Attorney says Freestyle Music theme park will not open this summer

And you see, that's a very good example of how their is no one right and perfect answer to the question of what they did wrong. I had a chance to go to MB for a week just after HRP opened, and if I had gone, HRP would have been the main reason for going. I looked over the ride selection and decided that, as far as rides go, they just didn't have much that I was interested in.

I love water rides, and when I go to a park, I often look forward to water rides almost as much as I look forward to the coasters.

As some wise CoasterBuzz posters sometimes say, ymmv.

Oh, and I don't know why, but I don't consider a suspended coaster that gets people wet to be a water ride, for some reason.

If you were going for the rides, you were missing the point.

Although in fairness, that's not the message the park conveyed - and it should have been.

I know. I am all about theme, and as a hard rock musician, I love hard rock music. But I am a coaster fan too, and the coasters there really didn't appeal to me.

Spending a whole week at the beach entirely for the reason to go to this park wasn't working for me.

I suppose it is a failure on many levels.

I don't think anyone, including the original owners, expected anyone to spend a whole week at the beach entirely to go to this park. Granted, knowing that they wanted to add a water park, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, and open up the Paradise City retail/ent. complex shows that they were trying eventually for a multi day stay, but I think they were trying (or at least on paper, saying they were trying) to get tourists already at the beach to spend a day there.

Only having experience with the 2nd brand, I think that had they marketed the park more as "Broadway at the Beach/Barefoot Landing...with rides", it may have went over better. Have an open gate, focus on the theming, shows (heck, the ice show was great, they could have lengthened it and charged for it), hold B level artist concerts at the grand stand, and have a pay per ride or POP bracelet option for the rides, while beefing up the food and focusing on retail, the mixed use kind of place may have worked as an after hours place.

Live music, dancing, clubs, shopping, food, and attractions has worked for Barefoot Landing, Broadway at the Beach, and now the Market Commons in Myrtle Beach. It used to be the draw for down town till it all dried up. This would be a step in that direction with a different target audience.

Tekwardo said:
I think that had they marketed the park more as "Broadway at the Beach/Barefoot Landing...with rides", it may have went over better.

I've been saying that since day one. You're dead on.

Seems to me the biggest mistake by both owners was trying to sell this to people as an amusement park.

Not sure about FMP, but as HRP - yes, there were few rides, but there was so much else to do. If they had sold people on the "so much else" and not the rides, I think they would have not only attracted more people, but also disappointed less of them.

FMP seemed to miss the point entirely and try to make it more like an amusement park...making a bad situation even worse.

But yeah, I still think this location could work if they'd run and market it more along the lines of something greater...with rides rather than a lackluster amusement park.

There was definitely not 'so much else' to do at FMP. The place was deserted when I went, and the theming, while you could tell was once really good, was sterile without the HRP licensing. There were so many unused areas that were obviously used for various shows the year before.

I could see spending several hours, possibly as much as a full day at HRP, but we managed to do all the noteworthy stuff in about 3 hours while taking our sweet time.

Yeah, FMP had the potential as far as much else to do even if they didn't have it all available last year. They had venues and cleared up land where theming was ripped out. I think they could have seriously have worked on theming and shows and a few other attractions and the attractions and shows part would have been fine.

They had 3 nice large venues. One was with a crappy CSI show (that almost put me to sleep and did put AV Matt to sleep), a lakeside venue (didn't watch that show), and a huge stage (for an arbitrary stage inside of a theme park), with lots of other smaller stages. At nite they had a few local bands come in to play the smaller stages.

Had FMP (or HRP even) focues on better food, focuse on retail (this really wasn't a problem, though), opened the park in the late afternoon, had local bands come in and play at the different stages, rand the rides (with sound!), and then had a few pay to see shows like an expanded ice show and others, THEN marketed it as such, it could have worked.

Knowing that Broadway was coming years after Barefoot Landing had been there, I couldn't figure out why, but they're both sustainable and highly attended. Then they put in the Upscale Market Commons which kind of took the mold and changed it into even more upscale shopping/dining/living/lodging and even office space. I thought they were crazy, but again, it's sustainable.

This in an area with the new Coastal Grand Mall, the Myrtle Beach Mall, and 2 or 3 Tanger Outlets. Shopping in MB is like Golf, if you build it, they WILL come.

I still think FMP could be re-formatted and made into something amazing.

Tekwardo said:
Had FMP (or HRP even) focues on better food, focuse on retail (this really wasn't a problem, though), opened the park in the late afternoon, had local bands come in and play at the different stages, rand the rides (with sound!), and then had a few pay to see shows like an expanded ice show and others, THEN marketed it as such, it could have worked.

Yes! Yes yes yes yes!

The thing is that all of those (with the exception of real retail beyond souvenir-type crap) were pretty much already present at HRP. They were SO close to really pulling that idea off.

But they sold it to people as a theme park...