The Multi-Billion Dollar Mistake of Wonderland Eurasia

[@RayLukard78]

When you go into Rollercoaster Tycoon with no plan and just add random things...

[@Robocopnik]

I think it'd be kind of neat if they preserved the big dinosaur statues, at least, have them in the park like a modern day version of the 'Crystal Palace Dinosaurs'.

[@alaeriia01]

This, and keep the Intamin ten-inversion coaster as well as the ESC 535 and the carousel if it had one. Make those pay-per-ride, redevelop the rest into a green space, and you've got a decent model for a city park.

[@fifthrider]

I've often wondered why more parks didn't approach their plan as scalable. Don't build the entire multi-land 1955 Disneyland style hub-and-spoke on day one. Build the hub and one or two "spokes". As these 1 or 2 lands prosper ( assuming they do ) then future years' plans can add more lands until the wagon-wheel shape of the parks fills out to reveal 5 or 6 lands. Hong Kong seems to have that as a similar plan. I'm not sure who else does but it's a safe approach that allows you to focus on quality and minimize losses if it's a failure.

[@sethanix3969]

They have done that in Dubai, and Motiongate as a mid-sized spoke of that hub is barely holding on. I was there in February 2020 and it was walk-on on every attraction... Legoland was okay-ish. The only park that actually did well was the Indian-themed one, and that was more of shopping, dining and a big show theatre than what I would call a theme park. The half-hourly bus was more or less dead. Only employes and me, a dumb European tourist - didn't help, that the stop was at the more or less undeveloped end of the hub...

[@user-ro1ed8rt7s]

Because in this case it is a weird political ego project, they want get the “glory” as fast as possible before the next election or before the next monetary crisis.

[@drdewott9154]

The whole story of this park is just so crazy. I hope the salvagable rides from there could be put up for sale, possibly at a big discount so that it could be worthwhile to buy it and give it some much needed TLC. The Zierer models and the Intamins at the park could be a decent bargain for smaller parks if they're in a good enough state to be refurbished.

[@RankingTheMouse]

I've legitimately NEVER heard of this park before. Wow. Thank you so much for covering it

[@alaeriia01]

It's like if Energylandia were a massive money-laundering operation instead of... Wait, how _does_ Energylandia make its money, anyway?

[@jiru331]

EU funding. so uhh yeaaaah

[@TheCesmi23]

Never thought I would see a video about Ankapark of all places, I see this place everyday when going to uni 😅.

[@alexv3375]

Sad thing is, the park still would have been a good size if they'd started out a third - hell, or even a _quarter_ - as large; and if the people behind it had known how to go about approaching and expanding it, it could've been a huge success. With the big budget they clearly had, they'd have been much better off starting with a comparatively smaller park with less but higher-quality attractions - focusing on quality over quantity as you say, especially when they could afford an Intamin Multi-Inversion out the gate - better travel/accomodation links and infrastructure, keeping extra land aside for future expansion, and slowly making use of said land over time when they could profitably sustain themselves.

[@killervirgo]

Never heard of the park before . Thanks for making this!

[@carminecdinoproductions]

I would’ve loved to come here with all the different attractions opened and a zoo and some awesome dinosaur themed attractions…

[@sarahdeland414]

So all of these farmers got booted off their own land for ultimately nothing? That’s pretty sad 😢

[@liamcollinson5695]

Its such a strange park it kind of feels like they saw universal and Disney and was like lets copy it but make everything look like a cheese dream

[@erikm8372]

What’s funny to me is how a lot of people, reports, articles, politicians, etc. would talk about how big Wonderland would be… yes, it’s huge. And for comparison, the Magic Kingdom (or Disneyland) is just around 100 acres, Animal Kingdom is like 500-600. But one park not many people (likely) know of is Beto Carrero World in Brazil, which is a huge 14 km2 (so, over 3,000 acres), with an animal kingdom-type zoo, waterpark, shopping, themed areas, etc. It’s the biggest park in Latin America and possibly the Americas, period, at 3k acres? That’s huge. What other park is that size?

[@erikm8372]

Paris Disneyland is 4K acres apparently, I forgot..

[@aegisofhonor]

ridiculously over the top ambitious for such a remote area with only a moderate amount of tourists. This would be over the top even for Istanbul or heck, even Athens. This is as big as Euro Disneyland or even The Magic Kingdom without the underlying support to maintain such a massive park.

[@alaeriia01]

Energylandia has entered the chat

[@tezcanaslan2877]

@@alaeriia01 energylandia is backed by EU it’s an exception

[@alaeriia01]

@@tezcanaslan2877 I think the grant ran out, which is why the tilt coaster isn't happening.

[@Thelightning1out]

Crazy to see this park opening on my birthday

[@exploreohio1735]

Reminds me of SixFlags, they learned building too big to fast is disaster that ended up selling that flagship park which was the biggest in the world as well as others mainly in Europe. If you know how that industry works it's about naturally growing over the years not all at once but government officials certainly didn't know that and followed a company that always had financial problems in making the same exact mistake.

[@history_leisure]

It’s better to go too small and know you have room to expand (although Hong Kong will now never have a true second gate)

[@Hiro_Trevelyan]

People tend to forget the disaster that EuroDisney is, financially speaking. It's a really nice park but it's not profitable at all. Too much money invested for Europeans that are not even interested in visiting an American amusement park to begin with, at least those are the main arguments I hear when talking to my fellow Frenchmen, along with "too expensive".

[@cabij2475]

I live in Ankara, this so called "park" and many of Melih's projects have become the butt end of jokes. Unfortunately, it's not only this pathetic attempt of a park but various other projects such as useless water fountains and the crown jewel 'dinocan' which were taken out of our tax dollars and made into a dystopian attempt at making the capital nothing but a shiny tourist attraction. For 20 or so years he was in charge, he would fund these shitty projects and completely neglect infrastructure which led to really shitty public transport which is beyond repair now, roads that are never resurfaced and horrific sewage problems which made the whole city smell. When he did do infrastructure, it would often times be a complete disaster, biggest one being the Anadolu boulevard which was paved through a forest owned by METU. All and all, this theme park is like a daily reminder of how incompetent of a government Turkey had and still is ongoing. P.S. for more entertainment I would look up his jelibon incident, comedy gold and complete clownery

[@katherinealvarez9216]

Man, and that dinosaur looked rad.

[@growtocycle6992]

No mention of COVID?? Seems extremely relevant, considering it opened in 2019. It's easy to be highly critical, but it would have been nice to hear some of the positives

[@kasbas5922]

What’s positive about it ? The park literally went bankrupt !!!

[@jiru331]

im turkish. the capital saw tons of corruption and they sank so much money for empty promises. most of it being our hard earned tax money. not much positive to be said.

[@AsenaKar]

Im from ankara... this hurts so much.

[@JDBoyes07]

Why in the world didn't they just build bits at a time and open things as they're ready?

[@philipwhite1804]

pretty sure Ive watched all this channels output...is this the first time Dom has shown his face? :)

[@melvinlee9263]

I like the dancing plant beside you...

[@nordisk1874]

That brand new Severand Lamb park train isn’t cheap.

[@m.hoffman2889]

I hope Six Flags Qiddyia doesnt meet the same fate

[@jiru331]

it's the middle eastern tradition, i wouldn't be surprised

[@JoshMably]

Ankara is in Asia, not Europe.

[@JamesLawner]

It’s Eurasia! 😂

[@yoosmenu]

turkey is a eurasia country.. so?

[@clary98]

This theme park is my roman empire

[@dlfendel2844]

Why do we consider this a park in Europe? It isn't. It isn't even on the European side of the Marmara? Either way, so astoundingly unsafe! No thanks.

[@nihilisticprophet6985]

Well Disneyland Paris isn’t in Paris and Tokyo Disneyland isn’t in Tokyo either lol

[@mustafaardasalman3074]

Bro first Of all hello and thanks for your good informations, for the news released approximately 1 week ago , it will open again. They are renting the machines. To me it is not wasting money turkey needs to entertainment places like here because we don't have real theme park like Europe. So we are waiting for opening this grate theme park. As you know the tourists generally prefer coming here due to invaluable lira so maybe it can be step for more tourist. Thanks for video 😊

[@jiru331]

wtf is a tourist gonna do in ankara dawg💀

[@Topitopi14]

They should sell their rides to other parks before it is too late...

[@harveythecat]

This place looks very cheap and tacky. I’m shocked they spent $800 million…..

[@SkepticalChris]

A wasted vanity project on an aspiring dictator. Not uncommon considering Turkey's type of government.

[@boryolmung9548]

I kinda dissapointed that you never mention the glory of dinocan.

[@user-yb3vs5li4q]

Is that the biggest amusement park？

[@hallmonitorlizard1694]

I don’t love watching you sway back and forth during the video. Pleasure continue to use the wonderful park footage that you use!😊

[@JustinCoasters]

10:05 You mispronounced Walt Disney Studios Paris