No Progress On Bringing Star Trek: The Experience Back To Las Vegas [UPDATED]

The attraction Star Trek: The Experience closed down at the Las Vegas Hilton in September 2008. Since that time CBS had tried to bring a new Star Trek: The Attraction to Vegas, but that has since fizzled. A new report now cites CBS as confirming that there are no current plans for a new Star Trek: The Experience. [UPDATE: Statement from CBS]

 

UPDATE: CBS Statement

A CBS Consumer Products spokesperson has sent TrekMovie the following statement

Our licensee did not meet the terms of his contract so we have terminated the license. We remain committed to creating a new Star Trek attraction for fans to enjoy and will continue to pursue opportunities in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

original article

Nothing happening in Vegas for Star Trek: The Experience

Shortly after Star Trek: The Experience closed in September 2008, CBS began working on bringing a new Experience to the Neonopolis Center in Downtown, Las Vegas. In early 2009 CBS confirmed they had a deal in place and hopes were that something would open by 2010. However, by 2010 the only thing happening with Star Trek: The Experience was the auctioning off of a warehouse full of fixtures and equipment from the old Hilton Star Trek Experience.


Signage from ‘Star Trek: The Experience’ in Las Vegas warehouse before being sold in 2010

A new report at Tekgoblin confirms our previous reporting, with a rep from CBS confirming that the "the Neonopolis project is not going forward" and there are currently no plans for a new Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas.

According to TrekMovie sources who have confirmed this report, the deal with Neonopolis never got off the ground due to lack of financing. The problem was that the deal was cut shortly before the financial collapse of late 2008. After that it became too difficult for Neonopolis to secure the loans needed to build the multi-million dollar project.


Economic downturn doomed Neonopolis deal for Star Trek: The Experience

Future of Trek attractions

However, not all is lost. TrekMovie has also confirmed that there is a newly planned Paramount theme park coming to Spain in 2015, including a brand new Star Trek attraction. Unlike the hopes for the new Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas, the Murcia Paramount Park project has made big strides and looks likely to happen, but it too must secure the required financing. 

And of course there still is Star Trek: The Exhibition, the traveling tour of Star Trek props, costumes and replicas – headed to Germany and Kennedy Space Center this summer. The Exhibition includes a couple of motion simulator rides, so it is something.


Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas may be dead, but there is hope for a new Trek attraction in Spain

 

Thanks to Matt for link.

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So sad to hear this. I’m relieved I was able to make it to the Experience a couple of months before it closed. It was amazing!

I was so hoping that the Experence would be back. I loved going to Quarks Bar and eating lunch and arguing with Quarks Staff. Loved it. I do miss the Warp core breach. Great Drink.

Oh yeah… forgot about the warp core breach. That was an excellent drink.

I was there in 1998. It really sucks that its gone since now my son is into Trek and I would have loved to have taken him. Real bummer.

It’s dead Jim. I

Why must these things happen in threes all the time? I was wondering what number three would be:

1) No further Stargate beyond SGU’s season 2 finale

2) Elizabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith on Dr. Who) passes

3) No Star Trek: The Experience

Though this news doesn’t affect me as much as the first two do, I count this as number three.

It’s done for good. Not coming back. The original Experience lost millions of dollars even when the American economy was strong. These days, nobody has the money to spend on travel, hotel costs, and the Exhibit.
Few people can barely afford the cost of the Exhibit alone.

I think CBS was merely ruling out every logistical reason for bringing it back. They knew they weren’t going to bring it back to life. There is no reason to. It’s a money losing business. Even George Lucas, the master of merchandising, knows better than to put on a permanent, single location “Star Wars” exhibit. And “Star Wars” is a much bigger brand worldwide than “Star Trek” will ever be. That tells you everything right there.

6.

Not to be rude or anything, but wouldn’t you have Elizabeth Sladen at #1?
A death of an actress would easily overshadow everything else, especially cancellations of shows, I would think.

hmmm doesnt the star tours ride at disney parks being upgraded count as a permanent star wars attraction?

Well, I meant a site devoted strictly to “Star Wars” and run exclusively by LucasFilm.

Ah, the Warp Core Breach. It was always fun going on the simulator rides after one of those beasts. Anybody have the recipe for it?

Hard to believe there once was a STAR TREK Experience and sad to say it looks like there will not be one again. At least for some time.

Maybe Star Trek should take a page from Star Wars and do what this guy said when the Experience first closed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOGbkHlyVw

I went in 2006 and it was awesome. I recall arguing with a Kilngon Chancellor and a Borg drone refused to assimilate me!!! Wish I could have picked up some of the props when it closed down.

Glad I made it to Vegas a bunch of times to enjoy the ride. But, it was so dated, they would probably have to build a new one out of scratch. And from what I have read, and from what a buddy told me, who lives in Vegas, Even the great casinos and Vegas in general are not doing that well in this poor economy.

Oh well, I bet by the time the 3rd movie comes out and if the economy improves, it will probably be back.

Patience young Jedi. – oops, wrong movie, except for the bar scene in ST 09 and SW IV A new hope. Lucas, let Speilberg Direct SW 7 !!!

They should take the Exhibition and settle it in one city while a traveling show tours. I would think Seattle would be open to providing the permanent site.

It seems that the Paramount Park is the only hope for new Star Trek theme ride.

I hope it has a mix of 23rd and 24th Centuries in the rides.

Really sad that the Experience deals fell through as I was looking forward to the Experience coming back. I loved the Experience and sad that it is no longer there.

Those wanting a Warp Core Breach should head to McMullan’s, an Irish pub on Tropicana Avenue in Vegas. Former Quark’s bartender Darren Benjamin works there, and will fix you up right. :)

No….. thats not true…. THATS IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

The above dialogue courtesy of Star Trek: The Economy Strikes Back.

Went there a few times. I really miss it, too.
It was a chance to live, breathe and eat Star Trek for a weekend!

And speaking of eating, the food at Quark’s was delicious, too.
I’d love it if it ever came back into being somehow, but as time goes on I doubt it. Seems to me (as a fan) that Star Trek’s heyday (for fandom) was in the mid to late 1990s. Three (with two overlapping) series; the movies, and TONS of books, magazines, etc. It was a good time to be a ST geek!

And then there was The Experience. For us Trekkies, ST:TE was the single coolest thing available for any devotee of the show. Period.
But sadly, that heyday has passed….

Not even the new movies can generate that record level of fan frenzy…

The problem is not only economics, the 15 – 25 yr old market today see Star Trek as a cheesy TV show that Dad or older siblings watched .
As Scott Bakula said in an earlier interview, his son thought that the Trek series looked dated, and to be totally honest, it has not aged well.
Many of us would love to get STE back, but its not going to happen simply to salve our nostalgia.

I’ve been to the Star Trek Experience in Vegas AND the Star Wars Exhibition when it was in London a few years back, and I have to tell you the Star Trek Experience was much more entertaining – as it combined both a museum with an interactive expereience, while the Star Wars Exhibition just provided a museum-like experience with some video screens and a few (cheesy!) demonstrations with live actors.

That said, I think if one of the major theme parks did a “Star Trek” area the way Orlando has done Harry Potter, Dr. Suess, Jurassic Park and a few other trademarks, it could/would do quite nicely. Just no more simulators…I think people are tired of that kind of experience. Although at least the Experience walked you through a mock-up of the Enterprise- D before sticking you in it (still more entertaining than the ride itself, in my opinion)

No suprise here. If someone, anyone thought there was a snowballs chance in hell of making money on this financing would not be an issue.

Why doesnt CBS bring it to Chicago? Plenty of money in the city, 2 air ports its in the center of the country so lots of people could just drive to it… I think it makes sence!!!

Well, one can argue the one thing Roddenberry didn’t foresee, was the placement of SFHQ. San Francisco, though beautiful, and with the later movie and series’ payoff of using the Bridge as an icon… was a lousy “base city”.

If only he’d set SFHQ in say… Houston, or Spacecoast Florida…. then he would have reaped profits from a later theme park built around Star Trek. Of course, I guess we can retcon now, that all SF activity in Florida was taken out by the Xindi weapon!

I had the fortune to visit the Experience a few years back. I have to say I love almost all ST (no so for DS9) but the thuth is that the Experience was no handle very well. The uniforms that the staff and live actors had look cheap and amateur.
I agree with 22.(Shannon) the BEST experience was the little walk through the Enterprise and of course the Bridge Photo (besides the horrible expandex “One Size Fits All” uniform they had there for anybody that wanted to used for the picture).
It was an experience that every real trekkie had to do.
Hope to see, at least a ride in any theme park.

#13 (Bruce) That sounded kool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOGbkHlyVw

*sigh*

#8,
I think he was putting them in chronological order. Which makes me wish that she were in fact much, much lower on the list.

such a shame the Experience wont be happening

Is it true the new theme ride at paramount Parks is likely to be based on new movie only or all of Trek?

How we miss this place, the friendships that have come out of it for us. The only place to go and be surrounded in a true Trek environment… oh for one more Tranyia or Mind Meld or Borg Sphere or Romulan Ale…

We miss you actors of STTE, you know who you are.

Why keep it in Vegas?
Just move it to Houston! :D

@ 32. It’s way to early to speculate what will be at the new theme park. Spain is dealing with it’s own debt issues, so I’d guess that there is a good chance this project won’t get past the planning stages.

@34. There is no “it” to take to Houston. What wasn’t sold or returned to CBS ended up at the landfill.

Feh! I loved the experience. It should be brought back.

Just got back from a trip to Vegas. The Neonopolis on Fremont Street has completely shut down. It’s a huge complex that used to be thriving, with restaurants, shops, and 14 movie theaters. Now it’s a ghost town. Kinda sad, the ST Experience would have been a perfect fit with the bustling party atmosphere of the Fremont Street Experience

RE: The update. In this economy, don’t hold your breath…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOGbkHlyVw

Star Trek goes to Disney World!! Genius!

How about the Wrap of Khan at Quarks bar. I was able to take my 2 daughters 4 & 6 to The Experience 1 month before it closed and they loved it! Although my 4 year old was 1 inch too short to go on the rides:( But she wrote a farewell message on “The Wall” and it actually appears in the bonus DVD of the Next Gen movies. I was completely shocked to see her message on the wall while watching the DVD. They keep asking me when they can go back to The Experience and it just sad a new one isn’t going up somewhere.

#22: I like the way the Trek shows have aged. They are a product of their time but I like the way they stand in quirky contrast to a lot of what comes out today. Fashion is cyclical. Today’s “dated” is tomorrow’s “retro chic”.

@#7 – Red Dead, with all due respect, as someone who worked there at the beginning and who had friends working there right up to the end, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The Experience always operated in the black and in just the first couple of years made almost all of its start up costs back. So much so, in fact, that they added the Borg Invasion in 2004.

Still, I agree that the Roddenberry/Berman era of Trek may have passed (would that it were not so) and any new Trek Experience will likely build on the Abramsverse.

The problem with “Star Trek,” with ALL of the Star Trek franchises is that they are products of their own time. TOS grows out of the technology of the 1960’s, TNG, the 1980’s and so on.
The future has a way of catching up to even the best sci-fi and making it obsolete, or at the very least, an alternate view of what the future might have been.
Even the new movie is no longer a view of the future but a somewhat hip view of a television series from the 1960’s.
The real future, the real Starfleet is in it’s infancy, and is happening RIGHT NOW. The FAA has recently granted the first commercial astronaut license and Richard Branson is going ahead with plans for his space port to house Virgin Galactic, in Texas, I think. He is also building the airline of the future headquartered in *gasp* SAN FRANCISCO!!!

When I read this:

http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/virgin-america-unveils-its-next-generation-new-sfo-home-toasts-the-evolution-of-flight-with-virgi/

I could not believe my eyes! So this is how it happened. This is how Starfleet came to be located in San Francisco.
OH MY GOD! STAR TREK IS REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anything the “imagineers” at Disney might concoct for a Star Trek Experience would look faded and dated compared to the real Star Trek.

Man, when Virgin Galactic goes public, I’m buying a few shares. I bet the annual shareholder’s meeting will be a blast!

Hi everyone! On behalf of all the former actors and employees at Star Trek:the Experience, thanks for all your kind words about the Experience. We all miss it too. Deep in my heart, however, I knew that when it was gone, it would never return. That’s why, every day at work, I would look around and think to myself, “You are so lucky. Remember this moment.” Now I have all those wonderful moments forever burned into my brain, my heart and my soul. Those moments were largely due to people like you, who made my job so much fun.

By the way, I have to respond to Red Dead Ryan–ST:TE did not lose millions of dollars during its lifetime. It originally cost around 70 million to build and open; it made that back within the first 18 months of its existence. At no time did it ever run in the red; it was always a moneymaker (first for Paramount, then for Cedar Fair after it was sold). In fact, after it was shut down, Cedar Fair’s profits took a dive! Of course the timing of the closure coincided with the recession; yet it was still surprising to find out just how much of their business was driven by the Experience! Same thing with the Hilton; they thought that they would quickly find something to fill that space, yet it still stands empty (a monument to foolish business decisions, if you ask me). To those of you who say it needed updating, I totally agree; but it was a very viable business and would have remained so for many years.

Oh, and yes, Dayton Ward is right–if Darren is working at McMullen’s he will hook you up with a Warp Core Breach!!!! So all is not lost…;)

I didn’t understand it in the first place, it seemed very 90’s for it’s time. What Star Trek needs isn’t a theme-park or experience type venue but a ride that captures the imagination and idea of Star Trek dotted around the globe at major established theme-parks.

The legacy Star Trek has left behind it and has infront of it is bigger than an experience in the middle of a desert within a city notorious for it’s complete juxtaposition to Star Trek’s message.

Why some people are against JJ Abrams touching Star Trek and for this abomination of an experience is beyond me. Let it die.

hey that’s me in that pic.

42 & 44.
…………

Well, with all due respect to you two, I would have to think the reason why the Experience got shut down was because the owners of the Hilton were losing money. It almost always comes down to the bottom line: money and profit. The Hilton was most likely not seeing it. I’m gathering that it did earn profits for the first few years, but by the time “Enterprise” got canned, attendance had plummeted dramatically. The addition of the Borg ride was probably a decision based on desperation. It clearly didn’t work because fewer people were going afterwards. Cedar Fair’s shares took a dive because it had associated itself with a theme exhibit, which doesn’t pay much dividends to shareholders. I’m guessing that Cedar Fair had been losing shares even before the closure. If Cedar Fair had to do it all over again, they wouldn’t have invested in the Experience in the first place.

The problem with theme exhibitions and parks is, that they depend on the economy and tourism. When both are down, these enterprises are in big trouble. It’s happened to Disneyland and Disneyworld. Six Flags downsized as well. And those “businesses” cater to a larger base of customers. They have broader appeal. And they still lose money quite frequently. Disney can keep it’s parks open because they are in more family-friendly locations as opposed to the Experience being in an adult-oriented city. Disney also has sponsorship deals with various companies that help pay for the costs of operations, the Experience, I would presume, did not.

Not true Red Dead Ryan….It is probably true technically that the Hilton did not make much money on the Trek Experience because they were leasing the space from the Hilton at a very cheap rate for those ten years….this is probably why it was easily able to make a profit….Now if what I remember is correct technically no one closed down the experience, Hilton just made the new lease something like 3 times as much as it was originally making it so it would not have been profitable for the Experience to continue….

Thanks to the wonderful Ms. April Hebert for checking in and saying hi…she helped to bring many of us wonderful memories and experiences from visitng her and the whole crew at the experience…She says that we helped to make her memories great and likewise she and many others like her were the ones that made Star Trek the Experience the wonderful attraction it was….without them it would not have been the same….So thinking about it, if there was an attraction at say Disneyland or Orlando, without dedicated actors and staff helping to make the attraction three dimensional I doubt the experience would be as good as it was in Vegas…

James t Kirk, calling the experience an abomination??? Rather strong words for something that brought so much joy to so many families….and many of us who loved the attraction wish it were back….not much of an abomination if ya ask me….maybe you should watch the video saying goodbye to the experience on the Next Generation movies collection…you will see the dedication and love both actors like april had and the many fans like us who loved it so much….Saying goodbye to April two weeks before it closed was tough….any new attraction would need to have that level of actor/staff involvement which truly made it live…without it then it is just a simularo ride or attraction…Not the same….Thanks again to April and the many staff and actors that made the experience the closest most of us will ever get to the Trek Universe….that is NOT a small thing….Aprils love of the experience and Trek in general helped her enthusiasm transfer to those of us who interacted with her and the others….it was MAGIC….

SPAIN?! WTF???!!!

Hardly an abomination, but if you saw it once there really wasn’t much of a need to see it twice.