Freestyle Season's Under Way

Wednesday's editorial urges locals to patronize the newly opened Freestyle Music Park, based on its importance to the local economy and better value for families, and also praises a judge's recent decision in the new owners' favor:

Freestyle Music Park is open and running as a transformed attraction for residents and tourists alike - and a positive force in the regional economy.

It's a much different park in many ways, changed from an adult attraction with some things for kids to a place with real family (children) appeal.

With reasonable admission prices ($39.95 for adults and $29.95 for kids between 3 and 9) and so much more to entertain the kids, Freestyle is a much better value. Parents with young children now can easily enjoy several hours at Freestyle; at Hard Rock Park, a similar family might have stayed a couple of hours.

The park's owners say they are confident of breaking even with 600,000 guests this year. While that number is considerably more than the 370,000 who attended in the first season, the new owners have taken several steps that make 600,000 or more visitors seem reasonable.

For one thing, marketing/advertising is under way across both Carolinas and beyond, including an appeal to area residents and to vacationers already here.

Opening day saw families from Fayetteville, N.C., and Charleston, to name a couple of places not so far away. Many in the park, however, wore T-shirts and so forth suggesting they were locals.

General manager John Fitzgerald pointed out that attendance should pick up after the first of June when schools are out for the summer.

Many on opening day traded in season passes purchased last year from Hard Rock Park - the new owners honored passes from Hard Rock Park.

The park also opened with a positive court ruling from federal Judge Stewart Dalzell in U.S. District Court for Delaware. HRP Creative Services Co. (Steven Goodwin and Jon Binkowski) sought a temporary injunction, which was denied.

The theme park opened a year ago as Hard Rock Park, failed to attract the 30,000 daily visitors projected and by autumn was in bankruptcy. In February, FPI MB Entertainment purchased the park for $25 million. The purchase took place after a bankruptcy court auction had not attracted bidders for acquiring the reportedly $400 million property.

Since the purchase out of bankruptcy, Steven Goodwin, chief executive of Hard Rock Park, has been back to the bankruptcy court and now to the U.S. District Court seeking something in the way of remuneration from Goodwin's claim on the theme park's intellectual property. Court documents revealed that Goodwin transferred the intellectual rights from one of the corporations that filed for bankruptcy to another corporation, HRP Creative Services Co., that did not declare bankruptcy.

Dalzell cited several examples of rebranding that FPI has done, including changing names and removing drug and sexual elements "which would offend many parents around the country, and certainly, as Fitzgerald confirmed, parents in the Carolinas."

The opinion says Goodwin made "extravagant claims ... from the witness stand. Thus, we will not belabor his assertion of creative rights to a carousel because it has ... horses on it ... and they are painted!"

Dalzell has given voice to the frustration felt by many area folks regarding Goodwin's claims to intellectual property rights. How can many of Goodwin's claims not have been sold with the bricks and mortar of the real estate?

In denying the motion for an injunction, Dalzell called Goodwin's claims "vaporous to preposterous."

It's a much different park in many ways, changed from an adult attraction with some things for kids to a place with real family (children) appeal.

With reasonable admission prices ($39.95 for adults and $29.95 for kids between 3 and 9) and so much more to entertain the kids, Freestyle is a much better value. Parents with young children now can easily enjoy several hours at Freestyle; at Hard Rock Park, a similar family might have stayed a couple of hours.

The park's owners say they are confident of breaking even with 600,000 guests this year. While that number is considerably more than the 370,000 who attended in the first season, the new owners have taken several steps that make 600,000 or more visitors seem reasonable.

For one thing, marketing/advertising is under way across both Carolinas and beyond, including an appeal to area residents and to vacationers already here.

Opening day saw families from Fayetteville, N.C., and Charleston, to name a couple of places not so far away. Many in the park, however, wore T-shirts and so forth suggesting they were locals.

General manager John Fitzgerald pointed out that attendance should pick up after the first of June when schools are out for the summer.

Many on opening day traded in season passes purchased last year from Hard Rock Park - the new owners honored passes from Hard Rock Park.

The park also opened with a positive court ruling from federal Judge Stewart Dalzell in U.S. District Court for Delaware. HRP Creative Services Co. (Steven Goodwin and Jon Binkowski) sought a temporary injunction, which was denied.

The theme park opened a year ago as Hard Rock Park, failed to attract the 30,000 daily visitors projected and by autumn was in bankruptcy. In February, FPI MB Entertainment purchased the park for $25 million. The purchase took place after a bankruptcy court auction had not attracted bidders for acquiring the reportedly $400 million property.

Since the purchase out of bankruptcy, Steven Goodwin, chief executive of Hard Rock Park, has been back to the bankruptcy court and now to the U.S. District Court seeking something in the way of remuneration from Goodwin's claim on the theme park's intellectual property. Court documents revealed that Goodwin transferred the intellectual rights from one of the corporations that filed for bankruptcy to another corporation, HRP Creative Services Co., that did not declare bankruptcy.

Dalzell cited several examples of rebranding that FPI has done, including changing names and removing drug and sexual elements "which would offend many parents around the country, and certainly, as Fitzgerald confirmed, parents in the Carolinas."

The opinion says Goodwin made "extravagant claims ... from the witness stand. Thus, we will not belabor his assertion of creative rights to a carousel because it has ... horses on it ... and they are painted!"

Dalzell has given voice to the frustration felt by many area folks regarding Goodwin's claims to intellectual property rights. How can many of Goodwin's claims not have been sold with the bricks and mortar of the real estate?

In denying the motion for an injunction, Dalzell called Goodwin's claims "vaporous to preposterous."