Sunway rewarded for closing Wonderland

[GoGoBoy]

Does it make anyone else angry that Sunway is benefiting thanks to massive crowds visiting Wonderland every day now? My guess is that more people will pass through the gates in the next 7 weeks than Wonderland would get in a year. The fact is Sunway is CLOSING the park so they can bulldoze it and make money from the land... yet they are making a fortune in the meantime with attendances and in-park spending. It doesn't seem fair to me. They haven't spent money on the park in 10 years and yet they are packing people through the gates like there is no tomorrow (which I guess for Wonderland, there isn't). Basically they are being rewarded for doing a bad thing to this city. Does this bother anyone else or is it just me? Maybe I need to relax a little. Richard, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think they will be making a killing right now? Do you think Sunway cares? I just hope none of our other theme parks get any ideas and see the potential goldmine that is apparantley available when announcing the closure of a park. Certainly more of a boost to visitor numbers than any new ride would create

[ScReAMmachine!]

Take into account there are a lot of expenses involved when folding a company. Things like Wonderpass refunds and Staff Entitlements will cost $$$$$. GoBoi, then would you rather the park announce one day that they have officially closed - giving no notice to the staff or general public. Its a catch-22 situtation. Its just a shame that the public's perception of the park will change... I mean we can all agree that it is a different place to when it opened in 85

[Slick]

I think the fact that they've made a profit of just over fifty million dollars, and now are getting numbers that are outselling the rest of Australia's parks is not good in my opinion.... But I guess that's what happens. What i thought would be personally funny is that they advertised that their closing!!! "....We don't have any money to spend on maintenance but hey, let's just spend lot's of money on annoying ads!....."

[Richard]

To my knowledge, they didn't actually advertise the closing in terms of paid spots in ad-breaks or newspapers or anything, it was all through news stories in papers and on television and radio. I like ScReAMmachine!'s way of putting it - would you rather they just decided one morning not the open the gates, and that was that? If there's one thing that the influx of guests proves, it's that Wonderland had huge potential. Sydney definitely has the population to support a large theme park, all the people needed was a reason to come. Some new rides would have done the job just as well as announcing the closure has. The only difference of course is that new rides would have meant the park would still be getting revenue years down the track. Instead they get $50 million now and absolutely nothing in the future. You know, Amazons (a pretty decent water park up here - it was only a 15 minute walk for me) closed about three times before the place was finally turned into a beautiful housing estate. Obviously the Wonderland situation is different given that the land has already been sold, but that place experienced the same sorts of attendance spikes in it's last few days each time. vbmenu_register("postmenu_6521", true);

[GoGoBoy]

I like your point Richard about how the large influx of guests shows that Wonderland did have potential. I do hope Sunway will look at it that way and question their decision to some extent... although I highly doubt it. I was wondering though Richard, whether you think 2 months of extremely large attendances would be a large financial gain for the company? Or do you think when taking everything into account it may not be that much money afterall? I do realise that there are costs associated with closing down and also the fact that they are going to keep a number of staff on after the place closes its doors. Contrary to this however is the fact that the place would cost very little to run at the moment with minimal staff to pay (remembering that a large number of executive managers resigned recently), no major (expensive) shows, no advertising and minimal ride up-keep work. I also want to point out to anyone who may not realise it but Sunway is going to continue to have a substantial financial interest in the wonderland property as they are co-developing and co-leasing parts of the business park through Hartford Lane (their Australian subsidiary). Sunway may continue to gain from the site for some time into the future

[Nightshifter]

well check this out, wodnerland averages 2700 a day which is almost equivalent to 1 million people a year. yesterday or last ngith got over 11 000 people, now that is crazy as.

[Bussy]

Another Shifty special I see. Where do you get your information? Because whoever told you that there were 11,000 people at Wonderland last night is pulling something, not necessarily your leg. Let’s get some perspective on this, December 1st 2003, CFMEU Picnic day at Wonderland Sydney, record attendance for an Australian theme park 16,000 people. Saturday night, 11,000 people I don't think so. Edit: I've just noticed where the problem is, Shifty is talking about the well known German theme park "Wodnerland" "The Bus is now leaving for The Peoples Park, NSW"

[ScReAMmachine!]

Shifty, stop posting crap (unless you've got evidence)

[Flea]

Shifty isn't posting crap. Wonderland did get 11,000 through the gates yesterday. Jaggie was there yesterday and left at around 5. He asked someone (Jaggie can give more accurate info) for the attendance on that day (11,000). I wouldn't be suprised if the attendance clocked 15,000 by 10pm. Liam

[Daniel]

I'm sorry lads. I find 15,000 people extremely hard to believe on a normal operating day. Bus nailed it, whoever Shifty spoke to is pulling his whatsit. You wouldn't know 15,000 people at Wonderland if they all bit you on the arse. I'm really sorry, for being a little out of my 'peace phase', but that's rubbish. 11,000 or 15,000 people at Wonderland doesn't mean Demon lines to Demon Manor as Shifty suggested, it means Demon lines to the Demon gates at the bottom of the hill. Probe, 3 tunnels and down the path a long way. Bounty's, out the queue house. Extremely far fetched story. If you'd ever been on a Union Day, you'd see exactly what Bus and myself are saying. Who told you they average 2700 daily anyway? We better not go there into that topic again unless you want another sh*tfight. I'm always up for a good one, but for the sake of peace and love, we shall not re-enter that debate. If you read newspapers you'll find their highest yearly attendance for a few years now has been around 850,000. Significantly down as you all would know. Wonderland had an enormous amount of potential but Sunway were simply interested in running it into the ground and flogging it off, which has already been established many moons ago. As far as I'm concerned they'd have been better off to run it as a successful theme park for 50 more years or whatever. The Government love it though, look at the taxes they'll be raking in. More than what Wonderland was paying I can assure you.] Once again, please do not forget that the $50 million for for the theme park only. Don't leave out the other 160 hectares or thereabouts... Wonderland will clean up financially over the coming weeks.

[screammachine]

Just a quicky. Maybe you guys shouldnt be so harsh on Shifty. The odd joke is ok but dont hammer it in. Anywayz.... In a way I could back up that story of the que lines. I went there last year at the start of the summer, and you would not believe how many people were in the park. The Bounty's Revenge and a que under the whole roof area and almost out to the entrance of the ride. The demon was about a 30min wait. And the Space Probe had the whole tunnel full of people and coming out into the entrance ramp area. As for The BushBeast the line was packed out and the same goes for River Rampage. I think this was pretty good attendance for Wonderland back then. Screammachine

[Jaggie]

Thanks Liam, i will tell you that a staff member that works in the other departments apart from rides, got into a conversation with me about the amount of people there, they then went on to say that there would be around 11,000 here today. I will not mention the staff members name as they might be a bit embaraseed if wonderbus and daniel get to them, but i believe that it was an extremely big crowd anyway, 8,000 shall we say. Dont knock Shifsta, he was only estimating as we all know they have covered up the counters in the turnstyles ages ago.

[Daniel]

8,000 for the whole day, including night trading sounds a little more realistic... I'd believe that. It would be virtually impossible for you guys to estimate Wonderland's crowd. It can be pretty deceiving sometimes. Over-estimating indeed. I wasn't knocking Shift Key, I just said he's wrong. Simple as that.

[GoGoBoy]

Well it now looks like there is a good chance Wonderland will be staying open until the 26th of April. I was just looking over the seek.com.au website and saw a job ad requesting new casual staff to work at Wonderland up until the 26th April. The ad was posted on the 2nd March. At the original park closure meeting the CEO implied that the park may not stay open due to staff numbers. It looks like he has changed his tune now. I'm guessing he has seen the phenomenal respose from the public and (surprise, surprise) is wanting to stay open right to the end to cash in on it. The closure is still over 6 weeks away but the guests are treating each day as if it is the last. There's no way Sunway would want to miss out on this sort of attendance. By the way, don't be fooled into thinking this is a kind-hearted decision on Sunway's part... oh no... it'll be all about the cold hard cash

[GoGoBoy]

Just to add a bit more fuel to the fire... I was just looking over the Sunway website. It seems that the company is investing millions of dollars into a NEW water theme park (in addition to their existing parks) for Malaysia with a new 5 star resort and shopping complex to go with it. The complex should be open by mid 2004. I would like to remind everyone of one of the main points Wonderland's CEO made in his address to staff regarding the parks closure - *Sunway simply wasn't able to invest the required capital into Wonderland as the parent company had been badly affected by the asian economic crisis*. So... they have plenty of money to invest in their own country's leisure and tourism projects but for some reason not enough for ours. Here is a quote from Sunway's chairman regarding the new water theme park and resort - "The development of this theme park reflects our commitment to the community and nation and I would like to assure the State authorities that we at Sunway are determined to deliver and be part of creating another signature resort township which we all can be proud of". Enough said

[Johno]

OMG! Thats some bad news! The truth is out! SuNwAy SUX!