Nutrien Playland is open, hoping for improved 2019

Nutrien Playland is officially open for the season and staff at the city-operated park say they are hoping for a better year after a lacklustre 2018.

Year-end numbers presented Monday at a meeting of city council’s planning, development and community services committee show plenty of room for improvement.

Last year, a total of 119,550 ride tickets were used during the park’s 114-day operating season, which works out to 1,049 tickets being used per day.

That’s down by over 80,000 tickets compared to the same period in 2017, when a total of 203,261 ride tickets were used.

The poor showing is being blamed on poor weather and a miniature train derailment.

“We did have a period of time where the train was out of commission due to an accident,” said Andrew Roberts, the city’s acting director of recreation and community development.

The famous locomotive that tours around Kinsmen Park was undergoing repairs for roughly two weeks.

Staff reported attendance also suffered due to multiple rainy days.

“The staff are currently looking at other programming opportunities to try and continue to maintain our revenue streams and even expand on them,” Roberts said, pointing to birthday party incentives.

“The staff are working very hard to ensure that will not become our new routine or our new regular expectation,” he said.

Nutrien Playland at Kinsmen Park will be open from 2:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.  on weekends through to July. The park is then open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily from July to September.