jedimaster1227 Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) http://www.wfaa.com/entertainment/Fair-Park-axes-Summer-Adventures--246076111.html?c=n&fb=y&can=n# An attraction aimed at bringing people to Fair Park during the 11 months when there's no State Fair of Texas won't be coming back. Summer Adventures has been canceled for 2014 and probably won't be back. Those who champion the southern side of Dallas feel let down. The State Fair spent $30 million on the Summer Adventures program, adding attractions and making improvements to the Midway. But Summer Adventures only had one summer to prove itself. "It's $30 million well spent," said State Fair of Texas spokeswoman Sue Gooding. "It was not a failure by any means. We had a great 85 days; it's just time for us to move on and look toward the future." City Council member Dwaine Caraway disagrees. "It's a boot in the butt, as far as I'm concerned," he said. Caraway was dismayed he did not learn about the cancellation of Summer Adventures until we told him. "It's something they should have discussed through the Council," he said. "Am I ticked? Completely.” Summer Adventures was an attempt to give families a theme park experience without leaving Dallas. But attendance was low, Gooding admitted. The State Fair of Texas added one full-time position and and several seasonal positions, which are now gone. "They virtually got fired today without notice," Caraway said. Gooding said the decision to cancel was something they had thought about for a long time. "Speaking on behalf of the employees of the State Fair of Texas, it is a disappointment to us," she said. "There are young people in Dallas we put to work here in seasonal opportunities that made Dallas proud. Some of them are now going to be looking for work and they will make excellent employees." Caraway said more effort should have been made to stay the course. "We don't look for anybody to go broke with this, but did they do all the right things to make this successful?" he aaked. "Why not come to us and say, 'This is where we are, and what collectively can we do?'" The State Fair of Texas is an independent corporation that says it receives no tax dollars. The $30 million was spent on attractions and upgrades. Some that were added — like the Top of Texas Tower — were big hits during the State Fair of Texas's fall run. But the Flowrider, a simulated surfing wave pool, isn't a fall attraction because the weather's too cool during the fair's season. So the future of that attraction remains to be determined, Gooding said. Money was also spent improving utilities and bathrooms along the Midway. Gooding said the State Fair of Texas remains committed to looking for ways to fill up Fair Park year-round. "More than five million people have attended this park in the last 12 months. That's nothing to sneeze at," she said. But Caraway thinks more should be done. "I'm ticked with the Park Department," he said. "Roll up your sleeves and fill Fair Park. That's what you get paid to do." Edited February 20, 2014 by jedimaster1227 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiFan Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 It's a shame to hear attendance wasn't great but I guess they had some tough competition. From looking at trip reports posted when TPR was there last year it looked like it was a nice place to visit and it sounded like most people liked it better than SFOT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Why does a fairground have to filled all year round? Here carnival grounds are either parking spaces - if paved - or a green area were people can play ball, fly kites or walk their dogs. This said most carnival grounds here are located in the heart of the city so there is mostly no problem getting people - or cars - there. On another note I think its funny to see that in a country known to us foreigners as home of "free market only" you also hassle as civil servants try to run things better kept to private operators. But we also had our fair share of bribe scandals when it comes to carnivals... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFunk Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Why does a fairground have to filled all year round? How much permanent infrastructure for agricultural exhibits do European fairs require? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosscoe Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Screw SFOT this was the place to be last summer, the old school Haunted House was beyond brilliant, that insane spinning coaster. Sad to hear that it didn't work the way they planned. had a great afternoon there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 ^^I think we speak of different locations in Germany here. In the center of most cities you have a carnival ground were carnivals like Oktoberfest, HamburgerDOM or Rheinwiese are held - these are normally parking lots if paved or green parks. These areas only have underground plugs for power and water supplies for the rides. On the other hand we have exhibition grounds which are mostly huge halls which house all kinds of exhibits. German carnivals do not include agricultural exhibits - those are held outside the cities and offer no rides at all and are more for sellers and buyers of cattle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Now I really regret staying at SFOT that afternoon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 ^Told you! Bummed to hear this, thought they would have at least given the place more than one season to understand the market and work on stuff. We had a really nice time here and they were way more fun and hospitable than the big park down the street! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernierocker Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 I have family in Dallas and when I had dinner with them the night that we went to the park, they had just found out about Summer Adventures from someone in their daughter's class. This was over two months after the park had been opened, which leads me to believe that there wasn't a lot of effort put into local advertising. I definitely enjoyed my time there, I just think it suffered from a bad location, local competition and poor advertising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFunk Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 ^^I think we speak of different locations in Germany here. In the center of most cities you have a carnival ground were carnivals like Oktoberfest, HamburgerDOM or Rheinwiese are held - these are normally parking lots if paved or green parks. These areas only have underground plugs for power and water supplies for the rides. On the other hand we have exhibition grounds which are mostly huge halls which house all kinds of exhibits. German carnivals do not include agricultural exhibits - those are held outside the cities and offer no rides at all and are more for sellers and buyers of cattle. No, no, I knew the answer to the question. This is a core difference between European fairs and American ones; American fairgrounds are almost all built to accommodate agricultural exhibits/sales/auction because that is the original (and to some fairgrounds committees, primary) function. If you look at American fairgrounds from space, they all have similar items; a large exhibition hall, animal paddocks, usually an oval track, made of dirt for the function of horse/auto racing and a grandstand at the track which may double for concerts. The Texas State Fair is different, admittedly; it occupies the space of a former World's Fair, and so there's a number of permanent museums, buildings, and a football stadium (Cotton Bowl) in Fair Park. But even it still has space for these functions. So like anywhere that you have buildings that require year round maintenance, it is best to try and book things throughout the year. Fairgrounds in the US generally act as county hubs for small events, trade/farm shows, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle11 Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Definitely too bad. We all had a blast at that place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great Zo Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Not entirely surprising news, given the demographic/location/advertising concerns, but still disappointing. That was a genuinely awesome afternoon we had at Fair Park. Incredibly lucky for us on the TPR tour -- we got to visit a park in its only year of operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasParkman Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 TPR's extraordinarily bad visit aside- and a real bad stretch of operations in July- IMHO, there is not a good reason to not visit SFOT. My experience over the last 5 years has been good. Operations are decent, the park is clean and there is really not much difference between SFOT-heavily discounted and the price that SFOTSA charges. SFOT has coasters as well, etc. The thing working against SFOTSA was the location. That is not a great neighborhood. Parking and safety can be an issue. People from North Dallas are not going to go to that area because of it reputation. I have never had an issue there- but the reputation is not good. It was a decent idea and I wish they would have given it one more year to work. It was always going to be an uphill struggle for attendance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperShawn Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 This really is too bad since the fair was a ton of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Will the coasters start traveling or temporary SBNO? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFunk Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 The permanent stuff that was permanent to the fairgrounds is gonna stay; rides like Jungle Twist and Windstorm that had spent years on the road beforehand will probably just return to the road and appear at independent midways. They'll likely be back running at Texas State Fair this fall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrlittle Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 I'm curious to find out what happens with the FlowRider. It's not really the warmest temperature in Dallas during the State Fair. Is that something they could sell off? Just seems like a waste otherwise. Yeah, I bet most of the rides will stay and be used for the Fair. It's kind of sad to hear this but I know just from friends and family who live near Dallas, they had no idea it was there. They only thought it was open during the State Fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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