California's Great America set to close in a decade

[jjuttp]

California’s Great America in Santa Clara now has an expiration date.

The park operator Cedar Fair announced Monday that it sold the land and ultimately will close the park.

The company sold the land for about $310 million to San Francisco-based company Prologis.

They also said they've signed a deal with the buyer to continue to run the park for "up to 11 years" before finally closing it down at the end of their current lease. 

In a statement, they said the park should continue to look and feel the same to visitors -- at least in the short term.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

😮 Not Wonder World!

[DJKostya]

Such a shame. I visited not long after RailBlazer opened and it was great, bit difficult to get to at the time but the BART was being extended down there with a specific stop of CGA.

[RebeccaAdashashajh]

New member here. If you take away the area's only amusement park, then where will the kids go? Other parks are a long drive away. I'm fortunate to live near a park also owned by Cedar Fair for a number of years that is probably never closing. Is this California park not as profitable as their other parks? So they are basically giving people the middle finger and telling them they will eventually have to go elsewhere to ride roller coasters and carousels? Which would mean a full on multi day vacation due to the distance that other parks are.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

2 hours ago, RebeccaAdashashajh said:

New member here. If you take away the area's only amusement park, then where will the kids go? Other parks are a long drive away. I'm fortunate to live near a park also owned by Cedar Fair for a number of years that is probably never closing. Is this California park not as profitable as their other parks? So they are basically giving people the middle finger and telling them they will eventually have to go elsewhere to ride roller coasters and carousels? Which would mean a full on multi day vacation due to the distance that other parks are.

Welcome.

CGA is currently owned by Cedar Fair but was previously a Paramount Park, and prior to that, a Kings Entertainment Company (KECO)*.

This isn't the first (former) KECO park to to be sold to developers essentially for the land value - KECO was a partner in constructing Australia's Wonderland (And Canada's Wonderland for that matter) though the Australian park was excluded from the Paramount purchase due to the long distance management required.

Australia's Wonderland pretty much was the 'areas only amusement park' with the 'other parks' of any standing being well over 10 hours' drive away on the Gold Coast. Smaller regional parks were nearer but did not compete on any similar level (including Luna Park Sydney which re-opened the same month Wonderland closed).

Where did the kids go? I don't know - somewhere else? There was no mass loitering event where teenagers sat in the gutter outside their homes with nothing else to do - they just found something else to do (or moved to Queensland 🤣)

As for Cedar giving people the middle finger - you seem be to overlooking the fact that this is a business. If you read the wiki on the park, it was profitable from day one, just not profitable enough.

The stories of Walt Disney are wonderful - hearing how he put care and attention and detail into his parks, attractions and movies because people appreciated these touches, and that would keep people coming back is a thing of the past. Walt let his brother Roy worry about the finances, and it was up to Roy to try to make the dream financially viable. These days, capital expenditure, investment, long term profitability - these are all decisions made in a boardroom, by directors whose remuneration is tied to the profits, and overall direction is voted on by shareholders, who are all in it for a return. When something isn't profitable, something has to change... and they don't give a shit about giving the finger to the public. 

Go check out channels like BrightSunFilms or TheProperPeople on YouTube - there are dozens of abandoned theme parks around America and the world - all of them "gave the finger" to the local park-going public simply because staying open wasn't financially viable.

And with the exception of a few urban explorers with nothing better to do, most of the kids just went somewhere else.

 

*(Today I Learned - KECO didn't build CGA, but bought it off the city of Santa Clara after operating it on their behalf for several years. The park was originally built by Marriott Hotel group - who also built another Great America in Chicago, now a Six Flags.)

Edited June 29, 2022 by DaptoFunlandGuy

[Rivals]

CGA looks like a really nice park with a decent lineup which does make it sad to see it facing its demise however, it makes me wonder where the rides will be going.

personally i’d love a park here (preferably Dreamworld or some vic park) to buy Gold Striker if the park closes within say the next 3-5 years. there’s probably like a 5% chance of that happening sadly

Edited June 29, 2022 by Rivals

[jhunt2]

Unfortunately I'd say Gold Striker is most likely to be scrapped and the trains used for other Cedar Fair GCIs.

[pin142]

17 hours ago, RebeccaAdashashajh said:

If you take away the area's only amusement park, then where will the kids go?

** Looks at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom **

[Gazza]

3 hours ago, pin142 said:

** Looks at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom **

Looks at Gilroy Gardens....

Actually, does anyone think CF will move rides there?

[Baconjack]

On 30/6/2022 at 5:12 AM, pin142 said:

** Looks at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom **

Is supposedly being moved to another part of the state in 10-15 years off a yarn from American mates

[jjuttp]

On 30/06/2022 at 8:29 AM, Gazza said:

Looks at Gilroy Gardens....

Actually, does anyone think CF will move rides there?

Apparently they gave up custody of GG recently too.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2022/06/28/gilroy-gardens-is-no-longer-managed-by-cedar-fair.html