Nashville is a bustling place with numerous tourist destinations, many of which are themed around the city's pride and joy: country music. Some of the area's star attractions include the Grand Ole Opry House and the Opryland Hotel, but one of the most eye-catching sights while driving on Briley Parkway is the spacious and popular shopping center Opry Mills. These individual attractions come together to create a massive tourist destination that hosts a variety of events throughout the year.
The mall contains one of the only 16 remaining rainforest cafes in the United States, an aquarium-themed restaurant, Dave & Busters (a family chain of game consoles), Madame Tussauds, a movie theater, and more. With so many options and close proximity to other popular tourist destinations, Opry Mills has quickly become a go-to destination for many out-of-towners, but not before this sprawling mall took over the land , a once-bustling strip of shopping malls, the theme park promotes Nashville's deep ties to the music industry.
Opryland USA (also known as Opryland Theme Park or simply Opryland) opened in 1972 and operated for many years before closing in 1997. During the park's heyday in the late 1980s, it received an average of 2.5 million visitors per year. The park hosts a famous country music radio station Ole Opry Theater More than two decades ago, even two years before the Grand Ole Opry itself. To this day, the Grand Ole Opry House continues to provide broadcast entertainment at the same location, making it one of the few surviving buildings from the theme park era.
Opryland is at the center of the country music empire, but the park is a celebration of multiple musical genres, including jazz, pop, bluegrass and rock and roll. When the park was first established, there were relatively few thrilling attractions, focusing mainly on stage performances and music performances.
The park is divided into nine areas, many of which are themed to specific music genres. These areas included Opry Plaza, which hosted the Grand Ole Opry House and radio shows, and Hill Country (later Opry Village), which focused on bluegrass and folk music. Opry Village), New Orleans (Riverside), which hosts a large number of jazz performances, and Riverside (Riverside), the scenic area closest to the hotel. River, the American West celebrating western music and the western frontier, Lakeside offering several children's play areas and water rides, State Fair with petting zoo and carnival games, Grizzly Country with its river rafting rides and indoor roller coaster , as well as the Today's Music (or “Mod”) area, which features pop and rock music, and Opryland's oldest thrill ride, the Timber Topper (later the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster).
In 1975, Opryland expanded for the first time. Prior to its fourth season of operation, the park added a state fair-themed area with several new rides and games. However, the season was delayed due to flooding from the nearby Cumberland River that inundated the park.
In 1977, the Opryland Hotel (now the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center) opened to the public, attracting even more overnight visitors eager to take in the beauty of Nashville. With the nearest theme park rivals clocking in at between 4 and 6 hours in any direction, the Opryland Experience is able to maintain a firm grip on the region's tourism industry. In 1981, Opryland USA underwent its final expansion. This introduces a new themed area called “Grizzly Country” as well as whitewater rafting.
In the heyday of its operations, Opryland USA was a leisure enterprise that traveled through the world of music, offering live entertainment, shows and shops, as well as lesser thrill rides. But attendance at the Opryland declined as more guests sought better thrills. Furthermore, by the late 1980s, competitors began to become closer. In 1986, Dollywood officially opened under its new name, followed the following year by Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville.
Opryland's popularity began to decline due to its limitations as a seasonal park and changing consumer expectations for theme parks. Additionally, due to its proximity to the Cumberland River and busy Briley Avenue, the park quickly outgrew its footprint with no room to expand, and there were widespread concerns about flooding from said rivers.
Best of all, business is booming at the Opryland Hotel. After an expansion that introduced a beautiful atrium, lush greenery and indoor waterfalls, Victorian gardens, a quarter-mile indoor river and boats to escort guests across, the hotel has become its own tourist attraction. Since the hotel was able to stand on its own during the off-season without the crowds of Opryland USA, and a major expansion in 1986 nearly doubled the hotel's size and used up the theme park's remaining With room for potential expansion, the decision was ultimately made to close and demolish Opryland.
In 1997, Opryland USA was demolished to make way for a new shopping and entertainment complex to complement the existing Opryland Hotel and Conference Center. The decision came amid strong backlash from locals and out-of-state fans. In 2012, Gaylord CEO Colin Reed recounted his experience joining the company in 2001, three years after the park was demolished. He recalled spending much of his first year dealing with ongoing complaints about Opryland's demolition and called the decision to close the park “a bad idea.” In 2018, former Gaylord Entertainment CEO Bud Wendell also discussed the closure, saying: “Opryland was successful. When they closed it, it was successful. We didn't lose money. ”
Regardless, the new Opry Mills shopping center opened in 2000, breathing new life into the area's tourism industry. Although the mall's popularity has declined dramatically in recent years, leading to the closure of many malls across the country, Opry Mills Mall still sees busy parking lots and crowded stores year-round.
However, the development of this shopping mall over more than two decades has not been smooth sailing. In 2010, after two days of torrential rains, the Cumberland River breached its boundaries, flooding the Opryland area and much of Nashville. The mall was submerged in ten feet of water and took two years to rebuild.
Unfortunately, even if the Opryland theme park returns, there will be no room left on the site where it once stood. Since the hotel and conference center occupy limited space, it would be impossible to recreate the theme park on the same site. Additionally, the region now has a documented history of devastating flooding. It would be unwise to undertake another large and expensive construction project so close to the river.
However, Nashville's hopes of returning to theme parks aren't entirely out of the question. In the early 2010s, plans were floated to develop a new park near the original site. The project will be a partnership between Gaylord Entertainment and Herschend Family Entertainment, which owns and operates Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Dolly Parton (Dolly Parton) herself was involved in the program. Sadly, those plans quickly fell through due to disagreements between the parties involved, but who's to say there won't be another opportunity in the future?
Nashville's popularity will only continue to grow from a music and tourism standpoint, so it's not entirely out of the question whether the city might one day get another theme park of its own. But for now, Opryland fans are waiting in the hope that potential development will bring the once-beloved park back to life.
