As a kid I grew up in NE Arkansas. I visited Opryland as kid. I lived in Nashville from 1998 to 2002. Oprymills should never replaced Opryland. No one liked the change.
You make one mistake at 2:37 when you say that the park and hotel opened the same year. The park opened in 72, the Opry House in 74 and the hotel in November of 1977.
I had the privilege of working in the park the last year it was open, 1997. The sadness we felt was unbelievable when we found out what Gaylord was going to do. Opryland changed my life.
Closing a great theme park for a shopping mall was about the dumbest business decision ever made. Plus, the public was lied to about why it happened. Gaylord lied. London lied. Period. They wanted quick money & they got it. They lost a lot of loyal customers. There are people who STILL won't go to that mall to shop.
I know a lot of people in Nashville who hate that mall. It's a nice mall. But they were sitting on something special! Thanks for watching and thanks for commenting!
I’d so cool that you collect Opryland stuff. It would be cool if they started making old Opryland shirts. Like a retro kind of thing. Thank you for watching and thanks for commenting!
It’s so sad they replaced such a lovely park with a horrifying consumerist dystopia. But now that malls are on the way out (slowly but surely), how about we beg the city to demolish the mall and rebuild Opryland!
Opry Mills kept many on board with the new mall by keeping some Opry type ideas going, at first. Did you know they kept the water rapids ride? It stayed until about 10 years ago (check online). They also had a Gibson Guitar store and shop inside, along with a TV studio for CMT. In addition, they added larger CD music option with Tower Records. These places I’m mentioning are now long gone. If only this decision was considered 1~2 years later. I’d imagine the park would still be here. Mills company eventually made money on this deal. Gaylord and Nashville lost money.
That's pretty cool about the water rapids ride. I didn't know that. I agree. Nashville, and the whole state of Tennessee lost money, and iconic family destination. Thanks for watching and thanks for commenting!
Correct to a point. Sections of the ride course remained evident until reconstruction following the 2010 floods. The ride boats and mechanisms were relocated.
Thanks for making this video. I'm still sad about Opryland. And being about two hours away from open mills, I've been once. I wasn't that impressed I have malls closer to me. Sadly a couple of them have closed down. I never understood how a mall.would generate.more income than Opryland, given the tourism money it could bring in.
As someone who has worked for Gaylord and know several independent contractors who have worked for Gaylord all I can say is, don't. They have a hard time keeping contractors due to them wanting to be your only concern regardless of what other customer commitments you may have. As always, just follow the money and you'll find the problem
I frequented Opryland theme park many times throughout the yrs and I’ve been to the mall that replaced it many times also. Let me tell you I have never had nor will I ever have as much fun at that mall as I had at the theme park. And I’ve got the log ride picture to prove it. It was a sad and stupid day when they closed the theme park.
Wait! Opryland is closed? How can that be? There are still exit signs on the interstate telling you which exits lead to Opryland. Regarding the Opry Mills theme, it was a LOT more country music oriented before the 2010 flood.
I tried to video one of those signs and missed it. I don't get that either. It's weird. I'm sure we could figure that out with some googling but I forgot to do that while making this video. Thanks for watching!
I'm a year younger than you and have lived here my whole life. Your video has been very informative. Looking back on it, I feel like Nashville felt like "Nashville" because of the links you described between the businesses owned by WSM and/or Gaylord. It was like they owned the city and treated it like an extension of their company. They wanted the city to prosper because it made them prosper. I've always felt like things aren't the same but could never put my finger on it and just chalked it up to progress/me getting old and crotchety. I also think there's a lot of truth to a silly shirt I used to see that said "Welcome to Nashville, y'all go on home now, ya hear". Once folks stopped visiting and started staying, it started taking away from what made our place special.
Thanks for commenting! I think many people living in cities all over the US feel that way to some extent, but Nashville is different for more reasons than I addressed in the video. Some of it has to do with Nashville's history, and geography. In hindsight, WSM couldn't have been located in a more perfect location. WSM put Nashville on the map. But over time, Nashville's 3 interstates and international airport have made it accessible to a huge portion of the US. And it also benefits from what may eventually be called America's 3rd migration. What Tennesseans like us have always known is that Nashville is a great city, and now, the word is out. Everyone wants to live there. And to be honest, I get it. We're running out of room here in Chattanooga, and I can't keep up with how fast East Tennessee is growing. Thanks for watching, and great comment!
Research Dick Evans…main guy along with Gaylord Jr were the reason.. I was in the shows on & off from 1979 till closing. Even toured Europe for the show park
The last time we went, we did a scare on the flying airplanes.. my grandaddy and aunt.. clueless.. My cousin and I in college.. Scared to death... More me. When we got off , they asked us over and over if we were alright.. Other than that, the best
We loved visiting Opryland with our extended family too. In fact, when I think of Opryland, I think of my Grandparents. They're both gone now, and I miss them very much.
You are right about enclosed malls are in decline. Simon Properties operates the Opry Mills and used to operate Circle Center mall in Indianapolis that opened in 1994. Circle Center Mall is a video for itself.
This is getting me upset! I still miss it. We went for vacations and then hit downtown and the opry.. old people loved the show. We rode the rides ... they messed up. Now Dollywood gets business
It is indeed. The mall flooded back in 2010. There's no doubt Opryland would have suffered serious damage. The flood was horrific. But I don't think the damage would have affected the park as much as it did the mall. But I'm just guessing. I mention this in the video but I didn't go into a lot of detail, the park needed reimagining. The main point I was making is that Gaylord didn't know Opryland's potential. I guess an argument can be made that if Gaylord invested heavily into reimagining Opryland, the flood may have crippled it. But I don't see how it would be any worse than what the flood did to Opry Mills.
@BillMarion oh I agree with you. I'm a Nashville native that was fortunate enough to have got to visit the park a lot as a child. I was just playing the devils advocate in that scenario. Imagine how successful the park would have been if it had made it to the tourism resurgence that nashville has been enjoy this past decade or so.
They claimed they didn't do any market research before closing Opryland, but that might be a lie. A good friend of mine was paid in 1997 to give surveys to tourists leaving the park. She asked them about plans to return to the theme park, and if they would return if the area became something else. She handed off this market research to management. years later, she joked she was the reason Opryland closed. I'm reading between the lines here. When Gaylord says they didn't do market research, what probably happened was the visitors to the theme park loved the theme park. They were looking for a reason to close the theme park, but probably didn't get it from these surveys. If they're going to lie about it anyway, it looks better to say "We didn't do due diligence" than "We did do due diligence and the results make us look even worse." Hopefully, the theme park which bought and relocated the Chaos ride fixed all the effects which didn't work.
I was born in 65 and I remember going on opening day 😮 Worst thing I remember happening was the flood that drowned all the animals. And the best times was talking my 2 son's , they were only 6 and 4 when it closed and they still talk about how much fun they had!
Some of us who worked there for years and were in supervisory or management positions, still struggle to this day. It was all I knew. I learned everything at Opryland from customer service excellence to marketing and event skills. When it closed I and many others were forced to move to other states and cities with theme parks just to have a job in which we excelled. It not only left us jobless, but it also made us leave an area that we loved. one of the most painful things is the malls footprint. The mall actually fits in the former parking lot of the park. The park itself? Became a parking lot for the mall that closed it. A parking lot.
Your sentiment is shared by a lot of people. Even when I made my first Opryland video, I thought I was the only person in the world who really cared about Opryland. Thank you so much for watching and commenting. If you odn't mind me asking, what theme park are you at now?
I was born in Kentucky about an hour and a half from Nashville. If I were born any earlier, it would've been my home amusement park. It was where my Mom, my cousins, and older sister got introduced to roller-coaster's. My parents even had season tickets for a brief time before I was born. While I do have decent memories of Opry Mills, (mostly being the one thing keeping me sane when my family fled to Nashville during the '09 Ice storm.) I'd much rather have memories of Opryland instead.
I went to Opryland the first time when i was 4 in the late 70s. I was a yearly tradition as I had a lot of family in the nashville area and I grew up in the Chicagoland area. It was a fun time, and in comparison it was on par with a lot of the six flags parks at the time. Somewhere in the mid-late 80s it fell behind, other parks were getting regular large scale investments and opting for bigger thrills. Chaos, Hangman, were ok additions but not the scale I would have expected from a park as popular as Opryland. At this point I lived in walking distance of Six Flags Great America so that is what I compare the park to. My last visit was in the late 80's, and just didnt see the reason to go, I wasn't into shows and was just going for the rides. So when they rumored declining attendance I bought it up, and in my mind it made sense. I ended up moving to Nashville, and would have been more likely to go, but it was only open a few more years when I moved there. I am about an hour away and if it was there I would have gladly taken my daughter every year. I realize I do miss it but I was upset they never pushed the park to its fullest potential years before it closed.I keep hoping for a Nashville amusement park, and think one could be quite profitable. Somewhere a bit futher out, on 840, grab a 1000 acres and have plenty of space to grow (and somewhere that doesnt flood). Many proposals over the years, but nothing ever took.
It was our goto growing up through the 70s and 80s. So many happy memories there making the 2 hr drive down with my Mom, often with a carload of neighborhood buds being brought along. Just in the first 30 secs, seeing the good old 'Rock n' Roller Coaster' which was my favorite, warmed my heart. Thank you for sharing!
@@bethprather9241 I don't listen to today's mainstream country because it's not Country. I like Cody Johnson though but I've followed him for years before he accepted a Nashville contract. I mainly listen to independent Country artists and the 70's - 90's Country, Pop, and Rock.
I know, right! Seems like ages ago now. But here we are again. I'm so grateful you watched that one, even if it's cringe, and thank you for watching this one. Seriously, I'm so thankful!
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Help me out! Share this video!
Sure will Bill!
"They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot."
Literally! 😂
No doubt!
Thanks for this video. I still can't believe somebody thought closing Opryland was a good idea.
As a kid I grew up in NE Arkansas. I visited Opryland as kid. I lived in Nashville from 1998 to 2002. Oprymills should never replaced Opryland. No one liked the change.
You make one mistake at 2:37 when you say that the park and hotel opened the same year. The park opened in 72, the Opry House in 74 and the hotel in November of 1977.
In late 1970s, early 1980s game shows gave opryland prizes i think.
Otherwise im not sure how i heard of opryland.
I had the privilege of working in the park the last year it was open, 1997. The sadness we felt was unbelievable when we found out what Gaylord was going to do. Opryland changed my life.
The flood of 2010 would have shut it down anyway.
Closing a great theme park for a shopping mall was about the dumbest business decision ever made. Plus, the public was lied to about why it happened. Gaylord lied. London lied. Period. They wanted quick money & they got it. They lost a lot of loyal customers. There are people who STILL won't go to that mall to shop.
I know a lot of people in Nashville who hate that mall. It's a nice mall. But they were sitting on something special! Thanks for watching and thanks for commenting!
Was Ken Hartley the narrator on the Bud Wendell text? We took our six kids to Opryland several times in the 80’s….. We loved it! ❤️😢
The man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Magic Man, Ken Hartley was Mr. Bud Wendell. He is one of my mentors, and dear friends. 😁
I still collect all things Opryland USA.....Or even the Grand old Opry.....but nothing from Opry Mills considering how mad that place makes me 😡
I’d so cool that you collect Opryland stuff. It would be cool if they started making old Opryland shirts. Like a retro kind of thing. Thank you for watching and thanks for commenting!
It’s so sad they replaced such a lovely park with a horrifying consumerist dystopia. But now that malls are on the way out (slowly but surely), how about we beg the city to demolish the mall and rebuild Opryland!
Opry Mills kept many on board with the new mall by keeping some Opry type ideas going, at first. Did you know they kept the water rapids ride? It stayed until about 10 years ago (check online). They also had a Gibson Guitar store and shop inside, along with a TV studio for CMT. In addition, they added larger CD music option with Tower Records. These places I’m mentioning are now long gone. If only this decision was considered 1~2 years later. I’d imagine the park would still be here. Mills company eventually made money on this deal. Gaylord and Nashville lost money.
That's pretty cool about the water rapids ride. I didn't know that. I agree. Nashville, and the whole state of Tennessee lost money, and iconic family destination. Thanks for watching and thanks for commenting!
Correct to a point. Sections of the ride course remained evident until reconstruction following the 2010 floods. The ride boats and mechanisms were relocated.
Thanks for making this video. I'm still sad about Opryland. And being about two hours away from open mills, I've been once. I wasn't that impressed I have malls closer to me. Sadly a couple of them have closed down. I never understood how a mall.would generate.more income than Opryland, given the tourism money it could bring in.
As someone who has worked for Gaylord and know several independent contractors who have worked for Gaylord all I can say is, don't. They have a hard time keeping contractors due to them wanting to be your only concern regardless of what other customer commitments you may have. As always, just follow the money and you'll find the problem
I frequented Opryland theme park many times throughout the yrs and I’ve been to the mall that replaced it many times also. Let me tell you I have never had nor will I ever have as much fun at that mall as I had at the theme park. And I’ve got the log ride picture to prove it. It was a sad and stupid day when they closed the theme park.
Wait! Opryland is closed? How can that be? There are still exit signs on the interstate telling you which exits lead to Opryland. Regarding the Opry Mills theme, it was a LOT more country music oriented before the 2010 flood.
I tried to video one of those signs and missed it. I don't get that either. It's weird. I'm sure we could figure that out with some googling but I forgot to do that while making this video. Thanks for watching!
If I had to guess they left them up because the Opryland hotel is still up. And you can get there by taking the same exit.
I have been waiting on this new video for 15 years since you made the last one LOL ok maybe 5 or 6 years. Can't wait buddy.
It's been at least 20 years...lol Man, it felt like 20 years! lol
Got booted off the chat or I hit the wrong button. If I had to bet...it was probably me.
I'm a year younger than you and have lived here my whole life. Your video has been very informative.
Looking back on it, I feel like Nashville felt like "Nashville" because of the links you described between the businesses owned by WSM and/or Gaylord. It was like they owned the city and treated it like an extension of their company. They wanted the city to prosper because it made them prosper.
I've always felt like things aren't the same but could never put my finger on it and just chalked it up to progress/me getting old and crotchety.
I also think there's a lot of truth to a silly shirt I used to see that said "Welcome to Nashville, y'all go on home now, ya hear". Once folks stopped visiting and started staying, it started taking away from what made our place special.
Thanks for commenting! I think many people living in cities all over the US feel that way to some extent, but Nashville is different for more reasons than I addressed in the video. Some of it has to do with Nashville's history, and geography. In hindsight, WSM couldn't have been located in a more perfect location. WSM put Nashville on the map. But over time, Nashville's 3 interstates and international airport have made it accessible to a huge portion of the US. And it also benefits from what may eventually be called America's 3rd migration. What Tennesseans like us have always known is that Nashville is a great city, and now, the word is out. Everyone wants to live there. And to be honest, I get it. We're running out of room here in Chattanooga, and I can't keep up with how fast East Tennessee is growing. Thanks for watching, and great comment!
Research Dick Evans…main guy along with Gaylord Jr were the reason.. I was in the shows on & off from 1979 till closing. Even toured Europe for the show park
The park show went on tour?
Thank you for commenting!
The last time we went, we did a scare on the flying airplanes.. my grandaddy and aunt.. clueless.. My cousin and I in college.. Scared to death... More me. When we got off , they asked us over and over if we were alright.. Other than that, the best
We loved visiting Opryland with our extended family too. In fact, when I think of Opryland, I think of my Grandparents. They're both gone now, and I miss them very much.
You are right about enclosed malls are in decline. Simon Properties operates the Opry Mills and used to operate Circle Center mall in Indianapolis that opened in 1994. Circle Center Mall is a video for itself.
This is getting me upset! I still miss it. We went for vacations and then hit downtown and the opry.. old people loved the show. We rode the rides
... they messed up. Now Dollywood gets business
We love Dollywood too! But there was plenty enough room for two theme parks in Tennessee! We miss it!
They say Nashville is getting a theme park called Storytime something can’t remember the name but we haven’t heard anything else about it
I certainly hope so! Thank you for watching and commenting!
What about it being on a terrible flood plane?
It is indeed. The mall flooded back in 2010. There's no doubt Opryland would have suffered serious damage. The flood was horrific. But I don't think the damage would have affected the park as much as it did the mall. But I'm just guessing. I mention this in the video but I didn't go into a lot of detail, the park needed reimagining. The main point I was making is that Gaylord didn't know Opryland's potential. I guess an argument can be made that if Gaylord invested heavily into reimagining Opryland, the flood may have crippled it. But I don't see how it would be any worse than what the flood did to Opry Mills.
@BillMarion oh I agree with you. I'm a Nashville native that was fortunate enough to have got to visit the park a lot as a child. I was just playing the devils advocate in that scenario.
Imagine how successful the park would have been if it had made it to the tourism resurgence that nashville has been enjoy this past decade or so.
I know. Opryland hadn’t even seen its best days yet.
They claimed they didn't do any market research before closing Opryland, but that might be a lie. A good friend of mine was paid in 1997 to give surveys to tourists leaving the park. She asked them about plans to return to the theme park, and if they would return if the area became something else. She handed off this market research to management. years later, she joked she was the reason Opryland closed.
I'm reading between the lines here. When Gaylord says they didn't do market research, what probably happened was the visitors to the theme park loved the theme park. They were looking for a reason to close the theme park, but probably didn't get it from these surveys. If they're going to lie about it anyway, it looks better to say "We didn't do due diligence" than "We did do due diligence and the results make us look even worse."
Hopefully, the theme park which bought and relocated the Chaos ride fixed all the effects which didn't work.
Wow. That's incredibly interesting. I bet you're right! Thanks for watching and thanks for commenting!
yeah cause you're the only guy in a gazillion people who went there and filmed and wondered why it closed....sheesh
I'm not sure what you're saying, but I'm willing to listen to any criticism you have to offer.
I loved Opryland when I was a child
I was born in 65 and I remember going on opening day 😮
Worst thing I remember happening was the flood that drowned all the animals. And the best times was talking my 2 son's , they were only 6 and 4 when it closed and they still talk about how much fun they had!
I don't remember the flood, but that sounds dreadful! Opryland was a wonderful park, and we miss it too! Thank you so much for sharing and watching!
@@BillMarion it was not long after it opened. Thanks for posting this video!
Some of us who worked there for years and were in supervisory or management positions, still struggle to this day. It was all I knew. I learned everything at Opryland from customer service excellence to marketing and event skills. When it closed I and many others were forced to move to other states and cities with theme parks just to have a job in which we excelled. It not only left us jobless, but it also made us leave an area that we loved. one of the most painful things is the malls footprint. The mall actually fits in the former parking lot of the park. The park itself? Became a parking lot for the mall that closed it. A parking lot.
Your sentiment is shared by a lot of people. Even when I made my first Opryland video, I thought I was the only person in the world who really cared about Opryland. Thank you so much for watching and commenting. If you odn't mind me asking, what theme park are you at now?
@@BillMarion Dollywood.
Opryland did not close in the early 1990's. They closed in 1997.
Sorry, it was a typo that I didn't catch in the script, or during the edit. I said it correctly later in the video. Thanks for watching!
We have malls stupid Nashville! We loved opryland!
Thanks for watching!
I definitely wanna see the growth of Opryland in 1996 😊
You talking about the possibility for expansion?
I wish this man would do a video of the park I worked at because he did such an amazing job with the Opryland video.
Well thank ya! Which park?
@@BillMarion Hamel's Amusement Park. Shreveport Louisiana Is where that park was.
@@BillMarion Hamel's Amusement Park in Shreveport LA. I have 3 videos of the park on my channel and Twin Blends has a few more videos.
WOW! Let's talk this week. Interesting topic to say the least!
I saw Charlie Rich at the gas light theater for a taping of Country Tonight on TNN.
That's awesome!
great video!
I was born in Kentucky about an hour and a half from Nashville. If I were born any earlier, it would've been my home amusement park. It was where my Mom, my cousins, and older sister got introduced to roller-coaster's. My parents even had season tickets for a brief time before I was born. While I do have decent memories of Opry Mills, (mostly being the one thing keeping me sane when my family fled to Nashville during the '09 Ice storm.) I'd much rather have memories of Opryland instead.
I enjoyed Opryland as a kid very much. I wonder if Dollywood (another amazing theme park) benefited?
I went to Opryland the first time when i was 4 in the late 70s. I was a yearly tradition as I had a lot of family in the nashville area and I grew up in the Chicagoland area. It was a fun time, and in comparison it was on par with a lot of the six flags parks at the time. Somewhere in the mid-late 80s it fell behind, other parks were getting regular large scale investments and opting for bigger thrills. Chaos, Hangman, were ok additions but not the scale I would have expected from a park as popular as Opryland. At this point I lived in walking distance of Six Flags Great America so that is what I compare the park to. My last visit was in the late 80's, and just didnt see the reason to go, I wasn't into shows and was just going for the rides. So when they rumored declining attendance I bought it up, and in my mind it made sense. I ended up moving to Nashville, and would have been more likely to go, but it was only open a few more years when I moved there. I am about an hour away and if it was there I would have gladly taken my daughter every year. I realize I do miss it but I was upset they never pushed the park to its fullest potential years before it closed.I keep hoping for a Nashville amusement park, and think one could be quite profitable. Somewhere a bit futher out, on 840, grab a 1000 acres and have plenty of space to grow (and somewhere that doesnt flood). Many proposals over the years, but nothing ever took.
Boo!! Boo!! Open it up again!!
I agree!
It was our goto growing up through the 70s and 80s. So many happy memories there making the 2 hr drive down with my Mom, often with a carload of neighborhood buds being brought along. Just in the first 30 secs, seeing the good old 'Rock n' Roller Coaster' which was my favorite, warmed my heart. Thank you for sharing!
The Gaylord grandkids are who decided to do this. They could care less about Country Music and Opryland. They did it because they hated Country Music.
This makes as much sense as anything else I've heard
@@lsrose if your reply is to me what I say is correct. I was there.
They messed up!! They lost $$$$$ plus today's Country music is pop too..
@@bethprather9241 I don't listen to today's mainstream country because it's not Country. I like Cody Johnson though but I've followed him for years before he accepted a Nashville contract. I mainly listen to independent Country artists and the 70's - 90's Country, Pop, and Rock.
They were told by hired business consultants that they'd make more $ if they tore down Opryland and built a mall, then after it flooded they sold it.
Thanks for this one. I only went once in 8th grade wish i could've taken the kids. I love the old pics.
The original Opryland video was the first one of yours that I watched and our discussion about why the theme park closed.
I know, right! Seems like ages ago now. But here we are again. I'm so grateful you watched that one, even if it's cringe, and thank you for watching this one. Seriously, I'm so thankful!
brother bill great job we loved it
I'm so thankful you watched!
@@BillMarion is that carmilita in the background behind your dad at time 21:21
@@dennisjackson6693 Yes sir!