|
US News:
---- UNITED STATES DEVELOPMENT NEWS ---
(9/7/2026) Tennessee - Interesting Trademark Filing Could Be For New Nashville Project
(9/6/2026) Arizona - New Developer Pitches Massive Plan That Includes Parks Outside of Phoenix
(9/2/2026) California - Meow Wolf Los Angeles Location Update
(8/29/2026) Colorado - Copper Mountain Alpine Coaster Closed Following Guest Injury
(8/22/2026) Texas - ZDT Owners Confirmed that the Switchback Coaster Has Been Sold
(8/20/2026) Riders Injuries Reported Following Incident on Tennessee Fair Ride
(8/19/2026) Colorado - Casa Bonita becoming Casa BOOnita for the Halloween Season
 Arizona - (9/6/2026) While we’ve been waiting for years to see Phoenix open the delayed Mattel Adventure Park, another developer has announced plans to build an interesting project just outside of the city that would also include a new amusement park.
At what is currently a mostly empty site of land located about an hour west of Phoenix in the desert, a prominent real estate investor has revealed plans to build a sprawling new development that would include a movie production studio, a data center, a retail and dining complex, and both an indoor and outdoor amusement park. The total cost for the entire project is estimated to be anywhere from $6 to $10 Billion.
The area has been in the eyesight of various developers for a few years now, as they says one of Bill Gates’ investment firms bought almost 20,000 acres of property nearby back in 2017 with the idea of building a “futuristic smart city” and another developer has bought up other land nearby on which they’ve been setting up for use to build up to 3 new data centers. Keeping all this in mind, it does almost sound like the various groups are showing up with concepts to turn an empty site into a sort of new planned city development, creating various potential jobs, leisure and residential opportunities that could support each other.
(5/12/2026) GolfLand SunSplash in Mesa, Arizona opened their new Riptide water slide, the tallest one in the state. Jump on over to YouTube to watch what Riptide has to offer (sorry, embed option not available).
(2/10/2026) During the early days of the Pandemic you may recall hearing about how someone was planning on building a few Atari themed gaming hotels, with Phoenix and Las Vegas being likely locations of the first two sites. Unfortunately everything went silent shortly after and we had assumed that the projects had died out, like so many other projects did in the years that followed.
According to an IG post from VisitPhoenix however, construction on the first Atari Hotel in Phoenix is now expected to begin sometime in late 2026 at 840 N. Central Ave. The hotel will feature a 2000 person concert venue, esports and sportsbook spaces, as well as some nightlife, restaurants and retail locations.
Elsewhere it was reported that the Las Vegas location is dead in the water, but it does sound like Phoenix is still alive and kicking for now. We’ll have to wait and see if construction starts alter this year after all. If all goes as planned the construction timeline shows a Q4 2028 opening date.
 California - (9/2/2026) Meow Wolf is apparently still on track to open their new Los Angeles location just before the end of 2026. An update from the LA Times says the site is working with nearly 40 local area artists to create the attraction, which will be located inside a closed movie theater complex at 6081 Center Dr, Los Angeles (formerly the Cinemark Howard Hughes Los Angeles location (HHLA).
(7/12/2026) The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wilshire in Los Angeles will recognize the industries Horror film genre with a brand new exhibition entitled, “The Horror Show” that will run from September 26, 2026 through to July 25, 2027. The exhibit will feature six themed “chambers”, each devoted to a particular style of horror and filled with original props, costumes, interactive displays and more.
A Gothic chamber will be themed as a dark crypt and feature items from films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sinners.
A Psychological chamber will feature items from films like The Babadook and Misery.
A Science chamber themed like a laboratory will display items from films like Alien and The Substance.
A Slasher room will be themed as the home of a killer, featuring items from films such as Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
A Religion themed chamber will feature a witches’ circle and items from films like Missommar and The Exorcist.
And lastly there is a Ghost gallery themed as a haunted room with items from films like The Conjuring and Poltergeist.
According to the description, the only way out of the exhibit is to pass through an immersive space called “The Blood Room” that will feature the many textures and shades of cinematic blood with “walls layered with gore.”
(7/8/2026) According to this video report the Fiesta Village Family Fun Park in the Inland Empire area (Colton) of California is now closing down after 50 years. The final days of operation are said to be this Friday and Saturday. The family run park says that they have been forced to close due to declining attendance mixed with rising operating costs that have made it no longer financially feasible to continue.
(6/20/2026) In today’s world where technology is running rampage and the latest use of AI involvement with projects are on the tip of everyone’s tongue, a unique new attraction has quietly opened in downtown Los Angeles: the DATALAND AI art museum.
Dataland is being presented as the world’s first AI art museum, and is coming at your with a very steep ticket cost as well, said to be between $49 to $79 a person. According to a review of the concept posted over at Blooloop this week, guests entering are given two devices to wear: a device you wear around your neck that will emit up to 12 different rainforest inspired scents as you explore the attraction, and the second is a wrist-worn biometric sensor device that will monitor your physical response to the stimulus created by the AI that surrounds you as you travel through the exhibit. In other words… the attraction’s AI powered brain wants to see and learn how you respond to what it is showing you at any given moment as you travel through the rich and vibrant atmosphere of Dataland. In short, the attraction experience will be personalized as you visit in response to the stimulus that seems to affect you the most as determined by your wrist sensor.
For all the technology involved, the attraction itself is all about nature… as the AI powering it all has been trained entirely as a “Large Nature Model”, focused on things like rainforest ecosystems, coral reefs, birdsongs and data collected firsthand from sixteen different rainforest environments from around the globe. According to the article, “The machine has not been taught to mimic human culture. It has been taught to remember the natural world.”
Look for Dataland to be in place in LA only through to January 31, 2027 before it is packed up and likely sent to a new home.
(1/1/2026) The costs to operate theme parks in San Diego are set to increase. Back in September the City of San Diego Council voted to increase the minimum wage for hospitality and tourism businesses to $25 an hour, that will take place in incremental step-ups each year between now and 2030. Minimum wage at the time in the city was $17.25 with amusement park workers rising to $19 an hour in 2026, $20.50 in 2027, $22 in 2028, $23.50 in 2029 before peaking at $25 an hour in 2030.
The rule affects just businesses within the City of San Diego, and while it will directly impact SeaWorld San Diego, it is interesting to note that by a strange coincidence, the announcement that Sesame Place San Diego was ending year-round operations and becoming a seasonal park happened about a week after the vote. To be clear however, Sesame Place San Diego is in the city of Chula Vista, to the south of San Diego, and thus Sesame Place should be exempt from the new labor law. That doesn’t help explain things to the staff however, as the two parks are only a half-hour drive away from each other, and would be in competition for the same labor pool.
I’m also not sure how things are set-up now, but back when the park was known as the Aquatica water park, before the arrival of the Sesame character, I do believe that certain members of management and staff from select departments did share some labor duties overseeing areas of both parks as well.
So with Sesame Place suddenly switching to a very seasonal schedule in 2026 (Memorial Day Weekend to late September only) I do wonder about the longevity of the park unless the new schedule really turns things around performance wise.
 Colorado - (8/29/2026) The “Rocky Mountain Coaster” at the Copper Mountain ski resort in Colorado
(an Alpine Mountain Coaster from Aquatic Development Group with no relation to the RMC / Rocky Mountain Construction roller coaster company) remains closed after an incident took place on August 17th that resulted in a female rider being thrown from her car, but remaining tangled in the seatbelt that caused her to get drug along the tracks, resulting in “life-altering injuries”, including a punctured and collapsed lung.
The incident is still under investigation, as they claim she was secured in the car by the fastened seatbelt at all times, which should have prevented this kind of injury.
(8/19/2026) Screamscape readers know that I love a themed dining experience… and if you’re in the Denver area, one of the most hyped up local sites is taking things even further for the Halloween season. I’m talking about the revived Casa Bonita themed restaurant, and from Sept. 29 through to Nov. 1st, Casa Bonita will become Casa BOOnita. Consider it a mix of Halloween meets Dia de Los Muertos, while surrounded by great family fun and Mexican food. Keep in mind that Casa Bonita still does not accept walk-ins… you have to have a reservation and those can disappear very quickly on popular days.
Delaware - (3/15/2026) Funland in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware has confirmed that the park’s Haunted Mansion dark ride will close for good at the end of the 2026 season. The ride has been open at the park for over 45 years now and has just simply reached the end of it’s operational life, however the plan is to build a new version of the attraction from when it closes and throughout the 2027 season, in order to open an all new Haunted Mansion by the new ride by Summer 2028.
You can enjoy a virtual ride-through on this unique inverted track dark ride in the video below.
Florida - (6/21/2026) According to EpicSurf, the new Deep-Water Standing Wave attraction at Heroes Paradise (Florida) opened this week, as the first and largest standing wave on the East Coast, and the second-largest standing wave in the United States.
(4/9/2026) According to the local news, the popular Adventure Landing FEC in St. Augustine, FL will be closing for good at the end of this Sunday, April 12th. This is the last Adventure Landing in Florida, as the two other locations in Jacksonville were closed in 2021 and 2025.
(10/25/2025) Tampa residents, a new attraction is coming to town, as the city council has approved plans to build a $20 million 250 foot tall observation wheel along the waterfront that will over views of both downtown Tampa and the port district. Look for the new wheel to rise in Channelside, near the Florida Aquarium and cruise-ship port, with climate-controlled gondolas that will take you on a 20 to 30 minute ride experience.
Georgia - (7/26/2026) The new Thrillz Atlanta attraction opened on July 23rd featuring slides, an obstacle course, climbing wall, laser tag, a few small rides and VR attractions and more.
(5/25/2026) Would you believe another new attraction will soon be coming to the Atlanta area? Earlier this month we mentioned the new “Thrillz Atlanta” attraction coming to the north-east corner of the city, and now it seems another new concept attraction called Slick City is coming to the South Cobb area. I’ve never seen one of these myself before, but Slick City Action Park is a giant warehouse style building that has been filled with a ton of “dry slides”. Bouncy, Steep, Twisted, Wave Like, etc… the idea is to create something akin to being a “waterless” waterpark style experience to life, using special friction-reducing materials on the slides in order to offer high-speed thrills while keeping you dry.
In addition to slides, the attraction also seems to include a large bunch of other attractions, including climbing structures, bounce courts, swing and trapeze units over an airbag, and of course an arcade. According to the official website Slick City will be ready to open sometime in June and is located north-west of ATL, about 11.5 miles away from Six Flags over Georgia, about half-way towards the Marietta area.
(5/13/2026) A new attraction is coming to Atlanta next month, with the opening of “ATL! Thrillz Atlanta”. The first-of-its-kind attraction will feature plenty of fun for adrenaline seekers, including a 35ft mega slide tower, a 40ft drop tower, and over 20 other rides, attractions and an obstacle course. It is located North-East of downtown Atlanta off the 85 freeway just outside of the 285-loop at 4280 Northeast Expressway.
Illinois - (5/30/2026) Pokemon fans in the Chicago area will be happy to note that the official Pokemon Fossil Museum exhibition has now arrived in North America for the first time, and can be seen at Chicago’s Field Museum from now through to April 11, 20207.
Pokemon… Fossils? Yes, you read that correctly. This unique traveling themed exhibit that has been on tour throughout Japan over the past couple of seasons has now arrived on US soil and features large-scale displays of faux fossilized-remains of ancient Pokemon creatures, including the Tyrantrum and Archeops, which are now on display alongside the true dinosaur fossils at the Field Museum, like the famed Sue the T-Rex.
Visit the official website to purchase tickets in advance, because it is already selling out on certain days.
Kansas - (2/13/2026) A new “accessible” theme park had a groundbreaking in Olathe, Kansas, as part of the “Halo Ridge” development. The park will be named Michael’s WonderWorld, named after the son of developer James Arkell who is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair. The new park concept won't just be for those with disabilities, but will be promoted as a place for everyone to enjoy together. The Halo Ridge development will also feature the Halo Care Collective for health services as well as a 155,000 sqft sports arena along with other retail and restaurant facilities.
Kentucky - (2/22/2026) A new indoor amusement park will soon open in Owensboro, Kentucky. Maui’s Indoor Theme Park will open in the former Towne Square Mall. The local news station posted a short video showing off the current progress of things inside, as the attraction finishes installing the go karts, amusement rides, laser-tag, mini-golf and arcade space. The location will feature a small indoor spinning coaster called Twist-n-Shout as well (looks like an SBF-Visa) as a 4D Motion Simulator attraction, duckpin bowling and more.
The project comes from Jester FEC, the owners of the Malibu Jack indoor parks, but because they felt that this location was going to be an even bigger project than your average Malibu Jack’s they are launching this one under the new Maui’s branding and will serve as the flagship for any further upcoming Maui’s locations.
Michigan - (5/26/2026) In their infinite wisdom, it seems that C.J. Barrymore’s has named their new steel roller coaster as… “The Coaster”. Yep… just “The Coaster”. According to the reports this will be an SBF/Visa Group Galaxi style coaster, so they just decided to call it “The Coaster”. As a reader pointed out to me, this may be a running gag over there anyway as the attraction’s spinning coaster is just called “Spinning Coaster” and the coaster removed for this new one was just called “Loop Roller Coaster”. So it is what it is… and “The Coaster” is better than no coaster, right?
New York - Note: All New York City News Has Been Moved to a Dedicated Page
North Carolina - (8/16/2026) Yet another Adventure Landing is now confirmed to be closing along the east coast. In this case, the location in Raleigh, confirmed on their Facebook page that they will close down forever at the end of today, August 16th. According to an update on their website, the FEC is not renewing their lease on the property.
Operating under similar business models, we’ve reported on other Adventure Landing locations that have closed in the past few years, with a location in Jacksonville, Florida shutting down last year as the property owner had sold the site to a new apartment developer there and earlier this year the final location in Florida in St. Augustine closed for good in April.
According to the official website there are four locations left… one in Buffalo, NY, one in Dallas, Texas, and in North Carolina, one in Winston-Salem and one west of Charlotte in Gastonia. However, other than the final Texas location, the remaining three have one thing in common… they are all much smaller in scale and primarily only offer a Mini Golf and Arcade experience, with one having Batting Cages, another with Bumper Boats. This means the property they sit on is smaller and incompatible with developers looking to build something larger like an apartment complex and more suited for something smaller like a small strip mall, car wash, a small hotel, or a restaurant.
Ohio - (6/28/2026) Located about an hour down the coastline, east of Cleveland, lies Geneva-On-The-Lake, home to The Old Firehouse Winery. The boozy attraction was also known to be home to the iconic “#5 Big Eli” Ferris wheel which was restored by the winery when they took over the site from Erieview Park when it closed in 2006.
Tragedy struck the wheel on June 14th when violent storms blew through the area and managed to topple Big Eli to the ground. Currently Old Firehouse Winery is waiting on their insurance company, along with the ride manufacturer, to inspect and determine if the historic wheel can be saved or if it must be replaced with a new wheel.
Oklahoma - (7/21/2026) Screamscape readers may recall a once proposed theme park plan to build something called “American Heartland” in Oklahoma. The entire project seemed to collapse and vanish out of sight before too long, amid rumors of some corruption with the developers, that has now come more into focus. As I last recall, the developers seemed more keen to build a large-scale RV park in the middle of nowhere as their first focus, rather than trying to build the theme park that would have brought people to the area, which was a huge warning sign to me that something was very wrong.
According to a new report by The Sun, a financial backer of the project (Gene Bicknell) is now claiming in a new report this month that he was defrauded $60 million by American Heartland officials. We heard some of this before, but the new legal documents from Bicknell, who is looking to have a day in court over the loss, claims that the American Heartland developers used psychological manipulation to keep him investing in the project. Bicknell says that they convinced him “through fraud and impersonation, that God himself was commanding him” through text messages to invest and trust in the vision of the project.
Pennsylvania - (7/17/2026) According to PennLive, several amusement parks in the state are opting to close down or limit operations due to the extremely poor air quality due to the wildfire smoke. Parks who had had to make some changes include Kennywood, Idlewild, Dutch Wonderland, Wildameer Park and DelGrosso Park. If you are thinking of visiting a park in the area this weekend, please do check with the park on their status before making the drive out there.
Theme parks in Pennsylvania aren’t the only ones affected either, as we’ve heard about issues now coming up at other big northern parks like Cedar Point and Six Flags Great America as well.
(7/8/2026) Star Wars fans in Philadelphia (or those able to visit next year) will be interested in a new exclusive exhibit coming to the Franklin Institute called “Star Wars: The Experience - A Journey Through the Galaxy”. The new planned exhibit will launch on February 13th, 2027 (though to September 6, 2027) as part of the Star Wars 50th anniversary celebration, with the exhibit created in collaboration with MDSX, LucasFilm and Disney Consumer Products as the largest and most comprehensive behind-the-scenes exhibition to celebrate the Star Wars galaxy.
 (7/3/2026) The long and slow demise of Conneaut Lake Park was heartbreaking to witness over the years. Ravaged like a cancer patient, the park just sort of withered away until there wasn’t anything left.
However… things may change this fall. According to a reader, a sign has now been placed on a fence surrounding the property promoting “PHANTOM PARK” to be opening September 2026 at the Conneaut Lake Park site. There doesn’t seem to be an official website for the event yet, but some postings on Facebook indicate that a structure may be going up to house a Scrambler flat ride as revival of “ULTIMATE TRIP”. Some also believe it may be possible to ride the Devil’s Den as well, as the dark ride is said to have quietly reopened during the Halloween season, during the previous “Ghost Lake” haunt events.
 Tennessee - (9/7/2026) I’m told that Storyland Studios, who is working with Nate Bargatze to create a new theme park for the Nashville area has filed a trademark to use the name, “The Screamin’ Delta Demon” for a theme park ride or attraction.
From what I’m told, Bargatze wanted to revive the lost Screamin’ Delta Demon attraction from Opryland (an Intamin Bobsled where the cars were themed with giant gator faces on the front) as part of his proposed new theme park project.
(8/20/2026) A wave swinger ride at a Tennessee State Fair in Wilson County had a malfunction that apparently injured ride riders. Based on the video, it looks like the ride began to lower to the platform while still at a bit of speed, so the out-stretched row of seats began to impact the safety rail. Follow the link and watch the brief video to see what took place. The ride now shut down under further notice.
(6/5/2026) While I just happened to find myself walking past the new Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel while on a recent visit to Nashville last week, it got me wondering about when it was going to open. I had previously thought that it could have been open, or opening soon, but that was not the case, as the latest update on the project states that the opening has been pushed back to Fall 2026.
(5/25/2026) While the project is still very much in the Blue Sky phase… Storyland Studios has released the first visual of the proposed “Nateland” theme park, as envisioned by Nashville native and comedian, Nate Bargatze. According to the update they’ve “identified a site” for the 100+ acre concept that would include both thrill rides and live shows, and currently is budgeted at around $350 million.
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that they claim the site “in the Nashville metro area” has been “secured most of the required land through an investor”. Honestly, when it comes to attempting to build a new park from scratch, sometimes the most difficult thing is finding a site big enough, with access to proper infrastructure, and located in place that all the nearby neighbors aren’t going to protest to the moon and back and try to get your park cancelled. So if they’ve got the site locked in and initial design work in progress, this is huge! This moves the project much closer to being something that could happen, and isn’t just a wild dream that someone is talking about, because land is being purchased and designer teams are getting paid, and we know Nashville is a city that desperately wants to have their own theme park once again. They’ve been reeling from the loss of Opryland for years, so I think all the various environmental factors could be going in this project’s favor, so this will be something to keep an eye on.
(11/20/2025) While I’m not that familiar with him, comedian Nate Bargatze says he is looking for investors with the hopes to build and open his own amusement park in Nashville, TN. At the moment his production company, Nateland, has linked up with design firm, Storyland Studios, to begin work on the concept.
The location is a solid one that could use a theme park, as Nashville's only true theme park, Opryland USA, closed way back in 1997 and no one has been able to open a new park over the past 28-years. By a strange coincidence, apparently Nate Bargatze first job ever was at Opryland USA before it closed.
It’s a long tough road to turn a vision of building a park into the reality of actually opening the park and then you have to wait for it to be a success. But Nashville has the tourist traffic to make it work… so let's wait and see if Nate and company can turn this dream into actual construction someday.
 Texas - (8/22/2026) The former owners of the ZDT Amusement Park announced on social media that they have successfully sold the park’s Switchback wooden shuttle coaster to a new owner. They can’t say who bought it or where it will be going yet, but it looks like this unique roller coaster will live to roll another day.
West Virginia - (5/20/2026) The subject of Rides and West Virginia seldom cross, but it seems that the state will host The America 250 Wheel as part of the West Virginia 250 Celebration from July 2-5th. The wheel is the nation’s largest portable observation wheel and stands 230 feet tall, where it will dominate the Charleston skyline at the State Capitol Complex.
And would you believe… a ride on the wheel is FREE?! Yes, they say you can catch a ride on one of the 45-custom themed gondolas, completely free of charge for all attendees.
|
