The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis has been showing its age. What started as noticeable roughness has gotten to the point that marathoning The Boss is not something I would do. Just watch a recent POV of The Boss. I think the time is coming when the park is going to have to do something with The Boss. I am holding out hope that they will RMC the Boss.
What is RMC?
Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) burst onto the coaster scene by taking an old rough coaster, Texas Giant, and turned it into almost a new roller coaster called New Texas Giant. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who prefers the old Texas Giant to the new one. RMC has only improved since then.
Take for example the masterpiece at Cedar Point, Steel Vengeance. Vengeance began its life as a rather uninspired wooden roller coaster called Mean Streak. Cedar Point which is known for impressing even the most discerning of coaster enthusiast. With Mean Streak they had a dud. In steps RMC, and their I-Box track. They were able to take the structure of Mean Streak, and turn it into almost everyone’s favorite coaster of all time. Something that sticks out about an RMC conversion is that it cost significantly less than building a new premium ride, with similar thrills.
Alan Schilke, the lead designer of RMC, achieves this because he can use the structure of the previous coaster. Thus making it the cheapest way for a park to get top-tier thrills, for a lower price. This brings us back to The Boss. Cost is an important part of the reason that I think The Boss should be RMC’d. Six Flags St. Louis doesn’t have the budget for adding new rides like Magic Mountain, or Cedar Point.
RMC Boss cost issues
In the hierarchy of the Six Flags chain, St. Louis is on the lower end of the middle when it comes to new investments. It seems very unlikely that Six Flags would, or could pay out 30 plus million it would cost, for a B&M Giga, Like Orion at King’s Island, for St. Louis. A new RMC conversion, which creates the same buzz in the industry as a Giga cost around half that much.
Then with all this upside why haven’t they already RMC’d The Boss? First The Boss still gets good ridership. If I am looking at which coasters have a good chance of being torn down, I look for the ones that are almost always a walk-on. The Boss’s line is consistently packing them in. Full trains dispatch from that station daily. I hear an awful lot of people complaining about how rough The Boss is, yet I see a good amount of people lined up to ride it. If the coaster is still packing them in then why tear it down, and start over the park might think.
The second pertains to sunk costs. The park back in 2018 already spent a good amount of money retooling the back half of the ride. They removed the double helix that was the ride’s finale. Spending that money to extend the life of The Boss as it currently stands. Yet I can tell you that the park has for sure considered doing this.
They have considered it before
One day during the 2020 operating season I did strike up a conversation with one of the managers at Six Flags St. Louis. He told me that he had years ago seen an official POV mock-up, from RMC themselves, of what they would do if they were to give it the conversion. That means The Boss was considered for promotion. If anything was going to greater increase the number of guests per year, I can think of no better way than for Six Flags St. Louis to make this happen. It would become a destination park for enthusiasts as well. There is no doubt that yearly revenue would increase if they made this happen.
Six Flags has always been my home park. I follow just about any piece of news about it that comes up. I believe I have a very good understanding of what they will, and won’t do. My personal opinion is that the RMC treatment of The Boss is not likely to happen. When it comes to the middle of the country the majority of investments go to Six Flags Great America up in Chicago. I would say in the next 10 years only about a 15 percent chance of seeing this happen.
If not RMC what about GCI
A much more likely, and cheaper investment I could see them giving The Boss is the new GCI Steel Titan track. What this means is that instead of a new coaster they would instead look at any part of the ride that has gotten very rough, and replace the current track with a new, and more stable Steel track. My bet is on Six Flags going this route. It would help extend the operating life of The Boss significantly why not having to spend nearly as much if it was RMC doing the complete overhaul.
I really want to be wrong. Believe me, if there was a GoFundMe campaign to get RMC to promote The Boss to the CEO, I would hand over my wallet.
Check out our review of Boss. For a better understanding of how RMC performs magic. https://rockymtnconstruction.com/ibox-track/
Thanks for reading! If you have any thoughts on the future of The Boss, let me know in the comments. Also, if you found this review entertaining or helpful then would you consider sharing it with friends, family, and theme park enthusiasts?