Louisville, Kentucky - Kentucky Kingdom has been through a roller coaster of suspension it seems since the park closed in February 2010, after Six Flags rejected a new lease agreement with the Kentucky State Fair Board. Time and time again, new plans seem to be coming forward for the park, only to be later rejected or shot down in some way. Now, plans are on the upswing once again, and it seems the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) now expects the park to reopen next May.

This news release by the LRC follows on the footsteps of an announcement that the park has been working hard on getting a public-private backing to reopen the park. As reported by Theme Park Tourist, the Al J. Schneider Co., who owns several major hotels in the area, has offered to provide some financial backing to help get the park back on its feet. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that the firm is offering up to $20 million in loans to be made to the Kentucky Kingdom Redevelopment Company, led by former Kentucky Kingdom owner Ed Hart, in hopes bringing the amusement park back online will greatly boost AL J. Schneider’s hotel business.

Ed Hart has been trying to seek funding from the local government since the park closed, but has been rejected on multiple occasions, perhaps because he was asking for too much. Lately, he has been seeking money from the Louisville Metro Government according to Theme Park Tourist. He hopes to get $23 million to bring the park’s current attractions back into operation next year, including reopening T2 immediately. After this, Hart hopes to expand the park with two new family thrill rides and a new roller coaster for the 2013 season, though he hasn’t released any details beyond that. For 2014, the goal would be to overhaul and reopen the wooden dueling Twisted Twins roller coaster.

According to WLKY, the fair board president and CEO, Harold Workman, told the LRC that the park should reopen by next spring with its new plans in place. He also said in the release that reopening the park is the fair board’s “No. 1 priority as [they] move forward to the next General Assembly.” The goal from the General Assembly is to acquire another $30 million from the Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet for the second phase of reconstruction, according to WFPL News. This will bring the total up to approximately $50 million over the next few years to restore the park to its “glory days,” when the park had an annual attendance of 1.2 million in the late 1990s.