By Dan Murphy
Westchester County government, and the taxpayers of Westchester County, received good news on June 26 when an arbitration panel determined that Standard Amusements, the operators of Playland Amusement Park in Rye for the past 4 years, attempt to walk away from the 30-year agreement they had to operate the park was in violation of the agreement between the two parties.
On January 20, Standard Amusements gave the keys to Playland back to Westchester County. But its not that simple. Tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars has been spent, or will be spent by Standard and Westchester County.
The contract gives Westchester County the right to cure any reasons that Standard may raise before the contract can be terminated.
One day after Standard informed Westchester County that they were terminating their own contract to run Playland, Westchester informed Standard that they were in default –
By walking away in January, Standard Amusements put the County in the difficult position of trying to piece together enough rides and entertainment to make Playland an enjoyable experience. Several comments on Facebook point to the fact that some families are disappointed because many rides remain closed.
County Executive Ken Jenkins said, “The Arbitration Panel’s ruling regarding Playland is a significant victory for the people of Westchester County. The Panel affirmed what we’ve said from day one — Standard Amusements had no right to try to tear up a 30-year agreement without giving the County the contractually required opportunity to cure. Their attempted termination was not just wrong — it was legally baseless.
“This ruling exposes Standard’s effort for what it was: an irresponsible attempt to walk away from their obligations and shift blame onto the County. They ignored the clear language in the contract and their rush to terminate was a direct threat to Playland’s future and to the significant public investment made to restore and preserve our beloved park.
“Today, we move forward, as we have done since Standard walked away. We continue to work on our $150-million-dollar investment by repairing rides, opening concession stands and serving up summer memories and fun. We are moving forward on the damages claim, and we won’t stop until we have a settlement that works for the people on Westchester County.
“While I am County Executive, Westchester County will never be bullied, pushed around or manipulated— especially over a public asset that exists for the joy of children. Here in Westchester we always defend the taxpayers of this County with everything we’ve got,” said Jenkins.
Now that the first hurdle of winning arbitration has been cleared, the question now becomes how much more money does Westchester have to pay Standard for their investment in the park over the past four years.
County Government asked the Board of Legislators for $36 Million to pay Standard, but gave them only $24 Million. $12 Million is still to be determined, and county government is hoping to get a ruling that they do not have to pay Standard the remaining $12 Million because they illegally walked away from their contractural obligation.
Westchester County government is now in the process of repairing Playland with a $150 million investment from the taxpayers.
So the taxpayers of Westchester may be able to get back $12 million owed to Standard Amusements, but this whole experiment of having a private, for profit company operate Playland for the people and taxpayers was a failed experiment that has cost the taxpayers over $100 Million.
The idea came about from former County Executive Rob Astorino, who presented the idea back in 2017, and it sounded good. But in the years that Standard operated Playland, there were Facebook comments from families complaining about the costs to enjoy the park, including a large entrance fee, that did not include the cost of rides.
In our view, the reason that Standard Amusements attempted to walk away in January was because they realized that this was a failed financial concept. It just wasn’t profitable, or profitable enough to continue.
That’s too bad for the people of Westchester, who now have to pay for the repairs to the park while waiting for all the rides and entertainment to return to 100% up and running.
This is not the fault of the County Executive, or the Board of Legislators. Just a bad deal gone really bad.
The good news is that Playland is free to enter for all to enjoy.
Editor’s Note: We received the following email from a representative of Standard Amusements. I wanted to quickly point out this sentence in your article: “The reason that Standard Amusements attempted to walk away in January was because they realized that this was a failed financial concept. It just wasn’t profitable, or profitable enough to continue.” The sentiment that Standard Amusement’s investment was unprofitable is misleading. As Standard has repeatedly stated, the decision to orderly terminate the agreement with the County was due to the County’s lack of cooperation, further outlined in Standard Amusements May 7 statement: Standard Amusements Sets the Record Straight on Playland Transition.
We have edited that sentence to In our view above.
