New Orleans plans to sue Six Flags over closed amusement park

Again, I'm kinda with you on this, but...

RatherGoodBear said:
Why would someone be averse to assisting the theme park industry as opposed to the numerous industries who do receive aid to maintain or grow their businesses?

Two things:

1. You seem to be treating this like parks are the only ones victim to this thinking. I doubt they are.

2. I'm not sure the attitude is towards the parks is adverse as much as indifferent.

The only thing I can say is that maybe the parks just don't have the impact that we think they do - especially when compared to sports teams or big box stores and restaurants and such? I dunno.

You would think that if parks were such a boon to the local area that every community would have one, want one, lobby for one, try to attract one or something like that.

I can't help but think there's more to the big picture than we're seeing.

I wonder what's the ratio of people having season passes to parks compared to those who have season tickets for sports teams... I know the price difference is probably huge, but I've never thought about it before.

I've looked into season tickets, and even partial season tickets, for the Cavs, and I just can't quite get to a point where I think it's a good value, especially compared to a season pass at CP, or even an annual pass for Disney. Granted, I'm only a basketball fan when we have a good team.

A busy theme park certainly has economic impact on its area, I don't doubt. It creates an ecosystem of hotels at the very least. But it's a different kind of impact that a sports venue has. When Gateway (what's now Progressive Field and The Q) opened in Cleveland, suddenly there were restaurants and bars all around that weren't there before. I don't think an amusement park supports business like that.

I guess without measuring, I can only postulate that it has a different economic impact that may be less or more.

^Jeff, I'd have to say an amusement park supports area businesses just as much as a sports team. I would use Cedar Point for a prime example since it's not in a metro city, and theres businesses all over the place, but it doesn't help that Cedar Point is world famous, either.

Theres an old NASCAR track, North Wilkesboro, in North Carolina. They haven't raced there since the mid 90's, and North Wilkesboro is a very small town. One would think that the town would fall apart with the loss of a major event, it's one and only. But interesting enough, the town is having more success now than it ever did before. Now, with that track there, yeah-- restaurants and hotels sprung up, but it was mostly locals within lets say 0-3 hrs radius that came to the track. They aren't going to spend a lot of money there. And basically in a nutshell, is my point for any sports venue/team.

Compare that to an amusement park, and I'd say it's different. Smaller ones will definitely soak up the locals, but the larger ones will definitely spand out to state and region wide. In this case, Six Flags New Orleans, a hot tourist city (before Katrina's wrath came), should have supported itself very well.

Lord Gonchar said:
Again, I'm kinda with you on this, but...

Two things:

1. You seem to be treating this like parks are the only ones victim to this thinking. I doubt they are.

2. I'm not sure the attitude is towards the parks is adverse as much as indifferent.

The only thing I can say is that maybe the parks just don't have the impact that we think they do - especially when compared to sports teams or big box stores and restaurants and such? I dunno.

You would think that if parks were such a boon to the local area that every community would have one, want one, lobby for one, try to attract one or something like that.

I can't help but think there's more to the big picture than we're seeing.

1. I know it's not, but it's the one we predominantly discuss here.

2. Totally agree. I'd bet if you called your congressman and asked him to provide funding for your local theme park, it would be the first such call he received. That's part of my question-- why in the scheme of things, don't we think of aiding parks as part of tourist development, economic stimulus packages, etc?

Maybe communities would want a park. But I think they also understand that it's much more difficult and expensive to build a theme park than a Best Buy. I wish I had a better example, but look what was going on out in Wheeling with the snake oil salesman who was promising them a theme park.

Another thing to consider with arenas and stadiums-- they're usually owned by a management company, and the sports team(s) are tenants. But there are huge amounts of public money involved in building every one of them. Right now the Allentown/Bethlehem area is putting together a funding package to construct an 80-100 million dollar arena that will host an AHL team (one level below the NHL). The team owner will put up 20% of the cost, the rest will come from state and local funding. If Bushkill Park could get 1/4 of one percent of that, how much could that have helped them stay open?

Amusmenet parks fall somewhere between minor-league sorts and major-league sports. When you hear about Dick K. paying his underlings 10M/year or more, then we can start talking about MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA. Until then, that's a bit of a stretch....esp. when they're talking about billion-dollar franchises in those leagues, compared to the price CF paid for the PP chain in its entirety. I do recognize the irony in that when the Saints and Hornets are still in Nawlins.

I thought that the park in Wheeling was still moving forward. What's going on with that?

We need a nice sized theme park near Huntington and Charleston, WV. I'm going to call my congressman right away. ;)

Perhaps it's even as basic a reason as a perception problem. I'm not sure the majority of folks even think about theme parks as businesses. They are recreational facilities and if you mention tax dollars going to recreational facilities, amusement parks or otherwise, I think some people might take an issue with that.

I tend to think of sports facilities as being in a category all by themselves. Not only do they bring a lot of revenue to a city, but they also bring a lot of television coverage. That kind of exposure can go a long way for a community, too.

And I agree with what Gator said, dollar for dollar the comparisons are not even close.

Still with you. Not sure how much more I really have to add though.

RatherGoodBear said:
If Bushkill Park could get 1/4 of one percent of that, how much could that have helped them stay open?

Awesome point.

But the reality is that no one cared enough to help and I doubt the area exactly misses the park - financially, personally, for the jobs...whatever angle we try to take. It's not something that was 'needed' by the local community. They're just fine without it, so why put the money there instead of somewhere else that does provide tangible benefits?

I think the reality of the situation is that the parks are that far down the ladder in terms of importance for whatever real or perceived reasons.

(Did I walk the line between good guy and bad guy well enough there? :) )

OK, it's alphabetical order... but here's what pops up on the VisitPA site (Pennsylvania's official tourism website). Looks like pretty good billing to me.

http://www.visitpa.com/things-to-do/index.aspx

I don't know how to type a long, begrudingly agreeing while still questioning, "Yeeeeaaaahhhhhh, maaaaaaybe" :)

Again, for clarity's sake - I'm not against, I'm just not convinced there isn't more at play than we either know about or are considering.

I don't know.

I just saw a Yahoo! Sports headline that the New Orleans Saints will play through 2025 at the Superdome.

I didn't read the article, just thought it was atleast a little interesting regarding this whole topic and thought I'd share.