Ben and I were fortunate enough to attend this morning's ceremony.  The Schlitterbahn team put on quite a show.

Here's a link to the new Schlitterbahn construction gallery.

Photos

I'll dig through all of the info that they gave us and post additional information later.

Here's a shot of Ben Doozer that they'll be using to push dirt around.  He's smiling because he knew what I was going to do with his photo. 

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Wooh all hail schlitterbahn!!!!!

I think if I seen Ben Dozer, that would be scarier than Halloween-Haunt-Ben 

Maybe because KC is the heart of the US almost?

Honestly KC seamed a little weird for me at first too.  But it does kind of make sense really if you stop and think about it.  This park is meant to be a destination for an entire vacation.  Not just a day trip kind of thing.  With that in mind it only matters how easy it is to get to the park for the most amount of people.

I remember hearing that they looked at building this park in two other cities besides KC.  I think they were Orlando and Anaheim.  Which of course SOUND like more obvious choices.  But there are more people within an 8 1/2 hour drive of KC then either of those two cities.  I have NO idea how true that is but it does seam to make sense especially because those two cites would be very competitive to try and build this type of park in. 

Although the people of KC will enjoy this park it is really meant for the entire region and I think you will easily see them targeting other cites more heavily than they target the kc metro with there advertising.

Lets also not forget the HUGE tax benefit they received from KCK to build this thing there.

plus less competition here, in Orlando and Anaheim you have to compete with disney and sea world

That is what I was trying to say with this comment

...especially because those two cites would be very competitive to try and build this type of park in. 

But you said it much better and way clearer than I did Thanks.

What Kind of effect do you think this will have on WoF?  I know it will probably hurt OoF (maybe not for the locals cause we will probably still go there to avoid the largest crowds.)

I think this could really help WoF.  People that would have never even been in the city without Schlitterbahn might decide to make the 20 minute drive and spend the evening in WoF or even make a full day of it.

I could be wrong but what do you guys think?

Well, I saw things have changed at the Schlitterbahn site. The black top of the main section of the old Fairground has been torn up and is being removed, they are flag markers around the storm drains that are still there. On another note Schlitterbahn has moved in the old Farm Bureau Building and now have offices there for the project. Also the Trailers that were posted on each of the corners of the lot now have the Schlitterbahn signs (THe ones as seen at the Media Groundbreaking Event) on them.

I hope to see more activity here and I hope to see it moving faster.

During my weekly Screamscape search I spotted this piece of news.

At the IAAPA tradeshow Schlitterbahn Vacation Village announced that they would be building a SkyVenture indoor skydiving simulator in 2009 as part of the $750 million project. Located in the Riverwalk area “enclosed in an enormous clear cylinder, guests soar on wall-to-wall airflow created by multiple overhead fans providing the safest and most realistic freefall simulation imaginable.” Phase One of the Vacation Village project opening in Summer 2009 will include the SkyVenture, several lodging components, shops, restaurants and phase one of the water park resort. Additional phases and projects will be added until the entire project is complete by Summer 2011.
  While I think the addition of a SkyVenture is a cool idea, I do worry that the high profile SkyVenture at Universal Studios Citywalk in Hollywood was first said to open back in 2005 and to this date, still has not managed to open.

http://www.screamscape.com/html/water_parks.htm