Arizona officials skeptical of Grand Canyon theme park plan

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

The idea raced through the Arizona Legislature and into law a year ago faster than a ride on the Cyclone: Create a special taxing district and build a large theme park on the road to the Grand Canyon. Wrest tourism away from Las Vegas, which has become the center for a majority of tour flights over the state's top tourist attraction. But municipal leaders in Williams and supervisors in Coconino County are losing patience with developer Mike Morgan and his Grand Canyon Northland Amusements and Entertainment investment group.

Read more from The Arizona Republic.

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The "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" ad campaign is decidedly adult-oriented.

I look at the situation here as being similar to that which exists with Dollywood in Tennessee. Dollywood is in Pigeon Forge which is another gateway community to a popular national park. Much of its business comes from tourists who come to visit the Great Smokies National Park and the numerous other attractions in the area. Dollywood is now the most important of the commercial attractions in the Smokies region and has continued to grow in recent years.

This theme park also draws from local people in the Knoxville area and as far away as Nashville. The demise of Opryland left Nashville without a major amusement park and this was a boon to both DW and BB.

The "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" ad campaign is decidedly adult-oriented.

Unless what happened was a child. ;)

Ah Lake Delores...or was it Dolores? Was it built in the 60's or 70's? I seem to remember commercials.

Flagstaff would probably be a good idea except for the fact that it's not "on the way" from Vegas to the Canyon. I think that is key to the potential success of this proposal.

I would think that Wild Adventures in Valdosta GA pretty well qualifies as a successful on the way there park. However, it succeeds because of it's modest but nice status. This proposed development is massive, and sounds like so many massive schemes where the developer isn't able to put his money where his mouth is, and probably hasn't done any real marketing studies.

Mike Morgan is a fake! He took investors on an investment roller coaster ride and when the roller coaster turned upside-down the investors lost all their money. Now he's in Vegas planning his next con. The plan for unrealistic returns with empty promises combined with "don't miss this once in a life time opportunity" has left many wondering how they could have been so gullible.

http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/03/23/news/20070323_news_18.txt

End of story.*** *** This post was edited by Joe Daddy 7/14/2007 11:56:44 PM ***

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