Talk:Kentucky Kingdom

Latest comment: 3 years ago by JlACEer in topic Tower of Power incident
Good articleKentucky Kingdom has been listed as one of the Sports and recreation good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
May 8, 2020Good article nomineeListed
October 8, 2020Featured article candidateNot promoted
Current status: Good article

Deluge is already effectively announced edit

See this blog entry. Information cannot be unpublicized after it already is public. Note that I didn't add it to this article in the first place. But it's silly to "hold it" until it's no longer "confidential". It's already public. Stevie is the man! TalkWork 03:31, 23 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Tower of Power Name edit

Does anyone know why the name was changed from "Hellevator"? That was such a badass title, and it was the Hellevator for most of my life. Giantrobotbrawl 22:57, 27 June 2007 (UTC)Reply

It's because the park couldn't afford a coaster that would be Superman themed. So they decided to name the Hellevator to Superman. And a rumor is going around that the ride may be removed from the park (only Kentucky Kingdom)

Actually, it's because Six Flags wanted to move in a more family friendly direction, and Hellevator was too much of a non Politically Correct name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.138.227.145 (talk) 22:36, 18 September 2007 (UTC)Reply

Flagging this article as an advertisement edit

I have flagged this article for reading like an advertisement. In its current incarnation, this article is primarily just a list of fun rides available for the kids. This park made national news recently when an accident on the Superman Tower of Power ride completely severed a girl's feet from the rest of her body. One particular editor has removed multiple attempts by several other editors to directly mention the accident. Instead, the article alludes to the accident in the vaguest possible way by simply saying that the ride was "involved in a notable accident" without any actual mention of what happened. While this park may be well-known locally for all the fun rides, it is nationally-known for the accident. Listing all the fun rides while deleting any negative information makes this article just an online advertisement. --JHP 15:26, 29 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

I agree. It does need mentioning. There have been enough articles in the Curious-Urinal about this to do a section on it.--Bedford 15:40, 29 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
This article does indeed point to the incidents article that lays out significant information about this incident. I'm the last person to defend companies from negative encyclopedic content, but apparently, in cases like this, incident information has been set aside for its own article. However, you may be correct in that this specific incident was especially notable and deserves coverage here. Stevie is the man! TalkWork 15:53, 29 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
I am probably the one that JHP is mentioning as "one particular editor", as I have tried to be diligent in not allowing incident information to appear in multiple places in Wikipedia whenever possible and to link to the appropriate Incidents article as necessary. Single source of reference, and all that. This way, those who are interested in amusement park incident(s) can see all the information in once place without seeing conflicting information that may or may not be due to overzealous or non-thorough editors. They also can see all other related incident information for that park, that company, or other parks and organizations as well. The incident is mentioned briefly in this article, just as similar incidents are mentioned in their own particular park or attraction articles. All done in a consistent, non-biased manner appropriate for an encyclopedia that does not elevate this incident as more (or less) important as any other tragedy where someone suffered. As for this article reading as an advertisement, all I can do is recommend looking at other park articles that you feel are not written as a promotion piece and try to emulate those here. SpikeJones 18:58, 29 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
Perhaps a more informative (yet short) summary of the incident here would suffice, with fuller coverage in the incidents article? Otherwise, people will continue to assert that information is being hidden. Some duplication between this and the incidents article isn't un-wiki -- in fact, it's normal. Avoiding all possible duplication is not a policy. Stevie is the man! TalkWork 20:08, 29 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
SpikeJones, please point us to a Wikipedia policy or guideline that says there should be a single source of reference. I don't believe there is one. The information pertains to this particular park, so it should be at least be briefly explained in this particular article. Quite often what editors do is have a summary in one article that then points to another article that contains more detail. However, what we have in this article is not even a summary. It's just a vague reference. It contains no specific information whatsoever. I provided a very clear, informative, one-sentence summary of what happened. It was backed up by a reference and contained a link to the "Incidents" article. You deleted it. --JHP 02:42, 30 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
My key point: Mentioning something is not a suitable substitute for summarizing something. --JHP 02:46, 30 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
I'm going to concur with an informative one-sentence summary and pointing to the "incidents" article. There's no question in my mind that this is a hyper-notable incident, just due to its details alone, and indeed, the coverage is national, as Six Flags had to shut down all its tower rides at all its parks. I would also recommend adding an HTML comment that advises editors not to expand the summary into greater detail. Stevie is the man! TalkWork 03:44, 30 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
I agree that Stevietheman's suggestion is the most appropriate to implement. JHP, if you're talking about the 14:54, 27 June 2007 24.209.30.113 (edit #141014976) entry that I reverted, it is because the content was taken directly from the Incidents page without any regard for either (a) including the references themselves, or (b) not following the WP:BLP policy that was taking place over on that page regarding this specific incident. If you're talking about the 22:32, 2 July 2007 Realkyhick (edit #142152748) entry that I reverted, it's because the entry contained information that was already outdated by information that was updated in the Incidents page, and the link to the Incidents page was also removed by Realkyhick at that time. If you're talking about your edit #147620955 from the 29th, that was just a copy of the same info from the Incidents page, poorly included, and badly placed in the article -- while we all agree that there should be some mention of the incident, including it in the intro section isn't really appropriate either, especially as it (in essence) duplicated information that was posted further down the page. Yes, I know that you'll disagree with the "in essence" part, but go with me on the concept. As for an official WP policy, there are guidelines listed in the help section on what makes a good article; I like to think that the Incidents articles fall under WP:BETTER#Articles_covering_subtopics. SpikeJones 04:02, 30 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
SpikeJones, regarding my edit, it was not poorly placed. In fact, its placement was completely consistent with WP:BETTER#The_rest_of_the_lead_section, which states:
"If the article is long enough for the lead section to contain several paragraphs, then the first paragraph should be short and to the point, with a clear explanation of what the subject of the page is. The following paragraphs should give a summary of the article. They should provide an overview of the main points the article will make, summarizing the primary reasons the subject matter is interesting or notable, including its more important controversies, if there are any."
Yes, it was a copy of the first sentence from the Incidents page, but that's because the first sentence made a good summary. And, no, it was not a duplicate of what was posted further down in the article, because what appeared further down provided no information about what happened. Again there is a distinct difference between mentioning something and summarizing something. --JHP 01:35, 31 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
JHP, I believe you've gotten off your original discussion topic of this article reading like an advertisement for SFKK. I say this as your only suggestion/complaint is about the tragic incident and that you felt it should be in the lead paragraph. That said, you quoted the WP page that says "If the article is long enough for the lead section to contain several paragraphs, then the first paragraph should be short and to the point, with a clear explanation of what the subject of the page is." This article is about SFKK (its rides, its shows, attraction history, ownership changes, etc). A single incident that occured at the park, when placed in the opening paragraph, implies that this page is about that incident at the park... when the article should be about much more than that. (For example, I recommend using the rather complete SF Great Adventure article as a base here, but you may like other parks' articles better.) I'm more than happy to continue discussing making improvements to the article with you, but I feel that if we continue harping on the placement of this one incident in the article that we may bore the other editors. That said, as I've pointed out to others, if you have specific SF or other amusement park articles in mind that are written well that you would like to emulate here, please feel free to share them with us so the SFKK article can be brought up to proper WP standards. Cheers! SpikeJones 03:19, 31 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

I moved the mention of the incident up in the article, instead of hiding it down in the ride list. The incident made national headlines for several days, and should be more prominent than it was before. Realkyhick 18:54, 30 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

Chang edit

Anonymous editors have been revising the article to indicate an impending closure of Chang. I've been reverting this each time I see it because no source has been cited. I've seen the rumors, too, but a quick search of the websites for local newspapers and local TV stations does not hit any stories regarding the park, and as these sites are considered more reliable and verifiable than a rumor website. Please provide a source when/if adding this back. --McDoobAU93 (talk) 02:35, 22 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

it was basically the most extreme ride in the park —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.138.17.29 (talk) 17:58, 21 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

Changed Article edit

I changed it to say that the rides are staying i have sources. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.135.13.34 (talk) 20:42, 15 April 2010 (UTC)Reply

Proposal to restore to "Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom" edit

According to the latest report, Bluegrass Boardwalk is no longer after the withdrawl of the Koch family. I propose that this article be moved back to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, the location it was at before Ed Hart and the Koch family proposed their individual takeovers. This would require all links to the article to be updated. I thought I would propose it to gauge a consensus before going through WP:RM. Themeparkgc  Talk  05:47, 16 June 2012 (UTC)Reply

Six Flags has had no connection to the park since 2009, so revising it to that would be factually incorrect; when they left, the local press started referring to it as simply Kentucky Kingdom again. But yes, it certainly shouldn't be Bluegrass Boardwalk anymore. --McDoobAU93 15:00, 16 June 2012 (UTC)Reply
I agree it should be changed to just Kentucky Kingdom. Should we restore all the roller coaster articles to what they were before the Koch family?--Astros4477 (talk) 15:58, 16 June 2012 (UTC)Reply

Quick news flash ... we've had one well-meaning editor move the article unilaterally. In order to prevent this while this discussion is ongoing, I asked for and got temporary move protection for the article for about a week. If we settle on something before then, we can get the page moved or the protection lifted. --McDoobAU93 20:19, 16 June 2012 (UTC)Reply

Requested move edit

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved. Jenks24 (talk) 06:00, 23 June 2012 (UTC)Reply



Bluegrass BoardwalkKentucky Kingdom – This should just be Kentucky Kingdom now. Astros4477 (talk) 19:37, 16 June 2012 (UTC)Reply

Agreed ... Six Flags' connection to the park has ended, and it should revert back to its original name, sans "Six Flags". --McDoobAU93 21:16, 17 June 2012 (UTC)Reply
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Owned versus leased edit

The article refers to a "purchase by Ed Hart and a group of investors" and says the park "reopened for the 1990 season with the new owners" and later "was sold to Premier Parks for $64 million". But it also says "Kentucky Kingdom opened ..., leasing 10 acres (4.0 ha) at the Kentucky Exposition Center property" and later that "the park would cease operations immediately due to the rejection of an amended lease by the Kentucky State Fair Board". This confusing, but it seems that the property was never owned by the park operators. They leased it but did not own it. I suppose they owned the business that was operating at the site, but they did not own the site itself (i.e. the real estate). I think the article would benefit from clarification of the actual ownership. —BarrelProof (talk) 01:36, 28 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Basically the various companies/groups/partnerships have all operated the park, not owned it. I'll look out for sources in the coming days to support the claim in the article that Six Flags owned 20 acres of the 58-acre park. Other than that I think I have clarified all instances, but if there are any others please let me know. Themeparkgc  Talk  06:54, 28 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

External links modified edit

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GA Review edit

This review is transcluded from Talk:Kentucky Kingdom/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk · contribs) 00:46, 3 May 2020 (UTC)Reply


  1. It is reasonably well written.
  1. a (prose):   b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):  
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (reference section):   b (citations to reliable sources):   c (OR):  
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects):   b (focused):  
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    Fair representation without bias:  
  5. It is stable.
    No edit wars, etc.:  
  6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
    a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales):   b (appropriate use with suitable captions):  
  7. Overall: Pass
    Pass/Fail:  

Review edit

  • I will be conducting a basic review right now as there are large issues that must be addressed first. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 00:46, 3 May 2020 (UTC)Reply

Lead edit

  • Needs to be longer

Foundation (1987–88) edit

  • Whose Christian Boyles and why does his opinion matter/need to be stated explicitly by name?
  • The latter was a kiddie area which would later become "King Louie's Playground" and then "Looney Tunes Movie Town." needs a reference

Rapid growth (1989–97) edit

  • Many paragraphs needs references

Six Flags era (1998–2010) edit

  • Also, the Hellevator drop tower was renamed and rethemed to Superman: Tower of Power just in time for opening day 2007. However, the rethemed ride's life at the park would soon end. needs a reference
  • The park closed for the season on November 1, 2009, with the intention of reopening for the 2010 season. needs a reference
  • This left the fair board and Six Flags to negotiate the ownership of rides and attractions..... whole paragraph needs to be sourced

Ed Hart's latest return and 2014 reopening (2012–present) edit

  • Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay reopened on May 24, 2014. needs a reference
  • Storm Chaser opened to the public in May 2016. needs a reference

Incidents edit

  • Could be expanded
  • Fight broke out on June 15th, 2021 resulting in policy being instituted that states minors under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult in the park

Images edit

  • The image captions could use a little more explanation than just stating the ride

Outside comment edit

I think this article can stand to be improved. Comparing this page with Cedar Point (for instance), are there any events, awards, resorts, or other things besides the attractions? The prose seems to be mainly history. In fact, besides the history, there is only one paragraph for incidents and one for the lead. The attractions sections have 10 references, total, so that needs to be improved as well. epicgenius (talk) 21:23, 3 May 2020 (UTC)Reply

@HickoryOughtShirt?4: – I believe that I have fixed the issues that were mentioned above if I need to change anything else, let me know. BlueShirtz (talk) 18:33, 6 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
BlueShirtz Many sentences still need references (such as Due to major debt by owner Six Flags, the entire Northwest section of the park, which included Twisted Twins, Mile High Falls, and the Zeppelin spinning blimp ride, was completely closed for the remainder of Six Flags' operation of the park.) HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 18:49, 6 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
@HickoryOughtShirt?4: – I fixed the sentence that was mentioned at 18:49, as well as adding sources to other sentences throughout the article. BlueShirtz (talk) 19:12, 6 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
BlueShirtz There are still a few sentences without references but it is in much better shape now. I will begin a more indepth review. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 19:42, 6 May 2020 (UTC)Reply


In-depth review edit

Lead edit

  • Needs another paragraph
  • References should only be used in leads if the content is likely be to challenged/controversial

History edit

  • Kentucky Kingdom opened on May 23, 1987, about 400 people attended the opening ceremony, please change to Kentucky Kingdom opened on May 23, 1987 with about 400 people in attendance at the opening ceremony
  • One of the original rides was a roller coaster named Starchaser. – It seems like a non-sequitur. Maybe expand on other original rides
  • Only a few rides stayed at the park, kind of self explanatory if the previous sentence is most of the rides were auctioned off to other parks.
    • Also unsourced
  • The parks themed areas descriptions would make more sense towards the beginning of the paragraph, not after they closed.
  • who wanted him to reopen the park. Put a period after this sentence
  • Despite the Starchaser being sold it...., comma after sold
  • In 1995, T3 (formerly T2: Terror to the Second Power) was added, please explain more about this ride
  • Thrill Karts (also known as Kingdom Go Carts) were also added this year, but were an upcharge attraction. unsourced
  • Rides added to the park during the Ed Hart years include Thunder Run (wooden roller coaster), The Quake, T2 (Terror to the Second Power), Twisted Twins (Twisted Sisters), Mile High Falls, Top Eliminator Dragsters, Chang (stand up roller coaster), Hellevator (Drop Tower), Roller Skater Kids coaster, Chaos, and Kingdom Go Carts. unsourced
  • On September 26, 1997, it was announced that the rights to operate Kentucky Kingdom would be sold to Premier Parks for $64 million, the deal was finalized on November 7., semicolon after $64 million
  • which had previously bought the parts from Opryland USA. Who not which
  • This might be a better reference for the Twisted Sister lawsuit
  • The ride was removed in 2008. The park originally was to replace the ride with a new attraction for the 2008 season, but this never occurred. These sentences could be combined
  • Why is Chang wikilinked when it's been mentioned before?
  • The Kentucky State Fair Board also used $2.35 million from Ed Hart to purchase Six Flags' 20-acre (8.1 ha) stake in the park. Six Flags removed all of the Looney Tunes and DC Comics/Batman related content from the park along with inner tubes, overhead shades from rides, and some parts from rides to use at its other parks. unreferenced
  • After the first month, Kentucky Kingdom sold over 100,000 season passes. In 2014, the park attracted 600,000 visitors, could be combined

Rererences edit

  • Please clip the newspaper articles like this one and use the proper title
@HickoryOughtShirt?4: – I think that I have fixed the issues that were mentioned in the in-depth review, if I need to fix anything else, let me know. BlueShirtz (talk) 7:14, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
BlueShirtz, I am very close to passing this just a few super minor changes:
    • Please remove the references in the lead unless it is controversial
    • additional seating installation - the period should be before the reference, not after
    • Are you able to clip newspaper articles like this one so everyone can view it?
    • Reference 143 needs an author (Rick Redding)
    • Reference 152 needs an author (Connie Leonard)
    • Reference 146 needs an author (Lindsay English)
    • Reference 141 needs an author (Dick Kaukas)
    • Reference 140 needs an author (Alicia C. Shepard)
      • Can you please just make sure every reference with an author is added? HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 7:14, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
@HickoryOughtShirt?4: – I think that I have fixed the issues that were mentioned above, as for the newspapers, I can't clip them because I do not have an account on that website. The way I read those articles for free with no account or free trial, is by clicking on the text that says "Show Page (Page Number) article text (OCR)."BlueShirtz (talk) 16:34, 8 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
BlueShirtz, reference 81 still needs an author (Diane Hughes) and the article 5 new rides for 2015 at Kentucky Kingdom is just a bunch of ads for me. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 23:08, 8 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
@HickoryOughtShirt?4: – I added the author's name for source 81, and I used a new source for the information about the park's 2015 additions. BlueShirtz (talk) 23:31, 8 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
BlueShirtz, Okay well it was a lot of work but it was worth it  . Congrats! HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 23:35, 8 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
@HickoryOughtShirt?4: – Thank you! BlueShirtz (talk) 23:36, 8 May 2020 (UTC)Reply

Tower of Power incident edit

I removed the reference to https://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/houseorgan/archive/HO_609/Moment2.htm and the statement about the cable getting wrapped around Lassiter's neck. Not only is it questionable, the source is also no longer available. If the cable had wrapped around her neck, she would have been decapitated. There are multiple accounts of the incident including the court documents referenced a sentence or two later. None of them mention a cable around her neck. Although the page in question can be found through the Wayback machine, I don't think it is a valid source — it is a University newsletter. It appears to be well-written but I do think it is in error.JlACEer (talk) 15:09, 28 March 2021 (UTC)Reply