living, and with comparable parks paying their mechanics $18-19 to start.

Dorney's proposal for a larger and better night time fireworks show, which would have been on the same scale as Cedar Point's show, was rejected by their local zoning board. This all started when residents began to complain to their local zoning board once they heard that Dorney Park wanted to make their fireworks show bigger and better. According to Lehighvalley.com, residents say that they have learned to live with and enjoy the previous fireworks show. However, when Dorney Park announced it's plans to upgrade their fireworks show, making it bigger and better, residents began to see it as an annoyance more than entertainment.

Thunderbolt- whom was immortalized in Woody Allen’s 1977 film “Annie Hall” and then torn down in 2000 to make room for the Mets’ minor-league Brooklyn Cyclones, is making an appearance once again in New York. Reported by the New York Post and The New York Observer, the ride will be rebuilt as a steel coaster by Zamperla USA and will cost $10 million. The new and improved Thunderbolt will feature a 125 foot drop, a corkscrew, will be 2,000 feet in length, and will travel 5 mph faster than Cyclone at 65 mph. Valerio Ferrari- president of Zamperla USA, said the ride will be “a perfect complement to the Cyclone and can help bring Coney Island back to one of the top tourist destinations in the world.” The ride will run three trains, each holding up to nine passengers.