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2031 - New Theme Park - (10/14/2025) Don’t count on seeing that proposed second Mattel Adventure Park in Kansas City for several more years. Much as I had anticipated when it was first announced, the official timeline for the project has been pushed back… way back. The good news is that the City Council did approve a development agreement with the developer to build it, but vertical construction now isn’t expected to begin until October 2027, with most of it complete by October 2030, and a deadline set that the park must be open no later than May 2031.
    This sounds like a much more reasonable timeline than the first one that was proposed, especially in light of the fact that the first Mattel Adventure Park in Arizona still has not opened yet after pushing back the opening more times than I can count. Originally the Arizona project was announced in mid-2021 and they had hoped to open it by the end of 2022 in order to take advantage of the Superbowl crowds hitting the nearby stadium in Feb. 2023.
    Based on that original timeline the Arizona park is now about 3 years late, and while the last updates posted this past July still claimed that they were shooting for a “Late 2025” opening, we’ve yet to see any updates on the official website to indicate that the park is preparing to open, and has no signs that they are ready to begin hiring staff at this time in Arizona. Still, I’m thinking that they must have had something good to show off the local City Council to get approval for the Kansas City park, and a more realistic timeline is a good start.
 
    (9/6/2024) According to a local news report, developers are still working with Kansas lawmakers to create some STAR Bonds to help fund the creation of the proposed Mattel Adventure Park. According to the basic description, the scope of the second park here should offer most of the same style attractions that they are preparing to open at the first park in Arizona in a few months.
   If everything works out, construction on this second park could actually begin before the end of the year with the goal of opening as early as 2026. Given the construction timeline on the Arizona park however, I’d give them an extra year or two to build it all.
 
    (3/20/2024) While I know we are still waiting for the original park to open, and it was just delayed another year to 2025, would you believe that a second Mattel Adventure Park has now been announced for Kansas City? According to the local news Mattel and Epic Resort Destinations announced plans to break ground on a second park project “later this year” in the Bonner Springs area.
    The kicker is that they claim it will opened in 2026… but not break ground until late 2024. I can virtually guarantee that a 2026 opening date is not going to happen. For those two remember the original park in Arizona… it was announced in June 2021 and also claimed that it would be open by the end of 2022, just in time to lure in all those Super Bowl crowds coming to the area in Feb. 2023. Super Bowl LVII took place 13 months ago, and the park  just announced that the last expected opening date for Summer 2024 was now being pushed back yet another year to open sometime in 2025. So like I said, don’t hold your breath that the Kansas City version will be ready by 2026.
    Based on the announcement and concept art, the Kansas City version does sound as if it will be a near clone of the Arizona park, featuring attractions themed to Hot Wheels, Barbie, He-Man, Thomas, UNO and other Mattel IPs.