By Lois Reagan Thomas, The Knoxville News-Sentinel
October 6, 2000
SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. -- The developers of Governor's Palace plan to close the music theater at the end of the year
and convert the property into a 351-room hotel and conference center.
"The theater business is profitable only in the October and November time frame. When you consider the investment
in land and structure, it's not a very profitable venue," said Don Collier, president of Governor's Crossing,
the large Sevierville mixed-use development that includes Governor's Palace.
The 1,765-seat theater had been the site of Opryland Productions' "Boots, Boogie & Blue" country
music revue under a contract that ends this year. The show will close at year's end.
Plans are to construct the hotel in two wings with the theater in the center and its lobby serving as the hotel
lobby, said Collier. Five meeting rooms and a banquet facility that can feed 1,450 people will also be added. A
wedding chapel is being added in space formerly used for the theater ticket office.
The theater may be used for lecture-style meeting space -- "any kind of meeting that will require lights,
sound and slide presentations," said Collier. "With the side stages and screens we have existing, it
will be ideal for that type of meeting."
The new facility, which will not have the exhibit space that would qualify it as a convention center, will be able
to handle conferences of up to 1,750 people and will be marketed to "mostly professional groups" such
as lawyers, doctors, teachers associations and governmental agencies, said Collier.
While the music theater business has been slow, the conference and convention business is brisk, Collier said.
The Collier family interests also include the Smoky Mountain Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, where some groups
have grown too big for the facility, and where demand for bookings exceeds availability, Collier said. Hopes are
to accommodate more and larger groups with the new facility, he said.
As long as it doesn't interfere with the primary conference business, the theater also will continue to be used
for the Governor's Palace concert series, which has included well-known country and crossover stars such as George
Jones, Merle Haggard and Martina McBride. Other special events, such as the Miss International beauty pageant and
the Mull Singing Convention, also will continue at the site.
Collier said the concert series has done well, but attendance at the music theater otherwise was not what it should
be.
Older people have been the main audience, he said. As for not appealing to families, Collier said: "It could
be the venue. Country music may not appeal to the kids. It's hard to get them to sit still for two hours if it's
not rock-'em, sock-'em cartoon Power Ranger stuff."
He suggested that if Sevier County is going to be in the music theater business, it needs to have a theater "czar"
who will focus on coordinating and promoting the county's music theaters. While Branson, Mo., is known primarily
for its music theaters, the Sevier County area may be focusing on marketing to groups other than the theater crowd,
said Collier.
Among Sevier County's music theaters, Glasgow Comedy Dinner Theater has filed for U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection,
and the future of Anita Bryant's Music Mansion appears to be uncertain. It has been closed for several weeks.
As yet unannounced is whether Lee Greenwood will continue after his contract ends this year at the River Bluff
Landing theater that bears his name.
Governor's Crossing, a 152-acre development, includes six restaurants: Rocky River Grill & Brewery, Fuddrucker's,
Texas Roadhouse, NASCAR Cafe, TGI Friday and Mr. Gatti's. Space also is reserved for a Japanese, Mexican and seafood
restaurant, Collier said. The development also includes a 32-store shopping center and a gem-mining attraction.
Under construction near Governor's Palace is the 107-room Governor's Inn, a midmarket motel, and a 15,000-square-foot
building that will house Rainforest Adventures, a reptile attraction that will include reptile exhibits and lectures
and shows by herpetologists. Also under construction in the back of the development is the Fairfield Community's
225-unit timeshare project. Plans for a water park are still in flux while developers try to figure out how to
deal with rock problems, Collier said.
---------------------
(c) Copyright The Knoxville News-Sentinel. All rights reserved. To see more of The Knoxville News-Sentinel or to
subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com