THE Hard Rock Park lived one of the shortest lives of any theme park, managing just a few months in 2008 before it ran out of money. It reopened again in 2009 under new ownership as Freestyle Music Park but fared only slightly better and collapsed at the end of its first season.
So what went wrong? Who was to blame and what state is the park, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in now?
The park, which had good financial backing and a great team behind it, opened to much fanfare with concerts from the Eagles and the The Moody Blues. It received rave reviews including one from The Times writer Chris Haslam. He said the park took ‘the preschool plastic of Disney to a new age of insubordinate adolescence through a combination of nerdy attention to detail, startling irreverence and sly wit’.
So how could such an attractive-sounding destination fail? A lack of promotion and an increase in the cost of fuel, according to park insider David Montoya.
“There needed to be a lot more money devoted to advertising nationally, as the majority of people who come to Myrtle Beach do so by driving. Obviously, the economy is the number one contributor to the failure of the park. If the majority of the people who are going to come to the park were going to drive, no one is going to drive when gas was $4 a gallon in that part of the country.”
The park was already in a bad position from day one unfortunately, having already sunk $400million (£320m) into building it, making it one of the most expensive theme parks ever built. This high cost put pressure on the park to generate significant revenue from the beginning.
This wasn’t easy as the park opened during a time when the States was in recession. Not the ideal time to convince people to part with their hard-earned on rides and fast food kiosks, no matter how good.
Many people in the area were also not even aware of the park’s existence, and there were no major advertising campaigns to promote it. Although Myrtle Beach is a popular tourist destination, the park was located in a less-traveled area of the city, which made it difficult for visitors to find and access.
High ticket prices also kept people away and added to the lack of much needed revenue coming through the turnstiles.
What happened next?
After Hard Rock Park closed, the park went through ownership and management changes. The park’s assets were sold to FPI MB Entertainment, a subsidiary of FPI Management, a real estate management company. FPI MB Entertainment reopened the park in 2009 as Freestyle Music Park, but it closed permanently at the end of the season due to mounting financial problems and lawsuits.
In 2010, the park was sold again to a company called Pacific Avenue Capital Partners, which had plans to reopen the park as a music-themed park, but these plans also fell through.
Finally, in 2011, the park was sold to local businessmen Bhupinder ’Bob’ and Simranjit Sahni. The Sahnis purchased the park for $25million and rebranded it as the Pavilion Nostalgia Park, focusing on nostalgia for the former Myrtle Beach Pavilion, an amusement park that was a popular attraction in the area before it closed in 2006.
The Pavilion Nostalgia Park featured a mix of rides and attractions from the former Hard Rock Park as well as other classic rides and attractions from the former Myrtle Beach Pavilion. The park operated for a few years but ultimately closed permanently in 2016.
Want to see what it looks like now? Check out the great video below.
