Would you support a theme park... (1 Viewer)

[St. Widge]

i don't see how a theme park could fail in orleans parish and yet be successful a few miles down the road.....

and where in JP would house a theme park???

I'm not sure that's true Pop. How many Kenna Bras do you know that won't go into Orleans Parish, much less New Orleans East? I know there are a lot of people in Metairie and other surrounding Parishes that are like that. Also, I recall that when the Zephyr's were playing out at UNO in Eastern New Orleans they had trouble drawing, but got much better crowds when they moved to Metairie. As far as a location in JP, I know that Holy Cross High School was cosidering a big track of land out in Kennah Bra, it might be big enough for a theme park.


By the way, whenever people talk about theme parks in the area, I can't help but recall that they wanted to locate Disney World on the North Shore, but so many politicians had their hands out that they decided to locate in Orlando, FL. How much better would our schools and economy be with that kind of draw on the North Shore to go with the French Quarter on the South Shore?

 

[ibelieve]

If they could clone Blue Bayou and put one just like it in that area I would go. Im not to big on just the amusement park part. I more of a water slide kind of guy.

 

[antipop]

I'm not sure that's true Pop. How many Kenna Bras do you know that won't go into Orleans Parish, much less New Orleans East? I know there are a lot of people in Metairie and other surrounding Parishes that are like that. Also, I recall that when the Zephyr's were playing out at UNO in Eastern New Orleans they had trouble drawing, but got much better crowds when they moved to Metairie. As far as a location in JP, I know that Holy Cross High School was cosidering a big track of land out in Kennah Bra, it might be big enough for a theme park.

you might be right.....i never made it out to the park, but not for those reasons...i just never went .....i had a bunch of friends who bought season passes and went a few times a year.....location is everything but i don't know if it kept enough people out of the park to make a difference.....of course, i could be wrong.....

 

[Devildog]

I think that may have had some to do with it. I know there are people in the NOLA metro area that may have been compelled to stay away because of New Orleans East's "perception." My wife and I went a few times before Katrina, and while the majority of people there were African-American, it didn't make a **** to me. We had a nice time with the kids every time we went.

I think Six Flag's demise in NOLA was for a few reasons:
1. Like Widge said, "perception" had some to do with it.
2. The previous owners seemed to just come up with an idea for a theme park and just haphazardly threw one together. That's the feeling I got when I was there.
3. Six Flags had to spend a lot of money to get it to resemble a decent theme park.
4. I think it's location topographically was the biggest reason. It was in the middle of a freaking swamp and prone to flooding and oho boy did it flood with Katrina.

These are just my opinions, for whatever they're worth.

 

[FullMonte]

I think SFNO's demise was simply bad timing....

Dan Snyder took over SFI, and one of his first orders of business was to sell off many of the underperforming parks. Compared to parks like SFOT and Magic Mountain, SFNO was an underperforming park...but it was very profitable. Six Flags' investment in Jazzland was minimal, and the returns were high, considering that.

More importantly, the company had a VERY long term lease with the city, so selling the park would have been difficult to do.

Along comes Katrina and wipes the park out. Snyder knows that he can drag his feet, and eventually the city will give up....and SFI gets the insurance money. Odds are, the insurance money is more than the park would have brought on the open market. So, SFI wins....

 

[Optimusaint]

If they could clone Blue Bayou and put one just like it in that area I would go. Im not to big on just the amusement park part. I more of a water slide kind of guy.

im the same way. when i was growing up, i used to look at all the vacant land around blue bayou and say "man its gonna be awesome here when this is all filled with waterslides"

instead, the put up a few run of the mill amusement park rides. boooooo. i was hoping the place would grow like schlitterbahn, that place is amazing.

 

[Lee Newell]

I think SFNO's demise was simply bad timing....

Dan Snyder took over SFI, and one of his first orders of business was to sell off many of the underperforming parks. Compared to parks like SFOT and Magic Mountain, SFNO was an underperforming park...but it was very profitable. Six Flags' investment in Jazzland was minimal, and the returns were high, considering that.

More importantly, the company had a VERY long term lease with the city, so selling the park would have been difficult to do.

Along comes Katrina and wipes the park out. Snyder knows that he can drag his feet, and eventually the city will give up....and SFI gets the insurance money. Odds are, the insurance money is more than the park would have brought on the open market. So, SFI wins....[/QUOIn






In SFI's world, there are the big four: Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM), Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGA), Six Flags Over Texas (SFOT), and Six Flags Over Georgia (SFOG). These four parks are the big money makers for SFI. These parks always get the best coasters and best rides first. Everyone else has to stand in line behind these guys for the leftovers and hand-me-downs.

When you say underperforming, I have an insider witness that is very upset about the current administration at SFI. He has told me himself that SFNO was in the black before the re-branding season ended. The sponors (New Orleans Zephurs), Ozarka and others kicked in their advertising dollars pushing the park's bottomline to black figures! They sold over $13 million dollars just in ticket sales and parking. SFI invested $22 million in to the park when they took over and re-branded it. That is pretty damn good. The 2004 season was their best season. They raked in over $28 million in gross. The reason I know is because I had a relative in the accounting dept. They celebrated the numbers at a Christmas party in Oklahoma City in 2004.


In the past SFI always had a practice of putting all of their park's revenue all into one pool. The smaller parks that were not performing were shielded from not getting any new attractions for the next season. What SFI would do is take rides from one park, slap some paint on it, and ship to another park across the country. This way, they make people think they have something new. They did this with their smaller parks. Some parks were always left out even if they performed like Astroworld. Make no mistake, Astroworld was a cash cow for SFI for many years and they got nothing new year after year after year.

When it was time reward the people of Houston for their loyal patronage by re-locating the park and expanding it, they stick the city up for re-location dollars to the tune of $80 million. Keep in mind that Houston is the fourth largest city in the country. You know Astroworld made a killing here. Of course the city told them no and they closed. Snyder doesn't want to spend the money it takes to build the park from scratch. He'd rather sell it off or just close it down than to re-build. The parks would take too long to get out of the red. So it doesn't matter if they are profitable or not. He's not re-building.

 

[GW93]

I think a park would work in JP. You're better located for most of the pop. than in N.O. East, and can probably still draw patrons from the MS Coast and lower AL.

There are vast areas of the west bank just waiting for development, and when the Huey Long improvements are done, just watch that area take off. If I had the cash, I'd start buying every piece of property between Westwego and Waggaman right now.

 

[lsu31always]

I'd invest into a waterpark if I had the money.

 

[Goats]

By the way, whenever people talk about theme parks in the area, I can't help but recall that they wanted to locate Disney World on the North Shore, but so many politicians had their hands out that they decided to locate in Orlando, FL.

Im pretty sure that story was proven wrong.

 

[CT Saints Fan]

SFNO was an underperforming park...but it was very profitable.

I'm confused. What's your definition of "underperforming?" Most businesses measure performance in terms of profitability.

 

[St.Ryan]

you might be right.....i never made it out to the park, but not for those reasons...i just never went .....i had a bunch of friends who bought season passes and went a few times a year.....location is everything but i don't know if it kept enough people out of the park to make a difference.....of course, i could be wrong.....

That location made a huge difference. As bad as this sounds, it's true. Metairie is considered more "New Orleans" than New Orleans East is. New Orleans East has a perception of being worthless. Putting Jazzland out there was to be honest stupid. They took a great idea at a time when it could work and minimized it's ability to draw people.

Example: I was leaving a hotel uptown when the following conversation occurred:

Visitor: What about Jazzland, is that any good?
Concierge: Never been. It's way out there in a not so good part of the city. I wouldn't recommend going out that way.

The best situation would have been to do something adjoining the new Zephyrs stadium at the time and put a Jazzland by it. I'm not sure about the timing, but possibly even New Orleans Arena. Given the size of New Orleans, when doing big things like this, it's incredibly important to build an atmosphere around the area. Given the size of New Orleans, Jazzland should have been in an area of the city that sees the most traffic to constantly remind the city that Jazzland is there. I'm not sure if adjoining the stadiums with Jazzland was at all feasible, but it would have been the most successful solution if the solution was indeed feasible.

 

[FullMonte]

I'm confused. What's your definition of "underperforming?" Most businesses measure performance in terms of profitability.

You're right. If you open a theme park, and it's profitable, that's a good thing.

But, if you open a company that owns 100 theme parks, and you treat the company as one big entity, then the parks that make the least amount of money would be considered underperforming.

Let's say that your top 5 parks make $40 million per year. Then you have a park that cost you $10M to buy, and it makes $5M per year. In two years, that park would be profitable...but it would still be considered underperforming, since it's making 1/8 of what your bigger parks make.

That's why SFI considered SFNO underperforming.

 

[CT Saints Fan]

You're right. If you open a theme park, and it's profitable, that's a good thing.

But, if you open a company that owns 100 theme parks, and you treat the company as one big entity, then the parks that make the least amount of money would be considered underperforming.

Let's say that your top 5 parks make $40 million per year. Then you have a park that cost you $10M to buy, and it makes $5M per year. In two years, that park would be profitable...but it would still be considered underperforming, since it's making 1/8 of what your bigger parks make.

That's why SFI considered SFNO underperforming.

There's way more to it than just that.