The Failed Fantasy of Atlanta’s Sid and Marty Krofft Theme Park

The Aftermath of The World of Sid and Marty Krofft

Reception

The World of Sid and Marty Krofft opened with optimism. The “high-rise world of fantasy” earned positive reviews from newspaper columnists, as a local businessman went as far to call it downtown Atlanta’s “first ray of sunlight.” Atlanta’s mayor called it the city’s greatest premiere since Gone with the Wind.

The park even caught the attention of presumptive presidential nominee Jimmy Carter, who visited the park that summer with his family; for what it’s worth, Secret Service seemed to enjoy themselves.

Sid and Marty were encouraged by the positive reactions. The fulfillment of creating a theme park wonderland pushed the Kroffts to revisit their ambition of expanding to other cities; the duo was negotiating with New York’s Radio City Music Hall and another Omni location in Miami, Florida, but their work in Atlanta wasn’t done yet.

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Attendance

The Kroffts’ indoor theme park had to be seen to be believed, but only a limited number of visitors could actually visit.

The World of Sid and Marty Krofft restricted its capacity to 6,000 visitors at a time to prevent overcrowding the indoor venue. As a self-confident way to manage attendance, the park used a reservation system similar to Broadway. The park reserved 75% of its capacity for those with advance bookings, leaving 25% for walk-up visitors. Reservations, which included guaranteed parking, could be purchased at Rich’s department stores.

Atlanta’s newest theme park anticipated 1.3 million visitors in first year, needing about 1 million to break even. The park reported some sold-out dates in The Atlanta Journal, but busy days were few and far between.

Overall attendance for The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was lighter than expected.

Value

Public opinion about the new Krofft park was that admission prices were too high. Ticket books were $5.75 for adults and $4.25 for children—roughly $30 today when adjusted for inflation. For compassion, the nearby Six Flags Over Georgia was slightly cheaper at $5.00 for adults and $3.50 for kids. That price difference mattered to families, especially with a number of kids.

Not only was The World of Sid and Marty Krofft more expensive than Six Flags, but the indoor theme park had only three rides and used a ticket book system; that meant visitors paid in full and could experience each attraction only once. The World’s multi-floor layout funneled guests to experience everything in a certain order. This format made it difficult to repeat attractions or entire areas.

A trip to The World of Sid and Marty Krofft took about three to five hours. The cheaper Six Flags was a better value as an all-day park with considerably more attractions, ranging from gentle to thrilling, which allowed visitors to ride multiple times.

Visitors atThe World of Sid and Marty Krofft were expecting a full day of fun; instead, they experienced three rides at most and a few well-produced shows. Many kids were left waiting in the Omni’s concourse for their parents to pick them up after breezing through the park.

The World of Sid and Marty Krofft arguably was a quality-over-quantity experience, but even that wasn’t entirely true.

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Issues

As any new park, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft went through growing pains.

The park’s three rides were frequently broken down. Management handed out rain checks after the prominent H.R. Pufnstuf ride was closed for two weekends in a row during the peak summer season. In one incident, the puppeteers from the park’s theater show got stuck in the elevator for Living Island Adventure. After that, management no longer allowed the puppeteers to ride the park’s unreliable attractions as to not miss any shows.

To make up for ride closures, the trusty puppet show ran as many as 15 exhaustive times per day.

These technical difficulties were “disastrous” according to an executive at Omni International.

Even when the rides were open, some thrill-seeking visitors were unimpressed. The pinball ride, for example, was a spectacular idea on paper that, in execution, a number of guests criticized for being slow and jolty with ear-splitting sound effects to cover up the noisy ride system.

The park adjusted its messaging to set expectations, describing their attractions as “sight-seeing rides” in some news releases.

By this point, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft clearly wasn’t the perfect world of fantasy it was designed to be. Some of the park’s issues could be blamed on its rushed opening, but the Kroffts still believed in their creation. The brothers felt at home in Atlanta and were motivated to do what was necessary to get the most out of their world.