It has been confirmed that Blackpool Tower and Winter Gardens have been sold to the Council for a cool £40m and that Merlin Entertainments Group will take over the operation of the Tower after this year’s Illuminations.
The Gasjet claim it as an exclusive but I think we all know which site broke the story first (cheers Dave).
It’s claimed that Merlin will create a new dungeon attraction as well as modernise and rebrand the top of the tower experience and introduce a 4D cinema preview show.
A £5.5million chunk will be immediately pumped into the Winter Gardens to modernise it with a view to bringing in conference business.
Peter Callow and Gordon Marsden are both dancing jigs about it. I just hope a similarly competent operator can be found and installed at the Winter Gardens and I would question how the council can rustle up £5.5m to plough into this scheme yet it is incapable of repairing roads that have been damaged since December.
Just think I could have sold the story to the gasjet but chose to tell you instead,thought it would be reported more accurately on your site.Obviously I have better contacts than the gasjet.
It’s much appreciated Dave
If it is true that Leisure Parcs will continue to run the Winter Gardens (for the council) for two more years then that is a big problem. Blackpool especially the Winter Gardens needs rid of Leisure Parcs TODAY.
The best promotions,publicity and events companies in the UK need to start work TODAY to get more shows,exhibitions and concerts in the Winter Gardens THIS YEAR.
They do, but if it’s in such a state of disrepair that £5.5m needs to be pumped into it before it’s in a state to host any of these events then it’s going to be at least a year before anything happens.
If a concert in the Empress Ballroom had to be cancelled because the roof started falling in, it doesn’t say a lot for the state of the rest of the building.
I’m not really sure if there’s any way around it to get events in there now, but at least now that the council own it there is a motivation to invest real cash into the Winter Gardens.
I agree though, I expect the Blackpool publicity machine to be in overdrive this year, because they can’t let this £40m turn into a failure.
I’d like to see them, instead of throwing good money after bad on stupid ghost trains, take a look at the monstrosity that is the old burnt down Yates’ and get something substantial there. Maybe a Hard Rock Cafe or something. It looks appalling at the moment and is a prime location if ever there was one.
Yes Blackpool needs to defecate the anal parasite of Lazy bastard Leisure perks………..
Is there any news about Mad Maxine Callows plan to truncate the south line?
Nope, I think the state of play is still as per my last article about it.
http://philtheone.com/2010/01/blackpool-south-station-update/
I ask cos if these assets start to pull in more people, good trasnsport is essential and that would surely trash Callows insane plan.
I agree, although Blackpool South isn’t that close to either of these attractions.
It just demonstrates how catastrophic the decision to shut Central Station all those years ago was, but hindsight is a fine thing.
PS Use a shorter name please!
Its a pity they cant bring the line in,and closer to the winter gardens,the station could be named Blackpool central for winter gardens,that would put the place on the map!
It is a pity, but how could they in practise actually do it?
They would have to basically dig up all of the South Gateway, and you have to remember that the car parks along Seasiders Way now have United Utilities water tanks underneath them.
These water tanks have done a good job of collapsing of their own accord.
It’s one thing to put a ghost train on top of a water tank but quite another, I think, to allow real trains to run across them.
Thats the problem Phil, a classic example of poor planning.A destination town like Blackpool RELIES on transport and at the moment it is disorgaised, poor and a chaotic mess; the railways are a joke.
For me, getting rid of central station kickstarted the process of degeneration that has continued right up today.
Exactly the same happened in fleetwood;cutting off transport is like removing an artery,the limb withers and decays.
When will they ever learn?
They still havent.
Doing an article about this. Stay tuned!
Bring in on Guvnor!
Perhaps an article of matter like this is in order, sorry to hijack but this madness makes my fuckin blood boil.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8595062.stm
It is absolutely sickening things like this are happening. What annoys me the most is, if you went to their country and raped someone, you would be either deported (if you’re lucky!!!), sentenced to 20 years in some cockroach-infested prison after a dodgy trial with no representation or you could even be given the death penalty. Yet here they are allowed to stay here at our expense. It makes my blood boil too.
That judge should be taken outside and shot.
The next thing is we’ll be offering that beast compensation for the stress of nearly deporting him.
and they wonder why the BNP get votes?
For further information, the Merlin Entertainments Group press release is here:
http://www.merlinentertainments.biz/en/press/blackpool_three_newattractions.aspx
The Gasjet cunt deleter is censoring me AGAIN so I will repeat my post on here. As always the doom-mongers are as pessimistic as ever on the Gasjet saying its a waste of money bla bla bla, why do they even bother coming on, these idiots like RockSeller and that irritating ItzNotWotItWoz tosser? Anyhow I think this is great news for Blackpool and for the attractions. I will be glad to see the back of Hemmings, he has done the attractions no justice. So good riddance to him I say. The best thing is Merlin a very well-established and experienced leisure company will be managing these attractions; they count Alton Towers, Sealife centres and Warwick Castle among their portfolio so hopefully the attractions will get the investment and attention they so badly need, the Winter Gardens in particular. I am slightly disappointed the ‘big grand scheme’ for the Winter Gardens is conference centre. I think the WG would be put to better use as a multi-use leisure/retail/entertainment complex, but we’ll have to wait and see.
I actually disagree. There’re enough retail units. Fill them first before entertaining further retail units.
High quality restaurants, OK. But they’re not interested in Blackpool right now. Maybe once the WG improves, they will be.
Fair point, I just wish that god awful Pricebusters Eyestore would close down, it is up for rent so hopefully it will disappear soon!!!
My post got deleted today too. It’s not even worth posting on that shite, sorry site, anymore.
ItsNotWotItWoz or whatever his name is is a complete and utter bellend.
Well said JR.
Serves you right for claiming the exclusive
As posted on The Gazette website (no doubt to be deleted shortly)
This is – potentially – great news for the whole community, especially the tourist sector. I just hope the council’s lawyers have pulled off a sound deal that protects taxpayers if the new Merlin venture doesn’t meet its targets. It’s completely correct for the council to buy these iconic venues from their current slum landlord and bring them up to a 21st century standard. It’s quite right that they seek an experienced commercial partner which already has a huge stake in Blackpool to operate them. But from here on in, it’s up to Merlin to magic up some success!
Anybody seen the plans for the new fast transit monorail from the New South Station terminal to Coral Island. ?
This is the first I have had of anything, please share what you know.
Hah, are you serious?
I’ve just posted about a similar monorail idea, assuming it to be too expensive and pie in the sky.
I’ve seen older plans about a monorail that runs along the Prom (or thereabouts)…
I always thought my town was bad for doing plans as our local paper is full of them every week and none of them come to fruition.
Blackpool, however, is in a league of it’s own !!
Did the site get restored to a previous backup, Phil? I’ve noticed that a comment from Mr Osato and myself aren’t here.
No but I have just rebooted it.
I’ve not been emailed any other comments from you or Mr_Osato.
Post them if you still have them, though!
Buggered if I still have them!
In a nutshell, Mr Osato said that he was concerned that Merlin have only been around four or five years – I replied that they’d been around over a decade in their present form and Vardon was their predecessor. I also said that I hope that by taking on operations of various places, it sets the foundation for them to be sold up and passed back to private ownership so that the council can concentrate on its primary function.
Or I might be thinking of a completely different post altogether.
Yep. This one.
http://philtheone.com/2010/03/signed-sealed-delivered/
Well bugger me, then!
No thanks. You may get a difference response from this motley crew though!