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Park News - (9/26/11) Times are getting tough for Rye Playland, as the county is facing a possible $100 million deficit in 2012, and drastic cuts may be needed. According to this article, closing Playland Park all together would save the taxpayers $2 million next year. Attendance at the park has been in a steady decline, from having 1 million guests in 2000 to only 500,000 in 2010 and only 420,000 in 2011. Of course, the lack of new attractions may be heavily to blame for this and the county is still weighing options from the numerous business proposals sent in to help solve Playland’s problems.
    (9/1/11) If I had to point out one of my faults, it would probably be a tendency to be impatient with morons. Case in point… a 3,000 person Muslin Tour Group visiting Rye Playland on Tuesday apparently started a fight and injured two park Rangers after being informed that any Hijabs or other head-coverings (religious or not) would not be permitted on certain park attractions where headgear of any kind of prohibited.
    Instead of understanding that it was a safety issue and not some kind of attack on their religion, certain members of the group went ballistic, which led to 15 arrests, as police were called out to the park and closed the park entrance for two hours to deal with the problem. All over a standard park safety issue… and a belief that they were above the rules set for everyone else. How pathetic… especially when it made world headlines just last year how a woman was strangled to death by her hijab while riding a go-kart, following a couple of other deaths around the world by woman wearing scarves on Go-karts all in the same year.
    (7/11/11) The latest vote has seen the removal of the admission fee for local residents to Playland Park once again.
    (6/29/11) The constant tug-of-war over the policy of charging admission for local residents to gain admission to Playland Park continues. Click here for the latest update as the politicians plan on a new vote on July 6th.
    (6/16/11) The new pricing plan that will give local residents free admission to Playland Park passed with a 12-0 vote. Read more here.
    (6/15/11) The local politicos are at it again, and are trying to reach a new comprise regarding the admission fees at Playland Park. According to this article, local county residents would be free once again, while visitors would pay a $10 admissions fee. (Note: Tickets to ride are not included and are extra for everyone.) Nothing is final however and with the season already in progress, it seems a bit late to be making a change like this.
    (6/9/11) In what may be a good bit of news for Rye Playland, the plan to remove the new admission fee from the park has been overturned somehow it seems, allowing the park to try to finally try to break even as well as perhaps put a dent in the use of the site by some locals as a summer time daycare. Admission will be $5 for Westchester county residents and $10 for everyone else.
    (5/26/11) I’m not quite sure how to take this, but according to this article the new entrance fee for Playland Park was just eliminate entirely for locals, and cut in half of non-residents. Everyone still has to pay extra for rides and such once they get inside anyway… that part has not changed. The entrance fee was previously approved to help the park get closer to paying for itself.
    While it is true that the local taxpayers are funding the park anyway, I’m not sure that the low $5 entry fee was that much to get upset over. Now… this is not my opinion, as I have never been to the park, but local area readers have often complained to me that one of the park’s biggest problem is that the lack of any entrance fee to the park has turned the park into a free babysitting service for some of the local community. It seems some parents are quite willing to drop their kids off at the park for the day while they go off to work… and the next day, and the next… and so on. Certainly, having a small entry fee would help curb that problem a bit.
    (5/4/11) A massive collection (thousands) of historic pictures from Playland Park has been posted online by the local government. This includes a ton of pictures of the infamous Aeroplane Coaster and other classic rides from the past. Check it out!

2012 - Nothing new is expected this season.

???? - Reinvent Playland Park - Proposals - (7/27/11) Zamperla, after reviving Coney Island, is now one of 12 bidders seeking to revitialize Rye Playland. The Zamperla bid includes adding $30 million in new rides and park upgrades, and will keep Playland as a unique historic amusement park for years to come. Part of the plan is a proposal to add up to 20 new attractions, some of which have already proven to be popular at Luna Park in Coney Island.
    (3/25/11) While tons of groups have come out to pitch their own ideas to reinvent Rye Playland, the people behind one bid should be familiar. CAI (Central Amusements International) is the Park Operations group of Zamperla, who revived Coney Island with their new Luna Park last year.  If they’ve got the ride idea at Luna Park, they could be the right group to come in and save Rye Playland as well as well as the background to make the right investments in the park’s list of attractions.
    (10/20/10) Locals have been in a tizzy because execs from Donald Trump’s company were at Rye Playland, along with many others, to get briefed on what the county is looking to do with the property. Could Trump buy in? Certainly… but so could anyone else at this point, and it’s probably for the best if The Donald stays away, I don’t believe he has any interest in amusement parks as a profitable business.
    (9/1/10) The local government in control of Playland is now seeking proposals from experienced parties looking to reinvent Playland for the 21st Century. Something needs to be done to stop the year-after-year cost of the park losing millions of dollars. It should be a no brainier to make it profitable. From what I’ve been told about the place (having never had been myself) it sounds like they need to alter the pay structure to become more like a standard amusement park with a pay-one-price plan that gets you admission and unlimited rides, ending the tide of people coming in to use it as a babysitting service or as a place for troubled youths coming in to just hang out. Clean up the park… clean up the clientele, and make it a clean safe place for families to visit once again, plus invest in some new modern attractions to mix in with the classics. They just need someone with experience to take it over.