www.cirquefascination.com: It may be The “American Dream” Mall for a scant few, but for many others it has become a Canadian nightmare; with construction delays, traffic problems and few brands signing up for this 3.6 million sq.ft. of potential calamity in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Things have gotten so bad that even Cirque du Soleil, who started out with a purported contract to have a dedicated year-round live show on stage there, moved the project to just “rumor” and then finished up with a position of “pure speculation”. Suffice to say that Cirque du Soleil is now out and so is the planned dedicated theatre for them at the “American Dream”, which was maybe just a dream to some, and a nightmare to others
3 comments:
I feel like I have been driving past this behemoth for most of my life, and the most that anyone ever seems to know about it is that it was supposed to be some sort of sports park, but the developers ran out of money. I am very surprised to learn that they are still trying to get it going, and also that it is supposed to be more of a mall than anything else. From the description in the article, it almost sounds like the developers were shooting to shove in everything a casino has to offer except for the hotel and the gambling. In any case, it is likely that the apparent ongoing failure of the development is due at least in part to poor advertising. I would be willing to bet that it would be easier to generate cashflow if more people knew what it was supposed to be (provided, of course, that whatever the developers are making is actually something that people want).
It is quite bold for this company to plow ahead with this plan for a mall of this magnitude particularly when the whole dead mall culture is so prevalent. I think there are many obstacles in the way to make this a grand success and I think Cirque probably recognized and didn’t want to risk being associated with such a flop of a venture (which would’ve sounded like a fruitful opportunity when initially pitched. What I did find interesting from this article that I hadn’t been aware of before was that Cirque has never had a show that has had long term success in and around New York City. I would think that their show would work with audiences in the area but apparently not. I can easily see that for a company having a permanent show near New York City would be appealing if it could be labeled a great success, however in this venture it seems unlikely to amount to anything significant. Cirque has established itself as a prominent company in the performance and entertainment world and for their slow retraction from this deal is only one of many factors that have me assuming the flop of this venture but only time will tell.
I do not think Cirque Du Soleil is missing out on anything. Although this would be an interesting new market to explore, it probably is not worth the hassle, especially considering "dead mall culture" as Lauren pointed out. There seems like there are far too many problems with this plan for this to go successfully, let alone, smoothly. It is to Cirque's advantage that they were able to get out in a graceful and understandable manner. I do think it is interesting though CDS's lack of presence in New York City. I'm sure their tech time that they spend in a theatre, usually a few months, would be an astronomical price tag in a Manhattan venue. Additionally, in the Las Vegas market, Cirque is both a staple as well as one of the few spectacles to see. Whereas in New York, there is so many performance based shows with elements of spectacle, that Cirque may not see as high of yield in that audience group, especially considering cost.
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