The 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville only turned a profit of about $57.
The 1982 World’s Fair, aka: the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, drew in over 11 million visitors from all around the world; Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Greece, Italy, etc. The fair was constructed on a 70-acre site between downtown Knoxville and the University of Tennessee. It’s theme was “Energy Turns the World.” The fair was one of the most popular world’s fair in US history.
It managed to real in a whooping $57- which is still a profit, but falls a little bit short of the projected $5 million surplus.
Now this can be attributed to a few things; some say that the tickets for the fair were priced to low- a six-month pass sold for only $100, others say that the inability of local hotels and other accommodations to take reservations directly did not encourage repeat business.
But on the bright side, a real life (or rather, dead) mummy was unwrapped and studied at the fair...that’s good, right?
