Never Never Lands
Planned But Never Built

The only thing wrong with the sign was that it wasn't true. Interama was not to be, another dream to die stillborn in the Florida sun. Disney had it right; he refered to his Imagineers as Dreamers and Doers. To dream was not enough, you had to follow through.

These are Florida's Never Never Lands -- the fantasy lands that would never, never be built, despite announcements and billboards and even, in some cases, groundbreaking. The rumors and the failed projects that started with a bang and then, usually, simply faded away from the public eye.

When it comes to new attractions -- don't believe it 'till you see it. You won't be seeing:

Bible World

Blockbuster Park

The Blockbuster Golf & Games FEC in Sunrise is not this development, which was to have included a theme park, a waterpark, sports stadiums, and more on over 2,400 acres (that's a little like comparing a goofy golf course to Walt Disney World.) Blockbuster Golf & Games was permitted and financed separately.

Charlie Daniels Western World and Theme Park

They had the land, they had the ideas, and they had powerhouse themed entertainment designers Landmark Entertainment Group working on the plan, including a 3D show based on Daniels' popular hit "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" . What they were still working on is the funding.

In the 1990's Vandiver told the St. Petersburg Times: "Five years ago, I would have said (the chances of pulling this project  off) probably weren't a hundred percent. A year ago, I would have said 50  percent. Now I'm at about 85 to 90 percent. Things are  happening."

The park was to have opened in 1997.

Hurricane World

Interama

A permanent international exhibition park was planned -- inspiration taken half from past Worlds Fairs and half from the new Disneyland in California. It would be a theme park, but unlike other theme park projects, it was hoped that the governments of the various countries would contribute to the building of their representative pavilions much as they do for a Worlds Fair, except that this would be a permanent commitment.

The United States was looked to to provide the bulk of the financing, and bills to that effect were put before Congress by Rep. Claude Pepper, always happy to try and bring home the Pork to his district.

Land in North Miami was acquired and shortly after a huge sign touting the park's development was erected.

Congress, meanwhile, declined to fund the project. One after the other, Latin and South American Governments, with poverty to deal with in their own lands, declined to participate. (By the same token, Walt Disney World's EPCOT, which relies on sponsorships when building its national pavilions, showcases no South American nations.)

Private funding was sought, but little found. Interama continued to drift as a project for years, always hopeful, always just around the corner, never built.

Complications in the contracts involving the site itself, as well as a fight with the Department of Environmental Regulation over part of the site's use as a landfill, kept the land tied up right into the 1980's as the City of North Miami, stuck with paying off bonds on the unproductive land, lobbied the State of Florida to purchase the property.

In 1985 the State and City finally made a deal as the Legislature voted to buy the 300 acre tract, most of which would go to expand Florida International University's Bay Vista Campus.

Little England (AKA British Kingdom)

Unfortunately, the ancient english tiles and wood were no match for neglect and the hot, humid Florida weather -- after the project stalled the buildings eventually had to be demolished, deemed unsalvageable after the local insects had a feast on prime British Oak.

A housing development eventually went into the nicely prepared site with with no hint of a British theme in sight.

Paramount Orlando

Roy Rogers Western World

Western Star Roy Rogers announced plans for a huge resort/dude ranch/western theme park in the early 1960's and claimed to be searching for a suitable site in the Orlando area. No less a figure than Florida's Governor Burns was on hand at Roy's press conferences to pledge his assistance. Roy never found that site and finally said happy trails to Florida.

Six Flags Florida

Yes, Six Flags did once look into buying Circus World. They passed. A Jacksonville politician tried to get them to build in that area. They looked, but they passed. They once owned Stars Hall of Fame and Six Flags Atlantis in Florida -- they sold them. Six Flags has not, to date, announced any plans for a Florida theme park whatsoever, and consistently denies all rumors.

Desipte this, not a year goes by without a coaster enthusiast announcing that their uncle's brother's friend's friend is a sewer worker who says they're working on a secret construction project to build a new Six Flags in Florida. Never happens.

It would seem many enthusiasts are laboring under a basic misunderstanding of how major construction projects actually happen in the real world. A business like Six Flags does not and cannot just buy a big plot of land and start building. Major projects like theme parks simply do not get to the construction stage without publicity following a lengthy zoning approval process before the local government. There are permits to be applied for, at which point the project becomes a matter of public record and the local media jump all over it. Environmental impact statements must be filed. Zoning hearings must take place. Usually, a group of locals makes a very noisy protest over it (see the history of most other modern theme parks). Public corporations like Six Flags must also inform shareholders what they're up to, so major projects will also be mentioned in their SEC filings and annual reports.

What this means is, if you haven't been seeing reports in the news for the past year about the planning and permitting process for such a theme park, and some twit assures you that they know someone who is involved in clearing land, or digging ditches, or breaking ground for one -- you can be assured that they are either delusional or lying to you. You simply can't clear the first bush or turn a spade of dirt on your property without a building permit.

There are no secret theme park construction projects. "What about Disney?" the enthusiast complains. "Disney World was built in secret." No, sorry. The aquisition of land was carried out mostly in secret, but the Orlando Sentinal blew Disney's cover before even that was finished. Secrecy was needed in this case because Disney was buying up huge tracts of land to put together a site of more than 20,000 acres, much more than could be aquired from a single land owner. A Six Flags park would require less than a thousand acres that could be aquired in the single purchase of a large farm or ranch.

Construction on Walt Disney World, on the other hand, didn't begin until several years later after a very public act of the Florida Legislature approved it, several press conferences were held, and years of publicity announced the fact. Look at every major recent theme park building project, completed or not (Visionland, Jazzland, the reopening of Magic Springs, Disney's California Adventure, Entercitement City, World of Oz, etc.) and you can find a paper trail going back for years in the press, from proposal through construction, with big press events held at the groundbreaking ceremonies.

New construction is also unlikely right now in this already overcrowded market. Orlando's theme parks depend on long distance tourism, while Six Flags style ride parks rely more on regional visitors on daytrips. The people elsewhere in the country don't need to visit a Six Flags park on an expensive Florida vacation -- chances are they already live near one back home. They come to Florida to get something they can't get at home: Disney and Universal. That leaves the locals market, which is already served by Busch Gardens, as well as the Disney and Universal parks (which is why they offer resident discounts on annual passes and other resident deals), and the revamped with rides Cypress Gardens.

While local enthusiasts always predict that a thrill ride oriented park would do better than Disney or Universal, that just shows a basic misunderstanding of the market. The money is in family travel, not roving packs of teen enthusiasts. Boardwalk and Baseball tried going the thrill ride route and never made a profit. Islands of Adventure was touted as a Disney-beater by enthusiasts before it opened, yet even Disney's half-day Animal Kingdom sees more annual visitors. It's easy for coaster enthusiasts to picture a Florida Six Flags park the equal of, say, Magic Mountain (which still attracts fewer visitors than Disneyland in the same market and can't even stay open 365 days a year), but that's in no way what a newly constructed park would look like. It takes years for a park to get that many coasters, one or two at a time, year after year. Even if Six Flags did build in Florida the park would look more like Visionland or Jazzland when it opened than a Disney-class park due to the starting investment required. (Islands of Adventure cost nearly a billion dollars and enthusiasts still think it needs more rides). Still think Six Flags would outdo Disney?

Disney also has an advantage in this market no outsider has: the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Back in the 1960's the Florida Legislature basically gave Disney the ability to build whatever they want, whenever they want, without a lengthy approval process. If they wanted to, in the time it would take Six Flags to get approval, Disney could build their own competing ride park and open first (as they managed to open Disney-MGM Studios between Universal's announcement of a Studios theme park and the actual opening). Disney has a history of building their own versions of the competition and outselling them (note the similarities between Animal Kingdom and Busch, The Living Seas and Sea World, Disney-MGM and Universal Studios, Pleasure Island and the now defunct Church Street Station, their waterparks and Wet 'n Wild, Disney's California Adventure and Knott's Berry Farm, Disney's West Side and Citywalk...) and Six Flags knows this, making the huge investment an Orlando park would take a huge risk.

Also, consider this: current Six Flags management doesn't develop parks from scratch. They prefer to buy existing parks and convert them. That means the only likely possibility for a Six Flags theme park in Florida would be if Busch or Universal or Cypress Gardens decided to sell out, and Six Flags decided to buy, and could swing the funding. As I update this article in mid-2005, Six Flags is still in no financial condition to build or buy a new park -- they have sold off their European parks, sold Six Flags World of Adventure, and still have a rather large debt load from past aquisitions and improvement projects. They're not likely to build anything soon, in any market, let alone one as crowded as Central Florida.

What about elsewhere in Florida? South Florida has a large population, but it's still in the outer range for the Orlando parks, while Southwest Florida can reach Busch Gardens. It's an old population, however, with a smaller group in the young theme park demographic than would appear at first glance. There's also a limitation in driving range -- build a park in Miami and you serve that area but Orlando's to the North, there's only a small population to the South, and nothing but water to the East, making the population sparse in the outlying areas compared to parks in other areas of the country that can draw from miles around them. It could possibly support a smallish park, but the track record for getting new projects approved (see Blockbuster Park and Interama, among others) isn't good,and Pirates World failed. Boomers could stand watching: at least the Dania Beach Hurricane shows a roller coaster has some draw in the area. Maybe somebody will go in someday, but it sure won't be Six Flags any time soon.

The Jacksonville area is another possibility, but when the local government practically offered to give Six Flags free land in the booming 1990's Six Flags turned them down. To the South of Jacksonville the older population of some of the other counties would be expected to fight any big development (the head of the St. Johns County Tourist and Convention Bureau even said in the late 1990's that they don't want a Six Flags there), and don't forget that Marco Polo Park flopped. That area is also still within reach of Orlando, as well as the ever growing Wild Adventures in Valdosta, Georgia.

The panhandle has become a more likely target now that Miracle Strip is closing, but the population including tourists couldn't support anything much bigger than that park already was. A big park will not be going in there any time soon (yeah, I know, a Six Flags has been rumored for years in that area, but they have always flatly denied those rumors -- it's just not true).

I've also heard rumors for the Spring Hill area and Sebring -- also not gonna happen. Look at a map: modern theme parks are not built without major Interstate Highway access. A theme park could never get approval to add that kind of traffic to clogged US 19 or US 27: every retiree home owners association for miles would protest it. Parks you can't get to go out of business.

The idea of a Six Flags Florida is still just wishful thinking on the part of coaster enthusiasts. If they ever do decide to build in Florida you won't have to hear it from your Mother's Brother's friend's dental hygenist's bridesmaid's nephew -- it'll be in the news long before construction begins.

Vedaland

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Photo of Roy, Dale, and the Gov. courtesy of the Florida State Archives Photographic Collection.

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