Some very sad news just off the Orlando Sentinel website concerning the closure of Cypress Gardens, the 223-acre natue and attraction park in central Florida (in Polk County), and the oldest theme park in the State. This really saddens me because I loved the change of pace and naturalistic style of CG, but it seems that not enough people did. Here's the Sentinel story in full:
By Sarah Hale | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 11, 2003
Florida Cypress Gardens, famous for its costumed Southern belles and acrobatic water skiers, said Thursday that it will cease operations this weekend, ending a 67-year run as the region's oldest themed attraction.
The park, a pioneer among the state's tourist attractions, blamed the weak economy and the slump in travel since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for a fatal drop in attendance at the Polk County landmark. Attendance last month, for example, was down 42,000 customers from March 2002, the attraction said.
"It's really sad. As long as there's been a tourism industry in Florida, there's been a beautiful Cypress Gardens," said Donna H. Ross, president of the Florida Attractions Association.
Attendance at the Winter Haven attraction -- which sprawls over 223 acres of former swampland on the banks of Lake Eloise -- had actually been on a steady decline for most of the past decade, as the park struggled to find its place amid the growing number of theme parks and attractions in nearby Orlando and Tampa.
By the early 1990s, for example, the park's annual visitor count was down more than 40 percent from a 1987 peak of 1.4 million people. By 1995, there was speculation that the park might close, but its owner at the time -- Anheuser-Busch Co., operator of the SeaWorld theme parks -- instead sold the property to a management group that vowed to turn things around.
Park President Bill Reynolds, the former Anheuser-Busch executive who led the management buyout, was not available for comment.
Sunday will be the park's last day. One employee said the closing came as a surprise to most of the staff. "Sales had been better than they were a couple of years ago," Stacy Huey, assistant marketing manager, said. "We thought the park was going to close then, and it didn't."
Huey said she did not know what would happen to the dozens of group events, including weddings, that are scheduled for the park in coming weeks.
In recent years, Cypress Gardens had been a popular destination for school groups, wedding receptions and various water-sport competitions. But interest among tourists languished.
"This is the end of a very long road to death," said Abe Pizam, a professor of tourism at the University of Central Florida. "Between changes in the attraction industry, advancements at the area's major parks, and the economy, Cypress Gardens had a number of factors working against it. It started its decline quite a few years ago."
The park's shutdown most directly affects the several hundred full- and part-time employees who work there. But it is also likely to sting other Winter Haven businesses that have depended on Cypress Garden visitors to sustain sales.
After all, the city of Winter Haven's unofficial logo includes a Cypress Garden water skiier.
Polk County had worked with Cypress Gardens on joint marketing campaigns, hoping to attract visitors to what it considered the county's flagship attraction.
Mark Jackson, the county's director of sports marketing, said the park was host to about 140 sports events each year, including water-ski competitions and triathlons, as well as social and entertainment events.
"Attendance had been off for a while," Jackson said, "but to shut that flow off totally -- this community will really feel it. . . . There's a loss of at least several million dollars at stake."
Gene Engle, a Lakeland developer and president of the Central Florida Development Council of Polk County, said Cypress Gardens has been the local "flag pole to rally around, as far as tourism is concerned."
He estimated that the property -- home to botanical gardens and pricey, lakefront land -- would be worth several million dollars, though he could not offer a specific number. He doubted that it would ever reopen as an attraction, and instead speculated that a developer would be interested in the land.
"We're going to hear a lot of rumors before we get any answers," Ross said.
Some residential and commercial development is already rising on the outskirts of the park, Deric Feacher, a Winter Haven spokesman, said.
Cypress Gardens debuted in 1936 and grew to national prominence within two decades, thanks in large part to the park's famous water-skiing show, which was featured at world's fairs and in movies and magazines.
By 1954, a photo from the park ran in an average of 100 publications a day, according to one estimate. One shot, of a woman jumping into the air, found its way into 3,670 American newspapers and magazines.
Dick Pope Sr., the attraction's founder, helped generate the whirl of publicity by crowning a queen of something -- be it citrus, watermelon or good posture -- nearly every day the park was open.
Visitors also lined up to take photos of friends and family posing with one of the park's Southern belles, who still stroll through the maze of flowers and foliage in frilly dresses and hoop skirts.
The Pope family sold the park in 1985 to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, then an Orlando-based publishing company that also owned SeaWorld. Anheuser-Busch bought Cypress Gardens and SeaWorld four years later.
By late Thursday afternoon, an employee locker room at Cypress Gardens was filled with tears and giant garbage bags as water skiers packed their belongings, leaving just enough behind for the final three days of performances. Many had been skiing at the attraction for more than a decade.
Travis Voisard, a 17-year-old water skiier and part-time employee, decided he would skip school Friday, with his mother's approval, to have one more chance to ski at Cypress Gardens. His parents met at the park nearly 20 years ago, and both have worked there.
"I grew up here," he said. "It's the best job a teenager could have in the world."
The 70 or so first-graders from Narcoossee Community School who were visiting the park Thursday may be the last class to visit, ending what has been a popular field trip for Osceola County public schools for many years.
"I think this is the best field trip we go on all year," said Tara Mozroll, a first-grade teacher. The school's kindergarten and first-grade classes used the trip to Cypress Gardens to complete months of study on a butterfly's life cycle.
Employees still had annual passes for sale on Thursday, but park merchandise had been marked down 40 percent.
By Sarah Hale | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 11, 2003
Florida Cypress Gardens, famous for its costumed Southern belles and acrobatic water skiers, said Thursday that it will cease operations this weekend, ending a 67-year run as the region's oldest themed attraction.
The park, a pioneer among the state's tourist attractions, blamed the weak economy and the slump in travel since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for a fatal drop in attendance at the Polk County landmark. Attendance last month, for example, was down 42,000 customers from March 2002, the attraction said.
"It's really sad. As long as there's been a tourism industry in Florida, there's been a beautiful Cypress Gardens," said Donna H. Ross, president of the Florida Attractions Association.
Attendance at the Winter Haven attraction -- which sprawls over 223 acres of former swampland on the banks of Lake Eloise -- had actually been on a steady decline for most of the past decade, as the park struggled to find its place amid the growing number of theme parks and attractions in nearby Orlando and Tampa.
By the early 1990s, for example, the park's annual visitor count was down more than 40 percent from a 1987 peak of 1.4 million people. By 1995, there was speculation that the park might close, but its owner at the time -- Anheuser-Busch Co., operator of the SeaWorld theme parks -- instead sold the property to a management group that vowed to turn things around.
Park President Bill Reynolds, the former Anheuser-Busch executive who led the management buyout, was not available for comment.
Sunday will be the park's last day. One employee said the closing came as a surprise to most of the staff. "Sales had been better than they were a couple of years ago," Stacy Huey, assistant marketing manager, said. "We thought the park was going to close then, and it didn't."
Huey said she did not know what would happen to the dozens of group events, including weddings, that are scheduled for the park in coming weeks.
In recent years, Cypress Gardens had been a popular destination for school groups, wedding receptions and various water-sport competitions. But interest among tourists languished.
"This is the end of a very long road to death," said Abe Pizam, a professor of tourism at the University of Central Florida. "Between changes in the attraction industry, advancements at the area's major parks, and the economy, Cypress Gardens had a number of factors working against it. It started its decline quite a few years ago."
The park's shutdown most directly affects the several hundred full- and part-time employees who work there. But it is also likely to sting other Winter Haven businesses that have depended on Cypress Garden visitors to sustain sales.
After all, the city of Winter Haven's unofficial logo includes a Cypress Garden water skiier.
Polk County had worked with Cypress Gardens on joint marketing campaigns, hoping to attract visitors to what it considered the county's flagship attraction.
Mark Jackson, the county's director of sports marketing, said the park was host to about 140 sports events each year, including water-ski competitions and triathlons, as well as social and entertainment events.
"Attendance had been off for a while," Jackson said, "but to shut that flow off totally -- this community will really feel it. . . . There's a loss of at least several million dollars at stake."
Gene Engle, a Lakeland developer and president of the Central Florida Development Council of Polk County, said Cypress Gardens has been the local "flag pole to rally around, as far as tourism is concerned."
He estimated that the property -- home to botanical gardens and pricey, lakefront land -- would be worth several million dollars, though he could not offer a specific number. He doubted that it would ever reopen as an attraction, and instead speculated that a developer would be interested in the land.
"We're going to hear a lot of rumors before we get any answers," Ross said.
Some residential and commercial development is already rising on the outskirts of the park, Deric Feacher, a Winter Haven spokesman, said.
Cypress Gardens debuted in 1936 and grew to national prominence within two decades, thanks in large part to the park's famous water-skiing show, which was featured at world's fairs and in movies and magazines.
By 1954, a photo from the park ran in an average of 100 publications a day, according to one estimate. One shot, of a woman jumping into the air, found its way into 3,670 American newspapers and magazines.
Dick Pope Sr., the attraction's founder, helped generate the whirl of publicity by crowning a queen of something -- be it citrus, watermelon or good posture -- nearly every day the park was open.
Visitors also lined up to take photos of friends and family posing with one of the park's Southern belles, who still stroll through the maze of flowers and foliage in frilly dresses and hoop skirts.
The Pope family sold the park in 1985 to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, then an Orlando-based publishing company that also owned SeaWorld. Anheuser-Busch bought Cypress Gardens and SeaWorld four years later.
By late Thursday afternoon, an employee locker room at Cypress Gardens was filled with tears and giant garbage bags as water skiers packed their belongings, leaving just enough behind for the final three days of performances. Many had been skiing at the attraction for more than a decade.
Travis Voisard, a 17-year-old water skiier and part-time employee, decided he would skip school Friday, with his mother's approval, to have one more chance to ski at Cypress Gardens. His parents met at the park nearly 20 years ago, and both have worked there.
"I grew up here," he said. "It's the best job a teenager could have in the world."
The 70 or so first-graders from Narcoossee Community School who were visiting the park Thursday may be the last class to visit, ending what has been a popular field trip for Osceola County public schools for many years.
"I think this is the best field trip we go on all year," said Tara Mozroll, a first-grade teacher. The school's kindergarten and first-grade classes used the trip to Cypress Gardens to complete months of study on a butterfly's life cycle.
Employees still had annual passes for sale on Thursday, but park merchandise had been marked down 40 percent.
