Playland future may not include amusement rides

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

There's no silver bullet: And the way things are going at Playland Amusement Park, there may be no Dragon Coaster or Whip next year. Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said Thursday nothing is off the table in reinventing the historic park in Rye including shuttering rides — especially since attendance this year dropped by 80,000 to 420,000 and the park is slated to lose $5 million.

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Playland Park

They've grouped the proposals by feasibility, which are listed at the bottom of this page. Incidentally, Standard Amusements involves Jack Falfas (combined with a New York investment firm run by some Westchester natives).

Hope they keep the rides and get a new marketing team in place. Regional parks usually thrive in a poor economy, this place should be doing better than that.

The article I read (think it was the same one...) only mentioned that it was the "former head of Cedar Fair"; I wondered if that was Happy Jack*...

I think the headline is needlessly sensational. Two of the top three proposals involve not merely retaining, but updating and expanding the amusement ride operation. It's not helpful that there is a commissioner (or whatever they're called in New York) who wants to see the amusement rides go away, but the fact remains that the probable best use for the park is to contract out the ride operation to someone who will run it as a going concern.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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