Without help, Fresno’s Playland park is months away from closing again, operator says

When Davey Helm first saw Fresno’s Playland, he thought it was too far gone.

The 68-year-old amusement park seemed long neglected. It had sat empty through the pandemic and was in need of more than a little TLC.

Then he started asking around.

“The allure was the look of people’s faces,” says Helm, a third-generation amusement park operator who took over operations and reopened a renovated Playland in June.

“It was endearing to them,” he says.

“I really want to be a part of something like that.”

But attendance at the park has been low and attempts at fundraising have fallen flat and without help, Helm says he’ll have to close Playland again at the end of the year.

“I’m worried,” he says, flatly.

“It’s going to be a parking lot by this time next year.”

Helm and Sons has already put in $600,000 in facility upgrades and repairs to the park’s original rides. Another $250,000 is likely needed to repave old walkways within the park. And maintenance aside, ticket sales aren’t keeping up with payroll for the park’s 41 employees, says general manager Candace Cuisinier.

“We’ve been doing everything we can, night and day,” she says.

The park has lowered prices, adjusted hours and offered specials and other events, including community days, when it dropped admission to $1, or let guests in for free, just to get them in the gates.

And those days have done well, drawing in thousands. But typically, the park sees 200-500 people daily on weekends.

On weekdays, that number can drop to 40 for the day, Cuisinier says.

Prices are currently $10 on weekdays and $15 on weekends, and there are some special events on the horizon.

For Halloween, Playland will be open from 2-10 p.m. with free admission to anyone under 17 dressed in a costume. There will be candy at each of the rides, two haunted mazes and a pumpkin patch with $5 pumpkins for sale.

“We’re just trying to get the word out,” she says.

What the status of Storyland?

The story is slightly different at Playland’s sister park, Storyland.

That park is planning $1 million in new exhibits for 2024, including a pirate ship and a Jack the Beanstalk exhibit, says Bruce Batti, board chair of the nonprofit Storyland/Playland, which oversees both parks.

The board signed its operating agreement with Helm and Sons, in part, so it could put its focus on Storyland and that has been successful.

The board is aware of the struggles at Playland. Some of the attendance issues, Batti says, might be bad timing; reopening during the hot summer months and then immediately having to compete against other entertainment, like The Big Fresno Fair.

“We had high hopes and continue to have high hopes,” Batti says. Helm and Sons is a proven operator in the amusement industry and put a good deal of money and passion into the park. Any long-term success (or failure) will be navigating market issues and finding a viable business plan, he says.

“It won’t be because of lack of effort and resources.”

So far, donations to the park have been slim.

Playland has held two fundraisers since reopening, but was raised only $6,000, Helm says. A meeting is scheduled with Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer to discuss how the city might be able to help the park, and the company is looking at how to expand private donations, possibly even grant-funding.

“I need some help,” Helm says.

“I don’t want this thing to go away.”

Fresno Art Museum also struggling

Playland is not the only Fresno institution to find itself struggling.

The Fresno Art Museum is currently in the midst of a “severe cash flow crisis.”

In an email earlier this month under the subject line “silence is not an option,” Executive Director and Chief Curator Michele Ellis Pracy made a plea to the public.

”The Museum is not receiving its usual support from our community, and I need to ask for your help to bring in funding right now,” she wrote.

The museum hoped to raise $100,000 in October. That’s typical of what’s needed each month to support the museum’s $1 million annual budget.

According to the letter, that money is needed immediately so that the museum can honor field trips for 10,000 Fresno Unified School District (and other districts) school children as well as private events booked at the museum. It’s also needed to ensure the museum’s phone, internet and security systems remain running.

“These obligations are set in stone,” Ellis Pracy wrote.

“Our Museum is a nonprofit business, and it cannot remain open or vital without money to operate.”

For followers of art culture in Fresno, the news brings up memories of the loss of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, which operated in downtown for 25 years before shutting its doors in 2010.