Kings Island - When Son of Beast opened at Kings Island in 2000, it was heralded as the next generation of the wooden coaster. Now 10 years later, many are wondering whether any ride should try and emulate the problem prone ride.

In addition to the wooden height and speed records it set upon opening, Son of Beast is also approaching setting the record for most expensive wooden coaster as original construction plus track adjustments and "fixes" have put the total cost near $30 million. To put that in perspective, the brand new B&M hyper coaster Diamondback cost the park $22 million.



Problems started back in 2006 when a timber snapped sending 28 people to the hospital. Since then five other incidents involving injuries have been reported. The most recent one, in June of last year, shut the ride down for the remainder of the season and it is yet to be seen when it will reopen.



Kings Island General Manager Greg Scheid said in a recent interview that Son of Beast most likely "will remain closed for the foreseeable future." Other reports though state that park officials have been discussing long term fixes for the ride with various engineering firms that could see the ride re-done Texas Giant style. Regardless Kings Island has stated the ride will not reopen in 2010.



Looming over all of these discussions though is the future of the Cedar Fair chain of which Kings Island is a part. The shareholder vote on the proposed buyout by Apollo Global has been pushed back to April 8.



That being the case, no changes are likely to be seen when the park opens for the season on April 17. And it is doubtful that anything definite will be decided regarding the fate of SoB until the issue of park/chain ownership gets settled.