An expert in the amusement park industry says there's little hope Freestyle Music Park will ever be a success. Thursday, the park's owners face a deadline to pay off an old debt and they've already announced it's unlikely they'll open this year.
When new owners took over the former Hard Rock Park last year, they changed the name, lowered ticket prices and tried a new marketing plan. It wasn't enough to make the park work and theme park consultant Dennis Speigel says he knows why. "Many of us in the industry believed that it was a poorly conceived design, it was under capacity, it was overpriced and it was in the wrong place."
Speigel says there's no hope the park will ever be successful and mainly it's because a theme park is not why tourists come to Myrtle Beach. "They come for the sun and the sand and they come for the golf and some of the other amenities. A theme park's not a driver there."
The owner of Wild Water and Wheels in Surfside Beach mostly agrees. "We're more of a seaside park, we're not a destination park area," said Mark Lazarus.
But Mark Lazarus, whose family has owned local amusement parks for years, says Freestyle could still succeed. He says the owners would have to have the right mindset and the right plan. "Hold off for a year, rebrand it, maybe get a major theme name on it and then come back into the market that way, and I think they could have an advantage then."
Lazarus considered buying the park himself last year, and says he'd be willing to help any new owner who asked for advice. Lazarus doesn't see Freestyle as a competitor and says he wants it to succeed. "It brings a lot more ideas about an amusement park and amusement things to do in the entire area, so we think it's a great asset. We absolutely don't want them to fail."
Lazarus and Speigel say the big names in the industry, like Disney, Universal, and Six Flags, all looked at this area years ago and turned it down. So there's little chance they'll be interested now.
Thursday, the park's owners must pay off a $570,000 debt or a court judgement will be filed against them.
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