When U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Nugent awards Wild West World to a lucky (?) bidder tomorrow morning, there will be a lot of losers: Thomas Etheredge, whose financial activities remain under investigation by state and federal authorities; investors; season ticket holders; vendors; builders.
But maybe none bigger than the Wichita area itself.
If there’s been one constant during the Wild West World saga, it’s the area’s deep and abiding affection for Joyland, the historic theme park whose day sadly has passed. That affection was a market for amusement park entertainment that could have easily been tapped by a good businessman.
But there’s no room here for ego trumping a good business plan, and Thomas Etheredge’s decision to put sound and fury ahead of good business makes losers of us all.
Wild West World’s high profile failure has poisoned the amusement park brand in Wichita. And with a Tulsa amusement park group looking less and less likely as the buyer – although I’ve been buried in this story long enough to know that it’s never over until it’s over – it could be a long time before another fun park comes down the pike.
Too bad.
3 Comments
It’s pathetic that Joyland cannot be resurrected. The infrastructure and brand are there; but the location is out of style. Big deal, not all of us are addicted to far east or far west Wichita.
Joyland borders I-35. That fact should be exploited and the western side of the park built up so that it is obvious from the highway, like Frontiertown in Oklahoma City.
I worked at Joyland when I was a kid. Does anybody know that Joyland once had it’s own locomotive diesel engines in a building behind the roller coaster, and generated it’s own power? The place is living history, and needs to be rescued.
Wild West World was a pie-in-the-sky idea from the very beginning. Ugly, corny, barren and too commercial.
Too bad for Wichita.
Bring back Louie!
I have a website with photos of Joyland. The spam filter won’t let me post the URL, but if you click on my user name above it will open the site. You can also find it by doing a Google search for “remember joyland”.
Nick