On a side note, he was also involved with the construction of Fiesta Texas, and said that they had a 14% interest in the park and were having to write huge checks to cover the immense losses the park was incurring every year. They had to pay money (I think he said $20mil) to sell their share to the insurance company who owned to rest of the park. Ironically, when Premier went to buy the park they approached Gaylord (owners of Opryland) about investing in their aqcuisition!
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Touchè, teacher, touchè.
It seemed odd to me that it happened so quickly. Their Hangman coaster was only a year or too old so it isn't like they were contemplating closing the park very far in advance of when it happened. I certainly didn't think the park looked like it needed a major overhaul.
The timing of the drop off in occupancy may have something to do with the loss of the park but I suspect it has more to do with the general downturn in the company. Many corporations who otherwise went to Opryland for their big meetings/conventions started staying closer to home after 9/11 as well.
RIP Chaos
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Join Rideworld, and tell them that coaster-freak sent you!!!
You can still enjoy a Piece of Opryland at Six Flags America. I had heard that the main train came from Opryland
Yep, that's Beatrice, one of our Three Locomotives. Originally she was a beautiful Steam Engine, but Gaylord converted her to diesel to save costs in the early 80's.
The uprising of Branson and Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg didn't help Opryland much either. Nashville was slowly loosing the title of Vacation destination in that area, to these "Tourist Towns" that are literally nothing but Hotels, Shows, and Attractions.
But, in those final years, Dollywood was really beating Opryland at there own game. Lower Admission for the same amount of rides, shows, and better employees in a cleaner atmosphere. Dollywood had become the Pre-90's Opryland. (Now Dollywood is having problems of it's own, but that is for another thread)
IMO in the long run would have just been easier for Gaylord to put more money into the park, but I believe they were going to close it no matter what anyway.
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"The Mountain Slidewinder. Voted The #1 Non-Rollercoaster Ride in America Amusement Business Magazine, 1991"
*** This post was edited by Dukeis#1 9/9/2003 2:28:17 AM ***
Dukeis#1 said:
(Now Dollywood is having problems of it's own, but that is for another thread)------------------
Can you explain this please? I'm curious because I thought Dollywood's attendance was up and always had been. What kind of trouble are they having.
Attendance is down this year as well, but that can be expected dew the the Bad Weather. On one of my July visits, park turn-out was less than 900, according to an employee.
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"The Mountain Slidewinder. Voted The #1 Non-Rollercoaster Ride in America Amusement Business Magazine, 1991"
Enlighten us with your findings.
I won't get pissed off.
Yes, there have been some problems at DW recently,Bad weather,Layoffs(20 were laid off apparently due to their jobs not being neccesary) but these things happen at every park.
Things can't be that bad,since we're getting the largest GCI ever built next year. :)
I love to hear problems going on at my home park.
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Can you feel the thunder?
Thunderhead comes to Dollywood in 2004!
Back to Opryland...Dukeis#1 is right I think when he said that Opryland faced a lot of heavy competition from Dollywood (not to mention SFOG and KK before it was SFKK).
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Nashville needs a theme park!
coaster-freak said:
RIP Chaos------------------
Join Rideworld, and tell them that coaster-freak sent you!!!
That ride was so awsome...I was only 8 or 9 when I visited Opryland for the first and last time, and I dont remember hardly any of the park, but I remember Chaos like it was yesterday. For whatever reason, I'll never forget that ride.
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The Millenium Force ride Ops: Squishing you where it counts since 2000.
Track Record: 62 coasters at 17 parks.
WAs it a rash decisions to close? Maybe. Should they have sourced an operator? Maybe. Should they not have been involved with Fiesta Texas? Maybe. They have more money than they know what to do with, so in their eyes, they did the right thing, which we respect.
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"Step on that lapbar and make it nice and tight!"
After working at the park in my teens it became evident that the parks focus was not on rides, while there were a few and some of them unique and good, but rather the focus was on music and entertainment. The largest crowds were during Fan Fair week in June- consistently year after year (I recall one day that had 45,000 attendees). Had they focused on rides they could have improved their revenue by purchasing, for instance: a woodie, a B&M coaster of any variety available at the time, a new flat ride or several would have been nice too, among other rides. We'll never know, however, because they chose to destroy rather than invest. When it came to serious capital improvements they were completely oblivious to what was going on in the amusement industry because it was not their focus. That was their downfall. SFOG had a lot more to offer in the way of rides and so why go to Opryland to ride something you've ridden a million times when you can go ride something new at SFOG practically each season.
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"The Mountain Slidewinder. Voted The #1 Non-Rollercoaster Ride in America Amusement Business Magazine, 1991"
*** This post was edited by Dukeis#1 9/14/2003 3:19:18 PM ***
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