Ringling Bros. folds up its tent at Coney Island
March 1, 2011 / Brooklyn news / Not Just Nets / Coney Island
March 1, 2011 / Brooklyn news / Not Just Nets / Coney Island
By Alex Rush
Coney Island won’t be “the greatest show on Earth” this summer.
After just two seasons on the Boardwalk, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will not set up its big top this summer in the struggling-to-rebuild amusement district, claiming scheduling conflicts and financial issues.
P.T. Barnum once allegedly said there’s a sucker born every minute. Some locals certainly feel that way right now.
“That’s a real shame — the amusement zone needs a circus,” said Coney Island History Project founder Charles Denson.
The acrobats, lion-tamers and clowns of the circus attracted more a quarter of a million people to the W. 21st Street site over the two summers — quickly establishing the show as a central element of the city’s vision for a bustling amusement area extending from the Cyclone to beyond MCU Park, the home of the Cyclones minor league baseball team.
But a Ringling Bros. spokesman said that the circus’s June-September Coney show no longer “fit into the schedule.”
“We already committed to shows in the Pacific Northwest,” said the spokesman, Stephen Payne.
Insiders surmised that the circus hadn’t made as much money as it hoped to.
read more:http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/34/9/all_ringlingout_2011_3_4_bk.html
After just two seasons on the Boardwalk, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will not set up its big top this summer in the struggling-to-rebuild amusement district, claiming scheduling conflicts and financial issues.
P.T. Barnum once allegedly said there’s a sucker born every minute. Some locals certainly feel that way right now.
“That’s a real shame — the amusement zone needs a circus,” said Coney Island History Project founder Charles Denson.
The acrobats, lion-tamers and clowns of the circus attracted more a quarter of a million people to the W. 21st Street site over the two summers — quickly establishing the show as a central element of the city’s vision for a bustling amusement area extending from the Cyclone to beyond MCU Park, the home of the Cyclones minor league baseball team.
But a Ringling Bros. spokesman said that the circus’s June-September Coney show no longer “fit into the schedule.”
“We already committed to shows in the Pacific Northwest,” said the spokesman, Stephen Payne.
Insiders surmised that the circus hadn’t made as much money as it hoped to.
read more:http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/34/9/all_ringlingout_2011_3_4_bk.html