A change to California’s COVID-19 safety rules, announced Friday, could allow the outdoor rides and attractions of Disneyland, Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain and other theme parks to reopen immediately if they are in counties where coronaviruses are low. .
Another caveat: in most states, parks must have a 15% capacity attendance – this rate is so low that industry experts say parks will definitely not make a profit.
Still, they say the parks accept that losing position for a while because they will need time to move operations forward.
Fifteen percent is not sustainable as a park level, ”said John Gerner, a theme park expert and managing director of Leisure Business Advisors. “But as a transition to a fully open … it makes sense.”
Under new rules announced Friday, amusement parks with 15% capacity in counties in Red Tire will be allowed to reopen as early as April 1 – the second-largest roadmap for California’s four-tier resumption roadmap. The county is placed in one of four levels based on the number of its new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, the rate of positive coronavirus tests, and equity measurements.
Under the new rules, attendance revenue is reduced to 25% once the county moves to% capacity% once it reaches the third strictest level, orange and the most imported, yellow. Previous rules prohibited the reopening of the park until the county of their home reached a yellow level and a 25% capacity presence.
In November, Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk became the first theme parks in the state to reopen under previous rules, but closed a week after the COVID-19 case resurfaced in Santa Cruz County.
Los Angeles County (home of Magic Mountain and Universal Studios Hollywood) and Orange County (home of Disney Parks and Knott’s Berry Farm) live in a very restricted level, purple, but it appears close to entering red.
Praising the state’s rule change, theme park administrators said the closure of almost the entire year has a brutal economic impact on entire parks, their workers, nearby businesses and cities that rely on tax revenue generated by parks.
Since the parks closed last year, most people have laid off or laid off many of their workers. The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim will take 10,000 of its nearly 31,000 employees after its Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Parks close. More than 1,000 people have been released to help staff the food and shopping event, which begins March 18.
Garner and other experts say the theme park will need time for workers to reopen and rearrange before they reopen. They said the transition would be easier from the start with just 15% of the full capacity crowd.
Experts say many of the workers who were laid off have moved on to other jobs, so theme parks will need to hire and train people who have never operated the attraction or served meals there.
“Everyone is rusty,” said Martin Lewis, a business administration professor and theme park expert at Farmingdale State College in New York. “They have to cut corrosion out of things.”
Levison agreed that most theme parks would not make a profit with a capacity of 15%, but he said no revenue was better than none. Also, he noted that even though the parks are closed – costs, taxes, utility bills and maintenance – raise costs.
People inside Disneyland say the 100-acre park has a capacity of about 80,000 people a day. The state’s new rules will allow about 12,000 visitors per day once the Orange County red tires arrive.
One question is whether theme park fans will rush into the park when the doors open or feel hesitant to risk catching a COVID-19 while riding Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds or Universal Studios Hollywood’s tram tour.
“I think a lot of people will think twice,” Gerner said.
Ryan Temple, a Disney fan of Phoenix, who visited Disneyland twice a month before the epidemic, said he missed the park and often remembers seeing pictures of his previous visits.
Still, he said, he probably won’t be there the day the park reopens.
“Even though it is at 15% capacity, it will be an accidental shock once again around many people,” he said, adding that they will wait until they get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I hope it comes sooner rather than later,” Temple said.
