Howard Smith, Nickelodeon's vice president for recreation, joined with the head of a start-up amusement park development company yesterday to announce plans for the park. It's not a done deal, by any means. Viacom, Nick's corporate parent, and the start-up, Southern Star Amusement Group, want local and state authorities to pay the majority of the project's estimated $165 million cost. Southern Star, which has not yet developed any other projects, also needs to come up with millions on its own, too.
And there's a competing proposal to redevelop the site for amateur sports stadiums, though that project doesn't have any funding, either.
Nevertheless, Smith said that Nickelodeon is committed to the project, at least from a marketing perspective. "We will marshal our resources to get [viewers] to come to the park," he said at the press conference, hosted by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
Since Six Flags still has the lease on the property, that company - and its bankruptcy judge - must be part of any deal to transfer or terminate the current lease. And the project needs to secure $100 million from the sale of Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds, a program set up to encourage investment in the area after Katrina. And Southern Star needs to raise money to bring to the table. (Nick's not putting any cash into this, and will get a licensing fee out of it.) So while Southern Star has managed to bring Nickelodeon on board - making this proposal newsworthy - there's much, much more that needs to happen before Nickelodeon Park gets listed on TPI.
Okay, now it's opinion time.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me.
First, I find Nickelodeon's theme park strategy incomprehensible. To me, the idea ought to be to reach the widest number of freely spending theme park visitors as possible, in an environment that enhances your brand. Instead, Nick all but pulled out of the Universal theme parks in Orlando and LA in favor of placing its brands in Viacom-owned amusement parks in secondary markets. Then Viacom sold those parks to Cedar Fair, which is widely expected to drop Nick branding from its parks next season.
So what's left? Nick took over the Camp Snoopy park at Mall of America and has branding on a Holiday Inn on an obscure section of South I-Drive in Orlando. Now, potentially, Nick could be adding a park located east of New Orleans, a mid-sized and shrinking media market.
That's it. In less than a decade, Nick's gone from strong presence in two of the top 10 attended theme parks in the country to one, and possibly two, lightly-attended seasonal parks in stagnant secondary markets.
What the eff?
Now, let's talk about the New Orleans market. I spent a night in New Orleans less than two weeks ago, and drove past the Six Flags site. I love New Orleans, but it remains a shell of its former self. Even before Katrina, the market had a hard time supporting the former Jazzland. It was always a small park, located at the intersections of Interstates 10 and 510, east of the city. There is no way that $165 million transforms it into a worthy destination theme park resort, especially not in an environment that has as little family-friendly tourist infrastructure as post-Katrina New Orleans. If the stars align and the project actually comes together, it will produce, at best, a regional-quality amusement park (with Nick branding) in a region that can't support a regional-quality park.
So, in a perverse way, I suppose it makes a weird sort of sense that Nickelodeon would attach itself to this project. Viacom seems like a company that is going out of its way to screw up in the theme park business.
Tweet
That's a head start, right?
/sarcasm
Durp.
I really don't know what else to say. There doesn't seem to be anything going for them. It's ... complete and utter nonsense. It's ... too dumb for words.
Durp durp durp durpity doo.
As far as Nickelodeon goes, the question is why are they severing ties with Cedar Fair? If Cedar Fair is severing the ties, than Cedar Fair is nuts....unless they have someone like Nintendo on deck (please). If Nickelodeon is severing ties to open this place, than Nick is nuts. They will lose the market share they have already, and potential to move in to the other Cedar Fair parks.
165 million dollars for a real theme park is not enough. While there are some attractions to restore and work with, this isn't enough money to build an experience that would draw crowds from hundreds of miles. New Orleans is a regional market, and the only way it becomes national is if big time theme park money is poured into the project. If Nick can stay with Cedar Fair and move into the parks that weren't Paramount, it puts them in places like Knott's and
Cedar Point, and moves them into the other smaller markets. Those smaller markets don't seem like much, but they are A) already established parks, and B) probably just as big or bigger than the New Orleans market would be.
If I'm Nickelodeon, I'm looking for a way to stick with a major player in the industry. Although Cedar Fair isn't the authority on themed rides, they have a national presence. Nickelodeon's best scenario...get involved with a company that would use them in a proper themed way and also has the market. Disney out, Universal out, Cedar Fair...likely out too. Solution...find out who is buying the Busch parks and give them a call.
Stand up for Nick until the end,
Taylor Lee Ledbetter
The thing is that over time, the neighborhood evolved from being a solid-white neighborhood to being solid black. People in that neck of the woods don't tolerate mixed neighborhoods very well. Thus, white suburbanites have to travel into an all-black neighborhood to visit the theme park; and any theme park needs the business of this demographic group to survive. And, white suburbanites don't feel particularly safe there, especially if they're leaving the theme park after dark.
So, if you were to ask me, that's why Jazzland and Six Flags didn't do well in that particular spot. As I mentioned, I would like to see a theme park do well in this location, but I don't see how any park is going to attract enough locals to keep it going. I don't think that enough tourists from less racially-biased parts of the country are going to pour in to make up the gap.
Let's hope I'm wrong. It would be nice if Nick succeeds and the park makes a go of it.
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Um ... good luck with that.