{"id":383,"date":"2005-06-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-26T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/article\/arent-branson-landing-and-powder-keg-something-necessary-for-bransons-success"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T05:00:00","slug":"arent-branson-landing-and-powder-keg-something-necessary-for-bransons-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/?p=383","title":{"rendered":"Aren&#8217;t Branson Landing and Powder Keg &#8220;something&#8221; necessary for Branson&#8217;s success?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>Why would the folks at Branson&#8217;s Silver Dollar City spend $10 million on one new ride? Does anyone believe that they woke up one morning and said, &#8220;We&#8217;ve got nothing else to do today so let&#8217;s see if we can lose money by spending $10 million to build a new type of air launch coaster?<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>&#8220;Is that the new ride they call &#8216;Powder Keg?&#8217; The one that shoots riders 110 feet into the air after going from 0 to 53 miles per hour in just 2.8 seconds?&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>&#8220;That&#8217;s the one.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>&#8220;If that&#8217;s the case, then my answer to your first question is &#8216;to make money&#8217; and the answer to the second question is &#8216;of course not!&#8217;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>&#8220;What if that wasn&#8217;t the case?&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>&#8220;The answer would still be the same.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>Anyone that was not part of the process involved with the decision to build Powder Keg doesn&#8217;t know the details and the rationale that was used. But, in general terms, most people would have little problem agreeing with answers given to the two questions simply because one of the primary purposes of a business is to make money and most businesses do not deliberately spend $10 million dollars on something that they believe will lose them money.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>To an Ole Seagull, the financial success and viability of Silver Dollar City is dependent on its ability to attract a constant supply of visitors. To do that there must be &#8220;something&#8221; that attracts visitors initially and &#8220;something&#8221; that keeps them coming back.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>That &#8220;something&#8221; is no one thing, it is a delicate ever changing combination of people, factors, and things that has been providing &#8220;amazing family adventures&#8221; and experiences worth remembering to Silver Dollar City&#8217;s visitors for decades. Powder Keg is part of that wonderful &#8220;something&#8221; that keeps Silver Dollar City new and exciting and gives people yet another reason to visit for the first time or to visit again.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\"><FONT size=4><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:PlaceName w:st=\"on\">Silver <st1:PlaceName w:st=\"on\">Dollar <st1:PlaceType w:st=\"on\">City&#8217;s success is not based on Power Keg or any one &#8220;something.&#8221; It&#8217;s based on its ability to market its solid foundation of core features, traditions, values, and relationships into which, periodically, just the right amount of &#8220;something&#8221; is blended to keep it fresh, new, and exciting.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>&#8220;But Seagull, what does that have to do with Branson Landing?&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>&#8220;Everything, Branson Landing is a &#8220;something&#8221; for Branson.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>Branson, as a major tourist destination, is in the same position as Silver Dollar City. To be financially successful and viable it must attract a constant supply of visitors. To do that there must be &#8220;something&#8221; that attracts visitors initially and &#8220;something&#8221; that keeps them coming back.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>Will Branson Landing in and of itself guarantee that Branson will continue to attract the supply of visitors that it needs? Absolutely not! It is but another &#8220;something&#8221; that is added to the efforts of people like Gary and Pat Snadon, the Hall&#8217;s, Herschend&#8217;s, Glenn Robinson, Ron Layher, Dorothy and Shoji Tabuchi, Joe Sullivan, Andy Williams, Jim Thomas, the Pressley&#8217;s, the Mabe&#8217;s, Jim and Ann Stafford and many others.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>What it will do is provide Branson with a tourist shopping, dining, and entertainment experience that is fresh, new, exciting and unique. It is another &#8220;something,&#8221; that when blended into and marketed with Branson&#8217;s solid foundation of family entertainment, traditions and values gives people yet another reason to visit Branson whether for the first time or as a repeat visitor.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>Yet, at the end of the day, to an Ole Seagull, the &#8220;something&#8221; that matters the most is his belief that God has made Branson &#8220;something&#8221; special. In the final analysis Branson just might be that &#8220;something&#8221; that provides some of its visitors with an eternity changing experience.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=4>Isn&#8217;t it &#8220;something&#8221; the way it all comes together? <\/FONT><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>that wonderful &#8220;something&#8221; that keeps things new and exciting and gives people&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bransoncourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}