SAVE Hard Rock Park!

[the REAL unbiased]

It's late and im sitting here thinking what can be done to make the park more appealing than what it is now and make people wanna come so I came up with some ideas.

1) have mothers get in free on mothers day and the same for fathers day.

2) have an event called "first fridays" where the first friday of each month patrons can get admission for...say...half price and no parking fee?

3) Run charity events throughout the year such as for every can good you bring you get 2 dollars off admission.

4) SInce the park is close during the holiday have a "christmas in july" toys for tots drive and have a 3 tiered discount scale. small sized toys get 3 dollars off admission per toy, med size toys gets you 6 dollars off admission per toy and large size toys get you 10 dollars per toy for off admission. **this would be a tough one because a small size toy may try to be passed off as a large size by some cheap ass.**

5) Have local cheerfest or band events for the local schools at the park with discounted park admission.

6) Math, science, and physics also for the local schools.

7) Partner up with local business's to get them to provide tickets for sale to tourist that come to the area. This would be more for hotels.

Thats all I can think of right now...so what do you think can help the park out?

[David]

If they are smart, they have some of these things in mind already. In middle school my science class took a field trip to Six Flags over GA for Science day and i've also performed at Disney with a school choir. Once school starts, bringing in school groups is a great way to increase business. Open the park for field trips on days that they plan on being closed and make some extra money and maybe give all the kids a half price coupon so they can return. I would also suggest having some sort of report card promotion, bring in a report card with all A's and B's and get in at a reduced fare.
-6Flags in GA does a lot of church events, not sure if that would go over as well at HRP but not a bad idea to market towards church youth groups.
- Have a battle of the bands type competition, winner gets to open up for the next big show at HRP
- Have special seperate ticket Adults only events for those 21-up. Have an Ozzfest type set up thats more risque than what goes on during the day and really use the Hard Rock name to it's advantage.
- Hand out fliers, brochures, tickets, all sorts of free items to people on the beach. If people aren't going to travel to MB just for the park, they can atleast appeal to those already at the beach who may not know about the park.
- I don't know if they do this already or not, but set up displays at all the Hard Rock Hotels around the country telling people about the park and maybe selling discount tickets for the park that are good for 1 year, get people interested in going there.

[Ken]

All of these ideas are great,
I have seen some Church busses at HRP on Saturdays, I'm sure some eyeballs were rolling during thier visit as I keep reading those comments in the Sun news that the park is too Risqu`e.
I can't think of any new ideas just yet becasue everything I read sounds Great. Oh I just thought of one, since HR franchise is into the whole (Save The Planet) idea they can come up with some event for that.

[Asriel]

I think all of these ideas are terrific! And more than anything else - even if the park is not in trouble - they should be doing these things anyway! Stuff like this builds up the park to the locals, helps foster business relationships, encourages people that would not have otherwise tried the park to do so (whether it be fore monetary, economic, or socioeconomic reasons), and overall betters the park's position.

And I know this was mentioned on the main page's comments section but it is sooooo important for the park to communicate with the media! Its unbelievable for us that we have been trying to get in touch with people at the park for over a month now and no response! That is unexceptable and makes it that much harder for us to do our job - which completely BENEFITS the park! Chris and I want nothing more than for the park to succeed and our website reflects that but at the same time Hard Rock is shunning us or something?!? I rant here, and this is the only time I'll do it, I won't do it on the main page - but I believe most of you would agree that that isn't something the park should be doing. I don't know what other media forms or companies are running into a problem like this but that more than anything is concerning to me. We won't make up stories or news for posts so thats why sometimes we won't have updates for a long period of time - nothing is being shared anywhere...

[Ken]

Asriel,

I am with you on that the park's staying silent and not keeping you informed on whats going on gives everybody the question Are they in trouble and tring to deny it? That may not at all be the case but they need to be more open and say that they have plans for future rides and expansions and special events so people know that eventhough they may be a bit under at the moment they are in for the long term and are not throwing in the towel.
Especialy with all the skeptics& naysayers out there who are crossing thier fingers for the park's demise which I find totaly sad.

[Asriel]

That's my biggest thing personally - we have reached out to them (and at a couple different levels of personnel) trying to get information about a Halloween event, any new news, anything they would like to have shared, etc. and haven't received a response to e-mails or voicemails. Maybe they are thinking if they don't have anything to share they shouldn't respond but is that really wise? I'm thinking of putting up a post with a milk carton that says "Missing! Have you seen this _______?" I actually made the graphic last night... LOL but don't want to put it up just yet. I really shouldn't even be expressing this frustration here since its not very appropriate but our jobs are becoming increasingly more difficult...

[Ken]

I can understand the frustration, I wonder if they are indeed working on things that they want to be sure they have concrete deal on before they announce just to be safe?

[Asriel]

I hope that's the case but it doesn't do much for building relationship with your media partners...

[the REAL unbiased]

Regardless they should still respond...

[Ms Charlie]

1. My daughter suggested having a competition with the local DECA chapters in the schools, to make an advertising campaign for HRP. Winning group gets park passes and their advertising made public. Great PR because they are working with the local schools and less expensive advertising (alot better than what they already have)
2. Carowinds has a band competition for the school bands, chorus, and orchestra; what better place to do this than at HRP. (hello music)
3. Disney has senior night at WDW for the high school seniors. It has been a long time since I did this, but if I remember correctly there were at least 20 schools that participated each week. One night every week (usually friday) the groups of seniors rode a bus (chartered) to WDW and arrived after the park officially closed to the public and reopened for the seniors. The price of the ticket included the trip, one picture, and the price of admission. The park had major named bands all over the park (not the same every week). HRP can look into that for maybe next May, and promote it to the schools from South and North Carolina. I think it would be cool.
4. They need to have the characters, the bears and winston, in stuffed form. Something the kids can take home, and cuddle with.

[Ken]

These are all Super Great Ideas, I hope HRP officals are reading this as it will bring large crowds and build the Parks reputation in Myrtle Beach as well Distant states.

[Asriel]

Funny this - when I was in highschool I did the whole Carowinds band trip and then in college I was in a colorguard that performed in one of Disney's parade's too! LOL I totally forgot about those until you mentioned it! They are a ton of fun and a great way to bring people to the park. Even bringing them in young will help encourage them to come back when they are a bit older with their own discresionary income ;)

Hmmm... speaking of parades, something I just realized, Hard Rock Park is not really set up for parades of any kind are they?? The roads/pathways/bridges aren't really big enough to fit floats and people. But that might not be what they are really planning for even though parades are now almost expected at many theme parks, if only seasonally. Just something else to add to the list of things that make you go hmmm...

[Boatrat]

Have you noticed that when they have band who people have heard of they draw better crowds. I thought that was going to be the idea. Also they have to realize there are a lot of grandparents who live here and would take their grandkids but do not want to pay $50 because they do not ride the rides. I have a season pass, and have been about 8 times. The only time I've seen a crowd was when they had a good band.