Word: freedomland
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...Freedomland opened in New York's Bronx three months ago with a blare of publicity billing it as the world's largest outdoor entertainment center. But it has been no fun for its promoters. Last week they were scratching to round up fresh capital to pay the park's bills and keep it operating...
...woes of Freedomland began even before the first spade of earth for the 205-acre playground was turned. A plan to sell stock to finance the venture flopped; William Zeckendorfs Webb & Knapp, which owned the land and leased it to Freedomland's promoter, the International Recreation Corp., had to buy 40% of the stock for $7,000,000. This financing proved too little-partly because builders overshot the estimated $17.5 million construction cost...
...Many Customers. On opening day last June, 60,000 people, more than twice the number anticipated, came to Freedomland. This might have been good, but it was bad: the crowd struggled to walk through the semicompleted park, raised a storm of complaints and bad feeling. This was only the beginning of the trouble. A few days later, a stagecoach overturned, injuring ten people. Then three hoodlums robbed Freedomland's cash-control office of $28,836, and escaped. They were nabbed last week with only $14,563 left...
Great crowds stayed away from Freedomland. Enthusiastic officials had originally estimated that the 1960 attendance would reach 4,800,000 before the park closed in October, and that the average day's crowd would run to 37,000. Attendance fell off to 20,000 a day, forcing revision of the seasonal estimate to 1,700,000 people. Barricades to hold back crowds at the Chicago fire exhibit were often hardly needed. Business on weekends, the most crowded time at other New York entertainment parks, dropped 20% below the weekday rate. The park lost money on all but the biggest...
...Little Cash. Webb & Knapp fired or demoted Freedomland's managers, cut operating costs from $40,000 to $25,000 a day, jumped adult admission charges from $1 to $1.50. In August, says the new management, the park made an average operating profit of $20,000 a day. But W. & K. is still stuck with 40% of the stock and $4,000,000 in unpaid construction bills-and the stock, issued at $17.50, has plummeted to a low of $6.25. To meet these bills, Bill Zeckendorf is preparing a plan for new financing, to save both Freedomland and Webb & Knapp...