Indoor trampoline park opening in Vallejo’s Gateway Plaza

VALLEJO – As big box stores have closed around the country, new indoor activity parks have been moving into the cavernous spaces at shopping centers. The city of Vallejo is the latest to join the trend with a new trampoline park set to open in Gateway Plaza on Thursday.

The new Sky Zone activity park is moving into the former Bed Bath and Beyond location at 105 Plaza Drive between the City Sports Club and Michaels.

The park will offer physically interactive video games, an obstacle course, a four-way balance beam foam jousting battles and a variety of trampoline activities that the Sky Zone chain of parks is most famous for. 

Sky Zone Regional Vice President Brian DeCato said that the Vallejo location will also feature the company’s “Air Courts,” which have been enormously popular. 

“There's something so fun about playing basketball or soccer on a bouncy surface that gives you almost super-human skills,” DeCato said in an email.  

The park’s activities are designed for both kids and adults so you will find parents enjoying the trampolines right alongside their kids. Co-workers, parents and students alike play can games of dodge ball or have trampoline dunk competitions for birthday parties or special events. 

Jesse Shreve and her eight-year-old daughter Freya Perla stopped by the Vallejo Sky Zone on Tuesday while workers were preparing for opening day. They have been to the Vacaville location and were excited to learn that another location is opening just five minutes from their home.

Freya said that her favorite activity is jumping but she also likes the dodge ball arena.

Shreve said that since her daughter goes to school outside of Vallejo, it is nice to have another good reason to invite her friends to come visit her in Vallejo. “I also feel like it's a brand new facility so it is probably clean,” she said.

Several of the activities and courses have foam pits to safely catch revelers if they fall off the obstacle course or if an opponent knocks them off balance with a foam jousting stick. 

Although the foam pits bring to mind children’s ball pits, which have been known to spread infection, DeCato said that the company employs a comprehensive cleaning protocol that operates on daily, weekly and monthly cycles to ensure the safety and well being of guests. “Every surface is disinfected regularly, including foam pits and high-contact areas,” he said.

Sky Zone equipment also undergoes regular safety inspections and the parks have well-trained staff members that monitor the activities and enforce safety rules, DeCato said. 

The company requires that all participants, or their parents or guardians, sign an agreement that acknowledges the inherent dangers of the activities, which can result in “serious bodily injury, permanent disability, paralysis, and death.” 

The company has faced numerous lawsuits in California and across the country for a variety of injuries, including broken bones and severe neck injuries. The lawsuits have alleged that injuries were caused by equipment that was improperly maintained or defective, by staff members who failed to intervene when participants engaged in a dangerous activity or by foam pits that were insufficiently filled to prevent injury.

A 2019 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics that examined trampoline injury data from 2008 to 2017 found that trampoline related fractures were 32% more likely to occur at a recreation facility or gym than on trampolines at a residence. The study noted that the share of pediatric trampoline injuries had increased with the popularity of trampoline parks.

Children under 13 are required to have a parent or guardian present with them at all times while in the park, but older children can participate in the activities on their own with a parental consent form. 

The Vallejo Sky Zone location will offer a soft play area that is specially designed for toddlers and a multi-level play structure that is for children ten and under. 

According to DeCato, Sky Zone has been in business for 20 years and Vallejo will be the Utah-based company’s 276th park. The idea for the parks grew out of a Las Vegas trampoline arena intended for trick competition among professional athletes. But the arena proved to be more popular when it was opened for public use. 

One of the company's early locations was in Sacramento and Northern California has continued to be one of the company’s strongest performing regions, according to DeCato. In 2025, the company added 14 locations in Northern California and they added eight more this year. The company currently has a location in Vacaville and Stockton as well as others in the Bay Area.

Indoor activity centers have been hailed as synergistic additions that can buoy sluggish sales at malls and retail centers when residents seek out new physical experiences or when parents need an activity for the kids while they slip off to do some shopping. 

Although Vallejo’s Gateway Plaza is often bustling with activity despite the recent economic pressures, the Sky Zone will fill major retail space in a section of the plaza that does have a couple vacant storefronts.  

The park also has a “Fuel Zone” cafe with light food and snacks that are easy to enjoy between activities. DeCato noted that outside food is generally not permitted except by special arrangement for party packages. But with the numerous popular establishments in Gateway Plaza, DeCato encourages families to “come for a jump session, then stop at nearby restaurants, run errands, and make a full outing of it.”

“Vallejo is a community-oriented city with a strong population of young families,” DeCato said. “When we look at what this community needs and what we offer, it's a natural fit.”

More information about tickets, Sky Zone membership deals and pricing for special events is available at the company’s website for the Vallejo location.