of the track family fun parks Karen
Branson Missouri thank you for having me
back it’s good to be in this room last
time I spent too much time in here we
were tormenting the saxophone section so
it’s nice to be back in here I love a
good beautiful ik I’ll just get that out
of the way right now usually I do this
to embarrass my two daughters two times
in my life I felt like I wanted to
capture this moment one is when I got my
dream car sunny the second is what I’m
going to tell you about today this
picture we didn’t do a great job of
actually getting my heels together but
I’m gonna go ahead and turn your back so
the track family fun parks you guys live
here you’ve seen it we’ve actually been
here since 1981 my father started the
company we’ve got three entertainment
centers here in Branson our feature for
the last several years have been these
high-rise go-cart tracks they brought a
lot of energy to our parks another idea
that we’ve had through the years was
actually a ferris wheel the beauty of
the Ozarks the the energy the
entertainment value of Branson we just
felt like it would be a great thing
since we’re in school today I’m gonna
give you a very brief history lesson so
the very first observation wheel was
designed and built by actually a bridge
builder named George Washington Gale
Ferris jr. we’ll go with George Ferris
to keep it short he designed this for
America wanted to have an answer for the
engineering feat of a structure like
this so let’s go forward a few years
another famous ferris wheel in Chicago
is a Navy Pier ferris wheel this wheel
was actually ridden by 17 million people
it was there for twenty years it was a
part of the skyline it’s an icon in
Chicago every picture you see the
skyline like this it’s always there so
it’s also a movie star this is actually
the ferris wheel that for tryst climbed
up during the divergent series it’s been
the Transformers movie other movies and
TV shows so we got a little bit of a
movie star here so here’s what happened
Chicago decided they were going to buy a
new ferris wheel a much different kind a
bigger higher tech and they were getting
rid of their old one and we bought and
it started with an email October 5th of
2015 and eight months later we opened so
to give you person perspective that
arrow normally would be do about three
times as long process like this would
take a couple of years from start to
finish we have the opportunity of a
lifetime so we were going to do anything
we could to make it happen I’m going to
show it to you rather than talk too much
about it
this shows the insanity of the last five
[Music]
I see the sky
raishin
[Music]
we now have 215 pieces of the ferris
wheel in our parking lot we’re hoping to
so we were three weeks from opening and
we were super excited and we’re moving
right along
and sat in it a very nice-looking state
is and it’s nice shiny white for weeks
now this was a day we’ve been waiting
for
Oh your hair shaking on your face
breaking are you climbing over walls cut
the tire changing is a voice faded cuz I
wanna give it oh I kinda feel like I
feel like I saw the light you got me way
up a thousand miles
can we stay right here in the sadness
[Music]
[Music]
so here is the branson ferris wheel by
the numbers it took 26 semis to get it
to branson from chicago we had 150
gallons of paint to make it shiny in new
hundred and forty-four thousand new LED
lights the structure weighs four hundred
and fifty thousand pounds and that sits
on a foundation that has holes as deep
as 23 feet deep and this wide 80,000
pounds of Steel
four million pounds of concrete and six
million pounds of gravel so this baby
ain’t going anyway so let me tell you
what Affairs will talk me about life
number one has never missed a chance to
meet somebody new so I’m standing here
today and we have this ferris wheel
because I got out of my comfort zone at
a conference and I went and met a new
guy God next to me in the picture named
Matt didn’t know one but knew he
operated a wheel on the coast and just
wanted to pick his brain and we talked
and we had a great conversation nice to
meet you I promised you an iconic ferris
wheel out of every conversation you’re
ever gonna have but you never know what
kind of connection you’re going to make
with people and I think that’s a very
important thing and two is keep up with
those relationships this was back in
January and June I emailed math I said
hey there’s some good stuff going on at
Branson the vibe is good there’s things
happening I really think we should talk
again and we just kept bottom whining it
did a new ferris wheel the newer tires
cost so much money we couldn’t make it
work financially so we kept up and then
October 5th an email to change my life
he said hey I think I got something for
you the Navy Pier brass wheels for sale
I just cost a fraction of the cost and
it’s in good shape we were pumped up
excited and we’re ready to go and we’re
doing everything we can quickly and then
we get work three weeks later it’s sold
to a city in Mexico and we’re bummed
we’re emotionally and we were full out
in going down this path and December 7th
a couple of weeks later we get an email
that says
guess what that deal fell through you
guys can get it if you make a move
really quickly and so that’s exactly
what we did the other thing is we had
relationships with bankers in town and
contractors and people that market
Branson and business partners all these
people that made it it would have been
impossible if we didn’t have these
relationships three is take the leap of
faith and in our case it is leaps of
faith so basically what we did after
that second email is we put down $50,000
which was a lot of money is a lot of
money for our company that we might not
get back if anything fell through those
things that we didn’t have in place yet
were approval from a bank the land that
we needed next door a 50 foot height
variance because of the laws of Branson
Navy piers blessing and no guarantee on
the timing that we would actually be
able to get this right open and start
making a revenue life to help pay it off
so there will be plenty of times in your
life you’re going to want all the ducks
in a row and everything just right but I
can tell you if you do that all the time
I’m not saying do it every time but
there are certain things you just got to
take the leap of faith and you got to
know that or hope that these things fall
into place and they did for us new isn’t
always better I know you guys you like
all the new gadgets you like the new
phones and all that stuff and I get it
that can be the same way I have learned
to really appreciate use I’m a guitar
player and my wife thinks I am too many
guitars but I’ve learned to appreciate a
music star more than than a new one
because I walk into a pawn shop it’s
great you know the guitar has a story
this case is beat up you don’t know
where it’s been but it’s it’s cool and
you’re like I’m gonna go with this well
we got a ferris wheel that had 17
million stories and we don’t know all
those stories but it definitely was
something that made it a lot better
coming from a used standpoint than you
so all those things that I talked about
that we didn’t have in place they all
came true in January 2019
sixteen we told our secret to the world
so we basically have this everything set
up and we sent out 20,000 emails to
press contacts partnering with our CBB
all around the country
it included basically a press release
that said hey Branson is getting this
iconic ferris wheel and it included this
[Music]
ten minutes later the Chicago Tribune
calls me one of the biggest news
companies in the world and then The
Weather Channel and Fox News Radio and
three NPR radio stations and travel
shows and that night I read it in a Los
Angeles Times all the way to the New
York Times this story became one of the
positive most positive news stories in
Branson history from a from a
perspective of Free Press it you know
the thing about it is that you had a
hundred and fifty in the end and this
one all on that first day but 150
contacts from all over the country and a
little bit the world if we would have
bought a new ferris wheel or an
observation wheel 10 million to 25
million dollars or more
we paid 4 million which is a lot of
money and I actually thought it was
going to cost two and a half million
when we went into this view and I think
God was protecting me from chickening
out because I probably would have so it
ended up being 4 million but we got
something because of the connection with
Chicago and the fact that it was used
that we never would have gotten with
something number 5 is doing right the
first time we had a great team even
though it was quickly put together this
amazing team with international
engineers and our local track employees
and local contractors and we did
something in a short amount of time that
is currently still a miracle like I said
we painted from the time it got there
till the time we opened for several
months we have steel strung out
everywhere we could and it was actually
I didn’t know that paint could actually
cost as much as it cost per gallon but
that’s the kind of paint that made this
thing
why the next thing was the lights we
love the old name of pure lights but for
many reasons we decided let’s make this
thing around and so we got quotes
literally from lighting companies all
over the world the best ones a guy that
performs two blocks down the road
promised Michael Hagen comes to us and
long story short convinces us he can do
something that nobody else can do with
the lights on this on this particular
wheel and he did this is before right
here’s where you would we have an old
mini golf course and then here is what
it looks like now as you can see and
have seen probably a person the lights
are amazing but you know what why stop
there I think in life there’s always
something bigger than you probably even
have in your mind and we did that with
our lives we decided that what we needed
to do was create take these pretty
lights put it with music
we call it Electrify and music and light
spectacular it shows every hour on the
hour after dark with various kinds of
music and that sort of thing and it
literally has become one of the most
known in our industry one of the most
well lit and just the whole package of
these in the rise in the whole country
which is pretty crazy our mission is to
create unforgettable moments and with
the fairs will we’ve been able to do
some really neat ones one we’ve had for
weddings on the wheel since we’ve had it
open we’ve had engagements we’ve had
anniversaries we have had birthdays
we’ve celebrated special causes special
days even had an unofficial attempt at
the most number of Santa’s on an
amusement ride and then the one that
really made people mad here in st. Louis
Gardens country is when the Cubs got
into the World Series for the first time
in over 100 years
we wanted to pay tribute to that and we
didn’t keep it up for long because there
wasn’t as good of an idea for everybody
and number seven is take a breath
celebrate and reconnect this is a
picture is from the morning at like 5:00
in the morning
nobody had slept for months but
definitely that night we had just south
there’s and just just took it in because
moments later we were throwing a huge
grand opening party and we were
celebrating and that was important to do
as well and then I would just say that
last piece and really important one and
what I learned is reconnect if you’re
doing a big project or whatever
something that’s big you’ve probably
taken time away from your family your
friends things that you usually do and
it’s important and it may take longer
than the project took but to reconnect
with those people especially that
probably helped get you there in the
first place so this pile of Steel
created some of the best memories in my
life and it created a lot of life
lessons I hope for me and I think for
you and yes it created I hope you find your ferris wheel thank you very much