Tulsa UNfairgrounds Ousting Bell's Amusement Park
A Bubbaworld Editorial/Opinion
Publication Date: 11/11/06
Since 1951, Bell's Amusement Park has been a fixture at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds. It has also been the second biggest cash-cow for the Fairgrounds throughout its history. Only the Tulsa State Fair has brought in more money to keep the Fairgrounds afloat. Now UNfairgrounds officials are doing their level best to kill Bell's Amusement Park by refusing to renew the park's lease and giving the park's owners only 120 days to move from the Fairgrounds.
Bell's has been having financial problems for the past two years, owing in a large part according to Robert Bell, to the Fairgrounds management turning one of the large parking lots adjacent to Bell's into an RV park.
The past two years Bell's requested and received a reduction in their payments to the Fairgrounds. Typically Bell's payments to the Fairgrounds were on the order of $400,000 per-year. Under reduced terms, Bell's payments were reportedly half that amount or less.
Media reports regarding the ouster of Bell's indicated that in 2006, Bell's payments to the Fairgrounds totaled approximately $135,000. Even at this lower amount Bell's apparently remains the second highest revenue source for the Fairgrounds.
Big Splash Water Park and the Tulsa Drillers, the Fairgrounds other large private business tenants, reportedly pay less, considerably less, with the water park reportedly paying a total of between $110,000 and $120,000 per-year and the Tulsa Drillers paying a flat rental fee of only $18,000 per-year, plus 50 cents per-ticket sold and a cut of concessions profits.
The moving force behind Bell's ouster appears to be new Expo Square President and CEO Rick Bjorklund, whose arrival in Tulsa was heralded with accolades as witnessed by this Google archive of the announcement of his arrival.
Bjorklund does have impressive sounding credentials, but it appears that his career is going backwards, with all the 'big name' jobs such as Deputy Director of the Pontiac Silverdome, Vice President and General Manager of Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Executive Director of the Rosemont Horizon Arena in Chicago and Chief Operating Officer of the British National Stadium complex in Wembley, England being earlier in his career and the 'smaller name' jobs being later in his career.
Bjorklund came to Tulsa from Nebraska where he was the director of that state's fair, for a whole fifteen months. Evidently long enough to try selling naming rights to toilets as a money making scheme. Prior to that he reportedly left the Wisconsin State Fair "by mutual agreement" with that fair's governing body. And now Tulsa is stuck with him and his business practices.
In addition to his decision to oust Bells, a long-time Tulsa tradition and landmark, Bjorklund also decided it would be a good thing to hand a ten year no-bid contract for the operation of the Tulsa State Fair midway to Gerald (Jerry) Murphy. Murphy is the owner of Murphy Brothers Exposition which also owns Big Splash Water Park located on the Tulsa Fairgrounds. Murphy Brothers has long been the midway operator at the Tulsa State Fair and a long time competitor with Bell's Amusement Park for fairgoer dollars. Murphy Brothers is also a company with which Bjorklund did business while in charge of the Wisconsin State Fair.
When one applies the 'Duck Test', which states that "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, odds are it's a duck", to the ouster of Bell's from the Tulsa Fairgrounds, some very troubling possibilities arise.
The 10 acres on which Bell's Amusement Park sits is at the opposite end of the Fairgrounds from Big Splash Water Park and just west of the Exposition Building. Here's a map of the Fairgrounds.If Bell's is ousted and nothing replaces it, there's room for a really big parking lot. Since Bell's is generating revenue for the Fairgrounds it would be foolish to replace it with a "free" parking lot. Therefore there is the possibility of a nice new "paid" parking lot for fairgoers and right at the end of the Exposition Building, no less.
Another possibility is that by eliminating Bell's Amusement Park from the Fairgrounds landscape, the remaining midway operator for the Tulsa State Fair, that would be Murphy Brothers, would stand to see a significant revenue increase from the fair and for the next ten years. No competition equals a much better bottom line!
Then there is always the possibility that Murphy Brothers is looking to expand its operations at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds and a 10 acre chunk of real estate could be put to a lot of uses, say for an amusement park.
Hopefully Mr. Bjorklund is not planning on installing a huge restroom on the current Bell's location and selling naming rights to the individual stools, but owing to his Nebraska experience, anything is possible.
Mr. Bjorklund, this is Tulsa, Oklahoma not Wembley, England, Pontiac, Michigan, Pittsburgh, PA or Chicago, IL. Some things are just a part of Tulsa. The Fairgrounds is one of those things and with it the Golden Driller and Bell's Amusement Park.
If you wish to have your tenure in Tulsa last longer than that in Nebraska, you probably should not be messing with Tulsa landmarks and make no mistake about it, Bell's Amusement Park is a Tulsa landmark.
However, Mr. Bjorklund if you wish to sell naming rights to the toilets at the Fairgrounds, we at Bubbaworld would be more than happy to pay for naming rights on one of them, provided we can place your name on it. Or more appropriately, in it, where it belongs!
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