COM: Glenelg Entertainment Complex

[metro]

i've never seen people using the wheel

[Wayno]

i'd like to see the business case that justified its construction...

[Will]

I always knew this was going to be a failure. How anyone thought a 25m ferris wheel would be succesful is beyond me. Even the Norfolk pines are taller than it!

They should just start again, and this time with something at-least double the size.

[rev]

For this to have been a success it had to actually appeal to people above the age of 5.

The whole idea of this ferris wheel was to cater to kids who visited the Beach House.
It's not like it was ever intended to be one of the "big wheel" tourist attractions like in Melbourne and other cities around the world.

They should just build a proper theme park along one of the metro beaches already and be done with it.
Or at the very least council, government, tourism sa, etc, should get together and put up a temporary theme park, similar to the show but bigger, better rides without the show bags.
That is something that will actually see enormous patronage. Unlike the Beach house and it's ferris wheel.

[Vee]

For this to have been a success it had to actually appeal to people above the age of 5.

The whole idea of this ferris wheel was to cater to kids who visited the Beach House.

I also thought the ferris wheel was just for kids. It's small and spins very slowly. In my opinion, faster revolutions and clearer windows will not make it appeal to anyone older than pre-teens. Alas, it would appear to be a waste of money.

I agree with others in this forum. Scrap the whole thing and start again with a much larger ferris wheel and add other elements of a theme park.

[crawf]

Just bulldoze the whole lot, and build the better original proposal

Just to remind us, this is the proposal the developers put forward in December 2002:









They wanted the mini-golf to be much, much larger than it currently is, and also wanted more retail space next to the Beach House. Also note the west facade for the Beachhouse was a lot grander than the one built.

Blame the NIMBYs.

(Crossposted on SSC)

[russo92]

-__- that was the original? seriously what is wrong with these councils

[Nort]

At the Grace Emily they have the original model for Magic Mountain above the back door, now THAT makes me sad.

edit: I personally loved Magic Mountain, and it did a fantastic job of what something like this is meant to be, being an attraction that gets people to visit and use it, can understand why some people wouldn't have liked it though. Even that initial Entertainment Complex proposal misses the point entirely in that it doesn't connect to the beachfront in any real way, for all intents and purposes it could be out anywhere in the suburbs and still work just as well. With Magic Mountain it truly felt like an extension of the beach and used the location well.

[pushbutton]

I certainly agree the original proposal was much better than what was built. I also think part of the problem is the prices at the Beach House are way too high. That's also why Dazzleland closed.

I also agree (although it's a seperate issue) that it's high time SA had a proper major theme park. I nice, tastefully designed one with resort accommodation, restaurants and a spa as part of the complex.

[rev]

We are big on ideas in this state, but nobody that is in a position to implement them is ever interested or has the balls to go ahead with those big ideas.

And on the Beachhouse issue, has anyone actually seen any real advertising and marketing campaigns from them, especially during school holidays? Because I haven't noticed anything.
Even old Greenhills adventure park spent more time advertising then these guys.

[crawf]

I would like to see Greenhills Adventure Park in Victor Harbor, given a major makeover similar to Adventure Park over in Geelong or over in Perth. Such as bigger and better water facilities.

Or a new mid-sized Theme Park built in Adelaide's southern suburbs. Possibly Pt Stanvac

[pushbutton]

Well I've thought before that Greenhills adventure park is the perfect location for a theme park and in some ways they already have the beginnings of some of the necessary infrastructure there.

Clearly the current owners don't have the money to do much development because it seems to largely stay the same from one year to the next. However if they invested say $100,000 each year (if they had the necessary captial which presumably they don't, and if the local council would approve it which knowing SA councils they probably wouldn't) then they could continue to operate it whilst gradually turning it into a theme park. Accommodation could be built on site / next to the park too along with restaurants and a day spa and other things that could be outside the boundary of the actual park and accessible to the general public including when the theme park was closed.

As it is they close Greenhills for a whole month each August so that would be the ideal time to do most of the building works.

As I said the location is perfect. Near to Victor Harbour which in itself is somewhere some people go for leisure time or short holidays, plus it's only about an hour from Adelaide so easily accessible for those who just want to go for the day. No doubt Victor harboour itself would benefit greatly if Greenhills was developed futher through increased tourism in the region. The park is also nicely hidden away with no homes near it so hopefully nobody would be complaining about the noise / traffic / lights etc.

The only way I could actually see this happening is if Greenhills was purchased by a major theme park operator with a lot of capital such as village roadshow, Merlin entertainments or whoever owns Dreamworld.

[Norman]

I always knew this was going to be a failure. How anyone thought a 25m ferris wheel would be succesful is beyond me. Even the Norfolk pines are taller than it!

They should just start again, and this time with something at-least double the size.

That's unlikely given the amount of debts this business has from what I've heard.

[pushbutton]

Why do they have debts? All they need to do is lower their prices, select and train their staff better, and watch the profits roll in!

It really is that simple, and yet for some reason most operators of the few fun attractions SA has seem to think the solution is to put their prices UP, which of course just means they lose most of their customers and they end up going broke!

[Songsting]

Why do they have debts? All they need to do is lower their prices, select and train their staff better, and watch the profits roll in!

It really is that simple, and yet for some reason most operators of the few fun attractions SA has seem to think the solution is to put their prices UP, which of course just means they lose most of their customers and they end up going broke!

So true, so simple, so elusive to most 'business' people. Watch the beach house fail with this, yet again. For some reason they thought people would love it simply because it's 'the biggest wheel with a single arm'. No one give a flying F about single arm or not, they just want some decent amusement for a reasonable price.