Interesting thread! Some of these comments seem to really get to the heart of the issue I think.

I think Rusty is right, its about not enough people. You could see in the last couple of years while the entrance fee was still in effect that the place had become empty most nights after having been busy most nights of the week. So, they got rid of the entrance fee but that had the unintended effect of the place getting a kind of funny feeling about it. We walked through it a couple of times and there were more than a few customers that didn't give you a safe feeling walking around.

But then, the Boardwalk area also undercut it to some extent. There were a lot of activities around there that meant people from those resorts didn't have to travel to PI to have a night out.