The South Mountain Recreation Complex located at South Mountain Reservation houses the Turtle Back Zoo, Codey Skating Arena and now the brand new Safari Miniature Golf Course.
Adults are 7 bucks
Kids are 5 bucks.
You get 19 holes of Safari adventure, complete with jungle themed landscaping and acoustics.
The people are coming out in droves apparently to hit the links because the gate attendant shared with me that there’s over 300 people per day that go through the course usually if the day is decent. And on a fine fall day like it was when we went — attendance topped 500 people already and it was early evening on a weekend night.
Last time we went, it took us 35 minutes to get through. Tonight it took over 1 hour – because the course was full. On a dollar value basis, you could argue that’s really cheap ($5 for over 1 hour of entertainment!).
It’s worth heading out to the Safari MiniGolf course before it gets too cold out. Say hello to Frankie the Elephant for us when you do!
And this is only the beginning. Because it’s part of a $4.8 MILLION development project at South Mountain — including the packaging and rebranding of the Turtle Back Zoo + Codey Arena into the “South Mountain Recreation Complex”. Next-up? Restaurant on the lake… (perhaps like the one on the lake at Verona Park but not operating anymore besides that small snack bar inside?)
Anyway, that’s about $42,000 sunk into each hole on the minigolf course. Essex County is expecting revenues of at least $250,000 per year on the golf course alone. If the sales projections are correct, that means the county will make their money back within 4 years. And supposedly all revenues will be going to the Turtle Back Zoo itself (which you can get to on the free shuttle trolley that cost $180,000 itself).
Woa. Can this really work? Was that massive elephant overlooking Northfield really worth its weight in revenues?
Well, the early results are in, and since the opening day on the rainy September 16th, the Safari Minigolf course apparently took in approximately $37,000 up to the first week in October. That’s about $15,000 per week. Of course you can probably discount that a bit since it’s a brand new facility and there’s a lot of press and those tall flying air-blown tubes in front of the entrance corner on Northfield and Pleasant Valley Way (wonder how much those are costing per day?).
It looks like peak days when all things are going well, the course can handle between 875-975 people a day. About 1,000 rounds of golf at $5 or $7 per person.
Time will tell if the revenue targets will be a hit…or miss.
There are of course, tons of lost opportunities here that one can see immediately — many that are simply low hanging fruit, if someone at the E.C.S.M.R.C. (Essex County South Mountain Recreation Complex) paid any attention. Here’s a quick back of the napkin list of ideas that are missing out of the gate:
If this is truly a part of the Zoo, why isn’t there cross-selling marketing collateral at each venue? Why not a combo ticket? Or a discount offered at the other place with admission receipt?
Pre-paid multi-ticket booklets for families — or even an unlimited safari pass? The zoo offers an annual membership, the miniGOLF course should too!
Birthday parties. Book ‘em at $250 a pop.
Safari gear – every zoo needs a gift shop. You already have the labor, why not install a small gift shop with safari-themed educational toys, games, etc?
Adopt an endangered safari animal wall – give a chance for kids and families to donate money for a name plate at each of the 19 holes in honor of a given animal in need.
Corporate sponsored balls. That’s a no-brainer. Sell annual branded sponsorship opportunities on the balls, give them away at the end of the year, and get new sponsors or returning sponsors to buy brand new equipment each year. 6,000+ people could have been handling some company’s logo for 1/2 an hour each already.
Discounted “2nd chance” rounds. $5 child $7 adults for the first round, let them go around again for $3 each. You already have the customer there, now take more money from them.
This is a NON-revenue related item, but there should be more “kodak moment” photo opps inside and outside the golf area. For example, that huge elephant is a wasted photo opp far behind the fence. If you designed some of the animals so that the “Safari miniGOLF” logo was in view, the photo opps would turn into free advertising as customers show off their photos to friends and family.
Add a $1 option for animal conservation at the zoo for each admission. “Would you like to add $1 to your admission today to help care for and save the animals?”
There’s tons more ways to generate extra value and hence extra revenue with this same venue. Just my $0.02.
It seems like overnight, the overflow unpaved lot at the Codey Arena by South Mountain turned into a new attraction for Essex County residents and beyond. The Turtle Back Zoo now has a Safari addition, complete with a huge elephant and 18 other animals. These animals aren’t moving anytime soon, since they were installed as part of a whopping $4.8 million project to create a safari mini-golf course.
Opening night was a washout with drizzling rain on a Thursday night, but people still came – enough that there were lines for the free mini golf rounds. A band, free hotdogs and soda were also available for the determined miniature golfers.
At $5/child and $7/adult, it will take awhile for Essex County to make their money back — they estimate $250,000 in revenue a year from this venue. The real test will be after this winter season when the Turtle Back Zoo season is back in full swing and the to-be-built restaurant will be up and running (a boat house is coming too apparently).
Essex County has another mini-golf course over by Eagle Rock in Roseland that was recently renovated with fresh carpets too (actually a fun little course to go play for $5/round too), but it is no match for this safari wonderland smack in the middle of New Jersey.
Is it me or does this winter feel like it is not going away anytime soon?
Have you had enough snow yet?
In fact, there’s a chance to get up to 10 inches of snow this week if you check the local weather forecast — even after the 10+ inches we got over the last two weeks!
Does that mean we’re going to have another snow day on Friday?
I finally figured out why our winter is in full force this year in Livingston and around town.
Luckily we have a super accurate weather prediction tool / expert right here in Essex County. You can go for a consult yourself anytime too!
So if there’s a break in this freeeezing weather, and it warms up a bit to give us a preview of spring, you may want to remember that the zoo is a great escape for the kids from our suburban life around town!
But you must get in touch with us (email us at info (at) fingerclickinggood.com) asap otherwise, we’ll have to pick another winner and give the prize away to another lucky entrant!
The snowy owl misses you. If we don’t hear from you by midnight Thanksgiving Day 2009, we’re going to proceed with plan B: Pick another winner from the original contest entries from the contest page.
We had almost 100 entries, including some across the Twitterverse.
But the contest deadline of November 15th has come and we are now able to pick the winner of the free zoo membership. In order to work towards transparency in picking the zoo contest winner, here’s the video selecting the winner:
Congratulations to our winner! Thanks for participating to all our readers.
And while you’re in the freebie mode, enter our Free Zoo Membership contest here on http://www.FingerClickingGood.com/livingston for a full year membership for you and your family members to the zoo!
All you have to do is enter a comment below with your favorite zoo animal.
Entries must be made by midnight November 15th, 2009 eastern time, one entry per person.
Also, if you want a 2nd chance at the contest, just tweet about this contest here at www.fingerclickinggood.com/livingston via Twitter with the hashtag #turtlebackzoo
CONTEST RULES:
1. Contest is open to U.S. residents only unless otherwise noted.
2. Enter the contest by leaving a comment on the post with the name of your favorite zoo animal. Read below to see how to increase your odds of winning!
3. Entries must be submitted by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the contest deadline. Winner will be notified by email (so be sure to give us a valid email).
4. Prize delivery will be arranged by Essex County Turtle Back Zoo management after we contact you and collect your address.
5. The winner will have 3 days to claim their prize after being notified by email; otherwise, a new winner will be chosen.
6. Winner will be chosen using Random.Org’s True Random Number Generator.
7. We will not share your information in any way!
8. Increase your chance of winning with up to two additional entries by: a) sending a message over Twitter about this contest with the hashtag #turtlebackzoo b) publishing a blog post with a link back to this site and then posting a comment with the URL of your blog post in the comment section below
9. We reserve the right to cancel this contest for any reason at all.
10. Essex County Turtle Back Zoo is supplying the 1 annual family membership prize.
