Potential buyers plan Hard Rock Park overhaul

Jeff said:
The smooth sounds of James Taylor, now on the electric wheelchair with a governor installed ride...

Nice. Jeff made a funny. :)

I've seen fire and I've seen rain...

All music can be offensive, I'm not saying anyone is "picking" on rock but the association with "dark" subject matter is like comparing Rap to gangster life style and drugs or pop to teenage slut wannabes lol. I really wish I would have been able to make it there as Hard Rock, but I understand the limited audience idea. In HS about 80% of kids listened to rap and pop exclusively, so anything with "hard rock" in the name would have no appeal to anyone like them. Of course I don't live anywhere near the park, but I do get it.

My take on this:

If a brewing company can successfully run family friendly parks for decades while promoting their products throughout their parks, no reason to think the Hard Rock name is not family friendly.

Maybe if they stressed that they have more than just hard rock, they'd get somewhere. The park had country already, but maybe if they changed the punk section to a pop section, for example, they could attract more of an audience. I am pretty much a metal head (lol), but I understand that not everyone likes what I like. They should make the park more appealing to more people.

I said in a post awhile back that a childrens section themed to the Kidz Bop cds would be a marketable addition.

Lord Gonchar said:

Jeff said:
The smooth sounds of James Taylor, now on the electric wheelchair with a governor installed ride...

Nice. Jeff made a funny. :)

I've seen fire and I've seen rain...

Hehe, good one. Who needs Soft Rock Park, I'm going to Carolina In My Mind.

I thought I read somewhere, that the "Hard rock" name was costing the park over a million$$$ every year.

Sounds like a good reason to me to drop the name. Is the name "Hard rock", really worth a million bucks worth of buisness?

Are you kidding me? That was a drop in the bucket, and worth getting the name on every menu in the chain.

They could just cut out the "Hard" and call it Rock Park. I doubt Hard Rock has a copyright on the word "Rock", all by itself.

Or they could call it Between a Rock and a Hard Park.
Rocktoberfest -- nah, already been done.
Rocktopia -- wasn't that a Hall and Oates album or something?
Rock This Town? What, a little too Stray Cats?

By the way, LostKause, if you have to specify in your signature that YOU ROCK, then odds are you probably don't. Just sayin' . . . ;)

I have to dissagree, The Hard Rock brand was part of the failure on many different levels. The least being five dollars of every admission was going for the brand name HARD ROCK Alone The park was paying HRI 2.5 million a year to use the name. Not to mention royalties to Led Zepplin, Eagles, Moody Blues ect Probably 40 percent of the gate was to cover this stuff. I've been consistant from before the park openend that the number of attractions didn't equal the gate price.You Claim Family Friendly and I'll agree to that, That the brand is and HR Cafes are. But the webside claimed HELLA RIDES, Hellatious Jobs, HELL ON WHEELS ECT. Yeah, Small potatoes compared to F and B bombs but a 45 year old mother of two teens gets turned off by that. and the people who have the real money are Country 10 to 1It also narrowed the marketing. Im told there were several areas of the park and several different music venues offered. Yet Hard Rock name alone doesn't include any of that. IMHO the Eagles were mostly C&W from the start with a few Rock songs.The important thing is, The park was built. The infastructure is there, Some base rides are there. A group purchasing with any capital at all for improvments and marketing should be able to capatalize big. I don't know why some major players didn't dive in like CF and others. Hell Broke Six flags has no problem laying 25 mill on one ride.Chuck, Thinking parks will be fully staffed this year but wonders if attendance will support that long.

I get a kick out of the article saying that the ocean/beaches are the number 1 tourist attraction at MB. While I don't dispute that, that is like saying BGA is a dead duck because of the beautiful beaches in the Tampa/Brandenton/Sarasota area. I guarantee these beaches have alot more beauty then anything MB has to offer. MB is also known for its golfing just like Florida.

As Jeff and others pointed out, this park failed because of lack of advertising/marketing.

How do you open a brand spanking new park and not market it?

Well, you could call it "Granite Park." Granite is an EXTREAMLY "hard rock," the second hardest substance on earth. Only diamonds can cut the stuff.

Maybe the state of NH, "The Granite State," can be a small sponsor.

^Not sure if you know already, but the name "Granite Park" has already been taken by a place in Fresno, CA (one that will likely never come to pass, but the rides are on-site already). Sammy Hagar was invested in that he had a Cabo Wabo there, and several other restaurants/clubs were planned or operating....but now the "Grand Plans" are apparently being ground to a fine granite powder. http://www.rcdb.com/pd1701.htm

Mr. Smith, when I am on stage in front of over 1000 cheering people, opening for a major label band, I quite literally rock. My last band's CD sold over 1000 copies in a year, which is pretty good for an unsigned act who played less than two shows a month. Thanks for giving me the idea to put the band's MySpace in my signature. :)

Then more power to you, Mr. Kause. ;)

Kause, I stand corrected, as I did not know about the plans you speak of.

Wow. He's cool.

I have never had the need to brag on here, but I was called out, and I felt the need to explain why "I rock". Don't be jealous. "Rocking" is really the only thing I have ever been successful at. You guys are, and will always be, much cooler than me at coasterbuzzing. ...Just saying.

I think I can understand the problem with the Hard Rock brand.

When I think "Hard Rock", I think about a sub-genre of music that I don't happen to enjoy. As a result, I've never had any real desire to eat in the restaurants, and while the idea of a music-themed park seems like a good idea to me, the idea of a hard rock-themed park seems rather odd to me.

Once you get to the park, it turns out that it is not a hard rock themed park at all, but rather a Hard Rock themed park, which is really a more generic rock and roll...no, more accurately, a more generic rock, pop and country themed park.

Something tells me that I am not the only person who has had misconceptions about the scope of the Hard Rock brand...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(who still thinks the park needs free parking, a gate price of around $30, and some kind of mass-appeal water ride, perhaps an old-school flume...)

^Dave said what I've been saying, he just did it more eloquently. For those familiar with the HRP brand (yankees and well-travelled people), they have the ability to distinguish between the "hard rock musical genre" and the "Hard Rock" brand. Last season saw a major dropoff in travel, and the locals aren't the people I mentioned above. Thanks Dave! :)

Oh, and I still think ya'll are missing the Southern charm of the "John Deere Park" concept....LOL! ;)