Great America, the Bay Area’s premier theme park, is closing for good. Here’s when – Los Angeles Times

Great America, the Bay Area’s premier theme park, is closing for good. Here’s when  Los Angeles Times

Great America, the beloved hometown theme park for generations of Northern Californians, has announced there will be one more season of roller coasters and funnel cakes before the gates close for good. The Santa Clara theme park's final day of operation will be next Labor Day, ending a 51-year run as an attraction once seen as Northern California's version of Disneyland — and a rite of passage for local teenagers. The closure has long been expected, ever since Cedar Fair sold the park's 112-acre footprint to San Francisco logistics real estate company Prologis in 2022 for $310 million — a considerable gain from when the former owner purchased the land from the city's redevelopment agency for $150 million three years earlier.

The new owner continued leasing the land under the park to Great America, with the term ending in mid-2028 and an option to extend through mid-2033. But with Great America's latest corporate owner, Six Flags, struggling financially after its merger with Cedar Fair, there have been clear signs that the park probably was going to close sooner rather than later. Last year, Great America canceled most live entertainment and its seasonal Halloween- and Christmas-themed events. The park's vice president and general manager, Barbara-Lea Granter, also left the company as Six Flags moved to a regional operating structure centralizing certain