Six Flags and Cedar Fair have Merged. What's Next?
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- We can't believe it either. Whether you like it or not, Six Flags and Cedar Fair are now one big company. So what does that mean going forward? We'll discuss our current feelings on the merger and then what we expect the next steps will be, as well as changes we hope to see in the future!
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Let's just hope they improve all the Six Flags parks, especially SFMM. SFMM needs major improvements to maintenance and landscaping. Too much concrete, not enough shade
Couldn’t agree more. I’d much rather see improvements in that department than another new coaster
@@CoasterStudios Well a coaster is happened no matter what 😛
I think there is a misconception the top tier Cedar Fair and Six Flags Parks are on par with each other those being Cedar Point, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Kings Island, Six Flags Great America, Knotts Berry Farm, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Canada's Wonderland, Six Flags Great Adventure. Are close in terms of quality whereas the lower you go down the wider the gap gets World's of Fun, Valleyfair, Dorney Park, Six Flags America, La Ronde, Six Flags Darien Lake, Six Flags St Louis it does get much wider in terms of quality between the two
@@joecandish3923 Cedar Fair legacy parks are better at all levels.
Couldn’t agree more, I also want Twisted Colossus dueling and Enter Sandman back on X2 lol
Six Flags always felt cheap to me and I think that has to do largely with the lack of landscaping and theming. That's especially true of the parks that Six Flags has owned since the 70s where new additions are put in parking lots, covered in blacktop, or literally on top of a dying field next to maintenance yards. When you look at a Cedar Fair park they always put effort into beautifying everything the guests see and it pays off a lot in the overall atmosphere of the park. I hope this merger fixes these issues.
Hopefully the new company will put time into making the six flags parks look as good as the cedar fair parks
One can only hope. I just watched Dylan of Theme Park Obsession video earlier while he was at Magic Mountain and he mentioned that some execs from Cedar Fair were on site doing a walk around....so hey....who knows.
Six Flags defer maintenance more than Cedar Fair.
It's crazy that the merger actually happened... the og Cedar Fair parks will be like Kings Island-A Six Flags Park. Also, Happy Independence Day!
I think the new six flags logo is meant to bridge the gap so the old cedar fair parks can now be recognized as six flags parks without the name change.
@FryGuy909 yeah. Thats what it looks like. I meant to put that mayhe the og cedar fair parks would do that
@@Westkid3057 I imagine eventually some of the park names will change, but i think for now, the new logo acts as enough of a bridge
They said they're not doing any name changes to parks thankfully
@@namevone Even thinking about the parks being renamed like Six Flags Kings Island, Six Flags Carowinds(that one doesn't sound as bad), or Six Flags Dorney Park kinda sound gross
Mergers are basically never good for anybody other than shareholders.
True
I dont know because Cedar Fair was always the superior company and the Six Flags we all know and hate has essentially ceased to exist in this merger. It's CF using the SF name. Its less that Cedar Point is now a Six Flags park, its more so Six Flags Magic Mountain is now a Cedar Fair park.
not true at all
One Season Pass instead of Two Season Passes is good for me.
@@coastingalong I hope that you’re right. Only time will tell
As a guy that invest on stocks and read some 10Ks, I can say with some confidence the expression "financial flexibility" usually means cost cutting.
Oof
It means two things here.
They can cut an entire HQ and they are. Arlington is going away. It also expands their availability to credit.
@@Danrarbcyep I work at call
Center at six flags I believe so
For senior management and mid-tier I can see it. They can improve productivity. I don’t see any cost cutting in the parks. It would then decrease their attendance and revenues.
As long as it has a positive effect on Six Flags parks and not a negative effect on Cedar Fair parks.
As long as they throw ValleyFair or Michigan's Adventure a treat here and there, now...
They're gonna get new benches and trash cans...... again.
They don't have any incentive to give them investments when they aren't going to get a large return on investments.
Possibly a few fountain 😗
Michigan’s adventure just give them stuff that makes people wanna come back
Valleyfair has hope now that Dorney and WOF got new coasters.
It would be a big treat but imagine parks like Great Adventure or Magic Mountain receives a B&M Giga
I worry Knott's will lose the rest of Ghost Town.
That would be amazing
@@riparianlife97701 Why?
Leadership did not change.
@@riparianlife97701wdym the rest of ghost town? What did they lose before?
Honestly it makes more sense for knotts to get the giga since it could use it more, it's in direct competition with disneyland and advertising a 300 foot coaster would be great for the park. Regardless, Knotts already laid out plains for a giga coaster in the first place anyway.
0:44 The “Six” has the Cedar Fairs flag on it, looks like it is the combo logo after all!
The original Six Flags logo already had that though
@@GoudLoodje true, but hey it’s fitting I guess just make the flag red in the logos and Bing bada boom
0:57
But most of Cedar Fair’s parks had flags in their logos, so you could interpret the flag as both the Six Flags and Cedar Fair flag.
if y’all do another parody you gotta have a bit where cedar point fanboy and MM fanboy become friends or something lol
i think this merger is the biggest bombshell to the industry since the old cedar fair bought the paramount parks.
I can see why the merger happened. Unless your park is located in California or Florida (maybe Texas as well), you basically have about 4 months to make your money. That's a pretty risky business model. Having more locations helps alleviate that risk.
I lived in Texas for four years and just visited some friends and went to Six Flags Over Texas. I was struck by how run down that park looks. And it's not just the park, but the area around it. Roach motels, pawn shops, payday loan stores, bad neighborhoods near by. It just didn't feel all that good, and that's with brand new NFL and MLB stadiums right next door. You'd think they'd pump some investment into that area, and they really haven't.
That's not why the merger happened. On the Cedar Fair parks they have said that some of their most profitable days are actually in the fall, not in the May to end of August, 4 month traditional season. This is especially the case for parks like Cedar Point and even more for Knotts, as Knotts Scary Farm is not included in your pass. It requires everyone to buy a day ticket or Scary Farm season pass. SF parks really have not recovered from the pandemic. They as a company were having a lack of organic growth problem pre pandemic. Post pandemic they faltered even more under even worse leadership..ie Selim. The price increases in 2022 eviscerated their pass base, attendance dropped 7M and they fell to 2016 financial levels. They are as of FY2023 just at 2017 levels in revenue and lower net income. In the same period post pandemic Cedar Fair and Sea World Ent have been producing record profits. There is a reason in the merger Cedar Fair has 10 of 11 executive spots, The SF management was subpar and both Boards agreed on that, hence Cedar Fair people retained their roles in the merger.
It is getting worse. It's turning into a ghetto.
Look at the bright side. More flags, more fun.
More Fairs, More Flags, More Fun
I see what you did there. Well played.
@@LChineze"Write that down write that down!"
Naive
The new logo reminds me of the United / Continental Airlines merger announcement, where the "United" name was jammed into the Continental logo and font. Looked like a blundering self-own out of the Onion. Luckily, public reaction was embarrassing enough for them to change it.
Hopefully this logo is specifically for the corporate HQ in Charlotte, not the individual parks.
Should they have a plan about adding dark rides to the cedar fair parks who don’t have it and indoor water park resorts that the parks should want during cold weather?
Cedar Point needs a dark ride.
As someone whose home park is Michigan's Adventure, I'm cautiously optimistic. The park is out in the middle of nowhere, so there aren't going to be a lot of prospective buyers to redevelop it, so I think Six Flags is probably stuck with the property whether they like it or not. If they do sell it off, it would likely be to someone who would keep the park open. With that said, if they do decide to close other parks, MA is a prime location for some relocations, with a lot of room for expansion. Maybe it's a pipe dream to think that something might change after all this time, but I have some hope for the first time in a while.
as a MA regular myself, I doubt they'd sell MA as (according to a lot of people, though I actually haven't seen the source myself) MA has one of, if not the best profit ratios of the entire chain. That being said, if you do close a location or two, yes please send one of their good coasters over here, we'd love a new thrill coaster lol. I think 1 (or 2, I wouldn't complain) new thrill coaster(s), and replacing our wild mouse with a Wild Moose as it'd work better for a family coaster that would also attach older audiences, would do so much to put MA as a major destination point again.
@@johnpaulstrobel2547 MA just has so much land in the woods where the train runs now that they could easily put a coaster in. Something like Railblazer would go great there. Mad Mouse would be a shame to lose because it's one of the best mice out there, but the capacity is just so terrible. What MA really needs is some new flat rides to replace the carnival rides between Mouse and Timbers.
@@kay_sou yeah, mad mause definitely isn't something I want to replace, but I feel like the ride logistics are just so bad it's typically the second longest wait time in the park. One could dream about the possibilities of actually using that untapped land, either removing the train entirely or adjusting it, and adding an entirely new wing to the park in that area
Mergers are never good. I've been through 3 of them. On the conference call it sounded like their main focus will be on the improvement of Six Flags parks. The Cedar Fair parks will not receive the investments they received earlier. Right now, they are basically lying to everyone . Several parks are going to be closed or sold. Also their won't be any competition between the two companies. There is no need to add record breaking coasters, especially parks like Cedar Point. I hope Hershend makes and offer on Cedar Point or Kings Island to keep their history and legacy.
This sounds like cap.
Lol..trying reading the S4, they laid out planned Capex of the Cedar Fair parks and Sf parks...Hint, Cedar Fair legacy parks Capex will increase and they will continue doing what made them successful. The entire executive leadership team is Cedar Fair people, save 1, that has a made up title of chief integration officer. Six Flags parks will be attempted to brought up to Cedar Fair level. They are going to try to do what they did at CF parks the last decade under the Seasons of Fun plan....improved foods/beverage, restaurants, aesthetics, theming, more and better special events during the season, etc,,, SF legacy parks are going to be run like CF, which means they will be getting less rides, not every year, but will get big ones every few years and all the other stuff mentioned before will get invested in that SF has neglected traditionally. The question is will SF core patrons used to cheap prices, shabby looking parks, poor food, etc... be willing to pay up long term once the improvements are made. CF parks typically cost more and people are willing to pay more for those other things.
Cedar Fair and Six Flags only competed in a few markets. 90% of regional theme parks attendance comes within a 2hr drive. The notion that they will not invest b/c of lack of competition is false. Cedar fair has always stated their biggest competition is other things people can do with their time and money. Cf management is in control and this mindset will continue. They invest to keep people coming and not spending their money on other entertainment options. The focus has really been the last 5 to 7 years to keep people coming all season and many times, via special events essentially each month of the season at the parks .
You topped off the post with the ridiculous fantasy of Hershned would offer on CP or KI... lol X 100000
Agreed. This is giving Penn Central vibes. I think Herschend needs to expand into new areas, not buying a CF park; if Herschend built a new park in the SF area where CGA will be gone, or in a city with not enough parks like Santa Fe or Arizona, then they can emerge as the new 2nd party in this era.
@@Shinyarc Certain areas don't have parks for a reason. FYI, the reason regional parks don't build new parks is it's costs 500M minimum to build a moderate sized park and it will take more than a decade(s), to just get your initial investment back money. You have astronomical development costs and then you have to build a following, massive spend on ads. while you still have to ramp up Capex yearly. There is a reason the only successful new parks in decades are by the mega corporations of Disney, Universal, Legoland, etc.. The few indy small parks that have opened recently are all struggling on the verge of going out of business...ie... Lost Island.
Touchless security for bags is just really laxed security, for convenience. I see people having so many things that are not allowed in parks now, than ever before.
As a legacy Six Flags member, it is crazy to think that this merger is happening now. We'll just have to wait and see how things go from here.
This will only drag down Cedar fair parks. I said what I said.
I was just thinking this is going to either be really good for 6 flags parks, or really bad for cedar fair parks...
@@tondog54 Yuuup. Especially when just a couple months before talks of this merger, Six Flags had been talking about them losing so much money and needed to ”Reform" their parks... 🙄
Speaking of new IPs, I could see Six Flags to start working with Crunchyroll to bring in some new IPs such as Spy X Family, Ochi no Ko, The Rising of the Shield Hero, etc. to bring in some of the anime fans to visit their nearby Six Flags park.
Hopefully Six Flags Great Adventure can get some improvements too! I know that six flags magic mountain is in need of improvements as well but great adventure has 300 acres of unused land as the safari is closed so maybe we could see something happen to that as well as the area around Kingda ka for instance as you can see the original parking lot under such a legendary coaster feels kind of criminal. Would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this though.
I don’t necessarily love the lack of competition now but I am hoping this means Six Flags Over Texas will actually get a new, big coaster finally.
Giga, am I right!
As we all anxiously await the resurrection of Top Thrill 2…in the iconic words of Hannah Montana, we got the best of both worlds!
Hannah Montana??☹Van Halen!!🙂
“We renin an economic recession right now?” What?
Happy forth of July everyone!
Six Flags.... more like... Cedar Fair
Na, it’s Cedar Flags.
Nah cope harder cry more cedar fair is no moreeee 😂😂😂
@@wereallyrollin6680well the ceo of cedar fair is the new ceo of six flags, so basically it's cedar fair just with the six flags name
@@wereallyrollin6680other than the name, Six Flags in no more 😂😂
@@MrPizza_0919 It's 10 of the 11 people in the Corporate Executive team are Cedar Fair. This was a take over by CF, though the PR is merger of equals. You don't see an equal merger with one complete C-suite essentially wiped out.
Great video! Maybe the old Cedar Fair parks will stay more like the old Cedar Fair Parks. And the old Six Flags Parks will stay more like the old Six Flags Parks.
This was a merger and not an acquisition and from their profit reports since 2020 we know they're both struggling financially. That means they're desperate. Generally, a merger of two struggling companies means they both need to shed assets to bring in revenue but they're afraid that they aren't big enough to survive large scale sell offs on their own but they might have a more stable base if they combine.
This has me worried. Park sell offs seem like the purpose not just a possible side effect. And if that's the case, the focus would likely be on selling parks whose property would result in the highest price. A lot of people are thinking about places like Frontier City and Michigan's Adventure. But those wouldn't bring in the revenue the new company needs. But parks in the Bay Area, southern California, the Toronto metro area may bring in the most even if they are popular parks. And it's not like the company would refuse an offer from a housing developer in order to sell a park for less to another park chain.
I'm not saying this is guaranteed. But people seem to think that two chains with massive debt will somehow have more money to invest in more parks if they combine. That's just not how it works and from a business point of view the opposite is far more likely.
I can't see any other California park getting the axe. SFMM and Knotts are both iconic and SFDK would be the only game left in town on cheaper land than CGA.
Same with CW. It's the biggest amusement park in Canada. Where land really becomes an issue is SFA and Dorney imo, particularly the former. These already don't measure up to big competition and are in more expensive areas...
@@yankeeman311 you're thinking from an enthusiast perspective. A park being "iconic" or the biggest in Canada has zero to do with what a company will do with it. If a chain is desperate for an influx of cash they aren't going to be making decisions based on regional fan opinions. If a real estate developer offered $500 million because they thought the land was worth it the chain won't lose any sleep if the theme park fan base sheds a tear. It's not like fans of the others parks will abandon those parks in solidarity of Magic Mountain closing.
Knotts is probably safe specifically because it's so small. Then again, property in Orange County is so expensive that I wouldn't say it's 100% safe.
Again, in not saying what is guaranteed to happen. I just think enthusiasts are looking at this merger as if it was some kind of strategic plan to please the fans. It was a business decision made by two desperate park chains. That's all. This merger was unthinkable to most enthusiasts. Why would it be unthinkable for a new chain that is loaded with debt to try and sell off assets that would bring the biggest revenue?
@@zacg_ because then they have way lower income for the future yeah they can get a influx of cash from selling parks but then what they are gonna be in only places that are low property value like makes not sense that’s basically what you’re saying I don’t think they’ll do that they get way more In the long run unless seaworld steps up or universal goes full coaster park they always have a segment of the market it’s smarter to make it the best and have repeat business even when ups or downs in Economy and people would cut Disney or universal if they have financial issues if you can provide a local or closer cheaper good alternative that’s the goal
@zacg_ Maybe iconic is the wrong word. You're right in that they won't make decisions based on our feelings.
But I don't think it makes much sense to sell CW. That park has the best attendance of the old CF parks and it's arguably the most popular park in Canada.
Knotts like you said has small land plus it's open almost daily to feed off the Disney crowd.
SFMM would probably warrant the biggest discussion. Big land that's certainly valuable. I guess I just see the park as being such a roller coaster capital and "face of the franchise" that it would make the chain really hesitant to get rid of it
@@zacg_ Chill out dude they aren’t selling Crown Jewels.
Canada’s Wonderland is a top 3 Cedar Fair park.
I know this is random, but maybe operations at Magic Mountain will improve so possibly duels on Twisted Colossus?
Twisted Colossus would have a better chance of dueling as long as there are three trains running and people not taking valuable time during dispatch.
Queue line shades at Cedar Point is all I'm asking for out of this merger. Too much probably... But high hopes
I've only been to Knotts Berry Farm with any regularity, pre-and-post acquisition.
This is mainly due to the fact I am never near any other park of theirs. (especially when it was Cedar Fair only)
I am hoping Knotts gets the investment it so desperately needs, and not just Snoopy land lol.
Good thing about this is…. cedar fair mite be Forced to bury the hatchet with INTAMIN & RMC. Their blacklisting of the manufacturers that put Cedar point on the map was stupid anyways
“Six Flags, Busch Gardens, Disney World, Disney Land, ITS STILL CEDAR POINT TO ME.”
Honestly, I'm pretty pessimistic about this. These kinds of massive corporate mergers usually never turn out well for the consumers, and the press release makes me think the same for this. They mention increasing profitability and per capita spending, and attendance, but those very actions counteract eachother. The parks in both chains are already very expensive for value, both in entry and other charges like food, parking, etc. They're hardly good value.
And yet they think of trying to squeeze even more cash out of customes! Thats anti-consumer practise, and is not a good thing to see with a chain that has such a stronghold over the entire North American theme park industry. Like in LA and the Northeast, sure they have a little bit of competition, but its not much at all! They still hold practical monopolies through most of the continent! Like most people if theyre gonna visit a theme park, the only options in their entire region, or even within several states radius, is gonna be a Six flags now! They could screw over customers as much as they want and still not care cause said customers have no alternative options unless travelling far across the nation.
Honestly its a big problem with these kinds of stockmarket corporations in general! Everything has to be about eternal growth to pay back to shareholders! It takes value from the parks and customers and dont give it back to neither, but to people who havent done anything except be rich enough to own a share of the company. Having a stable, and suitable economy where profits dont grow eternally, is straight up unacceptable under those terms.
I know we a lot of the time talk about European parks being much more customer friendly, but thats also in large part due to majority of the European theme parks being run by Families, or by non-profit organisations. Corporate chains do exist, but they have more fierce competition from the many smaller players in the field, and as such have to lower their own profit margins to be competitive. Thankfully that does happen in Europe, but in the US, that more often than not leads to corporate buyouts and or complete shutdowns! Just think of what happened to Geauga Lake, or what originally happened to Kentucky Kingdom. And the few independent parks that do exist outside of the Northeast are usually always too small to be any actual competition to a corporate park.
I hope Im wrong but I fear July 1st 2024 is gonna be looked back at in the past as a really bad day for the North American theme park industry as a whole thanks to this merger.
I wish they would have gone with Cedar Flags
Same, that'd be a perfect name
Six fair
@@jvoges Nah
Cedar Fair.
disagree
Blew my mind with the last question,
“What’s your favorite Six Flags park? Cedar Point?” 😳😂🥵🤯
The big wonder for me is about the two #1 parks in both companies portfolios of parks, Southern California's Knotts Berry Farm & Magic Mountain.
Both parks are in desperate need of attention. Knott's modern tech infrastructure in their foods dept (mobile ordering), parking, needs at least 1 more high capacity reliable thrill ride (B&M Giga-Coaster).
Magic Mtn needs to reclaim it's identity, it's lineup is aging as majority of it is rollercoaster tech is from the 90's during the big spending spree of 1988-2006.
Both parks haven't had a major or modern addition since 2004 (silver Bullet) & 2006 (Tatsu).
They are the cash cows for both companies, if they don't get the investments they've deserved, earned, and needed, if not now, when?
Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Olympics.... I'm just saying...
Six Flags has mobile ordering for food. Both in the app and on kiosks at each dining location. Six Flags also has Speedy Parking. If you have a pass or Membership you can just go right through and park without any problems.
What will be the 1ST park they sell off?? Absolutely you should know not to believe everything you Read. Come On
100% will use that as the new logo for all of the parks, having one brand is way more important than nostalgia
I will def see how this will work long-term. I do have concerns about selling lesser-known parks (hopefully to someone to keep it as independent or smaller chain parks). But I hope we see manufacturers work on good projects and upgrade the food, theming, experience, to improve the experience.
In terms of copyrights, I could see the DC characters stay at the legacy Six Flags parks but retire the Looney Tunes brand in favor of Snoopy/Peanut characters. I think the new logo might apply to all park, but only used at the legacy Six Flags parks.
Taylor are you gonna do a on ride reaction to the Titan ride at six flags over Texas!?
Maybe one day!
That new logo tbh looks not good, the old SF logo was alot better.
One flag
THANK YOU!!!!
@@archimetropolis Six Flags! More flags, MORE FUN!
I mostly see a lot of the more smaller parks being destroyed sooner
I'm taking a 'wait and see' attitude towards this merger for now but I will say this: a friend of mine and I decided several years ago that we wanted to visit all of the CF parks someday and have been steadily working our way through them (crossing off Worlds/Oceans of Fun during our upcoming MO/IA theme park trip) but I've never had that same desire to visit all of the SF parks. I've actually never even BEEN to a SF park (we are going to SF: St. Louis during our MO trip so there's my first one) because I haven't really heard too many good things about them over the years. Also, when your home park is KI and you also live within shorter driving distances of KK, CP, Holiday World, and half a dozen awesome parks in western PA, driving out of my comfort zone to visit 'nearby' SF parks isn't too high on my must do list. We'll see what happens I guess. *shrugs* =\
Honestly this could end up being very good. I think Cedar Fair’s C-Suite are much more likely to add innovative rides to six flags parks than Six Flags’ Corporate
Actually Six Flags historically has always been more likely to take risks on prototypes. I would think this REDUCES the chances of innovation.
@@Danrarbc I gotta disagree. If you take Great Adventure, Magic Mountain, and Texas out the mix, we got multiple parks with very similar to near identical rides
my theory is everything is going to get worse as it usually goes when huge companies become even larger. cedar fair parks will become a bit worse, some small to medium sized parks will get sold off to companies not interested or experienced in running amusement parks. larger six flags parks will probably stay the same
I think hershend or seaworld could but some of the smaller parks
King’s island and cedar point more popular than six flags parks and I am afraid of them upping the prices now
There is no recession currently. Yes, there is high inflation and low wages, but that's completely different from being in a recession.
RIP Cedar Fair. I was a big fan of would have preferred the Cedar Fair name.
Get rid of salim bussuel and promote Jeffrey sebert or get his input on all the parks.
Brand new ballgame now!!
I really hope it’ll go well. I stated in my personal video that I’m kinda glad that the Simon Malls didn’t buy its competitor (GGP, who was bankrupt during the ‘09 economic collapse). But this is theme parks. Let’s just see y’all 🐧
Im curious to see what they're going to do with their operation system. Are they going to keep the operations the same or switch to one?
I personally am anticipating them all switching to IROC- but we will have to see
People need to realize that while they call it a merger of equals, it's not! Cedar Fair have 51% stake, but have 10 of the 11 Executive Team. CEDAR FAIR IS ESSENTIALLY COMPLETELY RUNNING THE SHOW! The only position of SF is Chief Integration Officer, which is a made up position during the merger that will surely go away within a few years as the "integration" of the 2 companies will be completed in all aspects. The CEO and the executive team run the parks, which are all CF. This is a complete management takeover by Cedar Fair people, while the Six Flags name is being retained for corporate. Hence, since it's all Cedar Execs retaining their roles CEO, CFO, COO, down to Head of Procurement . HR, etc,,, things at legacy Cedar Fair parks aren't going to change. They are going to keep doing what has made them successful. The changes will come ideally at SF legacy parks. The fact that the Exec team is 10 of 11 Cedar Fair people means Selim Bassoul nor his Board thought much of his Execs and wanted the Cedar Fair management team to do a massive takeover and/or this was a demand by Cedar Fair. You don't see a merger executive teams this lopsided in "merger of equals", this is the level of lopsidedness of an acquisition of a company in financial/managerial trouble.
You are correct. My home park is a SF park and management sucks! My home park is Over Texas and we had a really good president and there were some great things happening with him then he got fired and the new president changed things and now it sucks. I'm really hoping better management will help my home park thrive again.
I can't wait to see the changes at Six Flags Magic Mountain with this merger. Pretty soon, they're going to restore the observation tower and have two-train operation. It's all coming soon within the next two years. I feel like Six Flags Magic Mountain will finally get the much-needed love. I believe they are going to try to turn it into the West Coast Cedar Point, and I think a Giga coaster will finally be coming.
@2:00 definitely not a monopoly. They obviously have tons of parks but in terms of profitability they are so low on the totem pole. Disney parks make 14 billion a year or something crazy when six flags parks made on average 6 million dollars profit per park recently, cedar fair somewhere around 20? Dont come for me if these numbers are off but essentially disney is making 100 to 1000 times as much money.
I for one am so excited to see how parks like great america, fiesta, and magic mountain that are already solid become nicer in a cedar fair way.
Nobody has mentioned this but my biggest fear and inevitably will happen is putting those plugin seatbelts on all the b and m hypers in the six flags chain
The seatbelt part actually brings up a good point that within the cedar fair parks they all use IROC and six flags has their own safety program I wonder if they’ll get converted to one. My guess is they will.
can't believe i have to celebrate the 4th knowing everything is now six flags☹️
thats why i hate this
Everything is now Cedar Fair. With a Six Flags mask on.
Some of the legacy SF named parks will be gone eventually. Top of the list is the EPR lease parks which are poor performing, low revenue, low EBIDTA and actually have lower per caps than the other SF parks(stated by SF on conf calls in the past). Frontier city is running 11am to 6pm hours weekdays and is closed Tuesdays & Wednesday all summer b/c it's doing poorly. Each of the last 2 years SF has taken 16M impairment on Frontier City. They also have taken a 7 to 8M impairment on the Oklahoma City water park and impairment of 16M on the Houston water park. SF stated they do not except the situation to change in the future. Cedar Fair management is going to look for to get out of these 3 leases early(if nor cost prohibitive by penalty clauses), as well as the other 2 leases with EPR of Darien Lake and the Concord water park
I fear for my home park michigan's adventure 😢😢😢 A park unloved....
I just want cedar fair to make up with intiman and rmc
it recently came out that CGA didn’t actually have existing plans to close the park, so i wouldn’t be so sure about them being on the chopping block. the land was sold with intent to lease it back so the cedar fair could avoid laying anyone off from pandemic losses.
Out of curiosity, not doubting you, where did you find this info
@@AggroCEC the main place the public can hear about it was at the acenorcal event, “AdvParker” on twt wrote about what they said there. i also just knew about this through speaking to higher ups when i worked there but i don’t want to reveal any info that isn’t currently public out of respect
California's Great America is not going anywhere I would bet the tables would turn and Discovery Kingdom will take the fall instead
Hope you're right, because I haven't heard much since it was announced in 2022, and Great America looks so much nicer than Discovery Kingdom. Discovery Kingdom looks way more like a park on the decline than CGA.
I think this is a win for Cedar Fair and they have he upper hand. It seems they just took the “Six Flags” name and that’s it. It really is just Six Flags in name only. You can also tell the new “Six Flags” website displayed on the video was the former CF corporate site, *NOT* the former SF corporate website.
In my honest opinion I really think it will be stupid for them to ax out Six Flags America it’s a home park. It sits in between two major areas Baltimore and DC which is a money maker for them. I think they should invest more into it
What worries me is la Ronde, I know that park is a laughing stock for many enthusiasts but as an atlantic Canadian, it feels like one of the few big parks that is actually accessible, and would be heartbreaking to see it go
If Herschend broke into Canada, they could easily create a competing park for the Maritimes area. Imagine a park for Halifax or Quebec City with authentic local food and theming a la Silver Dollar City.
@@Shinyarc I would adore that
Did u guys address the recent Superman efk situation 😅
It’s a little bizarre to me that there is no Six Flags or Cedar Fair park in Florida
I mean Disney, universal, sea world, Busch gardens, and fun spot all have locations there so I think florida is a little full
I know people don't watch this channel for the economic insight but we're not in a recession as mentioned around 2:45. A recession is two or more successive quarters with negative change in GDP. That hasn't happened in the US since second quarter of 2022, more than two years ago.
As a country you are correct. As an industry, parks are separate from national GDP. Also, if you think the economy is great, might want to look into the change in how the metrics are calculated.
Wow it's not an April's Fool, this is really surprising indeed.
When I lived in IN my home park was Cedar Point. That was my childhood and teen park. I now live in TX and my home park is Six Flags Over Texas. I'm very concerned for it. It's the very first Six Flags and now it's almost like they have forgotten about it. Food is so so, buildings are needing repairs, no entertainment offerings for non riders. We've gotten a few new rides, but several older rides need major overhauling or replaced, they break down all the time. I'm worried since there is another Six Flags park in TX they'll close it. Six flags has put more effort into Fiesta Texas and only bare minimum for Over Texas. Fiesta Texas is too far for us to go. If they close Over Texas they'll lose a lot of people. There are several RUclips channels that are only Over Texas focused.
The big issue is San Antonio markets itself as a tourist stop. You have Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld, Schlitterbahn, the river walk, etc. Dallas-Fort Worth is more of a local place. You don't really go there for vacation, so you get a completely different type of crowd. I don't think Over Texas will close anytime soon, but it does need some TLC.
Not to be that guy but we actually are not in a recession right now. One has been predicted for a couple years but hasn't happened yet. Most of the things that factor into a recession aren't there, with unemployment being low and the stock market doing well. Inflation is a separate issue than a recession and the two problems are very often inverse of one another.
Strong economies tend to create inflation. Weak ones don’t and may even cause deflation.
@@Danrarbcstill depends on corruption and all
What happens when all these parks miss their marks for 2024 and 2025 and the entire mega corp goes bankrupt and closes down
I hope to see snoopy dancing like the old man to the venga boys
That would be epic.
Im hopeful that they invest in Darien Lake. Predator needs a full retrack or just a full RMC redo
I am going to upload a video about my predictions about how this will affect cedar point
The old Six Flags logo is going away and it will be replaced with the new Cedar Fair one. The only Six Flags parks that will eventually still be called Six Flags, are the old legacy parks. Any of the parks where they stuck Six Flags on it as an after thought after they took over those parks will lose the Six Flags part of the name. For example, Magic Mountain will just be called Magic Mountain, but Six Flags St Louis will still be called that. The best park in the system is Kings Island by far!
I believe now all the parks will get some type of investment in the coming years let’s just wait and see what happens
I like the "Cedar Fair" font. They could keep the exclamation point with the six flags in it.
The three "original" Six Flags parks don't have actual names...over Texas, over Georgia, St. Louis. All other parks had prior names when they joined the Six Flags family and just got Six Flags tagged on at the front.
It has been fun watching people freaking out for the past several months. Kings Island isn't getting renamed Six Flags Cincinnati. TBH, I 've called KI by the name SFC multiple times recently just because it is funny to watch people's heads explode.
Cedar Fair was a corporate name that most people didn't even know, so it makes sense to use the very well-known; sometimes hated, company name of Six Flags.
I think a cafeteria style season pass offering would be amazing. For A dollars you get your local park. For B dollars you get your choice of 2 parks. C dollars gets your choice of 3 parks. And so on. Yes. Us coaster freaks and theme park weirdos are chimping at the bit for 1 pass that will get us into every park on Earth....we are not like 99 percent of the human population. Most people do not travel beyond their local park. The fun debate is what price will an all parks pass for new Six Flags tag in at??????
I think we can see live shows gat better as well. Pay one team of people to develop a series of shows and roll them out to all the parks where each particular show would fit in. Combine the prior show budgets from both companies and then cut it by a third...we still need to reduce expenses...gives the new company a spending limit which exceeds what each prior company was spending on their own.
Let's talk about the 45 dollars fee to park the car.
I really am waiting for enthusiasts to realize that six flags is only hated or seen in a negative light largely by enthusiasts. This freakout they're having is purely them foaming at the mouth at the the fact that their precious cedar fair is TAINTED by the horrible, disastrous, and low down six flags chain. It doesn't matter that the 90% of the board is made up of the old cedar fair execs. And they hold the majority share .
Feel however you want about six flags but they were in competition FOR A REASON.
OG Six flags wasn't some place that didn't make any money in the range of cedar fair and was a wasteland of a place. They were popular and they made lots of money and have the much stronger brand of the two.
Six flags is the name for a reason and people getting their panties in a knot over this need to get over themselves.
I'm currently grandfathered into a Six Flags Gold Plus pass that includes unlimited visits to any park or water park, parking included. If they screw that up or jack up the price significantly, I'm out.
45 dollar parking is ridiculous, I hated that it was the case at both CF and Six Flags. Likely only going to get worse though, but friendly reminder that a basic season pass includes parking and is literally the same price as a normal ticket + parking fee
I'm a 45 year old Clevelander.
Your thumbnail broke my soul.
Lol
My membership price went up 60% this month. I hope that it allows membership holders access to all properties going forward.
i think after a few years, and we get used to it, it will be the new norm and all parks will benefit
Six cedars, Cedar Flags,.... missed opportunities.
RUclipsr Cedar Flags predicted the future
So does this mean that cedar fair parks are gonna be called for example six flags cardowinfs, six flags cedar point and six flags king s island now? Amazing video !
They have come out and said there are no plans for that. It also just doesn't make sense to brand parks that do well without it.
KD better not turn into crap since the DC six flags was never safe to attend
i’m extremely nervous completion is a huge factor in the industry and these companies competed for years i’m worried that the parks that are close to each other will close
What's next? I hope they buy PortAventura.
The cedar fair and six flags have to turn into like six cedar fair flags. Maybe that would be a good name for the merge.
Can you make a video about how valley fair is flooding
I heard the parking lot has reopened!
so does this mean if I buy a season pass I have access to all six flags and cedar fair parks?
I hope they give Mack extreme spinners, intamin blitzes and bnm hypers to every park!
Just kidding…
So long as all Cedar Fair takes from Six Flags is the name and NOTHING more, then I'm fine with this.
Hi Taylor and Sarah, they announced the senior leadership team with Zimmerman as the ceo. They also announced the organization leadership team, they announced this to all the park employees. I work at cedar point, I don’t know if I can show you the list of these leadership areas.
I think as a whole ride manufacturers should be VERY nervous. Here's what I mean, you now have a consolidation of the theme park industry. There are not a lot of independent parks around to back fill your business (or other theme park companies), and the Big 2 in Universal/Disney sort of do things on their own (especially Disney). This has now shrunken your potential customers and also the larger Six Flags company can pretty much dictate terms and costs on how much they want to spend. So the question for a ride manufacturer is do you want to continue to build rides for Six Flags and do so at their forced terms or do you try to do something else? The 1980's and 1990's with the Coaster Wars really brought about a lot of innovation and development, BUT it was brought on by the battle between Six Flags/Ceder Fair/Paramount, and now with the merger it's basically Six Flags.
Six Flags has already purchased their rides for 2025
My favorite Six Flags park is Magic Mountain (2nd favorite over any park I've visited worldwide). Cedar Point is my favorite Cedar Fair park (and my #1 all time favorite worldwide).
This is so sad! No one likes the six flags parks. They don’t put enough money into them and their rides are always worse than Cedar fair rides because they always try to cheap out on everything.
Six Flags parks are awful because of bad management. With the merger Cedar Fair management is taking over. It's going to make an improvement to Six Flags parks.
I’m really curious about Six Flags America’s future. It really isn’t that easily accessible from D.C. when it comes to public transport. I think it’s like a 35-45ish minute drive depending on what part of D.C. you’re in. I really wish they’d extend the silver line more toward Baltimore. The bus route is absurd from the end of silver line to SFA 😅
Editing to add that anyone who’s familiar with the area knows how treacherous it is to drive in that area as well. I’ve never feared more for my life than I have while going in between D.C. and Baltimore lmao
The one question I have: Will Intamin get another shot?
Cedar Point will always be my favorite six flags park!!
Will this mean more or less clones?!
One park I wonder that might get sold is Dorny. Even with a new coaster it's batting against stiff competition in Kennywood, Hersheypark, and Knoebels. As well as it's own kind now in Great Adventure
Next year is going to be interesting. I feel like certain parks need to drop six flags in the name of