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Hard Rock / Freestyle Music Park Discussion Thread


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I wonder if any park chains are interested in buying the property?

Six Flags could maybe add in a Batman clone and a few flats and get this park running again.

I think you're missing the point of why no parks are interested - the park was a bad idea to begin with.

 

It's not as though Six Flags, Cedar Fair, etc, don't know this park exists. Of course they do. They also probably know exactly why it failed... TWICE... and I can't see any park operator in the world wanting to come in and buy the property to do anything other than take the rides and install them in other parks.

 

This park will never re-open...or I should say never re-open successfully, so either at some point it all needs to be sold for scrap, or they'll have to get desperate and sell off all the rides.

 

--Robb

Edited by robbalvey
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I wonder if any park chains are interested in buying the property?

Six Flags could maybe add in a Batman clone and a few flats and get this park running again.

I think you're missing the point of why no parks are interested - the park was a bad idea to begin with.

 

It's not as though Six Flags, Cedar Fair, etc, don't know this park exists. Of course they do. They also probably know exactly why it failed... TWICE... and I can't see any park operator in the world wanting to come in and buy the property to do anything other than take the rides and install them in other parks.

 

This park will never re-open...or I should say never re-open successfully, so either at some point it all needs to be sold for scrap, or they'll have to get desperate and sell off all the rides.

 

--Robb

I get it, Robb.

I was just dreaming.

 

Anyway,

If those nutty people somehow get another deal to purchase the land, they should keep the theme-ing on all the rides, but the exit sign should say: "Hoped you enjoyed your ride to HELL!" with a devil impersonator next to it screaming at the riders about if they made the right choice. Have all the exits lead to a building where the owners can chain up park visitors and brainwash them that God hates rock music.

 

Oh god, I have a messed up brain.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I found a neat relic of this park's short-lived past during my latest search on the park's history...

 

http://silvasdesign.com/work/view/hard-rock-park

 

Hard Rock Park

WORK TYPE : ENTERTAINMENT, PACKAGING

AGENCY : EMI / CAPITOL

As a theme park nerd, getting this assignment at work was a dream! For the launch of Hard Rock Park, Capitol was commissioned to put together a soundtrack of some of the music that was featured throughout the park and its attractions. I wanted a feel that featured publicity photos of the park's attractions but in a way that felt American, Rock & Roll and FUN. I combined the photos with some custom digital illustrations and lots of fun, vibrant colors.

c3b1d16d9357854fb5cb8ac058865d9dfddb07c2.jpg.9123d379bad902351dad5e4901c42bac.jpg

07fba5ee6d0e5f5fbe0e476b588b8e5dcc193404.jpg.985761773744900278c5f124bc37a435.jpg

e9bf356e6abdc82ce75c864e321ff69d1958e106.jpg.69a132d2c8cacf3611ddfabfb7e507a4.jpg

5457a23f225a378d2fae55c1324e7e2af6e11021.thumb.jpg.b427964c03b26a398f2e8e192839e8d3.jpg

9202ca5bcb3b090b00a9e078205b66d24206c117-1.jpg.ce930af0f6e04625028e99bf45b7c9d2.jpg

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^ That was my thought exactly.

 

And just because I really haven't kept up much with the demise of this thing, can anyone tell me why in the world the rides are all just sitting there rotting? Is it in the hands of the government now who delusionally think that someone is going to show up, slap a new coat of paint on this thing and it will become this massive money-making park? Seems like whomever owns those rides would like to recoup some money, no?

 

Then again, the afterlife of this thing is no stranger than the life of this thing...

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^It's currently caught up in a convoluted web of bankruptcy and lawsuits. From what I can gather, basically the same ownership group keeps mortgaging and foreclosing on themselves. It's all so sketchy.

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Question?

 

Would this park have had a better chance, because the concept(not the location) was good, if it was attached to or part of a larger Hard Rock development that includes their casino/resort properties. Say Biloxi? Tulsa? Maybe the cradle of Rock and Roll and the blues as part of a large project in Tunica? It seems the park should not have come first but as part of the initial development or a soon there after one.

 

Instead of Green Bay getting the rights to Zippin Pippin name and design, they could have snagged Elvis' favorite coaster from the City of Memphis instead. Can not believe Memphis gave that away for so little.

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It's hard to know for sure.

 

Tunica is not far from Memphis, which has a larger year round population base than Myrtle Beach. One would think that someone who spends the totality of May - September in Memphis would have more incentive to drive an hour to Tunica for a change of pace family fun getaway. Many families drive to Myrtle Beach solely for the beach, the goal is a relaxing couple of days at the beach. Getting in the car and driving the 10-15 minutes, just didn't seem like something many people wanted to do after a day at the beach.

 

When I spent three days in Tunica the crowds did not appear amusement park friendly.

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Would this park have had a better chance, because the concept(not the location) was good, if it was attached to or part of a larger Hard Rock development that includes their casino/resort properties. Say Biloxi? Tulsa? Maybe the cradle of Rock and Roll and the blues as part of a large project in Tunica? It seems the park should not have come first but as part of the initial development or a soon there after one.

 

The concept was not necessarily so good. It was a very adult theme, but the rides themselves were more geared to a younger audience. I'll give it that it was extremely creative, and really thought through a lot of details, but the business plan was never run through the right people it seems. For one, I know they did some sort of report that said that there was more then enough tourism in the area to support a park, so that was part of the reason they went forward with it, but the flip side is they estimated that 30,000+ attendees would walk through the gate every day that it was open.

 

And therein lies the problem. To put that into perspective, Cedar Point is a well established destination park. It's seasonal, operating I would guess about 150 days a year. It has reported attendance of over 3 million for the past few years. That means it would have an average gate of 20,000.

 

Hard Rock Park, with a much shorter operating calendar, expected to get the same sort of attendance that Cedar Point does. Never mind the missteps in promotion, ride openings, local partners, questionable theme, or anything else which may have contributed - whomever came up with the idea that just by existing, this park would have a larger average daily attendance than Cedar Point must have been delusional.

 

The skeleton of the park was overbuilt from the beginning to try to accommodate those people in the way of facility, but not in the way of actual attractions. You can't efficiently operate a facility made to house 30,000 people when 2,000 are showing up.

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It's hard to know for sure.

 

Tunica is not far from Memphis, which has a larger year round population base than Myrtle Beach. One would think that someone who spends the totality of May - September in Memphis would have more incentive to drive an hour to Tunica for a change of pace family fun getaway. Many families drive to Myrtle Beach solely for the beach, the goal is a relaxing couple of days at the beach. Getting in the car and driving the 10-15 minutes, just didn't seem like something many people wanted to do after a day at the beach.

 

When I spent three days in Tunica the crowds did not appear amusement park friendly.

I'll expand a little. Memphis is the junction of I55 and I40 , both major interstates. The interstat quality four lane that runs to the casinos on the Miss River is a future leg of I69 that will run from Indianapolis to Houston. Libertyland was buried in the middle of Memphis and land locked at the time. I amount of vacationers that cross cross that region is very heavy.

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As I have said numerous times in this thread, I think the main problem the park had is not doing anything to get people away from the beach/resorts they were staying it. It probably could have survived if they partnered with local hotels/resorts and offered a good, free, shuttle network.

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  • 1 month later...

I have been looking up things on HRP for the past week. Came across an interesting article on HRP. I searched this forum and did not see it posted any where. If it is, you can delete this. A really good read that I like to see debated here. The article goes from the original concept to why the park failed. This will get you started.

 

http://themeparkuniversity.com/backstage-access/hard-rock-park-1-the-birth-of-the-worlds-first-rock-n-roll-theme-park/

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As I have said numerous times in this thread, I think the main problem the park had is not doing anything to get people away from the beach/resorts they were staying it. It probably could have survived if they partnered with local hotels/resorts and offered a good, free, shuttle network.

 

 

It could've survived somewhere else. If it was near Nashville, It would be operating and booming!

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The article goes from the original concept to why the park failed.

 

It's an interesting look at the park, but when the story gets finished, you'll still never see the real reason that the park(s) failed.

 

 

 

No offense, but there are 257 pages before this one that very thoroughly cover that discussion.

 

The bottom line is this (which NONE of the experts, insiders, or creators of HRP will ever admit to, because if they did - it would mean that they had an initial catastrophic misjudgment): the per capita income of residents and tourists to the area simply could not sustain a large amusement park, especially with a $50 admission.

 

Myrtle Beach residents and tourists couldn't sustain a park 1/5 the size (that was always busy), Myrtle Beach Pavillion. Nor could they sustain an outlet shopping mall which stood vacant for years on that very site HRP was built on. They barely sustain Family Kingdom, only 3 miles away.

 

The three most important things in business are:

 

1. Location

2. Location

3. Location

 

It was built in a very BAD location.

 

You will find in the previous 257 pages many, many predictions, before the park even opened, of the park's demise. Once it opened, and a few people here had visited, those people said "get there while you can - it won't last".

 

We knew this, but because we don't have financial backing, or certain corporate sponsors, we "don't know what we're talking about".

 

Yet the park failed. Twice. By people that KNOW what they are doing.

 

They will NEVER admit that it's a bad location. Never.

 

 

It could've survived somewhere else. If it was near Nashville, It would be operating and booming!

 

Remember Opryland? Smaller park. Same fate.

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The article goes from the original concept to why the park failed.

 

It's an interesting look at the park, but when the story gets finished, you'll still never see the real reason that the park(s) failed.

 

 

 

No offense, but there are 257 pages before this one that very thoroughly cover that discussion.

 

The bottom line is this (which NONE of the experts, insiders, or creators of HRP will ever admit to, because if they did - it would mean that they had an initial catastrophic misjudgment): the per capita income of residents and tourists to the area simply could not sustain a large amusement park, especially with a $50 admission.

 

Myrtle Beach residents and tourists couldn't sustain a park 1/5 the size (that was always busy), Myrtle Beach Pavillion. Nor could they sustain an outlet shopping mall which stood vacant for years on that very site HRP was built on. They barely sustain Family Kingdom, only 3 miles away.

 

The three most important things in business are:

 

1. Location

2. Location

3. Location

 

It was built in a very BAD location.

 

You will find in the previous 257 pages many, many predictions, before the park even opened, of the park's demise. Once it opened, and a few people here had visited, those people said "get there while you can - it won't last".

 

We knew this, but because we don't have financial backing, or certain corporate sponsors, we "don't know what we're talking about".

 

Yet the park failed. Twice. By people that KNOW what they are doing.

 

They will NEVER admit that it's a bad location. Never.

 

 

It could've survived somewhere else. If it was near Nashville, It would be operating and booming!

 

Remember Opryland? Smaller park. Same fate.

 

In the first segment of the article that I linked to, they talk about the feasibility study done for the park. The independent study found that Myrtle Beach got an estimated 14 million tourist and could support 3 major theme parks. That's more people than live in the city of New York.

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The article goes from the original concept to why the park failed.

 

It's an interesting look at the park, but when the story gets finished, you'll still never see the real reason that the park(s) failed.

 

 

 

No offense, but there are 257 pages before this one that very thoroughly cover that discussion.

 

The bottom line is this (which NONE of the experts, insiders, or creators of HRP will ever admit to, because if they did - it would mean that they had an initial catastrophic misjudgment): the per capita income of residents and tourists to the area simply could not sustain a large amusement park, especially with a $50 admission.

 

Myrtle Beach residents and tourists couldn't sustain a park 1/5 the size (that was always busy), Myrtle Beach Pavillion. Nor could they sustain an outlet shopping mall which stood vacant for years on that very site HRP was built on. They barely sustain Family Kingdom, only 3 miles away.

 

The three most important things in business are:

 

1. Location

2. Location

3. Location

 

It was built in a very BAD location.

 

You will find in the previous 257 pages many, many predictions, before the park even opened, of the park's demise. Once it opened, and a few people here had visited, those people said "get there while you can - it won't last".

 

We knew this, but because we don't have financial backing, or certain corporate sponsors, we "don't know what we're talking about".

 

Yet the park failed. Twice. By people that KNOW what they are doing.

 

They will NEVER admit that it's a bad location. Never.

 

 

It could've survived somewhere else. If it was near Nashville, It would be operating and booming!

 

Remember Opryland? Smaller park. Same fate.

 

Entirely different circumstances. Opryland was a profitable park. It's still shrouded in mystery as to why it was closed. The general consensus is that the Gaylord family was just greedy and saw that the overhead for a mall was drastically cheaper than the overhead for a park. Where as this is kinda obvious, the park wasn't closed due to lack of visitors. With that said, I think Nashville would be better suited to having a theme park than where they put HRP.

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The general consensus is that the Gaylord family was just greedy and saw that the overhead for a mall was drastically cheaper than the overhead for a park. Where as this is kinda obvious, the park wasn't closed due to lack of visitors. With that said, I think Nashville would be better suited to having a theme park than where they put HRP.

 

Yeah, I'll give you that. It was actually a really nice park. I also believe that the Gaylord family did what they believed was best for them, and you can't fault them for that. Even though we, as enthusiasts, may try to.

 

There is also NO DOUBT that HRP, would have succeeded in Nashville. The per capita income of the region, and those of it's tourists are significantly greater than that of Myrtle Beach. (Probably would have had a major area themed to country music as well. Ugh.)

 

Not to mention accessibility via a major airport...

 

 

In the first segment of the article that I linked to, they talk about the feasibility study done for the park. The independent study found that Myrtle Beach got an estimated 14 million tourist and could support 3 major theme parks. That's more people than live in the city of New York.

 

Believe what you want.

 

The facts (NOT a bought and paid for study!) are:

 

A MUCH smaller park failed to be sustained, only 3 years earlier. They barely keep the one they have open.

 

An outlet mall (which usually draws more people and $$ than an amusement park, and has much lower overhead costs for the owners) failed on the exact same site.

 

As a vacation destination, Myrtle Beach is known for 3 things: golfing, beaches, and cheap rentals (4 if you count the bars). It's known as an inexpensive vacation destination.

 

It's not even a big destination for "spring break" from college. The large tourist $$ are not, and will not be spent in that part of the country. Never has.

 

 

The only people that have made significant money, are the previous owners of Myrtle Beach Pavillion, who sold the land from the park to a real estate developer who had plans to make 6-7, 20-story hi-rise condos, at 80-200k per each condo.

 

They had great intentions of bringing $$ to the area, yet there was never enough interest to start the actual buildings. I believe that they finally did start the project, on a much smaller scale. I'm not sure as I lost interest in the area.

 

The bottom line is that the area cannot support a large amusement park, despite what the "feasibility study" said.

 

Like I said before, and MANY others, look through the pages of this thread. It's demise was predicted by many people here on TPR, before it even opened. For the exact reasons I've already mentioned.

 

People in that part of the country, and those that generally vacation there, do not have the same expendable income as those that vacation in the larger metropolitan areas.

 

 

Money talks, but it's just not as available in Myrtle Beach.

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I don't mean to kick a dead horse. As a newbie on these forums, I haven't read back through the previous 250+ pages. However, I've been forced to go to Myrtle Beach a week every year for the past 7 years and will be for the next four years so I thought I'd give my input. My daughter is a competitive dancer so we converge on the beach to compete with dancers from all over the country including ones from Ohio, Florida, and Canada. These competitions go on for 5-6 different weeks over the summer.

 

While there is a lot of disposable income that comes into the beach, the largely rural (and traditionally lower per capital) nature of North Carolina and South Carolina helps to skew the studies that show per capita for visitors. With that being said, when we and our dance family friends go to Myrtle Beach, we like to spend the time relaxing on the beach and doing beach-type things like renting boats on the ICW, going parasailiing, or doing jet boat tours to see dolphins on the Atlantic, not spending a summer day in a hot amusement park with little shade.

 

I may or may not agree with everything that was previously discussed, but I am in the general consensus that a traditional amusement park will never do well in Myrtle Beach. That's just not what people from the area are looking for when they go to the beach...and certainly not at that location. Any successful amusement park at MB has to be pay-per-ride.

 

With that being said, Family Kingdom appears to be thriving and doing very well. primarily because of their location and the fact that it has free admission. They are close to downtown Myrtle Beach that is starting to become revitalized, drawing more people to the downtown area. Here's a shot of the crowds at the park exactly one month ago when we were there:

 

IMG_5045_edit.jpg.27cdc97c0adf7c978b9c48048e8b815a.jpg

The crowds caused 30+ minute waits on nearly every ride as dusk fell all the way up til closing at midnight.

 

I certainly don't think Myrtle Beach could sustain three amusement parks, although it could potentially get a good draw from a free admission park built on a pier like Galveston or places in New Jersey.

 

There is a second amusement park in North Myrtle Beach that we went to last year. It was not in the best of shape and we did all we wanted to in about an hour so we had no desire to go back there this year. It wouldn't surprise me if that one wasn't around much longer.

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^I agree that a traditional amusement park near the beach, like Family Kingdom, has a much better chance of doing well than a theme park farther away. It gives families something to do in the evenings (like the areas numerous mini-golf courses). It's the same situation in Virginia Beach.

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