The Future of Rye Playland Announced

Finally, a decision has been made on the future of Rye Playland. However, for those of us who are fans of the property as an amusement park may find some disappointment in the plan that has been chosen.

Out of the final three plans that were considered for the future of the county owned park, the choice has been made to move forward with Sustainable Playland - a letter of intent was signed today during a big to-do at the park.  Sustainable Playland is a non-profit that organized to come up with a future for the park designed by locals that extends the use of the property from an amusement park to a park with amusements, as they put it.

The other two plans were from Central Amusements, part of Zamperla Rides, who operate Coney Island's Luna Park, and Standard Amusements, a new company that is led by Jack Falfas, former COO or Cedar Fair.

© Sustainable Playland Inc.

To get right to the point, the new plan will see a considerable amount of rides removed from the park, with a focus on keeping historic ones.  The amusement area will be pay-as-you-go, and quite different from it is now.  From Sustainable Playland's site, in their original proposal documents, regarding amusements at Rye Playland:

"The space allotted to this component of the Park has been significantly reduced, resulting in a reduction in the number of rides from 46 to 33. Those rides that will remain are largely targeted to smaller children, including 21 kiddy rides and 12 family/low thrill rides.  As a result, the potential market for the amusement component will be impacted. In order to estimate the attendance for a kiddy-oriented amusement area, estimates were made which compare a family/low thrill experience (with a smaller percentage of kiddy rides) with a kiddy-oriented experience such as the one planned for Playland Park. Based on these estimates, a reduced, kiddy-oriented amusement component could attract approximately 380,000 visitors a year."

As this was from the original proposal, I can't be sure if they've changed their view on any specifics, but the plan to reduce the rides is definitely moving forward.

© Sustainable Playland Inc.

Basically, if you look at the park from above the left side of the park will remain, and the entire right side of the park will be cleared of rides with the exception of the park's Carousel.  The right side of the park will be used as part of the Great Lawn Zone.  The investment that is listed in today's press release mentions upwards of $7 million planned to be spent on the amusements aspect of the park.

Rides that will be removed, just judging from these images, include: The S&S Double Shot, Playland Plunge shoot-the-chutes, Log Flume, Catch a Wave, Yo-Yo (relocated), Thunderbolt, Kite Flyer (relocated), Sky Flyer, Wipeout, a family coaster, dark ride, and others that I'm probably missing.

It looks as though the park's coaster Super Flight, a Zamperla flying coaster, will stay, although that's without a doubt the first ride I would vote off the island if it were up to me. 

The park's Kiddyland will be kept, and renovated as part of the plan, which makes sense since kiddie and family rides will be the focus.  The park's Old Mill, Derby Racer, Kiddy Coaster, Whip, and Dragon Coaster (among others) will be retained, thankfully.

Since Sustainable Playland is a non-profit they will act as a holding company for the greater Playland area, and hire other groups to run the different facilities on the property.  Naturally, one of these will be the amusements, and that sounds like it will be run by Mega Funworks.  Mega Funworks looks to have a solid track record with water parks, but I do not see any amusement park history listed for them.

The right side of the park will be cleared of rides.

Speaking of water parks, and odd thing about today's announcement is that many news sources used the addition of a "water park" in their headlines, only there doesn't seem to be any water park included in the plan.  There is, however, a small water play area in the original plans adjacent to the beach, but that is by no stretch of the imagination  a water park.  Hopefully plans changed and perhaps that is due to the fact that Mega Funworks has successful water park experience.

The overall plan calls for plenty of new features around the park, part of the overall plan to make the area a year round entertainment zone with a dramatically reduced focus on Rye Playland as an amusement park.  New indoor and outdoor fields will be added, the indoor ice rink will be renovated, an outdoor one will be added, the great lawn will be built to hold concerts and events, and new restaurants will be added.  The release states that $34 million will be spent to make these changes.

Hmm, the right side of the park is quite different than the left.

Depending on when a formal contract with the government can be signed the amusement park may or may not operated in its current state in 2013.  Either way, it is planned to be open, per the news release.  The new fields and other developments will be phased, so these change will by no means take place all at once.

Someone buy me, please!

So after such a long time with the future of the park up in the air how did this all turn out?  Well, not that bad actually - at least I think so.  Well, at least it could have been worse anyway.  Some plans had the amusements totally retired from the property, which would have been a serious shame.  The park's highlights for me when we visited are all being saved, sans the Log Flume, at least.  And to be honest, the difference between the original section of the park (left) and the section that it expanded into over the years (right) is quite drastic. 

If the entire property picks up perhaps we will see new rides added - keeping expectations realistic (in the family oriented sector I would assume) will be important, though.  We will never see a big new roller coaster added, but that's no so bad if it means we can still take a spin on the Dragon or hold on for dear life at the Derby Racer.