Skaters will start lacing up at Wollman Rink again next month, right on schedule, the way they have every fall since 1950. The 14 pickleball courts CityPickle installed on the rink deck over the summer will come down, the Zamboni will make its first pass, and by October 24 the ice will be open daily through March 16, with the same general manager, the same skate school, and the same Central Park skyline view that's made this corner of the park a fixture of Central Park South life for three quarters of a century.
None of that will tell you the one thing that actually changed this year. The company that unlocks the box office doors this winter has already lost the right to run this rink long-term. It just hasn't had to hand over the keys yet.
The Season Ahead Looks Exactly Like the Last One
If you live near the park's southeast corner, this season should feel familiar. Wollman Park Partners, the joint venture between Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, Related Companies, and Equinox that has operated the rink since 2021, is still the outfit running skate rentals, the igloo reservations, and the Melba's in the Park concession stand in the Overlook. Bret Pidgeon remains general manager. The Wollman Rink Access Program, which offers discounted or free admission through Culture Pass and ID NYC, is still in place.
That continuity isn't an accident. It's the direct result of a six-month contract extension the city granted to the current operator so it could finish out the entire 2026-27 winter season before any changeover takes effect. Wollman Park Partners' original agreement was set to expire October 31, 2026. Instead of a midseason handoff, the city let this group play out one more full winter, through April 2027, before a different arrangement begins.
The Fight That Decided Who Comes Next
The reason there's a different arrangement waiting at all traces back to a bidding war that played out over the better part of a year. In November 2024, the city's Parks Department opened a request for proposals for a new 20-year Wollman Rink concession, and the Trump Organization, which had rebuilt the rink from a decrepit shell in 1986 and run it for most of the following three decades, moved to reclaim it. That earlier renovation is itself part of local lore: the city's own plans to fix the rink had stalled for years through the 1970s fiscal crisis, and when Trump's crew took over the job in the summer of 1986, they finished it that fall for less than the $3 million originally budgeted.
Trump Organization's more recent run ended in 2021, when Mayor Bill de Blasio canceled its contracts for Wollman Rink, Lasker Rink, and the Central Park Carousel following the January 6 Capitol riot. Related Companies picked up the concession that year alongside Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Equinox.
For this round of bidding, Related came back with a different partner. Instead of Equinox and Harris Blitzer, Related teamed up with CityPickle, the company that has run the rink's summer pickleball program since 2023. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and City Council Parks Committee Chair Shekar Krishnan sent a letter urging the mayor to reject the Trump Organization's bid, warning it would send the wrong message about the city's priorities and values. By September 2025, reporting made clear the Trump Organization's comeback attempt had failed, and on October 1, 2025, the Parks Department formally selected the Related and CityPickle venture, structured as Wollman Park Partners II, to hold the new franchise.
The Conservancy Wanted the Job Too
The Trump Organization wasn't the only party the city passed over. The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that maintains the rest of the park, spent the fall of 2024 pitching its own takeover of Wollman Rink, offering to gift the city $120 million to cover rink upgrades along with accessibility and stormwater improvements to the park's southeast corner. The catch was that the Conservancy asked the city to contribute $30 million in taxpayer funds to unlock that donor money, and it wanted the deal awarded without competitive bidding. City officials turned the offer down, citing a preference for the competitive process and the annual fee revenue a for-profit operator provides. The Conservancy pushed back publicly, arguing the resulting deal would keep Wollman as an island of for-profit commerce in the middle of a park it otherwise runs as a nonprofit.
That contrast is worth sitting with if you're a Central Park South resident who splits time between both ends of the park. A few blocks north, the Conservancy's own Gottesman Rink at the Davis Center, which replaced the old Lasker Rink at the Harlem Meer, opens for its skating season November 1, 2026, a week after Wollman. One rink at the north end, run entirely by the nonprofit that maintains the park around it. One rink at the south end, run under a for-profit concession the city has now committed to for the next two decades.
What the City Gets Out of the Arrangement
The financial case for keeping Wollman Rink a paid concession rather than folding it into the Conservancy's nonprofit operations comes down to what the rink actually generates. In the seasons since Related's group took over in 2021, Wollman Rink generated an average of just above $13.75 million a year in revenue, according to figures the city's Parks Department shared with Crain's New York Business in March 2025. The operator has paid the city an escalating annual fee that started at $3 million, and bidders for the new 20-year contract, including the eventual winner, proposed their own fee structures on top of that. Related's pitch also included capital improvements to the rink's aging electrical and plumbing systems along with cosmetic upgrades, part of what the Parks Department cited when it announced the award, saying Related was committing to modernizing the facility's infrastructure.
There was one more piece of urgency behind the October 2025 announcement. Mayor Adams had already dropped his bid for reelection that fall, and the Parks Department needed the deal on the Franchise Concession Review Committee's public agenda by October 16 to have any chance of final approval before he left office at the end of December. Related's incoming CEO team, Jeff Blau and Bruce Beal, said in a statement following the award that they were delighted to continue as stewards of Wollman Rink.
What Actually Changes, and When
For anyone booking a birthday party on the ice or picking up a season pass this fall, none of this changes what you'll experience walking into the rink this winter. Here's the sequence that matters if you want to understand what's really going on beneath a season that otherwise looks unchanged:
- October 24, 2026 — Wollman Rink opens for its 2026-27 ice skating season, run by the current operator, Wollman Park Partners.
- November 1, 2026 — The Conservancy's Gottesman Rink at the Harlem Meer opens its own skating season under nonprofit management.
- March 16, 2027 — Wollman Rink's public skating season closes for the year.
- April 2027 — The current operator's extended contract expires, closing out its run at the rink.
- May 1, 2027 — Wollman Park Partners II, the new 20-year concession held by Related Companies and CityPickle, formally takes over.
Central Park South has watched this rink change hands before. It went from a city-run facility to a Trump Organization project in 1986, to a multi-partner joint venture in 2021, and now to a restructured version of that same venture with a new partner in 2027. Through all of it, the view from the promenade and the sound of blades on ice haven't moved an inch. What's changed each time is who's collecting the fee and who's answering for the infrastructure underneath the surface everyone actually sees.
If you're weighing what any of this means for property near the park, whether that's a pied-Ã -terre with a rink view or a longer-term move to Central Park South, Lena Simpson tracks these civic and market shifts as closely as she tracks listings. Request a personalized consultation to talk through what's happening in this corner of the neighborhood, on the ice and off it.
