The 150-foot-tall ferris wheel installed in Golden Gate Park to commemorate its 150th anniversary has made $9.4 million in ticket sales since its installation, but San Francisco gets to keep just a small cut. The attraction has rolled $270,000 into city coffers since opening day — roughly 3 percent.
In 2022, the city did even worse: $35,000 on $3 million in ticket sales, about 1.15 percent.
The bulk of the ferris wheel’s earnings are kept by the private company that owns and operates it: SkyStar. Since its opening day on Oct. 21, 2020, the “SkyStar Wheel” has generated $9,411,367 in ticket sales, according to revenue estimates from the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.
Though the ferris wheel sits on public land, abutting the Music Concourse green space between the California Academy of Sciences and the de Young Museum, it is run privately by SkyStar under a contract agreement with Rec and Park.
‘Privatization of our public parks‘
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Connie Chan, who previously opened an investigation into the attraction’s revenue-sharing model, remain unhappy with the arrangement.
“This whole thing has reeked from day one,” said Peskin. “It has not made financial sense for the city, and not to mention it doesn’t really belong in Golden Gate Park.”
From 2020-23, SkyStar
collected some $9.4M
in ticket sales. The city
received $270,000.
For every dollar
earned by SkyStar,
the city takes home
a few cents.
From 2020-23, SkyStar collected
some $9.4M in ticket sales.
The city received $270,000.
For every dollar earned by SkyStar,
the city takes home a few cents.
Chart by Will Jarrett. Data from the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.
Chan, who took significant flak for her opposition to the ferris wheel, criticized the use of public space for SkyStar’s private profit.
“When will the privatization of our public parks end?” she asked. “The policy question is not just about the fact that it is generating very little revenue — which it obviously is — the question is why do we have to pay to play in our public parks?”
SkyStar did not respond to requests for comment. Rec and Park declined to comment on the fiscal wisdom of the contract, but did point to a 2021 letter from the department’s general manager, Phil Ginsburg, justifying the installation to the Board of Supervisors.
“We believe the observation wheel and other temporary installations in the park are an important part of the social, economic and cultural fabric of our city and should be supported,” Ginsburg wrote at the time.
The ferris wheel is ultimately the purview of Mayor London Breed and her parks director, Ginsburg, who can choose to end its contract early. The Board of Supervisors, per the city charter, only has jurisdiction over contracts with anticipated city revenue over $1 million.
SF can make $900K total on deal
The revenue estimates include only ticket sales, not other SkyStar income, like photographs or concessions, meaning the city’s take is a lower percentage still. SkyStar did not disclose what it earns, total, in Golden Gate Park.
Parkgoers can pay $18 — or $12 for seniors and kids — to ascend the wheel for a 12-minute ride. For $50, riders get a 20-minute “VIP experience” sitting in a gondola with hardwood floors and leather-backed seats.
Each time someone buys a ticket, the city gets a portion: $1 per general admissions ticket, 75 cents per senior or kids’ ticket, and 6 percent of VIP ticket sales.
Through June of this year, the wheel has netted just $15,014 for the city on gross revenue of $1,274,907 (1.18 percent), but that could rise: Daniel Montes, a spokesperson for the parks department, said he expected revenue to go up this year and for the city’s share to reach $150,000, as fall is a busier season.
That, however, would require a tenfold increase in attendance in the last half of the year. This year, through June, 89,046 people have ridden the ferris wheel, according to Rec and Park. At its peak in 2020-2021, the SkyStar Wheel saw 327,617 attendees.
The agreement with SkyStar, which will expire on March 15, 2024, also initially allowed for revenue sharing with the San Francisco Parks Alliance. The Alliance is a nonprofit that fundraises for city parks and has been the subject of investigation in connection with recent City Hall corruption scandals, but has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
The contract gave the Parks Alliance up to $200,000 from the city’s share in the wheel revenue. That cap was met by August 2021, a Parks Alliance spokesperson said, adding that the nonprofit used those funds on events for the park’s 150th anniversary.
The Recreation and Parks Department now pockets the entirety of its small percentage of revenue, minus costs.
And yes, there are costs. SkyStar can deduct the price of a diesel-burning generator, which keeps the ferris wheel running, from its annual fees to the city. The Recreation and Parks Department has not disclosed how much it costs the city in lost revenue to pay for this generator.
The contract with SkyStar is also structured to automatically end if the city’s revenue equals $900,000 — less than the $1 million that would allow the Board of Supervisors to step in.
Slight diversion: What exactly does the SF Parks Alliance do, what have they accomplished, what do they fund? I used to get mailers from them soliciting donations but they all seemed like vague ‘parks are neat, support them!’ marketing rather than asking for funds to support specific activities. If so much Parks (and allegedly DPW) funds are getting funneled to the Alliance, it would be good to know what they do, and that it isn’t a slush fund or something like that.
They ask for money to fund salaries,rent,swag,meals and more soliciting. They do not fix any park issues I have noticed.The small table on Wawoma/33 neededa top for months.A nail was sticking from a seat for years,even after being painted.The 2 long benches took weeks to fix.These are not complicated repairs.
The ferris wheel is also *shorter* than the free observation deck at the DeYoung museum that is only a few hundred feet away.
But (hopefully) the observation deck will not move.
The same Park and Rec who wants to extend Outside Lands. The same Park and Rec who wants to move the longstanding Farmer’s Market at Civic Center for a Skate Park.
Marina Green events, stern grove fences and river procedure, food truck courts, it goes on and on. Rec and Park looks out for them, not the people of San Francisco.
Also worth mentioning, the “Just Play” app fiasco.
Call me cynical but I have to guess that the lobbyist who helped shepherd this deal for SkyStar probably pulled in more revenue for him or herself than the City is making on this entire debacle.
That would be the Parks Alliance. Yes, they make more from this deal than the city does.
Phil Ginsburg is a hustler, always looking to squeeze another buck out of the system, no matter how much damage that does to the beauty of San Francisco’s public parks. If you watched any of the interviews during Outside Lands, all he was talking about was money, money, money.
Back in 2010-2011, a group of folks were opposing the fee to walk in the Arboretum/botanical Garden. We met with Mark Buell, the head of the Rec & Parks. We told him that he and Ginsburg were privatizing our public park lands. Buell responded: I hate that word (privatization)! I prefer “Site Specific Revenue generation” (privatization) Buell was the mall developer of Emeryville and lives with his wife of 47 acres of bucolic land in Bolinas, and heads all area park assoc.
I would imagine the profit margin is huge on this even giving the city a tiny cut.
I am OK letting this go once contract is over. The park does not need this to attract many tourists and provide for the locals.
I’m not saying that Mark Buell, President of the Recreation and Park Commission, is getting paid by SkyStar, LLC of St. Louis, MO, but how do we know he’s not? SkyStar doesn’t have to reveal how much money it pays out or to whom. It’s a limited liability company and its contractual arrangements are private. There is, in fact, no written contract between SkyStar and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD). When RPD first gave the Wheel a choice location in the Music Concourse, rent free for a year, there was not even a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in place.
The SkyStar ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park deal with the city is clearly flawed and compromised. It needs to be cancelled immediately. If it is renegotiated, the city’s portion of revenues should be substantially increased and/or the cost to the public should be substantially reduced.
Enough of this embezzlement of public funds and the people’s dollars.
Ginsburg needs to be thrown out.The privatization of Golden Gate Park is obvious. Outside Lands denies residents access to much of the park.Last year I saw debris on paths that seemed obvious Outside Lands rubbish.The cementing of the Polo Field was done as secretly as possible.Parks belong to ALL THE RESIDENTS not just entitled bike riders and party goers.It is obvious someone looked the other way when the monetary park of the contract with the unsightly ferris wheel was made.Morons and crooks run San Francisco. This contract proves it.
What percentage of the money from hot dog sales from licensed vendors in the park does the city get? We need to know that for perspective.
The amount doesn’t really bother me. I don’t see why Golden Gate Park needs or wants a ferris wheel, and I hope the contract isn’t renewed. But that’s an aesthetic issue.
If the money the city gets is doubled, and we get another $35,000 this year, that additional revenue would pay our bills for homeless people ($1.1 billion/year) for about 17 minutes.
Think of this as an attraction for the park. Another cool (or not) thing to do while you are there. The percentage is meaningless. It’s just an operating fee.
Also worth noting is the opaqueness of the revenue-sharing contract and additional sources of income like photographs and concessions. While SkyStar remains tight-lipped, the lack of disclosure only adds to the skepticism.
The contract’s details, like the automatic termination clause if the city’s revenue equals $900,000, further illuminate how the deal was not structured in the city’s favor from the outset. It’s clear that significant scrutiny is needed, both in revisiting the existing contract and in deliberating any similar future endeavors.
Clearly somebody in La City Familia has been paid off. Wouldn’t expect anything less from Parks & Rec.
“Follow the money. Follow the money.”
The crooks in the park department took over 10 years to resurface the playground on Vicente and 41 Avenue,but could paint the road immediately for the entitled bike riders in Golden Gate Park immediately. Moving the Farmers Market to make a stupid skate park is another destruction of SF.KICK The jerks in that Park Department out.They are appointed morons,not elected.
Article isn’t very informative without some kind of reference point for the 3%.
If Ferris Wheel has a 10% profit margin (pure guess), then 3% of ticket sale (revenue) would equal 30% of total profit (which doesn’t seem unreasonable).
Seems like the goal of the article is to push an agenda.
False analysis. By your logic, if the thing were operated at the break-even point, the city would get nothing.
You’re right – in which case a contract based on a share of *profit* rather than revenue would seem to be far more sensible.
The city isn’t great at negotiating these things (see also: bus shelter advertising).
You never base your take on another party’s profit. It is a straightforward accounting exercise to discount profits, and if that’s not enough, what with hiring “consultants” and such shenanigans.