One of America's proposed new Mattel theme parks might not be open until the next decade.
Originally announced last year for an opening next year, the Mattel Adventure Park in suburban Kansas City now may be looking at an opening sometime in 2030 to 2031.
At least those are the deadlines under a new development agreement approved this week by the Bonner Springs (Kansas) City Council, as reported by local media. The deal requires the developer to start vertical construction by October 2027 with the park substantially completed by October 2030. The Kansas City Mattel Adventure Park must open to the public no later than May 2031 under the deal, which includes $175 million in government bonds to help finance the project.
The developer now has 45 days to start the process to acquire the land for the project.
The first Mattel Adventure Park, in Glendale, Arizona, was supposed to open last year, but missed that deadline. Construction is ongoing for that park, which is part of the VAI Resort complex in that city, also now under construction just south of the Arizona Cardinals' State Farm Stadium.
Each park is planned to include two Hot Wheels-themed roller coasters from Chance Rides, along with other attractions themed to the toy maker's IP, including a Barbie Beach House.
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Is this even a destination park? Brian's right, this thing is an identity crisis. It doesn't even know when it'll open.
Does anyone know why this project is stumbling so much? I live near Glendale and since I live in a pretty theme park "dry" place I was looking forward to this. however, it kept on getting pushed back with large annoyance on my part. is there a reason for this?
There was never any chance the Kansas park would open in 2026. IIRC, it wasn't even announced until mid 2024, and that was just when it signed on as part of this development. Assuming it's a near clone of the one in Arizona, once they break ground it could probably be ready to open in 2-3 years, but it sounds like we're at least a year off from that happening at this point.
As for the Arizona project, VAI Resort has experienced delay after delay and doesn't want to open the park until the rest of the resort is ready. However, supposedly their deal with the city stipulates that they have to open the property by the end of 2026, so I'm cautiously optimistic that one will be open by this time next year (it's certainly not opening this year).
@Brian Emery, Kansas City is a decent sized metro area. Already has Worlds of Fun for 50 years, which has plenty of room for expansion. i've never understood whey Cedar Fair doesn't pump that park up more as it is located smack dab in the middle of the country.
But for a market in need, Houston is HUGE and hasn't had a major theme park in 20 years since the heartbreak of Astroworld, and now has only a couple of small "boardwalk" parks. If I were looking to put a park somewhere, I'd be looking there.
I certainly don't think Kansas City is the "middle of nowhere", though it is a bit of an odd market to try to build a new theme park when there's already a regional park (WoF) and another very successful park @3 hours away (Silver Dollar City). I definitely agree with mbrussmco that Houston would be a much better market for this, especially given the other version of this park is going into a "theme park desert" (Phoenix).
As Robert has said multiple times, I think there a lot of exciting new theme park projects on the horizon, but it's simply not worth investing emotional capital into them until they announce a firm opening date accompanied by a clear preview period for media and other invited guests. Whether it's SFQC, COTALand, Universal Kids, or these 2 parks, I'm just not willing to get too excited for any of them until we have some tangible evidence that their opening is imminent.
For this KC park, it's common practice for officials to establish project milestones whenever a development is linked to any sort of public funding, whether it be infrastructure, tax breaks, or land grants, but you can look around the country and find hundreds of examples of these deals falling through for one reason or another, but they rarely make news unless it's a sports stadium/arena or other major tourist attraction (like a theme park). It's clear this development group has been served notice, and if they don't start getting their act together, this deal is going to sunset. Perhaps they're waiting to see how the concept works out in Arizona before fully committing to the KC project, but it looks like they might no longer have that luxury if they can't get their Phoenix-area park open by the end of next year.
@Brian_Emery if I had to guess, taking advantage of an untapped market. The Midwest is full of unthemed regional parks. The Mattel IP could be just enough of a lure for families not wanting to drop a fortune on Orlando (and I say good, less crowds for me to worry about).
@mbrussmco whatever happened to "Grand Texas" or whatever it was gonna be called? I think it was proposed by the same people responsible for the "American Heartland" grift in Oklahoma.
EricJ2025, I had just thought of Grand Texas shortly after i posted and was traveling all day yesterday so didn't have time to add that. Houston is low hagning fruit for a new park project for sure. i believe the scammer park was going to be near Ft. Worth and not in the Houston area, and if those reporters for the Vinita OK newspaper had done ANY digging at all, they would have seen that Richard Salinskas was involved in several theme park scams. That American Heartland story is worthy of a Netflix series. Just wow!
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I wonder why Mattel wants to put a Park in the Middle of nowhere
I understand Florida - Texas - Cali - But Kansas.
Small population and who wants to travel to Kansas?