OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – If you saw Facebook posts yesterday claiming the Ocala Drive-In is “closing” or has just been listed “for sale,” the owner says the listing itself is old news, but the rumors could hurt his business.

John Watzke, who has leased the 4850 S. Pine Avenue site and operated the drive-in for 15 years, said the property has been for sale for about a year and a half. “The property owner came to me a year and a half ago and said the property was going for sale,” he said. “It has been for sale a year and a half.”

Someone recently found the existing listing and posted about it on Facebook, Watzke said. That sparked a wave of posts claiming the theater is already closed. “Somebody found the listing for it and decided to go on Facebook with it,” Watzke said. “Everybody thinks we’re closed, which is really getting bad because they think we’re closed, so they’re not coming out.”

He described the online chatter as a rumor. “There’s nothing new. This has been going on a year and a half,” he said. “They could get a contract done tomorrow or next month or next year. We don’t know.”

Watzke does not know who might buy the property or what a new owner would do with it. “The likelihood of them keeping it as a drive-in, based on the track record of 6,000 of them closing in the country over the years when they probably went up for sale, is slim,” he said. “Based on the history, if it sells, the likelihood that it would remain a drive-in would be less than none.”

He had planned to keep operating until the property sells. The potential drop in customers caused by the rumors, however, may change that. “I was gonna operate it until it sells, but you know then you got people saying ‘Oh I’ve always wanted to go, but I never had a chance,'” he said. “Well, if you haven’t made it in 15 years, you really didn’t want to go. But if you want to go, you might want to try to do it for the next [while it’s still open].”

For now, the Ocala Drive-In remains open. Watzke’s message to anyone who has been putting off a visit: The theater is still showing movies, but its future after a sale is uncertain, and the current rumors are simply that: rumors.