mississippi and amusement parks

Why won't anyone build an amusement park here in Mississippi. I'm pretty sure if they built a small amusement park here it would do good, because everyone would go there so that they won't have to drive so far away. People in my hometown, Tupelo, have to drive to Memphis's Libertyland, or Atlanta's Six Flags Over Georgia. It just ain't right.

*** This post was edited by playaj88 on 8/6/2002. ***

Well, this is just a guess but the census bureau states that the total population for the whole state is around 2.8 million. Combine that low amount for a state with no major populated cities that have no real tourist stronghold, and you have a state where a park really wouldnt do to good.

Heck, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York alone each have a higher population than the whole state of Mississippi.

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Ric Flair was hitting on the female host, he told her - "Space Mountain may be the oldest ride in the park, but it has the longest line." WOOOOO!

*** This post was edited by Chitown on 8/6/2002. ***

wow, The metro detroit population is greater then that of the enitre state of Mississippi...

I thought Missississississississippi was bigger then that.

Mississippi may have a small population but you are forgetting one MAJOR thing..

Mississippi is home to the second largest gaming area in America, Tunica County, MS... Thats right.. second behind Vegas for gambling.... over 30 million people visit tunica annually.. yep, I said 30 million! There is Massive potential for a chain like SF or Cedar Fair to make lots of bucks in this area. If only they would take a chance...

So next time, factor that into the argument when you blast Mississippi or other smaller states....

NAH! :)

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

Who's blasting it Chris? I was just making an assumption of why a park is not there. Dont go accusing people of blasting something when that obviously isnt the case.

Second biggest gaming area? I dont doubt that but gamblers usually arent park goers. You may see a few coasters sprinkled into Vegas but do you see a full blown park? Nope!!!

My guess as to why Miss. has no park still stands. :)

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Ric Flair was hitting on the female host, he told her - "Space Mountain may be the oldest ride in the park, but it has the longest line." WOOOOO!

Yes, Vegas doesnt have much in the way of full fledged amusement parks, but they do make some serious coin on the rides they have. Also, I remember seeing Adventure dome in the top 10 for attendace when someone posted the list on here somewhere... I think they had over 5 million visitors... Thats more than most parks in America after you toss out the Disneys and Universals. Someone with the attendance figures please list them again... Anyways, those attractions have helped Vegas become more of a family destination than it was 20 years ago. Now, millions of families visit Las Vegas. The same thing could happen with Tunica. One casino has a children's arcade and that thing is full every night! Parents drop their kids off and head across the street to gamble. Heck, you could open up a Go Kart track near the casinos and become a millionaire faster than you could at a casino :) Imagine opening up a small park with a few coasters.. Man, the money would roll in!

Chitown, sorry for being so defensive. I am from this area and I hear so many people blasting it so often, I am used to being that way.. My Bad! :)

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

I sort of agree with Chris. Tunica would be an ideal place because of the casino's and the tourists it brings in plus you have Memphis right up the road and Little Rock nearby.

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Chitown said:

Well, this is just a guess but the census bureau states that the total population for the whole state is around 2.8 million. Combine that low amount for a state with no major populated cities that have no real tourist stronghold, and you have a state where a park really wouldnt do to good.

Heck, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York alone each have a higher population than the whole state of Mississippi.

Jackson, MS has over 120,000 people in the city and 350,000 in their metropolitan area. The gulf coast in Mississippi, which includes Gulfport and Biloxi has a population of about 700,000 people, plus they have 11 beatiful casinos down there. I find it hard to believe that an amusement park wouldn't do good in any one of these places. I think that a Tunica amusement park would do well because almost everyone who lives in MS has been to Tunica. And if you want proof that some sort of an amusement park would survive in MS, look at Geyser Falls Water Park at the Pearl River Resort in Philidelphia, MS. It's doing really good, and that place only has two casinos and only about 20,000 people live there.

Also, you said that Chicago, LA, and NY have a higher population than Mississippi; most of those cities have a higher population than Kentucky, and they have a Six Flags with one of the largest stand-up coasters in America. And of course Chicago, LA, and NY are bigger than our state; they're the three largest cities in America. So there is no really good comparison there.

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*** This post was edited by playaj88 on 8/6/2002. ***

I think Holiday World proves to everyone that a park can be built anywhere.

If tunica built a theme park, look at the cities within a 10 hour drive....

Memphis, TN 1,135,614

Nashville, TN 1,231,311

Louisville, KY 1,025,598

Little Rock, AR 583,845

Jackson, MS 440,801

New Orleans, LA 1,337,726

Birmingham, AL 921,106

Atlanta, GA 4,112,198

St. Louis, MO 2,603,607

Dallas, TX 5,221,801

Chicago, IL 9,157,540

Add up those populations and tell me what you get. Those arent even the cities that have about 500,000 like Baton Rouge, LA or Knoxville, TN. Add the 35 or so million tourists that visit the Memphis/Tunica area and you would have a pretty darn big demographic!

** numbers taken from US 2000 census located at.. http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t3/tab03.xls

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

*** This post was edited by Chris Godsey on 8/6/2002. ***

Why did you pick such a WIIIIIIIDDDDDDE radius? Isnt 10 hours a bit long to be driving to some silly-assed amusement park for sane people (read: non-enthusiasts)? I mean really, that would have to be a DAMN good park (I'm talking Disney-esque) to get people from Chi to drive down when they could (for example) drive over to Detroit/Winsor to gamble and hit up CP. (Not to mention that they could just hit the boats and SFGAm).

Chris, to say you are streching to make a point doesnt even come close to accurately describing your claim. Stick to the 35mill tourist arguement, that was stronger. You've only made your side weaker with this new "evidence".
jeremy

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"To get inside this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do

Post 9-11, more families are packing up the cars and driving to the regional theme park and making a vacation out of it. Chains like Disney and Universal are the ones hurting because of this. Regional parks are the ones making money and it will continue to be that way for at least until this time next year. Before 9-11, the travelling radius for most regional parks was right at 8 hours. Now, that radius has grown tremendously. People do drive 10 hours+ to go to a great park. Look at Cedar Point or Busch Gardens... If you dont think so, go to your local regional park and peruse the license plates in the parking lot. When I went to SRM, I saw so many states represented there.... Even if you took Dallas and Chicago off of that list, the numbers are still pretty high. Add the tourism and you have a nice big number to pool from :)

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

There were plans to build a theme park in Tunica County. I recall seeing news of it last year. I seem to recall something about it being USA-themed.

Does anyone else remember this?

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Matthew "mamoosh" Sullivan
[aka DaDoosh, thanks to pikfanatic]

I believe one of the casinos in MS just built a reasonably large waterpark...I saw the commercials for it in Atlanta, which is not quite a 10 hour drive, but the advertising radius IS quite large.

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My two favorite coasters are named Superman.
Nitro, Gemini, Laser, Ice, Thunder...The American Gladiators!

Well, I live here in Memphis, TN. Tunica isn't that bad of a drive. Maybe a hour or so, but I do remeber hearing in the paper one day that they were thinking of building a theme park down there. Us down here need more than Liberty Land!

Maybe if Libertyland were given more support than the 500,000 annual visitors it gets now then they might add something.

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Off with the trims!
My fellow Americans; Let's Roll!
Woodencoaster.com

To say that you saw bumper stickers from all over at SRM says nothing about the GP. The people who attend SRM are not the GP. Because of it's location, HW can draw from parts of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio.

There are a few exceptional small parks that succeed in isolated locations. These include Holiday World, Indiana Beach, and Knobels. These parks seem to succeed by 1) being small, 2) providing something exceptional, 3)cultivating a fanatical following by locals, 4) appealing to the strange people who post on boards like this one. ;) I love these small parks, but I'm not sure that emulating them is good business planning.

The theme park that was planned for Mississippi was rumered to be called Wild Country USA and was planned to the the largest park in the USA with plans to open with 8 coasters. But I haven't heard anything lately on this so you can blame that idiot Bin Laden and his 9-11-2001 stupidity for this for discouraging park developers from moving on with the project. At least that is what I've heard.

What's Iowa's population and how many parks does it have?

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Excalibur Team Lead 2002

If Libertyland only had that many visitors.. They are a client of mine and last year they didnt even have half that amount. But this year, they are over 500,000 already! Things are looking good for a new coaster in the near future ;)

I know I shouldnt have used SRM as an example. Its an enthusiast event. But, regional parks are pulling more visitors from far away. Post 9/11, people are driving further to regional parks rather than flying to the same old park destinations... 3 out of 5 of my clients have increases of at least 25% this year alone. They are all small or decent sized regional parks that a some didnt even add anything!

You mean, that same WCUSA thats in my signature, right??? Its not dead, it's just gathering steam (and money) ;)

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!