California’s Great America announced on their Instagram page yesterday that a newly renovated section of the park named NorCal County Fair will open on May 26. This newly reimagined area aims to immerse guests into the Bay Area’s backyard.
The area will have a new attraction, Pacific Gliders which is a Zamperla WindstarZ flat ride and is aimed at children and adults alike and mimics the feeling of flying through the California skies. Barney’s Oldfield Speedway has also had a makeover to become Barney Oldfield’s Redwood Rally. This Arrow Development car ride has had scenic updates and a fresh look.
From the Instagram post above you can see a number of photos of the new Gliders attraction and a video giving an overview of this new area.
There was a rumor floated back at the end of March about a potential Zamperla WindstarZ flat ride being added to the Action Zone area of the park where there were construction walls and deconstruction being done.
In the YouTube update from NorCalThrills which is embedded below, you can see the construction walls and the area which was speculated for the new potential Zamperla WindstarZ flat ride. The video also talks about a number of ride closures which were happening at the park in March as a result of California’s Great America now having year-round operations.
Now, there appears to be some confusion because California’s Great Adventure also announced yesterday that a new ride will be coming to the park this summer. Now we know the new Zamperla WindstarZ attraction is opening as part of the reimagined NorCal County Fair on May 26. Does this mean that another new attraction is coming this summer? Nothing else has been announced as of yet. We will keep you posted on this.
We heard back in June 2022 from Cedar Fair the somewhat shocking news that they had made the decision to sell the land which currently houses California’s Great America to Prologis, Inc. which is a Bay Area-based logistics real estate company.
The sale of land was for approximately $310 million with a lease agreement. This lease agreement enables Cedar Fair to be able to continue to operate California’s Great America for a maximum of 11 years, until 2033.
This certainly came as disappointing news for theme park fans in California and will mean that when California’s Great America is permanently closed, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom which is located to the north of San Francisco, will be the only major theme park which exists in the local area.
COVID-19 has hit many businesses hard financially and the reason for this land sale has been give by Cedar Fair as being due to:
“Cedar Fair intends to use proceeds from the land sale transaction to accelerate progress on its strategic priorities of reducing debt to achieve its $2 billion target, investing in high-return projects within its portfolio such as upgrading resort properties, and reinstating a sustainable unitholder distribution.”
So, it seems like Cedar Fair has made this difficult decision in order to reduce debt and to have money available to be able to invest at other Cedar Fair properties in the future.
There were rumors floated that Disney may have bought California’s Great America which we explored in our featured article, Could California’s Great America Have Been Bought by… Disney? Here’s What We’re Hearing…
Cedar Fair has indeed got use of the land and can continue to operate California’s Great America until 2033 but whether they will make the decision to close the park a lot earlier than this deadline will remain to be seen.
It appears that Cedar Fair has made the decision to continue to invest in California’s Great America in the short term with the reimagining and opening of NorCal County Fair on May 26 which includes the addition of the new Zamperla WindstarZ flat ride, Gliders.
This news has prompted some people to think the park is not closing in the future which is not the case. It does give us the impression that an imminent closure now seems very unlikely and it looks like a closure closer to 2033 may be more of a possibility which should come as good news for California Great Adventure fans. Nothing has been confirmed on Cedar Fair’s plans and we will keep you updated on this when further details are announced.
We will also inform you of any further announcements on the fate of California’s Great America as and when they are announced. Will you be sad to see this theme park close for good? Let us know by leaving us a comment below or on our Facebook page.
