Star Trek: The Experience: Where was the Support?

[Cmndr J Crichton]

Yes another Experience thread.


I'm watching the doc about the closing of the experience. With all those people that went there, where was that support when the place when in full swing? I guarantee if those 'regular customers' went there all the time, would it have closed? Anyway. My random thought of the day.

Also, with how successful the '09 movie was, more would've gone into the attraction.

 

[T'Girl]

The problem with the "regular customers" going into the experience on a regular basis is that the customers were visitors to the Hilton, they did not live in Las Vegas. And while a trek fan might pay a visit with each vacation, the typical vegas gambler would go in on one trip, a few years later their interest would be to a new attraction.

As far as the new movie is concerned, the DVD has long since disappeared from the rental-bot at my local supermarket, the average movie ticket buyer has already forgotten it.

 

[Mary Ann]

Yes another Experience thread.


I'm watching the doc about the closing of the experience. With all those people that went there, where was that support when the place when in full swing? I guarantee if those 'regular customers' went there all the time, would it have closed? Anyway. My random thought of the day.

Chances are some of those people would never have gone were the experience not closing. That was their only chance to see it, so they gave it a go. The same happened in the UK during the mass closures of train branch lines; the trains were completely full on the last day of running, but the lines were closed because they were money losers and didn't have enough passengers, so many of those last-day passengers were not regular users (I thank my husband's collection of trainspotter DVDs for that info).

 

[Amaris]

Yep. It's in Las Vegas. I'm aaaaaaalllll the way out here in middle of nowhere Ohio. If I'm going to the Experience, it will take a very special occasion. As it was, I couldn't even make it out there for the closing.

 

[Wolff359]

Keep in mind that attendance was not the reason STTE closed. Sure, the crowds that the place was used to in its heyday were gone, but except for the times when Las Vegas tourism was low, people were showing up. The facility was actually making a profit overall.

The closure was due to the lease agreement with the Hilton ending, and the general apathy of the new owners, Cedar Fair. The Hilton wanted more money for a new lease, Cedar Fair didn't want the hassle. You can blame both entities here, simply because while it isn't unreasonable for the Hilton to ask for more money, it's not like they have anybody lined up to rent that space from them now; they could have negotiated something. And while Cedar Fair may not have wanted to pay more for the space, it cost them a lot to empty out the place and pay severance to the employees; they could have negotiated something. CBS had stepped in at the last minute to try to help, but obviously that didn't help. At least they tried.

But of course, if the place had been raking in money, then I'm sure negotiations would have been smoother. So that means when CBS finally gets their new attraction underway at Neonopolis (yes, I know there's no timeline for that yet, but I believe that they're working on it), come by often and bring your wallet. Should the Great River carry me, I'll be there.