The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Financial decision · 1976
The World of Sid & Marty Krofft: an indoor theme park that lived five months
The Krofft brothers' indoor theme park in Atlanta's Omni opened in May 1976 and closed in November 1976, never drawing the million visitors it projected.
The World of Sid & Marty Krofft · 1976-11
What happened
In May 1976 Sid and Marty Krofft — the brothers behind the psychedelic children's TV shows of the 1970s — opened The World of Sid & Marty Krofft, an indoor theme park filling the Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. It was meant to be a one-stop family destination with rides, a 600-ton Crystal Carousel, and projections of at least a million visitors in a year.
It never worked. Attendance fell far short: the park drew at most 300,000 visitors and never came close to a million. Guests spent about three hours there instead of the six the design assumed, and admission cost more than a full day at the much larger Six Flags Over Georgia. Downtown Atlanta was in the middle of urban decay and a crime wave that kept families away. The park was operating in debt from opening day, the funding bank cut off support, and the brothers could not find new investors.
On 10 November 1976, after barely five months, the park closed for good. The space sat largely vacant for years and the Omni struggled to rent it, until the mid-1980s when Ted Turner moved CNN in and renamed the complex CNN Center. The world's longest freestanding escalator, built for the park, survives as part of the CNN tour.
Why it happened
- It was smaller, pricier and in a worse location than the day-trip competitors: a couple of hours of content sold at a premium in a downtown that families did not feel safe visiting.
- The projection was fantasy: a million visitors a year assumed a family destination the park never was, and the whole undertaking ran on borrowed money with no revenue cushion from day one.
- The brothers confused a TV brand with a place to go: fans of the shows were not enough on their own to staff, fill and pay for a permanent attraction.
The lesson
A famous brand is not a business model: a park that takes three hours to see and costs more than Six Flags fails no matter its name — this one took five months.
Aftermath
The park's space sat empty until CNN moved in during 1987 and the Omni became CNN Center. Several Krofft features, including the world's longest freestanding escalator, are still part of the complex.
Sources
- Wikipedia — The World of Sid & Marty Krofft (indoor theme park in the Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta; opened May 1976, closed 10 November 1976 after about five months; never exceeded 300,000 visitors against a projected million; guests stayed about three hours versus the six-hour design; admission was more expensive than a day at Six Flags Over Georgia; operated in debt from opening day; the funding bank stopped support and further investors were not found; the space sat empty until CNN moved in in 1987 and the complex became CNN Center)
- Atlanta History Center, 2021 — Gone but not forgotten: The World of Sid and Marty Krofft (the Krofft brothers, famous for their 1970s children's TV shows, opened the indoor theme park in Atlanta's Omni International in 1976; it closed within months; the world's longest freestanding escalator, built for the park, still operates inside CNN Center)
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