BGT Drop Tower Rumors

More rumors have been spreading about a drop tower at Busch Gardens (Screamscape):

2012 / 2013 - Drop Tower - Rumor - (1/30/12) Legend from CoasterCrew was visiting BGT over the weekend and managed to grab a photo of survey work in progress at the Sandstorm ride. Looks like the rumors about it being replaced with something new may be coming true. Lets just hope they decide to give Sandstorm a new home somewhere else… maybe by Montu or Kumba, because Sandstorm is really the only good flat ride in the entire park.
(12/12/11) The latest word on the rumored drop tower ride proposed for the Sandstorm location claims that the ride may not be planned to open until late 2012 at the earliest, so it sounds like this may be intended more as a 2013 attraction.
(9/21/11) Possibly backing up the rumor of a drop tower coming to the Tampa park, a reader reports that during the grand opening of Cheetah Hunt, they had a moment to speak with “the rides designer (forget his name)”, which I’m guessing may have been Mark Rose. In any case, when they asked him about what was coming next to the park he simply said to watch for what the other parks were getting to figure out what was coming next. Though with the problems the park had putting in Mach Tower in Williamsburg, I’m kind of surprised they would be ready to drop one into Tampa before they’ve had a good bit of time to give the first one a good shakedown. Anyway… this is all still just a rumor at this point, so stay tuned!

Here's the picture of the survey markings from Legend at Coaster Crew Facebook:



















http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2522674791462&set=a.1639550073896.2079092.1391101425&type=1&theater

It looks like the drop tower, if true, will indeed go up in SandStorm's location, as originally rumored. I hope they relocate SandStorm, like maybe in Jungala, or by Kumba/Congo River Rapids. They could really use a ride like SandStorm.

I wonder if the area around the drop tower location (SandStorm's current location) would be redone (like Stanleyville-SheiKra, Crown Colony-Cheetah Hunt, Oktoberfest-Mäch Tower), with maybe new facades. I can see it happen, and possibly a redo of the Desert Grill restaurant (with new tables, though the current ones are decent).

I really hope this gets built! BGT needs a drop tower. I'm kind of leaning towards Intamin for this one, but maybe it could be Moser (the ones who did Mäch Tower in Williamsburg). If it were Intamin, it could almost be like Cheetah Hunt to Verbolten (Cheetah Hunt is an Intamin, Verbolten is a Zierer).

Hopefully more info comes soon!