San Francisco gets 3% cut of Golden Gate ferris wheel ticket sales

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.

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.”

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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.

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.

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Joe was born in Sweden, where the Chilean half of his family received asylum after fleeing Pinochet, and spent his early childhood in Chile; he moved to Oakland when he was eight. He attended Stanford University for political science and worked at Mission Local as a reporter after graduating. He then spent time in advocacy as a partner for the strategic communications firm The Worker Agency. He rejoined Mission Local as an editor in 2023.