Circus World Was ABANDONED — The Strange Fall of Florida's Big Top Next to Disney
Overgrown America
25 views
In 1974 the Greatest Show on Earth opened a theme park at the corner of I-4 and US 27, a few exits from Disney. Sixteen years later it was gone — and today it's a shopping center parking lot.
Circus World passed from a circus to a toy company, a developer, a textbook publisher and finally a brewery. It became Boardwalk and Baseball, then a spring training ballpark, then nothing at all. This is the story of who held the deed — and why none of them kept it.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open
01:35 The Exit
04:16 For Sale Before the Paint Dried
07:23 Under the Big Top
10:26 The Fourth Day
13:21 Closed at Opening Time
16:21 Baseball City
19:33 A Brewery Inherits a Ballpark
TICKET STUB
• Adult admission, Boardwalk and Baseball, 1987: $16.95 — about $50 today (BLS CPI)
• Visitors a year, 1987–88: about 1 million (one account)
• Circus World building: 27,000 square feet
• Baseball City Stadium: 8,000 seats
SOURCES
State Archives of Florida (Florida Memory); The Circus Report, April 1, 1974; Lakeland Ledger (1973–74); Orlando Sentinel; The New York Times (1988); The Washington Post (1989); Giant Screen Cinema database; CBC and The Globe and Mail (Roman Kroitor); Royals Review; Baseball-Reference Bullpen; Spring Training Online; Florida Backroads Travel; Cinema Treasures; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI).
Some scenes are AI-generated reconstructions or illustrations (construction, empty park, stadium crowds); they are not historical photographs.
PHOTO CREDITS
State Archives of Florida / Florida Memory (public domain): Florida Division of Tourism; Florida Department of Commerce (Karl E. Holland); Dale M. McDonald; Cory McDonald.
Wikimedia Commons:
• «Ringling Bros. tremendous 1200 character spectacle Joan of Arc ppmsca12513u.jpg» — The Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati and New York., Public domain
• «Ringling Bros Circus Car - 10588280825.jpg» — Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D., CC0
• «Ringling Bros. and Barnum ^ Bailey circus train - panoramio.jpg» — Greg Glasscock, CC BY 3.0
• «1970 cypress gardens ski show.jpg» — Bnicholson987, CC BY-SA 4.0
• «Night in Luna Park, Coney Island (1905).jpg» — Detroit Publishing Co., Public domain
• «The Boardwalk, Atlantic City, N. J (NYPL b12647398-74356).tiff» — Detroit Publishing Company, Public domain
• «Cinepolis imax exterior.jpg» — TzarN64, CC BY-SA 4.0
• «Ringling Bros Circus Car - 10588318044.jpg» — Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D., CC0
• «Fort Myers Terry Park Ballfield06.jpg» — Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0
• «Fort Myers Terry Park Ballfield04.jpg» — Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0
Stock footage: Pexels (authors listed in the end credits).
Music: YouTube Audio Library.
If you want the next forgotten corner of America, subscribe — there are a lot more exits to take.
#AbandonedPlaces #AmericanHistory #CircusWorld #Florida #ThemeParkHistory #BoardwalkAndBaseball
Circus World Was ABANDONED — The Strange Fall of Florida's Big Top Next to Disney
Overgrown America
25 views
In 1974 the Greatest Show on Earth opened a theme park at the corner of I-4 and US 27, a few exits from Disney. Sixteen years later it was gone — and today it's a shopping center parking lot.
Circus World passed from a circus to a toy company, a developer, a textbook publisher and finally a brewery. It became Boardwalk and Baseball, then a spring training ballpark, then nothing at all. This is the story of who held the deed — and why none of them kept it.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open
01:35 The Exit
04:16 For Sale Before the Paint Dried
07:23 Under the Big Top
10:26 The Fourth Day
13:21 Closed at Opening Time
16:21 Baseball City
19:33 A Brewery Inherits a Ballpark
TICKET STUB
• Adult admission, Boardwalk and Baseball, 1987: $16.95 — about $50 today (BLS CPI)
• Visitors a year, 1987–88: about 1 million (one account)
• Circus World building: 27,000 square feet
• Baseball City Stadium: 8,000 seats
SOURCES
State Archives of Florida (Florida Memory); The Circus Report, April 1, 1974; Lakeland Ledger (1973–74); Orlando Sentinel; The New York Times (1988); The Washington Post (1989); Giant Screen Cinema database; CBC and The Globe and Mail (Roman Kroitor); Royals Review; Baseball-Reference Bullpen; Spring Training Online; Florida Backroads Travel; Cinema Treasures; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI).
Some scenes are AI-generated reconstructions or illustrations (construction, empty park, stadium crowds); they are not historical photographs.
PHOTO CREDITS
State Archives of Florida / Florida Memory (public domain): Florida Division of Tourism; Florida Department of Commerce (Karl E. Holland); Dale M. McDonald; Cory McDonald.
Wikimedia Commons:
• «Ringling Bros. tremendous 1200 character spectacle Joan of Arc ppmsca12513u.jpg» — The Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati and New York., Public domain
• «Ringling Bros Circus Car - 10588280825.jpg» — Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D., CC0
• «Ringling Bros. and Barnum ^ Bailey circus train - panoramio.jpg» — Greg Glasscock, CC BY 3.0
• «1970 cypress gardens ski show.jpg» — Bnicholson987, CC BY-SA 4.0
• «Night in Luna Park, Coney Island (1905).jpg» — Detroit Publishing Co., Public domain
• «The Boardwalk, Atlantic City, N. J (NYPL b12647398-74356).tiff» — Detroit Publishing Company, Public domain
• «Cinepolis imax exterior.jpg» — TzarN64, CC BY-SA 4.0
• «Ringling Bros Circus Car - 10588318044.jpg» — Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D., CC0
• «Fort Myers Terry Park Ballfield06.jpg» — Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0
• «Fort Myers Terry Park Ballfield04.jpg» — Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0
Stock footage: Pexels (authors listed in the end credits).
Music: YouTube Audio Library.
If you want the next forgotten corner of America, subscribe — there are a lot more exits to take.
#AbandonedPlaces #AmericanHistory #CircusWorld #Florida #ThemeParkHistory #BoardwalkAndBaseball