[tylerSC]

The Scotty McCreery concert last summer did not draw a large crowd. But a review in the Observer did state that the acoustics were very good, and better than the PNC Pavilion. So hopefully they will consider more big name acts in the future. And if they were going to demolish the facility, I think they would have done it now while they rest of the front entrance was torn down.

[RollerBee]

Flooding?
I doubt the Paladium is going anywhere, but I still think it would be a great space for a dark large dark coaster like Wonder Mountain.

[coasterchitchat]

Does anybody know the seating capacity of the Palladium?

Honestly, I've been to Carowinds twice now. Once I went in the gate by Afterburn, and the second time I went in the temporary entrance on Halloween this year (it was dark already). I had no idea it was even there, until I started watching the webcams as Fury is getting built. So, I looked and read about some of Carowinds history, and saw that they used to get some decent shows there, but that was way back in the 80's.

I see somebody saw Wierd Al in 2007, above. But even that would have been 7 years ago.

Does it even get used anymore?

I live pretty close to PNC Pavillion, and it stays pretty busy all through the warmer months. And of course there are a few other venues (Band of America stadium) that could hold very large outdoor concerts. But mostly I think music acts would prefer to stay to the indoor venues, and there are plenty of those too. I think it'd be cool if there were some concerts there on some weekend nights.

But, I wonder if its days are numbered. I really would think that the next "major" attraction that gets built at Carowinds (like 5 years down the road, and isn't part of the water park) takes the place of the Palladium. It's just there taking up prime real-estate, it's not drawing people to Carowinds, and therefore not generating any cash (or extrememly little cash), so it's gotta be something they are thinking about.

It does get used. IIRC, in the last few years Scotty McCreery, TobyMac, and Skillet have performed. Not sure if anyone else really has lately. It would be nice if they could book more concerts and stuff... Though, preferably not Jason Derulo like Kings Island recently did. lol.

Kings Dominon had Jason Derulo, not Kings Island.

[redrunner97]

Kings Dominon had Jason Derulo, not Kings Island.

Well then... I'll send my condolences to Kings Dominion.

[Nctodbear]

So I will date myself just as much Wormy...I worked 38 special show (concessions), and attended or worked almost every other show that season. Then I have seen the Go-Go's, Tina, Reba, Patti, just to name a few. Those were some of the best concerts and I hated when they stopped booking the big shows.

[Edwardo]

It is not the fact acts don't want to come to the Palladium; the park is just not willing to spend the money to book them. Artist are paid a certain rate to play venues, and it is up to the promoter/park to make their money back. Cedar Fair could book acts and cycle them through all their parks if they cared to do so.

This is not the way booking major touring artists works. While Dani did tell me a couple years ago that Management (then) had no real interest in booking touring recording artists (due to the market's saturation), and would only focus on what they have been the last few years (Christian concerts, etc.), when it comes to booking touring artists, it has nothing to due with the park spending money or not.

When an artist or band goes on tour, they usually go thru someone like LiveNation (who owns a large number of venues) and, in cooperation with companies like TicketMaster (who has rights to many other venues), they map out where they're going, contact the venues to book, and pay the venues. Cedar Fair owns the Palladium. Now, the concert promoter may come to them, and in the Scotty Mcreery case, they obviously did, but in a city with 2 other newer, more popular amphitheaters, as well as an arena, stadium, and various theaters and small concert venues of different size, who hold events constantly, theres not really a reason to book at Carowinds all of the time in this day and age.

Six Flags occasionally has a small summer concert series where they have usually free or low cost concerts of Z level pop artists at their smaller venues, mostly amphitheaters that used to hose the Batman Stunt Shows, and it's very possible that Six Flags paid them to come there, but that's a very different situation. Couple hundred people at best, and the park caters to a very young crowd with those concerts, which they use as a promotion during the week to get more people into the park.

The Palladium holds 13,000 people. It's not a small venue. It would be very costly to tear out. And there are plenty of things it could host. I'm sure that a former Disney Exec can figure out what to do with it.

[OakenBucket]

I would book older Country and Rock acts on Sunday afternoons . I think this would raise attendce for normaly a slow day.

[Jarsh]

Flooding?

The run off from the air units on top of the building leaked into the roof and Paramount never bothered to fix/replace the roof. The park has said numerous times that they looked at every option possible to keep the Plantation House, but with the cost of repairs (which included removing the entire roof and rebuilding it) they decided that removing the structure all together worked best.

[RollerBee]

Why is Paramount getting all the blame, Paramount became Cedar Fair in 2006. Thats seven years that the problem was allow to get worse in addition to whenever the problem started. Cedar Fair allowed the problem to worsen for 5 to 7 years before deciding what course of action?

Anyways, I have gotten off topic....
Has the Paladuim been updated since 1992?

[arby]

Paramount didn't become Cedar Point in 2006. They sold the parks to Cedar Point in 2006 and are still 2 separate companies.

Anyway, Carowinds has mentioned a few times that they are focusing on increasing their entertainment (which doesn't necessarily mean big names) so to me it's a no brainer that the Palladium is staying around. Why would you demolish something that is already there and can support a large variety of entertainment venues.

My only observation from being there last year is that it can use some paint. A fresh paint job to tie it into the Fury 325 area/theme and/or the front entrance would make a huge difference. We watched a Christian music concert there in the Paramount days and the audio was much better than what we experienced at PNC a couple of months ago.

[RollerBee]

Cedar Fair brought Paramount Parks in 2006, Cedar Fair closed the Paramount Parks Corporate office and consolidated Paramount Parks management, as of June 2006, Cedar Fair was calling the shots at Carowinds down to locations of trash cans, they were out in the park with measuring tapes determining where they wanted trash cans and benches. My wife and I both worked at Carowinds at the time and witnessed the takeover. Paramount's Carowinds rides management went from wearing polos to dress shirts and ties.

[arby]

Yeah, I think I'm just splitting hairs at this point. I always thought Cedar Fair bought out Paramount Parks, too, but now I'm thinking that they just bought the assets and not the actual company. A few years ago I started wondering when Paramount still has a Paramount Parks division.

http://www.paramount.com/inside-studio/studio/divisions

I'm no expert but when the parent company still has a division that was supposedly bought out years before, it makes me think they didn't actually buy the entire company which includes the name, trademarks for that name, etc but only the assets which include all the people.

[Edwardo]

Cedar Fair purchased Paramount Parks in 2006. Paramount Parks was spun off when Viacom split into CBS and Paramount. So CF purchased Paramount Parks as a company and integrated it into Cedar Fair.

As for the Plantation House, Whos to say that when CF came in in 2006, they didn't then do an assessment of the park and determine that the Plantation house was not salvagable? Just because they waited till now to demolish it doesn't mean it hasn't been in the plans for quite a while.

Seriously, though, your constant whining about change is getting tired. And I'm not the only one that's told you so.

When you run a multimillion (or billion) dollar company and have to make hard decisions, then maybe I'll listen.

[arby]

I sometimes take things too literally...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TYIQDWaXSw

[tylerSC]

Paramount didn't become Cedar Point in 2006. They sold the parks to Cedar Point in 2006 and are still 2 separate companies.

Anyway, Carowinds has mentioned a few times that they are focusing on increasing their entertainment (which doesn't necessarily mean big names) so to me it's a no brainer that the Palladium is staying around. Why would you demolish something that is already there and can support a large variety of entertainment venues.

My only observation from being there last year is that it can use some paint. A fresh paint job to tie it into the Fury 325 area/theme and/or the front entrance would make a huge difference. We watched a Christian music concert there in the Paramount days and the audio was much better than what we experienced at PNC a couple of months ago.

I have also heard where the audio and acoustics at the Palladium are much better than PNC Pavilion and other venues. So it would be nice to see better caliber concerts at Carowinds once again. And I remember I saw Patti LaBelle at the Palladium back in the 80s and it was a great show.