Dracula Park.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Move over Mickey, Donald and Goofy, there's a new kid on the block and his name is Vlad the Impaler. Well, actually he's better known as Dracula - Count Dracula, if you please.

Romanian tourism officials recently announced plans to build a Dracula theme park in the medieval Transylvanian city of Sighisoara, the hometown of 15th century prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Victorian writer Bram Stoker's "Dracula" novel.

As a historical figure, Vlad is about as unlikely an inspiration for a theme park as you can find - right up there with Jeffrey Dahmer and Attilla the Hun. His catchy nickname was inspired by his fondness for impaling captured Turks and other assorted foes on peeled, sharpened stakes. Legend has it the guy once skewered 20,000 Turks and left them to fester and rot on the field of battle.

Tourism officials paint a rosy - make that blood red - picture of a $35 million amusement park, complete with a museum of vampirology, that would attract a million tourists a year and create 3,000 new jobs in a depressed region where unemployment now runs at 30 percent.

Not everyone is thrilled at the prospect of a faux castle with undead mascots prancing around the outskirts of a 13th century Saxon city that the United Nations lists as a World Heritage site. Critics - Eugene residents will appreciate this - say the park will threaten a grove of 500-year-old oak trees on a nearby plateau. They say the park would be a kitsch monstrosity that would blaspheme the region's cultural and spiritual values.

Of course, these are the same picky Transylvanians who resented the proliferation of Dracula motels, "I love Dracula" bumper stickers, Dracula drinks and even Dracula lingerie that cropped up after the fall of communism.

Polls, however, show 90 percent of local residents are absolutely batty over the idea of Dracula Park. And that's before they've taken the first ride on the Coffin Coaster, sipped a Vampire Blood Smoothie or sunk their fangs into a Dracula Double Cheeseburger - rare, of course - at a park refreshment stand.

Several huge hurdles remain, including the need to come up with financing.

But no one yet seems to have thought about the most serious obstacle, one that could end up putting a stake through the heart of the project: How can a Dracula theme park turn a profit if it has to close down every day from sunrise to sundown?