daveydo5172 Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 The high price tag I am sure was a factor in its demise....but, Loegoland California has a higher price tag and its still open.....unfortunately! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmaher228 Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 Led Zep: Either Michigan's Adventure, Carowinds, or Valleyfair! Max RPM: SF Discovery Kingdom / possible lift hill change Life in the Fast Lane: Six Flags America Shake Rattle Roll: Possibly a Busch Entertainment Park ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vffreak07 Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 I could see a couple of the flats going to Michigan's Adventure or Knotts to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreditCrazy Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 I can't believe this. It opened as such a good park, and it looked like it could become an IOA. Now it's just all gone. And I wonder how the rides will be sold. If parks are going to spend money on a coaster right now, I think it'd be better to spend a little more for something decent or just wait. HRP's rides really aren't anything special. Plus, I wonder how the coasters will fit into parks. LZ:TR could probably sell, and I could see SWW fitting in a lot of parks, but the rest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six Flags Addict Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 With how everyone described the park, this doesn't surprise me. The location and poor advertising is what most likely caused it to fail. I can see LZ heading to Carowinds and Max RPM bein scraped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coasters13 Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 Is their a scheduled auction or are they just taking bids on the rides? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 Has anyone else thought of the possibility for the buyer of Eagles to contact Vekoma and have the ride modified into two different coasters that can go to two different parks that need mine trains? It's basically just two mine train layouts connected with a little modification, who says that that same modification can't rip it in half? Personally I think that could easily be done and would benefit a park chain almost twice as much as it would as a single coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgodsey Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 ^ nah, most mine trains have at least two lifts, most of them with three. I think the modifications and the extra trains will be more than what the ride goes for. I would be surprised if it goes for more than a million dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterLine Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 They really need to update the website... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MixedDrink Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 I'm not surprised no-one would buy anything, maybe Led Zepplin, but that's about it. I knew from day one this park was screwed, ever since I read the reviews. I mean, the rides are crap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueerRudie Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Admittedly, as far as parks are concerned, this one was a major mistake in it's location to begin with- but I think that's been said enough over the past posts.... I always loved the concept of a total music park like this- while Opryland was 'music' - it was more 'country' rather than true varieties of music which made it what it was; HRP COULD work as a park- but not in Myrtle beach- a NOTORIOUSLY seasonal place- Look at the graveyard of things which tried to make it work there. HootersAir comes to mind immediatly! I am quite sad to see it go- as it was a very unique experience of all the parks out there. I hope that in the future, a park similar to, if not duplicating it, will be built with better success. The concepts of HRP were spot-on; the placement was completely off. [/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacemtfan Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Very sad to read, but hey...when you make bad business decisions, it's bound to happen. Hopefully, Life in the Fast Lane and Led Zeppelin will find some more suitable homes in more successful parks. It would have been so cool if they placed the park near the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Oh my God! We're having a fire...sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Lmao. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHILLERLC1 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 In terms of everyone talking about location of the park is the complaint about just the seasonal market it's in or the fact it's just beyond the Rt 17 Bypass on the way out of town? I thought it would be helpful to be on the outskirts of town for traffic flow, expansion to keep the traffic jam that never came to be out of the downtown/beachfront. I haven't been to town in 10 years. Another amusement scar for the town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 If they'd had gone with the Flizter, none of this would have happened. --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoomerang Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 They really need to update the website... I don't think they have the money to update their website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Reading through the responses since Robb posted the article, I am AMAZED at how many people continue to think that the economic downturn had a major impact on Hard Rock Park's demise. I'm even more amazed that some here have tried to somehow equate the FAILURE of HRP to Wild West World, and then blame them BOTH on the economy. WWW was never a "themepark", or even a destination park FOR THE LOCALS! The rides at WWW were nothing more than that which you could find at the major traveling fair companies throughout the US. In fact, the majority (if not ALL) of the rides at WWW would be considered kiddie rides at one of those fairs. The kind that are only *3* tickets (or $1.50) to ride. Not to mention the fact that WWW was located in the middle of "Bum F*ck NOWHERE" and plopped down in random fashion! (Apologies to the locals, but you know what I mean.) John brought up the GREAT point that IOA was almost an epic failure as well. There (IIRC) they had an opening day investment of over a BILLION dollars! For the "fanboys" out there, that included *3* B&M's, 2 excellent water rides, a very colorful kiddie area, and one of the world's greatest dark rides. (IF you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be posting here!) IOA had an identity crisis, plain and simple. Fortunately for them (and us) they were able to turn it around. Just being a part of the "Universal" group didn't help. Universal Studios Florida had always been a "we've done everything else in Orlando (i.e. Disney) why not check it out". Universal Studios Hollywood, didn't survive by carrying the "Universal" name, but rather "Hollywood", a name known the world over. Disney has had it's failures as well. Animal Kingdom comes to mind. One of the most beautifully themed parks they have, where the expansion has been ongoing to include some "E-Ticket" attractions, to make it more of a full-day park. Disney's California Adventure has been a failure from the beginning, yet it relies on the package deals combined with Disneyland to survive. Now they've announced (basically) a complete makeover of the entire park. To the tune of several BILLION dollars (more money than the initial investment on the park's opening day). Which is WAY more than a quick-fix or upgrade. Now, when people think of "Hard Rock" as location (instead of a musical genre) the ONLY thing that comes to mind is a GLORIFIED BAR. Now we have a glorified bar brand that is associated with Paris, London, Tokyo, New York, Las Vegas etc... We actually had a Hard Rock Cafe' here in Orange County, but it FAILED!! As did many locations in the "Hard Rock" chain. Now, if you put in amusement park with the "GLORIFIED BAR" name in that mecca known as Myrtle Beach (which is famous for....wait, I know this... oh yeah, the band "Alabama" being discovered in a bar), do you really think that you have a recipe for success?? Add in the demographic of the per capita income of it's visitors, how could they justify such a large gate fee $50? C'mon. Knott's Berry Farm charges $44.99, and they've been around for nearly 70 years, in one of the more affluent areas of this country. Failure was inevitable. As for the rides, yeah they'll be going at "firesale" prices, but the bottom line cost is MUCH more than the selling price!! For those of you dreaming that your local small park could get one of these "used" coasters, think again. If LZ can be sold for $1.5M, it would still require an investment of over probably $5 million. They would have to: dismantle, transport and re-assemble the ride. Not many "small" parks could afford that, and make up the profit in even a 2-3 year scenario. For reference purposes, the original "Corkscrew" from KBF was sold to Silverwood Theme Park, for $250,000. Their total investment in the project was $1.1 million dollars! And this was in 1989. They didn't build another coaster for 7 years!! Think about it. I agree with Shane. Send it all to Fresno. At least it would have a good chance of not completely rotting before being resurrected. If at all. JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueerRudie Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Too much to quote from above- an excellent post. HRP was a great 'in-theory' but not in practice idea. As was just pointed out, it wasn't a great idea to put it where it was; sadly. Somebody from their 'marketing planning' team REALLY did not do their homework very well, and did not think to address the failures in the past- "Those who do not learn from their mistakes are DOOMED to repeat them..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montezooma Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 What I don't understand is how they were able to get $400 million in the first place to build this park???? If the demographics weren't there, the location bad and the concept flawed who was stupid enough to sink that kind of money into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenDen Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 ^ They had a good salesperson. You know, there is one park I know of that is "due" for a new major ride, and can afford it. (Based on their history, they get a new "major" ride every 5-7 years!) Pull out that black-card, there's a B&M on the block for cheap! hehehehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveydo5172 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 ^Which park would that be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 You know, there is one park I know of that is "due" for a new major ride, and can afford it. (Based on their history, they get a new "major" ride every 5-7 years!) Pull out that black-card, there's a B&M on the block for cheap! hehehehe Something that a lot of people are overlooking... Led Zeppelin wasn't a very good B&M. In fact, it probably doesn't rank that much higher in my book than the Vortex stand-ups, Iron Wolf, or some of the weaker B&M's. I'm trying to think of a weaker B&M sit down, but honestly I can't! It would be right below Hydra on my list, maybe. It's not like Dominator which was a kick-ass B&M and when it was on the chopping block whatever park would get it would be lucky. In this case, I'm hoping that it goes to a park that I don't need to get back to anytime soon because it's not a coaster that if a park got it, I would travel out of my way for. Sure, it would do great for the locals, and it's better than getting a used Boomerang or SLC, but it's not a "stand out" B&M that "I can't wait to see what park picks it up" by any means. Even Fiesta Texas getting Goliath was a MUCH better pick up than Led Zeppelin would be. I mean, it debuted on Mitch's Steel Poll at a pretty unimpressive #102, right in between Daemonen and Georgia Scorcher. And yeah, that's probably about right. So think about it this way, it would be like if Georgia Scorcher was up for grabs. Like, sure it's better than a REALLY crappy coaster, but would you be THAT excited about it? Or, would you be that excited about it knowing that it could be using the capitol expenditure that could go into a newer, BETTER coaster? On a side note - Eagles: Life in the Fast Lane debuted at #252. Could HRP picked a more mediocre line-up of coasters to open a park with? People made the "IOA was nearly an epic fail" remark, but remember, that park at least had Dragons and Hulk going for it! HRP's coaster didn't stand a chance to end up on any "Top Ten Coasters" Discovery Channel show. Really, what DID Hard Rock Park have going for it? --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam06pr Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 ^ I dunno why people say IOA had a close epic fail. I think it was a great success. As for HRP, it was destined to fail. Bad timing, bad location and their uninteresting ride line up were the 3 major factor for its failure.I think the only ride I might of gone out of my way to visit would of been Maximum RPM (Not even). It is sad because I liked the idea behind HRP, the theme and their attitude. Hopefully is similar park can be built in a better time at a better place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimace Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 ^People were mentioning that IOA was in trouble because of the disastrous "Universal Escape" campaign. When Universal opened IOA it ran a heavy add campaign that really didn't tell people that all of these new things were an entire new park. You can clearly see IOA from I-4, but because of a marketing failure on Universal's part nobody really knew what Islands of Adventure was. Obviously, IOA turned out to be a great success because it's a really awesome park, but it did get off to a bit of a rocky start when it came to getting people through its gates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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