Opry Mills is [edited], please bring back my childhood. (Green Hill: appointed, purchase)

[JMT]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

I've wondered for a while why Nashville doesn't try to attract or build (not sure how they're done) a Six Flags or a developer to build a similar theme or amusement park. There's a big population there...

They've tried. Several years ago someone was interested in building a theme park across the river from downtown, south of the NFL stadium where there's currently a huge metal scrap yard. It's just very, very expensive to build a theme park from scratch. There hasn't been a new theme park built in America in something like 20 years.

I miss Opryland desperately. But let's face it, it just couldn't keep up with the flashier Six Flags parks which had deeper pockets and more land to expand. (Ironically, Six Flags is now in a big financial bind and has openly hinted at possibly closing some of its parks.)

I don't think I'll ever forgive Gaylord for what they did. When they announced that Opryland was going to shut down, it was after the end of the season so no one had a chance to go back. I would've paid anything to be able to go back one last time.

To rub salt in the wound, several years ago the new Gaylord president said that he wouldn't have shut down Opryland had he been in charge at the time it happened. Opryland was not losing money, it just wasn't making as much money as a shopping mall (and he's probably right, given that shopping and the accumulation of "stuff" has become America's favorite pasttime).

[Diane Giam]

Originally Posted by lala27poodles

This topic may have been brought up before, but I just wanted to say:

Now that it's been over a decade since the closing of our Opryland Theme Park, and the opening of "Opry Mills gigantic Mall", I wonder if our chamber of commerce is happy?

I wonder if they are making what they had hoped, and if it was worth it? I know I don't shop there unless I have some distant relative visiting and I need some place to take them that they haven't already seen. I don't spend money there, except to get a Cinnabon. They have nothing that Cool Springs and Green Hills doesn't offer a better quality version of. Unless you want to try out a "Snuggie" without ordering it on TV....*rollseyes*

There is a certain walkway from the mall parking lot to the hotel where you can see part of the Old Grizzly River Rampage......it feels like I'm walking through a graveyard of my memories. So sad.

So many wonderful summer spent there, I would give up TWO malls to get it back. PLEASE Nashville, correct this mistake!

Opryland theme park was really nice. It's a shame that it no longer exists. I went to it when I was a Student at Austin Peay in Clarksville. I came here for college, and years past and I'm back, and this time I'm not leaving!

Diane G

[vivelafrance]

Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville is only 2 hours from Nashville. I don't think Six Flags would build another so close.

[stonelove]

I would hardly call Opry Mills horrible and dangerous! I DO agree that i miss Opryland. Like many of you said: there are many awesome childhood memories there. I live down in Memphis, and trust me, be thankful for places like Opry Mills and just Nashville in general. You don't know horrible and dangerous until you live down here.

[Tunky]

I don't know about Opry Mills in particular...but I have lived in Memphis and your last statement is right on the money.

[groovamos]

Six flags tore down 2 adjacent parks here, Astroworld and Waterworld, I think five years ago. So far as crime at the malls is concerned, I can tell you this about the granddaddy of luxury malls, the Houston Galleria, in a high-end city district. I know of one woman who was mugged and badly beaten in one of the parking garages and never sets foot in the place now, and won a lawsuit against Hines interests, the owner at the time. Almost all of the parking is in the dozen or so garages and they are really patrolled now, the place is blanketed with security. Whatever happened to the wonderful social outcomes we were promised when the welfare state took over? Kinda like it "empowered" and emboldened the lowest of the low. Six Flags was having trouble with crime too.

[sek1986]

It seems like every time I go to Opry Mills, it has a new selection of stores. I also, for the life of me, can't figure out why there's no way to cut from one side of the mall to the other. You literally have to walk around the entire mall if you want to go from the food court to Bed Bath & Beyond. There are not enough bathrooms. Just poor planning. I think they should convert that pathetic little wave pool off Briley Pkwy into a larger water park. with the hot summers Nashville has, I think a bad-A water park would do well. There's my 2 cents.

[stonelove]

Originally Posted by sek1986

It seems like every time I go to Opry Mills, it has a new selection of stores. I also, for the life of me, can't figure out why there's no way to cut from one side of the mall to the other. You literally have to walk around the entire mall if you want to go from the food court to Bed Bath & Beyond. There are not enough bathrooms. Just poor planning. I think they should convert that pathetic little wave pool off Briley Pkwy into a larger water park. with the hot summers Nashville has, I think a bad-A water park would do well. There's my 2 cents.

What about Nashville shores? Is that the water park you are talking about? I have never been to NS, but I have always wondered if it was a good water park to go to or not!?

[Wingz]

Originally Posted by sek1986

You literally have to walk around the entire mall if you want to go from the food court to Bed Bath & Beyond.

I think the design that makes you walk all the way around is intentional. You have to pass more stores and you might stop in one and buy something. Supermarkets have milk and bread in opposite back corners of the store for the same reason. If you only need one of those, they're going to make you walk through the entire store to get it because you might see something else and pick it up. Corporate planning is focused on generating revenue, not always on making shopping convenient for the customer.

[CantWait2Leave]

Originally Posted by Wingz

I think the design that makes you walk all the way around is intentional. You have to pass more stores and you might stop in one and buy something. Supermarkets have milk and bread in opposite back corners of the store for the same reason. If you only need one of those, they're going to make you walk through the entire store to get it because you might see something else and pick it up. Corporate planning is focused on generating revenue, not always on making shopping convenient for the customer.

At the grocery store I go to, milk and bread are right next to each other.