Standard Amusements Sets the Record Straight on Playland Transition

Standard Amusements, former operator of the iconic Rye Playland, today responded to Westchester County’s continued misrepresentation of facts and egregious efforts to deflect blame for the County’s own failures to prepare for a timely and complete opening of Playland for the 2025 season.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250507933372/en/

In response to the County’s fabrications, here are the facts:

FACT: Standard Amusements Provided Ample Time to Prepare for the 2025 Season—But the County Squandered Months Provided to Them Since November 2024

• In a meeting on November 26, 2024, Standard Amusements notified then-Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins and his team that it would be terminating its agreement with the County and, therefore, not managing the park in 2025. Standard Amusements also provided a draft of, and offered to formally send, the Notice of Termination.
• The County expressly asked Standard Amusements to refrain from sending the official termination letter and instead wasted two months dithering before Standard Amusements ultimately issued the Notice in January 2025.
• The County has continued to pretend that the November 2024 meeting never happened, claiming that our departure was ‘abrupt’.
• By sitting on their hands since November 2024, the County created the ‘emergency situation’ now declared.

FACT: Standard Amusements Made Every Effort to Work Towards an Orderly Transition to Support a Successful 2025 Season

• In November 2024, Standard Amusements emphasized to the County that it was committed to unwinding the relationship in an orderly and responsible fashion and to facilitating a seamless transition of management responsibilities to the County.
• Standard Amusements reiterated that commitment for months, but the County completely ignored Standard Amusements’ offers for assistance.
• In January 2025, Standard Amusements publicly warned that doing so would harm residents and visitors, employees, and taxpayers and put the 2025 opening at risk.
• In a letter sent February 5, 2025, Standard Amusements assigned a point person for Playland’s General Manager to work with and shared a non-exhaustive list of issues and topics to be addressed as part of the transition, including employee transition, assignment and discussion of critical agreements, review of Standard Amusements owned property, operational transition planning, and capital and maintenance.
• Standard Amusements specifically called out the need to jointly review the current status of ride maintenance. This conversation would have included a review of inventory of parts.
• Other than a single initial meeting on February 10, 2025—months after Standard Amusements’ initial notification, and less than two weeks before the Termination Date—the County did not act, ignoring multiple efforts by Standard Amusements to meet again and discuss these critical issues.
• To support the many facets of the transition, Standard Amusements retained additional professional staff for over a month beyond the Termination Date at an expense of over $100,000.
• Today, many of these issues remain unresolved entirely because of the County’s inaction.
• As we feared would happen, the County’s failures are now threatening to limit the 2025 season.

FACT: Standard Amusements Significantly Improved Playland

• Standard Amusements invested over $35 million to revitalize Playland, which had fallen into complete disrepair prior to Standard Amusements taking over operations in late 2021—adhering to both the terms of its contract with the County and its overarching mission to restore the beloved park to its former grandeur.
• Standard Amusement’s investments, which continued through February 2025, supported the development of two major new rides, ten new standalone games, development of a brand new arcade, extensive landscaping, and the restoration and maintenance of existing rides that had deteriorated.
• In addition to the $35 million invested by Standard Amusements, Standard Amusements’ food and beverage vendor invested approximately $6 million in new foodservice equipment as part of the development of three new eatery options and the refurbishment of six existing locations.
• The County claims Standard Amusements left the park in “Heartbreaking Shape”—the reality is that Standard Amusements inherited a park in such condition, and the County is now taking over a much-improved park.

FACT: Standard Amusements Prioritized the Maintenance of Rides Consistent with Industry Standards—and Well Beyond the County’s Own Maintenance Efforts Pre-2022

• Standard Amusements prioritized the maintenance of rides to the highest standard, including the winterization of all rides after the end of the 2024 season consistent with both previous operating years and industry standards.
  • Proper winterization includes the disassembly of certain rides in the fall, followed by reassembly in the spring. Accordingly, it was proper for certain rides to be dis-assembled when management passed back to the County as of February 20, 2025.
• Standard Amusements’ commitment is reflected in the tremendous increase in spend over the County: between 2022 and 2024, Standard Amusements spent an average of $1 million per year on maintenance and repair—a 100% increase over the County’s average spend of $500,000 per year between 2015-2019.
• The County’s efforts to mislead about Standard Amusements’ maintenance track record are obviously bad faith.

FACT: Taxpayers and Playland Visitors will Bear the Cost of the County’s Failures

• As we announced in January 2025, we terminated the agreement because the County repeatedly failed to uphold its end of the bargain. And, our contract was carefully worded to ensure us that right and to lay out the amount of damages due.
• The County is now misleading the public about the likely scope of those damages.
• Taxpayers are footing the bill for the County’s failures, not Standard Amusements’, and while they continue to engage in political finger pointing, we fear the true cost will be a lost summer at Playland—and no one can possibly put a value on that.

Standard Amusements had every intention of continuing our efforts to restore Playland, and we remain deeply saddened that the County made it impossible to realize our vision. We continue to call on the County to stop attempting to spin the public and start prioritizing Playland.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250507933372/en/