Is Wildwood the future home for the NRCM?
Never did find any attendance information for them, bu seeing how the U.S. can support two competing museums like these, maybe there are enough tourists with too much time on their hands to keep a place like the NRCM afloat. Really really cheap admission and air conditioning in the summer would doubtless be the clincher.
And who knows? It might be educational. Is there any group more in desperate need of getting some smarts than amusement park patrons? ;)
Rob Ascough said:
If a barbed wire museum can survive in La Crosse, KS, I'm sold on a roller coaster museum surviving in Wildwood, NJ.
Sure. But then again you think Conneaut is still a viable business. ;)
(just playing :) )
Exactly. And, in fact, the RNRHF+M has struggled with attendance since the year it opened. In fact, that's the only time I've been there. I wouldn't put a coaster museum in Cleveland.
Lord Gonchar said:
And an equal argument could be made that it's a bad location for the NRCM as well.Seems like all you did was re-enforce Jeff's point.
By that logic, then every debate you've made for Conneaut Lake or whatever your pet subject is goes the same way.
Rob Ascough said:
...you don't care for NJ so no one else does?
Sure, because the overhead in those two places is totally comparable.
Rob Ascough said:
If a barbed wire museum can survive in La Crosse, KS, I'm sold on a roller coaster museum surviving in Wildwood, NJ.
Someone mentioned Orlando, and that might be a better choice in terms of a sheer number of bodies, but there sure are a lot of things competing for your attention there.
Successful museums have a pretty consistent set of attributes:
1) Huge corporate sponsors that dump a ton of cash into them.
2) Association with a purely philanthropic group.
3) Located near or in a district of culturally significant things like universities, other museums, theaters, restaurants or sports venues.
Of the last six museums I've been to, all but one has all three of those properties.
And comparing a coaster museum to the rock or football halls is laughable. Outside of enthusiast circles, rock music and pro football have far greater cultural impact than coasters ever will.
*** Edited 7/26/2007 7:32:11 PM UTC by Jeff***
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
There's also a barbed wire museum in McLean, TX. I don't think the crowd interested in coasters could sustain two museums.
Dag nabbit! Those blasted barbed wire enthusiasts got us again! (shakes fist)
Jeff said:
So when you get tired of a debate, does everyone just revert to sarcasm and poor attempts at humor? Are "your mama" jokes next?
Maybe. I'll see what kind of mood I'm in later on. I might chose to take my humor in another direction such as Airplane/Naked Gun slapstick. Then again, my attempts at humor are admittedly pretty poor, unlike my attempts at sarcasm, which I think are finely polished.
Someone mentioned Orlando, and that might be a better choice in terms of a sheer number of bodies, but there sure are a lot of things competing for your attention there.
Yeah, you could say that. Seriously, who is going to go to Orlando- theme park capital of the world, and make time for a roller coaster museum? A museum has to be in a location that already attracts the kind of crowd the museum aims to attract. La Crosse, KS seems to have people that appreciate that sort of thing. What better place for a roller coaster museum than an active amusement area with lots of tourists that will probably eat up that kind of thing? You act as though there is no interest whatsoever in roller coasters... this, coming from a guy running a website that has a few thousand members.
And comparing a coaster museum to the rock or football halls is laughable. Outside of enthusiast circles, rock music and pro football have far greater cultural impact than coasters ever will.
I know it is. Everything that supports something you don't agree with is laughable. That's what makes debating with you the equivalent of repeatedly slamming my hand in the car door. Yet for some reason, I keep doing it. Go figure.
No one is saying roller coasters have/had the same cultural impact as things like the NFL and MLB. But if there's room in society for something like a barbed wire museum, surely there's room for a roller coaster museum. And if you don't think so, maybe you should tell the NRCMA how dumb and misguided they all are. I'm sure they'll change their minds once they hear from you, seeing as how you clearly have more experience and more information than they have accumulated.
Damnit, there goes my sarcasm again. Bad Rob... bad, bad Rob.
*** Edited 7/26/2007 7:47:27 PM UTC by Rob Ascough***
A day at the park is what you make it!
Jeff said:
Of course New Jersey has tourist traffic, it's located in one of the biggest metro areas in the world! And yes, I've been there. It's the getting in and out of its "good" parts that make it exactly the kind of place I don't want to go back to. People in the Midwest aren't exactly thinking, "Let's go on vacation to New Jersey!" Not that I've surveyed the entire region, but a quick nod around the aisle here at work, I'm the only person who has even been in the state.Huh?? So it is so hard to get into the area because of all the traffic and large crowds? That is like the old Yogi Berra quote "Nobody goes there anymore, its too crowded." - (and Yogi lives in Jersey now LOL)
As for Cleveland and the Rock and Roll HOF. Sometimes a HOF belongs with it's historical roots (ie, Cooperstown, Canton, and Springfield for the major sports) and Cleveland with the Alan Freed shows is considered the birthplace of Rock and Roll. Roller coasters weren't invented on the Jersey shore but it is a big part of the history of coasters so not a bad fit.
And thanks for supplying an always-appropriate Yogi Berra quote!
But there are thousands of niche museums all over the place (I've been to many of them). What is the argument even about anymore? That the NRCM won't work in a busy place because it is too busy, it won't work anywhere else because midwesterners only travel to Orlando, and roller coasters have no cultural significance so I should give up the hobby and start collecting barbed wire?
And how do you define culturally significant? Culture is much more than fine art and theater. If anything, that is the exception rather than the norm. I'm sure more people have ridden a roller coaster than have seen an opera. Sometimes what appears frivolous and common is exactly what defines a culture.
It's funny to make jokes about barbed wire but when you stop and think about it, barbed wire played a pretty large role in American society and western development. It is culturally significant even if the number of hardcore enthusiasts may be small. And a roller coaster museum showcasing a large part of society's recreational history is every bit as culturally significant as loud guitar music and chasing an oddly shaped ball around a field.
Not to quibble but the Twist was I believe 1960. Rock and Roll predates that by quite a few years.
Culture is whatever you want it to be. Some people like fine art, poetry and theater. Some people like graffiti, rock & roll and Monty Python movies. This is a huge country, and surely there are enough people to justify the creation of a museum for just about anything. And in the big picture, I don't see roller coasters and amusement parks being at the very bottom of the list. Talk to pretty much any grandparent-type figure and they'll surely be able to tell you a story about them being at an amusement park. To me, that makes amusements in general something noteworthy, and much more than a mere footnote.
There are probably better locations for a roller coaster museum, but I can also think of ones a lot worse. A vibrant beachside resort town that's one of the most popular vacation destinations in the country (go ahead, look it up- you'll see I'm not lying). A location that's within range of not only a huge part of the country's population but a large number of the enthusiasts that will really patronize the place. Sounds pretty good to me.
Rob Ascough said:
Just as bad an idea as a boardwalk, amusements, houses and hotels/motels.
Yeah... but these are places that can be rebuilt. The artificats in a museum can only be replaced by replicas once destroyed.
A day at the park is what you make it!
Of course anything is possible. There have been hurricanes out of the gulf that reached the upper midwest in the not-too-distant past.
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