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Branson and Northwest Ark


NancyinBranson

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Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas are the "driving forces" for this tremendous growth the mid-west is experiencing. I have considerable knowledge about Branson Landing and can tell you that my feelings are that Branson and Northwest Arkansas are in for the biggest growth we have ever seen. All the smaller towns in-between are going to start seeing an influx of people moving here from the coasts (all of them). Branson Landing is almost completely sold out, and the company is now building a 1000acre development with a 18 hole golf course which is a tribute to Payne Stewart. Branson has now become a 12 month community. The rest of the country is sure paying a huge amount of attention to us. I have been all over the US in the past few months and I can assure you that we are now being taken serioulsy.

Nancy

Missouri may be a Midwestern state, but Branson is in the Ozarks, a Southern region. What's the make-up of Branson's population as far as natives of the area and those from other parts of the United States? I know it's experienced tremendous growth, but I'm interested to see who Branson is attracting. How similar is it to other towns in the Missouri Ozarks? The topic of southern Missouri now has its own topic.

By the way, the Midwest is not experiencing "tremendous growth." It's the weakest region economically in the country. The South and West are the areas exploding with growth, and as a result, gaining economic and political power.

I've heard rumors about the Walt Disney Park going in Branson, McDonald County MO, and inbetween Siloam Springs and Springdale. Not sure if any of it's true, but if that is built, expect to see an even greater economic impact on the whole region.

Where have you heard these rumors?

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Where have you heard these rumors?

They're all over up here. Although I will say there's been nothing mentioned in the media. Johnny even posted a link to a website about amusement parks and there was a lot of talk over there. I'll see if I can find that link and post it over here too.

Here it is. We've also mentioned that even if Disney has bought land they very well could be using the land for other uses. But of course it's more fun to talk about possibly amusement park issues, even if it's not very likely.

http://www.themeparksonline.org/tpoforum3.asp

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Where have you heard these rumors?

I do have a connection at Disney who says that they are building something in the area, but she won't tell me what.

Plus, everyone is talking up here about theme parks being built in the region. Some people think it could be in SW Missouri, others more near Springdale, and some in Branson.

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According to an article at Wikipedia.com that is updated as of 2005:

Disney has made no announcements regarding plans for another theme park at the Florida resort and CEO Robert Iger has cited international expansion as one of the company's three strategic priorities.

It is possible that a fifth park may someday be built at Walt Disney World Resort, due to the enormous expanse of land that Disney owns in Florida. On November 1, 2005, Kevin Yee of MiceAge reported theories and rumours of a fifth Walt Disney World Resort park connected to the $50,000,000 development of a new highway directly into the heart of the resort.

Disney sent scouts to Australia in January 2005 to survey a new site. A likely site is just outside of Sydney (Rumored to be located on the site of the failed Wonderland Park). Scouts are also looking for a suitable site for a Disney resort on mainland China, possibly near Shanghai. Disney announced in July that there would be no new resort on the Chinese mainland before 2010, but a site has been allocated and is three times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, or roughly the size of Disneyland Resort Paris. There is land in Hong Kong Disneyland Resort for a second park. Disney also have plenty of land to use in Disneyland Resort Paris. The only resort that is extremely short on land is Disneyland Resort in California, although Disneyland has enough land to build a third theme park on a former strawberry farm located near the resort, and the remainder of the original parking lot, now behind Disney's California Adventure, will more than likely be demolished to add on to the park.

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You're missing the most important point... NWA is in the middle of everything. SA is too far South to justify building there. The only reason Disney would build another Theme Park is so it would draw more crowds that would not otherwise fly to California or Florida.

As for having four seasons being a negative I disagree... most Theme Parks do the most of their business during Spring and Summer Breaks when kids are out of school. Our winters don't get that cold here... it's in the upper 50's today in the middle of January... but we don't have sweltering Summers like in San Antonio which is the biggest negative IMHO.

NWA is not "in the middle of everything" In the grand scheme of things it is quite remote. Orlando is a terrible location the way you see things, I would guess, but location wasn't important - climate and the fact it wasn't TOO far South were (Miami would add another 6 hours of drive time).

Theme parks are open year round. Every been to Disneyworld during Thanksgiving break or Christmas break. These are the busiest days of the year in per diem attendance. Spring breaks in March are also huge and often are not that warm in NWA, though often they are. I remember a couple of March snows up there and many other late cold fronts. This winter is an abberation and you know it. Orlando's much hotter than SA (factoring in humidity, particularly), again that didn't stop Disney.

NWA is a poor choice for an area to have a national theme park. Perhaps not for a regional one like Silver Dollar City, just not a national one. That doesn't reflect poorly on the area, only a handful of places nationally are suitable.

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NWA is not "in the middle of everything" In the grand scheme of things it is quite remote. Orlando is a terrible location the way you see things, I would guess, but location wasn't important - climate and the fact it wasn't TOO far South were (Miami would add another 6 hours of drive time).

Theme parks are open year round. Every been to Disneyworld during Thanksgiving break or Christmas break. These are the busiest days of the year in per diem attendance. Spring breaks in March are also huge and often are not that warm in NWA, though often they are. I remember a couple of March snows up there and many other late cold fronts. This winter is an abberation and you know it. Orlando's much hotter than SA (factoring in humidity, particularly), again that didn't stop Disney.

NWA is a poor choice for an area to have a national theme park. Perhaps not for a regional one like Silver Dollar City, just not a national one. That doesn't reflect poorly on the area, only a handful of places nationally are suitable.

NWA is in the middle of every major metropolitan area of the Central United States and within 6 hours driving distance of 20 Million people:

Oklahoma City MSA - 1,083,346 people

Kansas City MSA - 1,836,038 people

St. Louis MSA - 2,764,054 people

Memphis MSA - 1,230,303 people

Dallas/Fort Worth MSA - 5,221,801 people

And that's not including the Millions of people in Medium-sized MSA's within 6 hours driving time to NWA. Our Regional Airport already handles direct flights from 15 major cities in the United States and will only keep growing to meet increasing demand in this rapidly growing region.

I guess coming from someone in a city that's already seen it's hey day your comments make sense, but NWA is going somewhere that most people from the big cities haven't seen because they were born into or moved to a city that was already fully developed. NWA has attracted national attention and not just because the World's Largest Retailer is here.

For example:

  • Our area schools consistently rank around the middle of the top 1000 schools in the United States. That's no small fry.

  • We're building what will be a nationally recognized Art Museum.

  • There are more millionaires per capita in NWA than any other region in the United States.

  • We have real Seasons in NWA that make for some of the most scenic Falls and white Christmas's... something San Antonio will never know.

The list goes on and on...

Besides, even the worst Winters in NWA don't come close to those cities further north or even to the west and I haven't seen a really bad Winter in NWA since I moved here in 1998 and even the worst Winters here don't last long.

Besides the coldest time of the year in NWA is into January through March which wouldn't affect the Christmas rush for a theme park.

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[*]There are more millionaires per capita in NWA than any other region in the United States.

I've heard this from someone else before, but I always thought that Manhatten or Malibu had more Millionaires Per Capita. Even some places in Florida seem to have more Millionaires Per Capita.

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I've heard this from someone else before, but I always thought that Manhatten or Malibu had more Millionaires Per Capita. Even some places in Florida seem to have more Millionaires Per Capita.

Oh I'm sure that there are many cities with more millionaires per capita. Manhattan is definitely NOT one of them. Malibu... maybe. Beverly Hills... surely... Bayshore Drive in St. Petersburg, Florida... definitely (even though it's not really a city). But for a region, or MSA, Northwest Arkansas has more millionaires per capita. But then I don't have statistics to prove this as, like you, this is what everyone tells me.

I guess the calculation is that when you have a good concentration of millionaires in a fairly rural poplation area the per capita goes up... Large population areas tend to weaken the per capita.

Interesting though is that Connecticut has the nation's highest per capita incomes and ranks number one among the states in millionaires per capita, although 10 percent of its children live in poverty. What a shame.

Oh well... I guess saying NWA has the highest millionaires per capita may be a wild boast according to this article I found...

As of the year 2002, several sources stated that Seattle, Washington has the most millionaires per capita. With giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Boeing there, this seems reasonable. However, most of the references did not site the sources or their data, nor how they quantified the term millionaire. Over the years U.S. cities that have shared the most millionaire's per-capita status have included Helena, Montana, and Telluride, Colorado (both around the turn of the 20th century) and more recently, the twin cities-Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Here's the Link!
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NWA is in the middle of every major metropolitan area of the Central United States and within 6 hours driving distance of 20 Million people:

Oklahoma City MSA - 1,083,346 people

Kansas City MSA - 1,836,038 people

St. Louis MSA - 2,764,054 people

Memphis MSA - 1,230,303 people

Dallas/Fort Worth MSA - 5,221,801 people

And that's not including the Millions of people in Medium-sized MSA's within 6 hours driving time to NWA. Our Regional Airport already handles direct flights from 15 major cities in the United States and will only keep growing to meet increasing demand in this rapidly growing region.

I guess coming from someone in a city that's already seen it's hey day your comments make sense, but NWA is going somewhere that most people from the big cities haven't seen because they were born into or moved to a city that was already fully developed. NWA has attracted national attention and not just because the World's Largest Retailer is here.

For example:

  • Our area schools consistently rank around the middle of the top 1000 schools in the United States. That's no small fry.

  • We're building what will be a nationally recognized Art Museum.

  • There are more millionaires per capita in NWA than any other region in the United States.

  • We have real Seasons in NWA that make for some of the most scenic Falls and white Christmas's... something San Antonio will never know.

The list goes on and on...

Besides, even the worst Winters in NWA don't come close to those cities further north or even to the west and I haven't seen a really bad Winter in NWA since I moved here in 1998 and even the worst Winters here don't last long.

Besides the coldest time of the year in NWA is into January through March which wouldn't affect the Christmas rush for a theme park.

Again, you're saying a lot of great things about NWA that wouldn't have anything to do with it getting a theme park. The location is bad for a nationally-oriented park but not a regional one which is the argument I guess you're trying to make as you keep telling me about all of the nearby medium-sized metros.

Sorry, I'm just being realistic.

NWA isn't remotely close in millionaires per capita. Billionaires perhaps, simply because of the Waltons. There are counties where you have to essentially be a millionaire to live there at all. Monroe and Collier Cos in FL are certainly in that category.

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I sounds as though the Disney hype has hit NWA. Some years ago the same thing happened in Tyler, TX. There was talk Disney was going to build north of Tyler. At the time it was a big deal. During the late 70's and early 80's Tyler and the Longview area were booming. The people saw no end in sight to growth. But the end did come. So many people were moving into the area you could not drop off a rental truck there. You had to drive it to Shreveport or Dallas.

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I sounds as though the Disney hype has hit NWA. Some years ago the same thing happened in Tyler, TX. There was talk Disney was going to build north of Tyler. At the time it was a big deal. During the late 70's and early 80's Tyler and the Longview area were booming. The people saw no end in sight to growth. But the end did come. So many people were moving into the area you could not drop off a rental truck there. You had to drive it to Shreveport or Dallas.

It's hit many places across the US. I've heard of San Antonio, Branson, St. Louis, and Nasheville. Although, Tyler is now one I can add to my list.

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It's hit many places across the US. I've heard of San Antonio, Branson, St. Louis, and Nasheville. Although, Tyler is now one I can add to my list.

The same kind of people that like NWA here like Tyler in Texas. It's a popular place for people looking to get out of the big city but still have plenty to do.

Disney, though? I agree, that's a little wacky. If I had to guess I'd say that if Disney develops a new park it will just be a different themed park in Orlando.

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Again, you're saying a lot of great things about NWA that wouldn't have anything to do with it getting a theme park. The location is bad for a nationally-oriented park but not a regional one which is the argument I guess you're trying to make as you keep telling me about all of the nearby medium-sized metros.

Sorry, I'm just being realistic.

NWA isn't remotely close in millionaires per capita. Billionaires perhaps, simply because of the Waltons. There are counties where you have to essentially be a millionaire to live there at all. Monroe and Collier Cos in FL are certainly in that category.

I was originally going to come back with more facts and figures but it's not worth it. It's all speculation anyway. I'm going to give this to you out of respect for your status on this forum. You're right, San Antonio is a better location for a new Disney Theme Park. And you're also right that there's no way NWA has the largest number of millionaires per capita.

In fact I'll even give you this... Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, and the wealthiest of the Walton family, lives in Fort Worth, Texas. Go figure. :lol:

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Disney, though? I agree, that's a little wacky. If I had to guess I'd say that if Disney develops a new park it will just be a different themed park in Orlando.

You are absolutely, positively, undeniably correct. Disney has many acres of undeveloped land in Orlando and there are reports that Disney may be building a new Theme Park in Orlando. The official Disney website also states that Disney is going to focus on building Theme Parks in the International market in the future and has not even considered building a new Disney Theme Park in the US.

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You are absolutely, positively, undeniably correct. Disney has many acres of undeveloped land in Orlando and there are reports that Disney may be building a new Theme Park in Orlando. The official Disney website also states that Disney is going to focus on building Theme Parks in the International market in the future and has not even considered building a new Disney Theme Park in the US.

I've heard mainland China is an international market they are focusing on.

You also have to think that if a large disney park is created somewhere else in the US, think about what that might do to business at other parks.

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I've heard mainland China is an international market they are focusing on.

You also have to think that if a large disney park is created somewhere else in the US, think about what that might do to business at other parks.

True, I'm also wondering if Disney even has any set plans for the land they've supposedly bought around here. They could just set on the land for a while till they decide what's the best fit for this area.

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True, I'm also wondering if Disney even has any set plans for the land they've supposedly bought around here. They could just set on the land for a while till they decide what's the best fit for this area.

Yeah, they could be playing the real estate game. Also, they could be building a distribution center or a factory. Who knows?

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