By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-13 04:56:38 | Updated at 2025-03-13 09:15:33
4 hours ago
A California Ferris wheel will soon take its final spin, and the neighboring Merry-Go-Round horses screech to a halt.
Playland, an amusement park that first welcomed visitors to its seven-acre lot in Fresno in 1955, has announced it will close its gates on March 30.
The park opened the same year another California attraction saw its first customers 244 miles south: Disneyland.
Unlike Disneyland, Playland was a cost-effective amusement park with fewer brand-name attractions.
The local amusement park, featuring train rides, roller coasters, and a waterpark, prided itself as an 'affordable family fun for the current generation of kids – big and small.'
Tickets to enter the park ranged from $10 to $15.
Customers would have to pay additional ticketing fees to get on specific attractions on the campus.
But Helm and Sons, the vendor that has operated the park since 2023, told Playland's board of directors that it would not renew contracts, according to California-based Fox affiliate KMPH.
A local low-cost amusement park is shutting its gates for the final time on March 30 - unless it finds a buyer
The closure brings a dramatic end to years of uncertainty that saw the park shuttered temporarily, handed over to new ownership, and embroiled in a turbulent battle to stay afloat.
Most of the rides initially shuttered in 2000, when California changes regulations around amusement park safety, according to SF Gate.
By then, the city of Fresno had already stepped in multiple times to help the park pay for its liability insurance.
Playland temporarily shuttered in 2015 as operators modernized the attractions.
Then, it shut down again in 2020 during the onset of the COVID pandemic. It stayed shut longer than other amusement parks because the attractions required closer contact between park staff and customers.
Helm and Sons stepped in three years later with a promise to bring new rides and longer hours to the park.
The revised park schedule didn't generate the projected revenue, bringing the vendor relationship to an end.
The attractions at the park were also old.
Coasters at the amusement park had become too cost-prohibitive to fix
Community members are hoping to find new investment sources to keep the park alive
Because of their advanced age, many of the parts manufacturers for the rides are no longer in business. Repair prices the rides became cost-prohibitive for the vendors.
Fresno's mayor and the executive director of Storyland Park, a neighboring attraction, both said they are in negotiations to keep Playland alive.
'We certainly hope it's not the end,' Cindy Lee, the executive director, told KMPH.
'Storyland board has been actively trying to come up with some plans [like] "what could the next Playland look like?"'
Storyland Park, which opened in 1962 with a focus on childhood literacy, has noted an uptick in customer interest and has brought in cash donations from community institutions.
But Playland's sales numbers have dwindled since it came back online after the pandemic.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer defiantly told the station that Playland's 'story isn’t over.'
Dyer said the city is in talks to find investors who can 'recognize its potential and bring it back to life.'
