Goodbye Hard Rock Park? Maybe not - New Buyer update page 6

[rollermonkey]

Christ, that has to be the quickest first season fail ever surely?

Let's hope they get themselves all ironed out and sorted ready for next year ay?

Nope. Wild West World lasted something like 34 days.

What really ticks me off about this though, I bought plane tickets and reserved hotel rooms and car hire for next weekend. At least I was holding off on buying my actual park ticket until next week.
:x

 

[trav]

Just like any other business many fail in their first year. HRP unfortunately opened during the same year as all the financial problems /credit crunch occurred and this would have affected peoples spending and led to lower attendances.

That shouldn't have anything to do with it. Look at England, all the parks over here are booming because of the credit crunch - people are spending more money on day trips than big holidays to foreign countries.

I'm shocked by this, but I think I knew that this was going to happen. Not many people even knew it existed, and I think it's unreasonable to put 500 million into a park in one year and not file for bankruptcy. They'd have been much better off starting on a smaller scale.

 

[ryan462]

^ Yeah I agree.
Any new park should not start on that huge scale and spending that much money.

 

[Uncle Arly]

I'm shocked by this, but I think I knew that this was going to happen. Not many people even knew it existed, and I think it's unreasonable to put 500 million into a park in one year and not file for bankruptcy. They'd have been much better off starting on a smaller scale.

I see what you're saying, but Location is a big factor. I mean think about all those new parks in Dubai that will open in a couple of years. Chances are they will do well because of the location.

They are big, if not bigger investments than Hard Rock park.

 

[trav]

I think that the reason not many knew it existed is because of it's location. It was built in a place where there is already tons of things to do, so people won't notice it as they would if it was in the middle of nowhere.

As for Dubai, there's not really a lot to do there yet. There's a water park and the beach as far as I'm aware, but I can almost guarentee that when these parks open, they will go one of two ways. Either become the new Florida, or one of them will thrive and the others will flop because the one that's thriving will have all the business.

 

[Antinos]

The way I see it, the park also failed first year because of the ride selection. They built four large roller coasters, and two small ones, but where were the large flat rides? I'm surprised that there wasn't a freefall tower or a screamin' swing. That's what really disappointed me was the lack of variety; all they had was roller coasters and some kiddie rides. Did they even have a water ride?

 

[Smithy]

Just like any other business many fail in their first year. HRP unfortunately opened during the same year as all the financial problems /credit crunch occurred and this would have affected peoples spending and led to lower attendances.

That shouldn't have anything to do with it. Look at England, all the parks over here are booming because of the credit crunch - people are spending more money on day trips than big holidays to foreign countries.

I'm shocked by this, but I think I knew that this was going to happen. Not many people even knew it existed, and I think it's unreasonable to put 500 million into a park in one year and not file for bankruptcy. They'd have been much better off starting on a smaller scale.

Is that why I've seen numerous reports to the contrary. With one today even saying they were down 10000 visitors on last year because of the credit crunch.

 

[Gazza]

I think that the reason not many knew it existed is because of it's location. It was built in a place where there is already tons of things to do, so people won't notice it as they would if it was in the middle of nowhere.

I don't quite buy into the whole "People go to Myrtle Beach for the beach and not theme parks"
The Gold Coast here in Australia is/was predominantly a beach resort, until they decided to build Sea World many years ago, and from there several other parks opened
Another example would be Salou in Spain, before 1995 it was just a beach resort, but Port Aventura has thrived since then.

I'll put HRPs troubles down to the product itself; an adult aimed park, but with predominantly family rides, priced excessively for the current financial situation, with insufficient advertising.

 

[Anonymous]

hard rock

Hmmm....maybe i am just being optimistic here, but, I remember reading about the opening of Disneyland, that was a disaster, the park was no where near being ready to open to the public, but good old uncle Walt opened the park anyway. Of course there were problems with HRP, mainly attendance, but like almost all things, you have to fail before you can succeed. The park is funded and associated with a nationally known corporation with ceo's and share holders who know how to run a successful business. I dont remember the opening of the first Hard Rock restaurant, but i can almost guarantee that it was not the huge success then that it is now, I mean, come on, there are locations globally as well as resort hotels. they have the capacity and ability to adjust the glitches that occured this season to be able to turn around and make HRP the thriving park it should be. As for the location, Maybe they should have done better research into the location, Myrtle Beach is not quite the family destination it used to be, now its more of a rest-stop for family vacations and weekend college road trips. Who knows, maybe HRP will change that too and turn Myrtle Beach into the Orlando or Seaside Heights of the new millenium.

 

[marc]

DLP also nearly failed in its 1st year, it took years for the park to make money. If I have the right park here but they are also having problems with Disneyland Hong Kong that is not making money yet either.

I am sure Hard Rock Park can turn things around but they do need more rides as people have said, there is not enough there for the $50 free.

I am sure had this park been built in Orlando, California and some other locations they would not have had this problem.

 

[furie]

Couple of things here.

We work in the construction industry, and we tend to be the last people affected by 'recession'. The reason being that we install the last bits of build - the outside coatings and the ceiling tiles.

What does this have to do with HRP?

When a new build is brought up, it's done so based on the current, and projected, economic climate. The spend will be assigned, and projected profits put forward.

The investors will check the figures and make sure it all adds up to sustainable profitability. However, it's many years from sitting around the table with figures, to the actual opening of the build. A lot can (and in this case HAS) happen in that time with the economy.

It's just unlucky that HRP have opened on a poor year, probably when they knew the first year was going to be tight anyway. Okay, you need to provision for some bad luck, but obviously they didn't provision enough.

We installed some stuff at HRP actually, over twelve months ago we go paid about £200,000 for the stuff we put up there. That was a tiny percentage of their build costs, and they have to try and recoup that initial investment, or a small degree of it in the first x years. If the footfall isn't there due to economic downturn, there's jst nothing they can do. To be honest, they probably had an idea last year, but it's all just too late, so they have to try their best anyway.

As long as people understand that you don't just wake up on Saturday morning and think "I'm going to invest £500,000,000 in a new park" then have it open by the following Friday. The timescales are in years. Sometimes it pays off, others it doesn't.

Second point. Gill here at work went to Myrtle Beach last week. I'd told her about the park, but she didn't know where it was, or had seen anything about it, until they were out for a drive one day down a particular highway. It's one of those, if she'd wanted to go, she could have probably dug out the information - but she said that there was nothing obvious around the area directing here there. So local marketing possibly wasn't all it could have been?

 

[trav]

Is that why I've seen numerous reports to the contrary. With one today even saying they were down 10000 visitors on last year because of the credit crunch.

Which park?

I know Altons season has been fantastic, and if I'm correct, I've heard that Chessie has almost, if not then has, hit full capacity a few times this year. Thorpe seems to be doing pretty well as well, and Blackpool is also rather busy this year. I don't know for Flamingo Land and Drayton Manor and the other smaller parks though.

I know Alton for a fact, but I've only heard about the rest through word of ear.

 

[marc]

From what I heard Alton, Thorpe, Chessington have all had great years.

Blackpool have not had a good year and this will probably show on the most visited place list. Southend has been packed this year as well they have had the best season in 6 years and Adventure Island has even had the full queue system open for Rage.

 

[Ian]

Oh dear.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27479161/

Could this be the end? Will anybody jump in and buy it?

It looked like such a nice park, with attentive, enthusiastic staff.

 

[Mark]

Blimey, is this the shortest life of theme park ever?

 

[marc]

I really dont think anyone will buy it thats the problem everything is themed for them it will cost to much to change everything.

Its a real shame as the park looked nice. Wonder who will buy the rides and can they be moved elsewhere or are the built for the land?

 

[Mike]

Blimey, is this the shortest life of theme park ever?

I don't think so.
Wasn't there that Desert theme park, themed to something like Cowboys, that shut after only about 2 weeks? I think it was a couple of years ago.

 

[Ben]

^ Wild West World operated from 5/5/2007 to 8/7/2007 (in the English way).

So, two months that lasted for.

 

[ciallkennett]

I say everyone clubs together on CF and we all put down the deposit to buy HRP

 

[Pokemaniac]

^One day, one day...

I feel sorry for HRP. Too bad that they only could wait one year before closing.
However, those guys planning the Decades park (cough, cough) in Arizona may get their wishes come through now. A readily built park, themed to rock music. But getting all the permissions all over again is another story...