Clementon Park Closing

Their Facebook post covers the title, but: https://www.facebook.com/sh...gbJXjrJfU/
"As we close out our 2026 season, we want to sincerely thank our guests, Season Passholders, team members and community for being part of another summer at Clementon Park & Splash World.
After five memorable years, we are saddened to announce that we have made the difficult decision to close the park and plan to offer the park for sale.
It has been a privilege to care for a place that has meant so much to generations of families. We are hopeful that we will find a buyer who shares our love for Clementon Park and will carry its history and legacy forward.
Additional details regarding the sale will be shared as they become available.
Thank you for the memories, the support and five wonderful seasons. We are truly grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey. "

Thanks for sharing. Sad to see the park going in this direction but given the history I am not surprised. I guess my biggest take away is that the initial investment (coming out of bankruptcy) was so little, yet they still couldn't make it work. Which paints the pic of the battle this park has had.

Fingers crossed Indiana Beach can make!! Sad to see another park go.

That's two parks that the IB folks couldn't make work. I'm surprised that a waterpark (which is mostly what Clementon is) so close to Philadelphia couldn't survive - but maybe people looked at it and thought Dorney and Great Adventure were just bigger and better despite the extra distance.

(If I were the city or county I'd look into buying it and having a really great public pool.)

Sad times - I think it did have a bit of a perception issue with core rides closed for so long - seeing rides closed is almost worse than rides going away.

I do wonder if the IB company jumped on this too quickly before they fully understood the park business.

I have to wonder how much of this is brought on by both New Jersey "political" types of issues and also loosing too much of the history of the park. My understanding is that this at one point was a very historical trolley type park that got run down a bit and has really tried to reinvent itself on a somewhat worn out infrastructure. Jack Rabbit standing unused for 5 years did not help, nor did the more current coaster being out of commission (which may have been a bit too aggressive for the park itself.)

Not having been there, I also suspect that much of the business of the park may have been company picnics and the like, which honestly have evaporated these last 10-20 years with a few exceptions.

Sad to see these historic parks going away, but the story of Conneaut Lake, Lakemont, and now this park sound very similar just different locations.

Clementon and (especially Niagara) were in really rough shape when IB Parks took over. I'm not quite sure what the business strategy was, because it was clear as day that both parks would require significant investment to get back to a decent state. Instead, it seems that they were content opening each park's small water park at first and then using the profits to rebuild the amusement rides. However, it seems they quickly ran into a network effects problem - without enough rides, people didn't attend, but without attendance they couldn't afford to get more rides open.

Clementon lived on two things mainly, company picnics and summer youth programs, with a splash of local families. My last visit was the last year the coaster was operated as J2. It was abusive. I was there due to a company picnic after a 2 week long coaster road trip and most at the picnic avoided the coaster and went to the water park area only if the left the picnic area under the coaster where we were based for the day. The park was in sad shape then and I don't think I ever heard of it getting better.

It sucks if the park is done as it is a huge childhood memory and my first coaster was the original Jack Rabbit at the park.

I'm really surprised that for these smaller parks the folks at IB still tried to make them work with big adult rides. "Dry rides" are expensive operationally, "wet rides" not so much and there's no major ride maintenance work to do during the winter months which is a labor savings. Another option I could see working is a combination kiddie park and water park working given the lower expenses of kiddie rides. Developing a theme around something ocean/aquatic, creating a "high tide zone" of water park attractions and a "low tide zone" of aquatic themed kiddie rides could be kind of cute, avoids the teen/thrill market issues to remain family-friendly, and could still be marketed for youth/church/company picnic opportunities. Typically water parks struggle with group sales (company employees don't want to see co-workers half naked in swimsuits being the biggest factor) but the addition of a dry kiddie rides area adds a nice alternative for parents, grandparents, etc.

I kind of feel like the industry has become stagnant in a singular mindset and doesn't consider other options.

I think it's very hard to reposition something extremely longstanding from dry > water park, or all rounder offering to something more kid focussed.

If you build a new water park, people accept it for what it is - but I think it's very hard to take things away and have people with an emotional attachment see the 'rightsize' argument - it's seen as being hollowed out.

Not sure it's impossible, but it's difficult to maintain the 'feelings' that a theme park is supposed to invoke, when it's perceived to be in decline.

Geauga Lake had more success with it than I thought they would with Wildwater Kingdom.

When the main park closed (and especially the way it closed with no advanced notice and the tight lipped way Kinzel handled everything) I really didn't expect the locals to support the relatively small Wildwater Kingdom after losing their giant amusement park complex with so much history. But the locals still came and had a good time, and I think it was simply a matter of practicality that the park closed rather than dwindling attendance or lack of local support. People were always sad about the main park closing, but they still enjoyed and supported Wildwater Kingdom up until the end.