Somehow the Knott's clip didn't upload - anyways - here is my Knott's Best & Worst Case scenario! Best case is the Giga coaster. A ride like this would transform Knott's Berry Farm forever! And give the park a much needed top 10 worthy coaster and a reliable one at that. Worst case scenario would be a hyper coaster. Possibly one from Mack Rides? Hyper Coasters are very popular and would be a great fit for Knott's Berry Farm! I really feel like these two types of coasters should be considered as the next one for the park.
Why would knotts get a giga when you have magic mountain right there and if they wanted to put a giga in they would choose magic mountain since it’s geared more towards thrill seekers rather than families like knotts
I keep hearing people say Knott’s needs a giga. Whether they do or not, they literally don’t have space for one. They can’t mess with Ghost Town, like literally cannot, contractually. Nowhere else has anything remotely close to the space for one. Also, I don’t think Buena Park would allow it. The locals already complain about the noise
@@Peter_9_9_9 magic mountain getting a giga and Knott’s getting a hyper would be awesome. Preferably Knott’s would get a mack hyper instead of a B&M to be different from Magic Mountain’s Giga
I think the best case scenario would be if Six Flags repairs their relationship with RMC and focuses on upgrading some of their wood coasters (Le Monstre, Boss, Wolverine Wildcat etc.) in the next 5-20 years.
@@HumanStateOfEmergencyI’m not sure but many of the RMCs started to have structural issues, I’m also not sure if that caused problems with six flags but I think it raised some eyebrows at cedar fair. Luckily RMC seems to to have learned from their flaws, and that is evident with the additional structures that were added to Iron Gwazi
Mostly the amount of maintenance the Raptor prototypes require. And on both the Six Flags AND Cedar Fair end, it's very clear that they just want to upgrade woodies at their smallest parks with Titan Track. They might be open to trying out a Wild Moose or three, but that's about it.
@@LandensCoasters It is a bad idea. SteVe is only 1000 feet down the midway. And Gemini is a racing layout, not a dueling one. Dueling coasters (which are much rarer) have the trains fly past each other in opposite directions. Dragon Challenge and Gwazi did this. Lightning Racer does this on its fan turns. Gemini does not.
This weekend in Six Flags Mexico, huge pieces of what looked like a B&M were seen at the parking lot AND the old and big water Splash is being dismantled. Your best case scenario could become true!
Knott's footage with Carowinds and other parks voice overs was an interesting choice. Especially when skipping over the predictions for the park entirely. 🤔
Best and worst-case scenarios aren't that helpful, since neither is that likely to happen. What's useful is considering the longest coasters each chain has added over the past 10 years. For legacy Six Flags parks, you have: Twisted Colossus (2015) - 4990 ft West Coast Racers (2020) - 4000 ft Wicked Cyclone (2015) - 3320 ft WW: Flight of Courage (2022) - 3300 ft Joker (2016) - 3200 ft Goliath (2014) - 3100 ft Jersey Devil (2021) - 3000 ft Medusa Steel Coaster (2014) - 3000 ft Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger (2022) - 2501 ft Twisted Cyclone (2018) - 2400 ft For legacy Cedar Fair parks, there's: Fury 325 (2015) - 6602 ft Steel Vengeance (2018) - 5740 ft Orion (2020) - 5321 ft Banshee (2014) - 4124 ft Yukon Striker (2019) - 3625 ft Valravn (2016) - 3415 ft Mystic Timbers (2017) - 3265 ft Copperhead Strike (2019) - 3255 ft Zambezi Zinger (2022) - 2428 ft Hangtime (2018) - 2198 ft While it's true Cedar Fair has built 4 coasters that are 4000+ ft long in this time compared to Six Flags' 2, it's highly unlikely that any park without a hyper will get one anytime soon. (Stop trying to make RMC Boss happen - it's not going to happen!) I expect the vast majority of their parks to build up the middle of their lineups with "family thrill" coasters under 3500 ft long. Coaster models around 2500 ft long or shorter will be especially common with higher material and labor costs.
As SFGAm is my new home park, what I think is needed is a coaster like big bear mountain where the river rapid are. The river rapids don't look to be opening soon, and it gives a great setting through the woods for a long, crowd eating, fun family coaster.
The problem I have with a Mach Extreme Spinner at Cedar Point is low capacity. This park is too packed on a regular basis for this kind of ride. They really need something on the 1600-2000+ pph, and that I feel is the most important deciding factor on a new coaster. They should work with B&M. Maverick has had dreadful lines all year with the cattlestocks getting full on a regular basis as well as the fast lane becoming completely full too. This park really needs to address capacity more than anything.
Best Case scenerio for Knotts: Xcelerator remains open for decades to come. The park significantly improves their operations park wide. B&M Hyper/Giga gets added with ghost town expansion Worst Case Scenerio: Xcelerator closes forever. Operations stay bad. The park continues to add low capacity rides
I always go to disney and knotts and capacity is night and day. Knotts is insanely slow. I dont understand why they can't hire more ride operator for certain rides to make loading much faster. SILVER BULLET is the only ride that has great and fast capacity.
Kings Dominion is certainly a fantastic park. I'll happily spend a day there just for Twisted Timbers. Although I have never ridden anything more intense than I305, that's definitely a must ride for coaster enthusiasts.
Though I like coasters myself, I think there's too much of an obsession with coasters when it comes to making additions to parks. Not saying at all that they should not be added, just that the focus is too centered on coasters with little attention to other, more unique attraction possibilities. At least at my home park (Carowinds), I'd personally love to see more quality indoor shows/rides/attractions and a unique water ride, not the same flume or raft ride that nearly every theme park has had since the 70's. More indoor stuff will bring in more people during cooler/colder months, they appeal to a much broader range of people, brings a lot of people inside to free up crowds at other rides, relief from the heat/cold depending on the season, and just adds some variety to just having one coaster after another and the constant flow of typical outdoor flat rides that we always see.
Also, I would like them to improve the general park aesthetic, remove blacktop, and plant more trees. As great as top tier coasters are, if a park is miserable to spend a day at when you're not actively riding something, it's never going to reach its full potential.
I was saying the same thing about busch gardens tampa. It could use an indoor dark ride of some kind. A flying theater like Epcot’s soarin would be great. Since it rains a lot in the summer, there’s not much to do when the coasters have to close. Even six flags over ga has 2 dark rides. It’s good to diversify the ride lineup
My home park is Six Flags Over Texas and as far as that park is concerned I think they would invest in cleaning the park up, fixing a few rides that are in disarray, and draining the swamp (both literally and figuratively). I do agree that La Vibora is on the way out. They’ve had that area inside and outside of the park marketed off for a while now as if they were planning on placing something else there (for a while it was marked off all the way to the old gas station). It’s a good park, just needs a face lift. On a wishlist thought, I would love to see a wing coaster that does a “Gatekeeper” and straddles the entry. That would excite guests and give the park a bit of a new identity. Anyway I could go on for pages. Thanks for the video & look forward to more.
@@JT_Toons La Vibora is more than likely the candidate for removal and replacement (based on how Cedar Fair hates the model). As for the Judge Roy Scream they are limited as for what they can do. There is either an Ace placard or a historical marker that restricts its removal. I do believe that doesn’t rule out an RMC upgrade however because the ACE plaque is usually a copyright protection for the name alone. Either way the ride needs an upgrade or renovation.
Best case scenario: The combined park chain repairs their relationship with both RMC and Intamin and starts building those en masse again. Vekoma's and Gerstlauer's are just OK by comparison. Likely case scenario: Top Thrill 2 closes forever. Possibly gets removed and replaced with a large sports bar and restaurant geared to sports called "Top Thrill Three Sports Bar & Grill" or something like that.
a best case scenerio for michigans adventure: a FULL park refurbishment. during the winter they could enhance the park, then year after year they would get additions to the park.
@@jonathanbowers8964 They make a solid profit every year with almost no investment. They could put in a low cost thrill coaster, flat ride, modern restaurant and continue the path from Thunderhawk to Wolverine Wildcat for not a ton of money. They would recoup their investment with more people finally being attracted into visiting a more complete park.
Personally I think the Mack Xtreme spinner makes more sense at KI than CP. KI has never had a spinning coaster while CP just got one. KI only has one launch thrill coaster. CP needs something like Big Bear Mountain or a Zamperla family coaster next
As a local for La Ronde, there's quite a few local consortiums like the one that owns both Mont Bromot and Granby Zoo who buying Six Flag's lease would be an improvement.
Well I don't think the future is bright for Six Flags America. I've been twice this season. One train operations on all coasters (the second trains for Professor Screamore's SkyWinder and Roar are on transfer tracks); Blizzard River, Batwing, Ragin Cajun all closed. Shipwreck Falls closed off with a sign saying "This attraction is closed as we evaluate the future of this site". Showtime theater hasn't had a show in years, long vacant ice cream stand still SBNO. Plus King's Dominion is roughly 2 hours south; Hersheypark 2.5 hours north.
@@Jason_Maier also Bush Gardens Williamsburg is within 2 hours as well. Northern Virginia just has so many options close by that I am certain that Six Flags America doesn't have much hope. Given that Cedar Fair only invests in successful parks and lets underperformers rot (Michigan Adventure and Valleyfair), I think Six Flags America won't get a new ride until it is sold or scrapped.
Here’s my take on the best case scenario for Six Flags America: - We'll see the park keep focusing on park improvements (i.e. adding pavers, improving the park food, repainting some of the coasters, replacing some of the worst restrooms with new modern ones, etc.) - Adding some new special events - Roar will finally receive it’s conversion into an RMC Hybrid coaster - The current version of Batwing will be replaced with a new modern Vekoma Flying coaster. - We’ll see the park's kid area, Looney Tunes Movie Town, receive a much-needed makeover with 3-4 new rides. - We’ll see the addition of a new Justice League dark ride in the Gotham City area.
@@jonathanbowers8964Well that’s if you don’t run into traffic. It can take me 5 hours to get through DC to Fredericksburg and I live like 2.5 hours without traffic. In all seriousness though, SFA is in a great location IF they invested correctly. Now that investment is more than just rides as the operations need help as well. I’d also make the comment to the original poster. I’ve been hearing the same things out of Great Adventure.
@ninjagirl226 it's certainly a great location but unless they make massive improvements, seems better to sell it off and focus elsewhere. We generally go to either Great Adventure or New England but nobody in the family wants to ever return to Six Flags America. We've driven past it numerous times in favor of going to Kings Dominion.
I honestly think that the (old)Six flags properties will be slow to add new rides for a few year while they improve the food in all of the parks. I believe the for cedar fair parks will continue to get the same love they have been getting for the last couple of years until the six flags parks all have the same level of food quality.
@@jonathanbowers8964 I don’t think they necessarily play favorites, but the busy parks need to stay busy so you keep giving them rides. The smaller less profitable parks get investments whenever they can. But you also can’t give the small parts a bunch of new rides because those rides all cost a lot of money to maintain.
@@cp_coasterlover not giving Michigan Adventure a new ride in 20 years, while Kings Island gets something new almost every other year is playing favorites. Your argument is the same as a parent saying "I don't play favorites, I just invest more in the child that has the best chance of succeeding"
Unfortunately, I'm a bit more worried about some of the worst case scenarios. This merger didn't happen because these chains were stable. It most likely happened because both chains are struggling. We know from the Cedar Fair calls that they've struggled since the pandemic and Six Flags has had several bad quarters. This means the merger was an attempt to help both chains stay afloat and that means they're desperate. The main reason to have a merger when two companies are simultaneously struggling (as opposed to an acquisition where one company simply buys the other) is because both companies feel they need to shed assets and are afraid they won't have a stable base if they shed too much to quickly. If that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised to see parks being sold off. And it's not like the new company will take some principled stance where they only sell off a park if the new owner agrees to keep the park open. That's not how business works. So selling parks in areas of high property value could be a quick way to bring cash in to the new company. I know people will say it's unthinkable but Magic Mountain has been in danger before. Discovery Kingdom could also be at risk. And I'd hate to see Canada's Wonderland go but let's not assume the chain would refuse an offer by a higher end housing developer. I'm not saying those will definitely happen. Magic Mountain and Canada's Wonderland are money makers. But they still cost a lot to operate and they could bring in a huge cash boost to a struggling new company. Don't just assume the company will resist the possibility out of the goodness of their hearts if they find themselves desperate for cash. It's not like Frontier City or World's of Fun would bring in anywhere near the property values of southern California, the Bay Area or the Toronto metro.
Look. The reason the merger happened because greedy private equity firms are destroying every thing they touch. They make their profit by running these businesses into the ground and then move on. It's un-American.
King's Dominion is in a good position to be improved as its closest competitor, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, is owned by United Parks and is not part of the merger. And since BGW is one of United Parks best known parks outside of Orlando, I would look for the new Six Flags to directly compete with United Parks in Virginia.
Yeah, somehow that best case scenario for CGA I don’t see happening because 1. CF is still calling the shots for the most part, and they’re the ones who want to ditch it in the first place. And 2. Now that the merger is complete, they have the other Great America (which I’ve heard is better in some ways, but I can’t say since I never been). My best case scenario for CGA is that they find someone else to run the park so that it doesn’t shut down permanently (I’d personally would love to see Herschend try to buy out the park and give it the proper TLC it deserves).
I could see MIAD getting a rapid development over the next 5 years. By rapid, maybe a mid-size coaster, flat ride, and water slide complex. Then nothing more for the next 15-20 years. Since that’s basically what they did around the late 2000’s.
@@PatrickRyan150 well . . . Cedar Fair has a reputation of being that parent who clearly plays favorites. I expect top performing parks to get more investment, while the underperformers will continue to rot and be sold for scrap in the next recession or economic crisis. So Six Flags New Jersey (I know it has another name) will get more investment and Cedar Fair will keep investing in Knott's, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. But any of the underperformers (Michigan's Adventure) should be worried.
I think the company needs to spend the next year cleaning up and refreshing the lower tier Six Flags parks before they start adding new rides. The objective of new additions is to attract new visitors, but you already want the park to look appealing first before the crowds come because if you don't, that park could be one and done for the guests.
Now that the Vekoma Tilt is on the table for Cedar Fair, I think that'd be a perfect fit for the Nighthawk plot now too. When it comes to Hurler I'd love if they gave it a Gravity Group retrack and reprofile. When it comes to Six Flags Mexico, there's B&M track in the parking lot right now, so you might already be right about the wing.
Wow! It's great that you think so highly of my home park sfft. I know I rarely ever visit, but I love seeing the great reviews of this park and seeing the park president Jeffrey siebert being so dedicated.
SFNE best case scenario is reverting to the name Riverside and getting a launch coaster. Dive? Nah. Anything with a launch. That plot is perfect for a something like Copperhead Strike. That park needs a launch as bad as Valleyfair! needs inversions
As someone who goes to Kings Island 1-2 times a week, I really hope they build the 300ft dive coaster that was proposed. Sounds insane to ride a gigantic dive!
MiA worst case - Shivering Timbers renamed to Goliath. MiA best case - Shivering Timbers renamed to Goliath. I just don't see any changes coming to this park.
I really think they might sell Michigan Adventure if they have any debt problems. Michigan Adventure is one of Cedar Fairs worst performing parks and they clearly haven't invested in it for 20 years.
@@jonathanbowers8964 honestly Herschend would take better care of it. I know KK has had like no results after the purchase but they at least got cinnamon bread 😎
@@RealWildWalter agreed. herschend just does better with smaller parks. Cedar Fair does well with its great coaster parks, but really only invests in those parks that are already successful. Given that Cedar Fair's leadership team is taking over Six Flags, I expect a similar strategy. Ohio will expand its role as the hub for Midwest Coaster enthusiasts and Knott's will remain the coaster capital of California. Meanwhile I am honestly worried about Six Flags Chicago (I know it has another name, but it should just be called that) and many of the smaller six flags parks.
@@jonathanbowers8964 Actually, MiA makes a solid profit. It's a small park because the area can't support a larger park. But be clear, it's a profitable park.
Hello bro, rn at Mexico theyre some rumors of a new b&m being constructed at the aquaman slpash down because it is getting removed and people have spoted some b&m looking tracks on the park abandoned parking lot, i hope for a great b&m, really good video
Six Flags Fiesta could use a tent or dome over the park so it can have park wide air conditioning, hahahaha... i really have to go back there when it isn't during an August heat wave, lol.
Six Flags America is next to the Belt Woods wildlife area, so that might give it some protection from housing development. It's not nearly as dense of an area as Santa Clara, where CGA is effectively doomed by land prices. Plus, Hurricane Harbor is the only major water park in the BWI area, while there's a Raging Waters in San Jose to meet demand when CGA closes. So I'm confident that SFA will continue to exist in **some** form, with or without Six Flags. The elephant-in-the-room problem is that marginal benefits of investing in Six Flags America now have to be weighed against the benefits of investing in Kings Dominion. KD has a similar potential for expansion as SFA, but it's far more likely to see returns on that. So I won't be surprised if Six Flags considers gutting DC's...DC area and sending most of those (de-branded) rides to other parks. While their Superman hyper isn't ideal for KD, it could be squeezed behind Twisted Timbers and provide a coaster focused on speed instead of gray-out Gs and ejector air. Batwing might be able to replace Excalibur at Valleyfair!, and Joker's Jinx would work well at Worlds of Fun. Spinsanity could be relocated north to Dorney, and if Six Flags wants to move SFA's Starflyer, it'd be AMAZING if they send it to SF Great America. That said, it could still be kept and re-installed within the downsized park. Removing the DC area (and moving the catered picnic area next to the current Looney Tunes area) would result in a 60-70 acre park/waterpark, which would be reasonable for either Palace/Parque Reunidos or Herschend to manage. If Herschend were to take over the park though, they might be more willing to RMC Roar than Six Flags ever was. And even more - they could close Firebird and relocate Mystery Mine there from Dollywood. Given recent investments in KD, Dorney, and Great Adventure, it's tough to see what kind of future SFA has in the new Six Flags. Hopefully it can be spun off to an operator focused on smaller parks who can take better care of it as a family park.
Either the Point or Kings Island open a S&S 4 Dimension Coaster. The other Gen the Extreme Spinner. The 4 Dimension seems more of the Point style ride but with Gate Keeper, who Knows. Brandon need to do a What If series of Video. What If Premier Park never Bought Six Flag and Cedar Fair Never Bought Paramount Parks. You current day Theme park Competition would be Disney, Universal, Seaworld, Herschend, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Premier Park and Paramount Parks. It could be a interesting what if and series to go down.
California would be a interesting coaster war area. Seaworld, Six Flags (Magic Mountain), Disney, Cedar Fair (Knott's Berry Farm), Premier Parks (Marine World/Discovery Kingdom), and Paramount Parks (California Great American). Ohio would have the Point vs. King Island vs. Geauga Lake.
Your best case scenarios are amazing. I would LOVEEEEEE to see your "Gold Rush" giga at Knott's Berry Farm as it looks awesome (AF). Would also love to see a on-site hotel at Great Adventure to further support its (resort) status, and there are a lot of other parks that could benefit from being converted into resort destinations. 👍👍👍
I unfortunately think Michigan’s Adventure, California’s Great America, Darien Lake, and most of their standalone water parks will close for good very soon
I believe CGA actually has a good chance at staying open for years to come. While I was there for CoasterCon for the maintenance tour we got told that the city will not rezone the plot of land under CGA and we also got told that cedar fair executives have told the park to keep investing into the park! The main reason for selling the land we got told was because Cedar Fair did not lay off fulltime employees during the pandemic and as a result needed quick cash to recover.
CGA IS CLOSING IN 2027 OR 2028. The park's land was sold b/c it's several times more than the park, that's the simple answer, anything else is pure blathering. They made more on that land buy and resale in 3 years deal than running the park for 15 years. CGA is low profit park via high operational costs while not having the pricing power of Knotts.
@@MCQ-fq6bv I do not believe so, the Santa Clara mayor has stated they will fight to keep Great America for decades to come and that includes not rezoning the park. They've saved CGA before and they have the power to do it again. Both Great America's are back together under one roof and I do not believe Cedar Fair will close it down.
@@MCQ-fq6bv Also unsure where you got that "They made more on that land buy and resale in 3 years deal than running the park for 15 years. CGA is low profit park via high operational costs" as Cedar Fair does not disclose any park annual earnings publicly?
@Diego-oh4nm lol..the mayor is blowing smoke. Hint, 2 years and they have done nothing, because they have no recourse. CF was paid, deal closed. Prologis will develop the land. CF took accelerated depreciation on the assets if the park ending Dec 2027. That's how you dispose of an asset getting all your tax benefits. CGA is 100% closing.
@Diego-oh4nm The park is the lowest EBIDTA and net income park in the chain. The net income is high single digits to low double digit millions. I know the finances and have numbers you don't. CF is happy to dispose of CGA, the never wanted it, tried to sell it off before for the reasons already detailed in the prior post.
@@Brodydavid423 if cedar Fair wasn't married to GCI maybe they would have used a different manufacturer for ZZ. Hopefully with the merger GCI will stop butting in trying to make a million Woody's when one or two is fine.
Man Darien Lake here in WNY really needs some love ... They keep removing rides and not giving us anything really new :/ HOPEFULLY this merger will be a great thing for us over here , it's the biggest park in NY and it's not even worth traveling to ...
I think Kings Island has shown that it is not willing to do a coaster as new as the Striker coaster. Nor do they like to push the envelope. They may do something about as exciting as a Copperhead of Time Traveler if they go with Mack. Orion is our most recent big scale investment, and while incredible and expensive, its clear they wanted to do the minimum while still satisfying the pleas. This vortex replacement, whatever the coaster type, will be one of the better of its kind, definitely one of the best in the park... but nothing thats indisputable as the best of its kind nor best in the park. Part of the reason KI has good reliability is none of the rides are crazy on the forces nor incredibly complex in operation. I dearly hope I am wrong and you are correct however 😂😂
I like their approach. Let the other parks get the prototypes and have the first of a model, but for KI, build the best possible version of said model. It doesn't necessarily have to be the tallest, fastest, etc., it just has to be a reliably top tier attraction for their market. See Diamondback and Banshee. They're probably not world class, but they are widely regarded as some of the best of their respective models.
@@TheRealPSKilla502 Kings Island tried cutting-edge with the (original '80s) Bat and Son of Beast. I think since they got burned badly with both (especially the latter), they've taken a more conservative route since. However, the Vortex plot opens all sorts of possibilities, so maybe they'll swing for the fences again. With the merger, there will be less pressure to not outshine Cedar Point in something.
@@thomasrinschler6783 I don’t think not outshining CP was ever a big concern. If anything, CF probably views CP and KI as complementary to one another, since KI is a much better park for young families than CP, unlike Geagua Lake, which had basically nothing to offer that CP didn’t have, except live animals, which CF has made clear they do not want to deal with. Thus, instead of looting the park for all its assets and selling off the land, they have invested heavily in it, and I have seen 2 day passes sold which offer 1 day in each park.
Ninja is such an over-hated rollercoaster. I’ve marathoned it 6-7 times in a row before because of no lines. If you know how to ride these older rollercoasters you can brace yourself and it’s fine. It’s a simple but fun layout. I think with new trains with vest restraints and a bit of retracking it would get a lot more love.
Leave Nighthawk alone! Get rid of the bangerang and the bang-your-bang. But yes, RMC Roar. Roar is the closest coaster layout to the old Hersheypark Wildcat. Wildcat’s Revenge is a winner and a top tier RMC. This would be a game changer for SFA. Also, leave Viper alone at SFMM. I don’t visit that “awesome park” in NJ because of its many ride removals. GASM was one of them. Hershey is equal distance to me and I will choose it every time.
Consider: the Normal case scenario for California's Great America is no additions and it closes as planned within ~10yrs. I think real worst case scenario is it closes sooner rather than later and they don't bother relocating ANY coasters, especially railblazer and gold striker 😢
Are they crazy? I thought they were planning about adding dark rides to the parks like cedar point, dorney park, kings dominion, kings island, carowinds and worlds of fun. What about their plans about building indoor water park hotels for their parks?
Also: a key reason Cedar Fair was willing to invest in hypers and gigas? They actually BOUGHT Paramount Parks instead of merging with them. As a result, Kings Island, Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, and Kings Dominion needed to be **elevated** to the Cedar Fair brand standard for high-visibility thrill coasters. Even parks like Dorney, Worlds of Fun, and Valleyfair! had mile-long hypers since '98. Since the combination of Cedar Fair / Six Flags is a "merger of equals" to reduce administrative costs, where both sides of the company largely retain their established brands, there's no strong incentive to, say, give Kings Dominion a hyper just because Six Flags America has one, too. Park improvements will be focused on bringing the Six Flags day-to-day experience up to Cedar Fair's level, which is why Zimmerman & co will be handling routine operations for the combined company.
As a Kings Island local, I really hope this doesn't mean investment in the top tier former Cedar Fair parks suffers too much. Maybe that's me being spoiled, but it's a very likely scenario that we don't get a new thrill coaster for several years while our revenue is spent providing aid to the lower performing former Six Flags parks.
Unpopular opinion: I love Viper, they just need to change the restraints, the current ones are so heavy, so new trains could make the janky transitions less bad and also make it so it doesn’t rattle your head. I truly believe it’s a good ride and it’s one of mine and my dad’s favorites. I hope it sticks around for a healthy long while.
OKANA Indoor Water Park and Resort over 140 acres (built fully by the Chickasaw Nation at $400 million) and is one of the largest in the nation opening in the spring of 2025, Legends Tower complex should be completed on or before 2028, a billion dollar arena for the Thunder in 2028, American Heartland Theme Park and RV Resort is fixing to restart the construction process later this summer and is still planned to open up in the latter part of 2026, then, LA 2028 Olympics with 2-3 events being held here in OKC. Hope to see you guys here!
The EPR lease parks have been 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 16M impairment on the Houston water park. SF stated they do not expect the situation to change in the near future. Cedar Fair management is going to look for a way to get out of these leases early if the penalty clauses are not prohibitive.
Best case scenario, Giga. Worst case scenario, Camp snoopy doesn't open on time, Monte gets neutered and they remove a lot of things they promised. Oh wait...
Best case scenario for Kings Island is indeed getting a Striker Coaster, but for the inversions, do more than double, let’s say 15 and return the inversion record to Kings Island
I feel Great Escape could focus on the thrill ride ls a couple years but they won’t be for just kids. The potential for a next coaster and hopefully thrill coaster will be in about 5 years for the parks 75th Anniversary. I feel a Raptor or a new Vekoma Thrill Coaster. There is a couple spots they could add a coaster without removing but the most likely scenario is it replaces Steamin Demon. I could also see something in The water park. They should use the resort aspect more to its advantage.
That would be nice to see a new coaster, mainly a Vekoma Suspended Thrill Coaster (STC), and a thrill ride open at the Great Escape in the next few years. I predict that the park will become Six Flags' version of Dollywood.
I kind of disagree about Great America. It's my home park but every year i keep saying they need to do something about the American Eagle. It's still a decent ride but it never races anymore, they have only one side of the trains open at a time, and the line is always a "walk right on" kind of line. That's a huge plot of land that could be used for an even better ride. I would love to see it get the RMC treatment but the chances of that happening are basically zero
Hey, you never know. After receiving Sky Striker this season I'd be up to see American Eagle get the iron horse treatment as well. With a couple of parks that has two RMC's(Magic Mountain/Fiesta Texas), I wouldn't be surprised with SFGAm having two as well: Goliath as the wood topper track RMC, and American Eagle receiving the Twisted Colossus Mobiüs Loop RMC Hybrid treatment: The Great American Iron Eagle!!!
Once it was clear the merger was going to happen I think Cedar Fair has been licking their chop to get control of a few parks. The park I am most interested in is over Texas. I could seriously see this being the Carrowinds of this merger. I know it may sound outrageous but I think Six Flags opening move could be big changes to over Texas. A new front gate would be the start and since everything is bigger in Texas a giga coaster. The giga would replace La Vibora and would interact with the new gate but also would interact with the entrance road and also the lake by Judge Roy Scream.
That was my fear for fiesta too😢 but I hope they replace the picnic area (bc no one uses it except for roller coaster rodeo) with a maverick style roller coaster and the beach style themed hyper coaster in the boardwalk
Carowinds has plenty of excess land. They painted Night Hawk and upgraded restraints. The line is always full. Hurler - no one loves it. RMC, Wing, Dive-bring it on. Plus the new headquarters will be in Charolette - so favoritism. One of the fastest growing metro areas with no competition.
I kind of wonder if the merger will reduce investments into their parks. I had heard that Cedar Fairs basically saved Six Flags from going into bankruptcy, and probably ate up Cedar Fairs profits or their saving.
I dont think Magic Mountain will get rid of Viper. If they do, they are going to put something that has the same kind of inversions that Viper does that coaster is too iconic to just tear down and not pay tribute to it. So whatever coaster replaces it, it better be crazy. Boomarang corkscrew with three loops. I once rode Viper six times in a row. Rough or not, there have been times when it had lines to get on. Im not against tearing it down. it's just got to have the type of layout to pay tribute to it.
Kings Island is my home park, and I’m really hoping for them to remove the unused music venue and Invertigo (Faceoff for the old heads), and in that area build an Intamin Blitz Coaster along with a retheme of Action Zone
Michigan's Adventure needs a B&M Hyper or something. The park has the two woodies, the invert (which my son is too short to ride) and kiddie coasters. I'm halfway between Cedar Point and MI Adventure, so the Point always gets my visit for the coaster variety and the fact that my son can ride about 8 coasters at the Point vs MI Adventure.
Well it really is Cedar Fair taking over Six Flags but keeping the Six Flags name. Almost all of the upper management is from Cedar Fair. So given that it will be more likely that the parks will look more like Cedar Fair parks than Six Flags parks. What that means in practicality is that management continues to focus on coasters and rides with minimal theming. Cedar Fair also very much plays favorites with giving a lot of love and investment in its "golden children" (i.e. Cedar Point, Kings Islands, Carrowinds) and it's problem children getting no investment. So I expect the best Six Flags parks to get some much needed help and will look more like Cedar Point and Kings Island, with underperforming parks being sold for scrap metal.
I would absolutely hate to see the Six Flags name slapped on every Cedar Fair park. To me, calling every park “Six Flags: This or That” makes them all feel generic. Same with almost every Six Flags park having a Goliath, Superman, Batman, etc.
I honestly don’t like Six Flags name. I’ve never really liked anything about Six Flags, and I’ve always felt that Cedar Fair was a much better company. I know there is a TH-camr with cedar flags, but I do think that would’ve been a much better name.
I just wanted to put this out there. I just got back from a trip to CP and I noticed that they are filling in parts of the lake along the side of the causeway. I wonder if maybe a coaster could run along the waterside. I guess we’ll have to wait in see!
@@carysage That’s a good point though I do believe they may be trying to do something, because it stretches a very long way back towards the empty Valraven area
I feel that best case for America is for it to be sold, Roar and Jokers Jinx moved to Great Adventure and RMC Roar. Send Superman to either Dorney or Kings Dominion. Firebird to Kings Dominion.
They opened it back up two days after the incident and have been running it since. Obviously they feel that the bad press was minimal enough (which it was because it was pretty obviously the result of the deceased ignoring multiple warnings from both signs and staff) that re-opening it isn't going to be a bad look for the park. And since it wasn't a mechanical issue with the coaster itself, they have no reason to stop running, let alone removing it.
I don't think Six Flags will be able to sell off any of the parks in the new chain. Looks like there's room for a smaller independent park near Detroit😮
Six Flags Great America's best scenario...refurbish the American Eagle. It DESERVES to have both the red & blue trains running together again! Worst scenario: maybe remove Demon, It's been there since the park opened in 1976; may be time to remove it for something new.
If they close Six Flags America, Firebird would be a good addition to either Kings Dominion or New England. The Batwing from America might be a good addition to Kings Dominion.
I don't think KD would get a B&M hyper, because it's too similar to Apollo's Chariot. I think a Mack hyper would be a better and more likely fit for the area next to Grizzly.
I think the best case scenario is, the merger fails and everyone goes back to the way it was, because Six Flags SUCKS! The worst case scenario is the merger fails and the parks have to close and maybe the top tier ones get sold off into one company, maybe back to Cedar Fair with a new CEO!
Somehow the Knott's clip didn't upload - anyways - here is my Knott's Best & Worst Case scenario! Best case is the Giga coaster. A ride like this would transform Knott's Berry Farm forever! And give the park a much needed top 10 worthy coaster and a reliable one at that. Worst case scenario would be a hyper coaster. Possibly one from Mack Rides? Hyper Coasters are very popular and would be a great fit for Knott's Berry Farm! I really feel like these two types of coasters should be considered as the next one for the park.
Why would knotts get a giga when you have magic mountain right there and if they wanted to put a giga in they would choose magic mountain since it’s geared more towards thrill seekers rather than families like knotts
@@KeepRidinCoasters thank you
I keep hearing people say Knott’s needs a giga. Whether they do or not, they literally don’t have space for one. They can’t mess with Ghost Town, like literally cannot, contractually. Nowhere else has anything remotely close to the space for one. Also, I don’t think Buena Park would allow it. The locals already complain about the noise
@@Peter_9_9_9 magic mountain getting a giga and Knott’s getting a hyper would be awesome. Preferably Knott’s would get a mack hyper instead of a B&M to be different from Magic Mountain’s Giga
Xcelerator already being a hyper
I think the best case scenario would be if Six Flags repairs their relationship with RMC and focuses on upgrading some of their wood coasters (Le Monstre, Boss, Wolverine Wildcat etc.) in the next 5-20 years.
What happened between six flags and RMC? The Texas giant accident?
@@HumanStateOfEmergencyI’m not sure but many of the RMCs started to have structural issues, I’m also not sure if that caused problems with six flags but I think it raised some eyebrows at cedar fair. Luckily RMC seems to to have learned from their flaws, and that is evident with the additional structures that were added to Iron Gwazi
Mostly the amount of maintenance the Raptor prototypes require. And on both the Six Flags AND Cedar Fair end, it's very clear that they just want to upgrade woodies at their smallest parks with Titan Track. They might be open to trying out a Wild Moose or three, but that's about it.
Rmc Gemini I know it sounds bad but twisted colossus style rmc treatment on Gemini would be really cool
@@LandensCoasters It is a bad idea. SteVe is only 1000 feet down the midway. And Gemini is a racing layout, not a dueling one. Dueling coasters (which are much rarer) have the trains fly past each other in opposite directions. Dragon Challenge and Gwazi did this. Lightning Racer does this on its fan turns. Gemini does not.
This weekend in Six Flags Mexico, huge pieces of what looked like a B&M were seen at the parking lot AND the old and big water Splash is being dismantled. Your best case scenario could become true!
Six flags and Cedar Fair merged but your channel name didn't change. You're the real winner here! 🤣
For every worse case scenario, there is a worst worse case scenario…
you’re not wrong
According to RCDB, Six Flags Mexico is getting a new coaster next year!
Knott's footage with Carowinds and other parks voice overs was an interesting choice. Especially when skipping over the predictions for the park entirely. 🤔
Best and worst-case scenarios aren't that helpful, since neither is that likely to happen. What's useful is considering the longest coasters each chain has added over the past 10 years.
For legacy Six Flags parks, you have:
Twisted Colossus (2015) - 4990 ft
West Coast Racers (2020) - 4000 ft
Wicked Cyclone (2015) - 3320 ft
WW: Flight of Courage (2022) - 3300 ft
Joker (2016) - 3200 ft
Goliath (2014) - 3100 ft
Jersey Devil (2021) - 3000 ft
Medusa Steel Coaster (2014) - 3000 ft
Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger (2022) - 2501 ft
Twisted Cyclone (2018) - 2400 ft
For legacy Cedar Fair parks, there's:
Fury 325 (2015) - 6602 ft
Steel Vengeance (2018) - 5740 ft
Orion (2020) - 5321 ft
Banshee (2014) - 4124 ft
Yukon Striker (2019) - 3625 ft
Valravn (2016) - 3415 ft
Mystic Timbers (2017) - 3265 ft
Copperhead Strike (2019) - 3255 ft
Zambezi Zinger (2022) - 2428 ft
Hangtime (2018) - 2198 ft
While it's true Cedar Fair has built 4 coasters that are 4000+ ft long in this time compared to Six Flags' 2, it's highly unlikely that any park without a hyper will get one anytime soon. (Stop trying to make RMC Boss happen - it's not going to happen!) I expect the vast majority of their parks to build up the middle of their lineups with "family thrill" coasters under 3500 ft long. Coaster models around 2500 ft long or shorter will be especially common with higher material and labor costs.
As SFGAm is my new home park, what I think is needed is a coaster like big bear mountain where the river rapid are. The river rapids don't look to be opening soon, and it gives a great setting through the woods for a long, crowd eating, fun family coaster.
The problem I have with a Mach Extreme Spinner at Cedar Point is low capacity. This park is too packed on a regular basis for this kind of ride. They really need something on the 1600-2000+ pph, and that I feel is the most important deciding factor on a new coaster. They should work with B&M. Maverick has had dreadful lines all year with the cattlestocks getting full on a regular basis as well as the fast lane becoming completely full too. This park really needs to address capacity more than anything.
Best Case scenerio for Knotts:
Xcelerator remains open for decades to come. The park significantly improves their operations park wide. B&M Hyper/Giga gets added with ghost town expansion
Worst Case Scenerio:
Xcelerator closes forever. Operations stay bad. The park continues to add low capacity rides
I always go to disney and knotts and capacity is night and day. Knotts is insanely slow. I dont understand why they can't hire more ride operator for certain rides to make loading much faster. SILVER BULLET is the only ride that has great and fast capacity.
Kings Dominion is still top 3 in the chain. That’s how bad Six Flags Parks are.
Kings Dominion is certainly a fantastic park. I'll happily spend a day there just for Twisted Timbers. Although I have never ridden anything more intense than I305, that's definitely a must ride for coaster enthusiasts.
Though I like coasters myself, I think there's too much of an obsession with coasters when it comes to making additions to parks. Not saying at all that they should not be added, just that the focus is too centered on coasters with little attention to other, more unique attraction possibilities. At least at my home park (Carowinds), I'd personally love to see more quality indoor shows/rides/attractions and a unique water ride, not the same flume or raft ride that nearly every theme park has had since the 70's. More indoor stuff will bring in more people during cooler/colder months, they appeal to a much broader range of people, brings a lot of people inside to free up crowds at other rides, relief from the heat/cold depending on the season, and just adds some variety to just having one coaster after another and the constant flow of typical outdoor flat rides that we always see.
Also, I would like them to improve the general park aesthetic, remove blacktop, and plant more trees. As great as top tier coasters are, if a park is miserable to spend a day at when you're not actively riding something, it's never going to reach its full potential.
I was saying the same thing about busch gardens tampa. It could use an indoor dark ride of some kind. A flying theater like Epcot’s soarin would be great. Since it rains a lot in the summer, there’s not much to do when the coasters have to close. Even six flags over ga has 2 dark rides. It’s good to diversify the ride lineup
My home park is Six Flags Over Texas and as far as that park is concerned I think they would invest in cleaning the park up, fixing a few rides that are in disarray, and draining the swamp (both literally and figuratively). I do agree that La Vibora is on the way out. They’ve had that area inside and outside of the park marketed off for a while now as if they were planning on placing something else there (for a while it was marked off all the way to the old gas station). It’s a good park, just needs a face lift. On a wishlist thought, I would love to see a wing coaster that does a “Gatekeeper” and straddles the entry. That would excite guests and give the park a bit of a new identity. Anyway I could go on for pages. Thanks for the video & look forward to more.
Over texas needs coasters really bad. Replacing la viboria and, judge Roy scream with new coasters would be a good idea
@@JT_Toons La Vibora is more than likely the candidate for removal and replacement (based on how Cedar Fair hates the model). As for the Judge Roy Scream they are limited as for what they can do. There is either an Ace placard or a historical marker that restricts its removal. I do believe that doesn’t rule out an RMC upgrade however because the ACE plaque is usually a copyright protection for the name alone. Either way the ride needs an upgrade or renovation.
Best case scenario: The combined park chain repairs their relationship with both RMC and Intamin and starts building those en masse again. Vekoma's and Gerstlauer's are just OK by comparison.
Likely case scenario: Top Thrill 2 closes forever. Possibly gets removed and replaced with a large sports bar and restaurant geared to sports called "Top Thrill Three Sports Bar & Grill" or something like that.
a best case scenerio for michigans adventure: a FULL park refurbishment. during the winter they could enhance the park, then year after year they would get additions to the park.
Let's be honest, Michigan's Adventures days are numbered.
@@jonathanbowers8964 They make a solid profit every year with almost no investment. They could put in a low cost thrill coaster, flat ride, modern restaurant and continue the path from Thunderhawk to Wolverine Wildcat for not a ton of money. They would recoup their investment with more people finally being attracted into visiting a more complete park.
Personally I think the Mack Xtreme spinner makes more sense at KI than CP. KI has never had a spinning coaster while CP just got one. KI only has one launch thrill coaster. CP needs something like Big Bear Mountain or a Zamperla family coaster next
As a local for La Ronde, there's quite a few local consortiums like the one that owns both Mont Bromot and Granby Zoo who buying Six Flag's lease would be an improvement.
Well I don't think the future is bright for Six Flags America. I've been twice this season. One train operations on all coasters (the second trains for Professor Screamore's SkyWinder and Roar are on transfer tracks); Blizzard River, Batwing, Ragin Cajun all closed. Shipwreck Falls closed off with a sign saying "This attraction is closed as we evaluate the future of this site". Showtime theater hasn't had a show in years, long vacant ice cream stand still SBNO. Plus King's Dominion is roughly 2 hours south; Hersheypark 2.5 hours north.
@@Jason_Maier also Bush Gardens Williamsburg is within 2 hours as well. Northern Virginia just has so many options close by that I am certain that Six Flags America doesn't have much hope. Given that Cedar Fair only invests in successful parks and lets underperformers rot (Michigan Adventure and Valleyfair), I think Six Flags America won't get a new ride until it is sold or scrapped.
Here’s my take on the best case scenario for Six Flags America:
- We'll see the park keep focusing on park improvements (i.e. adding pavers, improving the park food, repainting some of the coasters, replacing some of the worst restrooms with new modern ones, etc.)
- Adding some new special events
- Roar will finally receive it’s conversion into an RMC Hybrid coaster
- The current version of Batwing will be replaced with a new modern Vekoma Flying coaster.
- We’ll see the park's kid area, Looney Tunes Movie Town, receive a much-needed makeover with 3-4 new rides.
- We’ll see the addition of a new Justice League dark ride in the Gotham City area.
@@jonathanbowers8964Well that’s if you don’t run into traffic. It can take me 5 hours to get through DC to Fredericksburg and I live like 2.5 hours without traffic.
In all seriousness though, SFA is in a great location IF they invested correctly. Now that investment is more than just rides as the operations need help as well.
I’d also make the comment to the original poster. I’ve been hearing the same things out of Great Adventure.
@ninjagirl226 it's certainly a great location but unless they make massive improvements, seems better to sell it off and focus elsewhere. We generally go to either Great Adventure or New England but nobody in the family wants to ever return to Six Flags America. We've driven past it numerous times in favor of going to Kings Dominion.
I honestly think that the (old)Six flags properties will be slow to add new rides for a few year while they improve the food in all of the parks. I believe the for cedar fair parks will continue to get the same love they have been getting for the last couple of years until the six flags parks all have the same level of food quality.
@@cp_coasterlover Kings Dominion has the best food in the chain
@@AuburnFanSince2010 the old Cedar Fair parks have good food now.
@@cp_coasterlover yeah I think that given how Cedar Fair plays favorites, there are several Six Flags parks that are in danger.
@@jonathanbowers8964 I don’t think they necessarily play favorites, but the busy parks need to stay busy so you keep giving them rides. The smaller less profitable parks get investments whenever they can. But you also can’t give the small parts a bunch of new rides because those rides all cost a lot of money to maintain.
@@cp_coasterlover not giving Michigan Adventure a new ride in 20 years, while Kings Island gets something new almost every other year is playing favorites. Your argument is the same as a parent saying "I don't play favorites, I just invest more in the child that has the best chance of succeeding"
Unfortunately, I'm a bit more worried about some of the worst case scenarios. This merger didn't happen because these chains were stable. It most likely happened because both chains are struggling. We know from the Cedar Fair calls that they've struggled since the pandemic and Six Flags has had several bad quarters. This means the merger was an attempt to help both chains stay afloat and that means they're desperate.
The main reason to have a merger when two companies are simultaneously struggling (as opposed to an acquisition where one company simply buys the other) is because both companies feel they need to shed assets and are afraid they won't have a stable base if they shed too much to quickly. If that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised to see parks being sold off.
And it's not like the new company will take some principled stance where they only sell off a park if the new owner agrees to keep the park open. That's not how business works. So selling parks in areas of high property value could be a quick way to bring cash in to the new company.
I know people will say it's unthinkable but Magic Mountain has been in danger before. Discovery Kingdom could also be at risk. And I'd hate to see Canada's Wonderland go but let's not assume the chain would refuse an offer by a higher end housing developer.
I'm not saying those will definitely happen. Magic Mountain and Canada's Wonderland are money makers. But they still cost a lot to operate and they could bring in a huge cash boost to a struggling new company. Don't just assume the company will resist the possibility out of the goodness of their hearts if they find themselves desperate for cash. It's not like Frontier City or World's of Fun would bring in anywhere near the property values of southern California, the Bay Area or the Toronto metro.
Look. The reason the merger happened because greedy private equity firms are destroying every thing they touch. They make their profit by running these businesses into the ground and then move on. It's un-American.
Magic Mountain isn't going anywhere. They are planning a very large coaster
King's Dominion is in a good position to be improved as its closest competitor, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, is owned by United Parks and is not part of the merger. And since BGW is one of United Parks best known parks outside of Orlando, I would look for the new Six Flags to directly compete with United Parks in Virginia.
If Six Flags are still ok with Intamin, then they need to sort out the mess that is TT2
SF didn’t get burned out by Intamin unlike CF in which they did
Yeah, somehow that best case scenario for CGA I don’t see happening because 1. CF is still calling the shots for the most part, and they’re the ones who want to ditch it in the first place. And 2. Now that the merger is complete, they have the other Great America (which I’ve heard is better in some ways, but I can’t say since I never been).
My best case scenario for CGA is that they find someone else to run the park so that it doesn’t shut down permanently (I’d personally would love to see Herschend try to buy out the park and give it the proper TLC it deserves).
I could see MIAD getting a rapid development over the next 5 years. By rapid, maybe a mid-size coaster, flat ride, and water slide complex.
Then nothing more for the next 15-20 years. Since that’s basically what they did around the late 2000’s.
I'm hoping this merger is successful. Park fans deserve improvements throughout the chain.
@@PatrickRyan150 well . . . Cedar Fair has a reputation of being that parent who clearly plays favorites. I expect top performing parks to get more investment, while the underperformers will continue to rot and be sold for scrap in the next recession or economic crisis. So Six Flags New Jersey (I know it has another name) will get more investment and Cedar Fair will keep investing in Knott's, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. But any of the underperformers (Michigan's Adventure) should be worried.
I think the company needs to spend the next year cleaning up and refreshing the lower tier Six Flags parks before they start adding new rides. The objective of new additions is to attract new visitors, but you already want the park to look appealing first before the crowds come because if you don't, that park could be one and done for the guests.
Now that the Vekoma Tilt is on the table for Cedar Fair, I think that'd be a perfect fit for the Nighthawk plot now too. When it comes to Hurler I'd love if they gave it a Gravity Group retrack and reprofile.
When it comes to Six Flags Mexico, there's B&M track in the parking lot right now, so you might already be right about the wing.
Wow! It's great that you think so highly of my home park sfft. I know I rarely ever visit, but I love seeing the great reviews of this park and seeing the park president Jeffrey siebert being so dedicated.
SFNE best case scenario is reverting to the name Riverside and getting a launch coaster.
Dive? Nah. Anything with a launch. That plot is perfect for a something like Copperhead Strike. That park needs a launch
as bad as Valleyfair! needs inversions
Agree 💯
I feel like the worst thing to happen is ghost Rider at Knotts Berry Farm will get the RMC treatment
As someone who goes to Kings Island 1-2 times a week, I really hope they build the 300ft dive coaster that was proposed. Sounds insane to ride a gigantic dive!
MiA worst case - Shivering Timbers renamed to Goliath. MiA best case - Shivering Timbers renamed to Goliath. I just don't see any changes coming to this park.
Thunderhawk would become Batman: The Ride
I really think they might sell Michigan Adventure if they have any debt problems. Michigan Adventure is one of Cedar Fairs worst performing parks and they clearly haven't invested in it for 20 years.
@@jonathanbowers8964 honestly Herschend would take better care of it. I know KK has had like no results after the purchase but they at least got cinnamon bread 😎
@@RealWildWalter agreed. herschend just does better with smaller parks. Cedar Fair does well with its great coaster parks, but really only invests in those parks that are already successful. Given that Cedar Fair's leadership team is taking over Six Flags, I expect a similar strategy. Ohio will expand its role as the hub for Midwest Coaster enthusiasts and Knott's will remain the coaster capital of California. Meanwhile I am honestly worried about Six Flags Chicago (I know it has another name, but it should just be called that) and many of the smaller six flags parks.
@@jonathanbowers8964 Actually, MiA makes a solid profit. It's a small park because the area can't support a larger park. But be clear, it's a profitable park.
There’s no way you’re really gonna sit there and say Kings Island doesn’t already have a top-tier coaster. That’s wild
Hello bro, rn at Mexico theyre some rumors of a new b&m being constructed at the aquaman slpash down because it is getting removed and people have spoted some b&m looking tracks on the park abandoned parking lot, i hope for a great b&m, really good video
Six Flags Fiesta could use a tent or dome over the park so it can have park wide air conditioning, hahahaha... i really have to go back there when it isn't during an August heat wave, lol.
I’m so sad that it happened
WHERE WAS KNOTTS BERRY FARM
Six Flags America is next to the Belt Woods wildlife area, so that might give it some protection from housing development. It's not nearly as dense of an area as Santa Clara, where CGA is effectively doomed by land prices. Plus, Hurricane Harbor is the only major water park in the BWI area, while there's a Raging Waters in San Jose to meet demand when CGA closes. So I'm confident that SFA will continue to exist in **some** form, with or without Six Flags.
The elephant-in-the-room problem is that marginal benefits of investing in Six Flags America now have to be weighed against the benefits of investing in Kings Dominion. KD has a similar potential for expansion as SFA, but it's far more likely to see returns on that. So I won't be surprised if Six Flags considers gutting DC's...DC area and sending most of those (de-branded) rides to other parks. While their Superman hyper isn't ideal for KD, it could be squeezed behind Twisted Timbers and provide a coaster focused on speed instead of gray-out Gs and ejector air. Batwing might be able to replace Excalibur at Valleyfair!, and Joker's Jinx would work well at Worlds of Fun. Spinsanity could be relocated north to Dorney, and if Six Flags wants to move SFA's Starflyer, it'd be AMAZING if they send it to SF Great America. That said, it could still be kept and re-installed within the downsized park.
Removing the DC area (and moving the catered picnic area next to the current Looney Tunes area) would result in a 60-70 acre park/waterpark, which would be reasonable for either Palace/Parque Reunidos or Herschend to manage. If Herschend were to take over the park though, they might be more willing to RMC Roar than Six Flags ever was. And even more - they could close Firebird and relocate Mystery Mine there from Dollywood. Given recent investments in KD, Dorney, and Great Adventure, it's tough to see what kind of future SFA has in the new Six Flags. Hopefully it can be spun off to an operator focused on smaller parks who can take better care of it as a family park.
Either the Point or Kings Island open a S&S 4 Dimension Coaster. The other Gen the Extreme Spinner. The 4 Dimension seems more of the Point style ride but with Gate Keeper, who Knows.
Brandon need to do a What If series of Video. What If Premier Park never Bought Six Flag and Cedar Fair Never Bought Paramount Parks. You current day Theme park Competition would be Disney, Universal, Seaworld, Herschend, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Premier Park and Paramount Parks. It could be a interesting what if and series to go down.
California would be a interesting coaster war area. Seaworld, Six Flags (Magic Mountain), Disney, Cedar Fair (Knott's Berry Farm), Premier Parks (Marine World/Discovery Kingdom), and Paramount Parks (California Great American). Ohio would have the Point vs. King Island vs. Geauga Lake.
@@jaredstivers Coaster wars were bad business and companies aren't returning to them.
@@MCQ-fq6bv Agree, but how much different would the theme park landscape be if everything wasn't under one roof?
Your best case scenarios are amazing. I would LOVEEEEEE to see your "Gold Rush" giga at Knott's Berry Farm as it looks awesome (AF). Would also love to see a on-site hotel at Great Adventure to further support its (resort) status, and there are a lot of other parks that could benefit from being converted into resort destinations. 👍👍👍
I unfortunately think Michigan’s Adventure, California’s Great America, Darien Lake, and most of their standalone water parks will close for good very soon
More likely to be sold off than to just straight up close for good.
@@brianborstein8456 I think developers would want to pay more for those places then other operators
I believe CGA actually has a good chance at staying open for years to come. While I was there for CoasterCon for the maintenance tour we got told that the city will not rezone the plot of land under CGA and we also got told that cedar fair executives have told the park to keep investing into the park! The main reason for selling the land we got told was because Cedar Fair did not lay off fulltime employees during the pandemic and as a result needed quick cash to recover.
CGA IS CLOSING IN 2027 OR 2028. The park's land was sold b/c it's several times more than the park, that's the simple answer, anything else is pure blathering. They made more on that land buy and resale in 3 years deal than running the park for 15 years. CGA is low profit park via high operational costs while not having the pricing power of Knotts.
@@MCQ-fq6bv I do not believe so, the Santa Clara mayor has stated they will fight to keep Great America for decades to come and that includes not rezoning the park. They've saved CGA before and they have the power to do it again. Both Great America's are back together under one roof and I do not believe Cedar Fair will close it down.
@@MCQ-fq6bv Also unsure where you got that "They made more on that land buy and resale in 3 years deal than running the park for 15 years. CGA is low profit park via high operational costs" as Cedar Fair does not disclose any park annual earnings publicly?
@Diego-oh4nm lol..the mayor is blowing smoke. Hint, 2 years and they have done nothing, because they have no recourse. CF was paid, deal closed. Prologis will develop the land. CF took accelerated depreciation on the assets if the park ending Dec 2027. That's how you dispose of an asset getting all your tax benefits. CGA is 100% closing.
@Diego-oh4nm The park is the lowest EBIDTA and net income park in the chain. The net income is high single digits to low double digit millions. I know the finances and have numbers you don't. CF is happy to dispose of CGA, the never wanted it, tried to sell it off before for the reasons already detailed in the prior post.
I would love for worlds of fun to get another high thrill coaster because the addition of Zambezi zinger didn’t really help
Building it into a woody was the biggest mistake.
@@beardedswordsman2901 yes they should’ve made it fully titan track. I bet they will start adding a bunch of titan track as it gets rougher.
@@Brodydavid423 if cedar Fair wasn't married to GCI maybe they would have used a different manufacturer for ZZ. Hopefully with the merger GCI will stop butting in trying to make a million Woody's when one or two is fine.
Let's go Michigan's Adventure!!
I see no better how anyone looks at this Carowinds is clearly the Winner in this because of the headquarters
Man Darien Lake here in WNY really needs some love ... They keep removing rides and not giving us anything really new :/
HOPEFULLY this merger will be a great thing for us over here , it's the biggest park in NY and it's not even worth traveling to ...
I strongly agree. I swear Six Flags forgets about it at times lol
I think Kings Island has shown that it is not willing to do a coaster as new as the Striker coaster. Nor do they like to push the envelope. They may do something about as exciting as a Copperhead of Time Traveler if they go with Mack.
Orion is our most recent big scale investment, and while incredible and expensive, its clear they wanted to do the minimum while still satisfying the pleas. This vortex replacement, whatever the coaster type, will be one of the better of its kind, definitely one of the best in the park... but nothing thats indisputable as the best of its kind nor best in the park.
Part of the reason KI has good reliability is none of the rides are crazy on the forces nor incredibly complex in operation.
I dearly hope I am wrong and you are correct however 😂😂
I like their approach. Let the other parks get the prototypes and have the first of a model, but for KI, build the best possible version of said model. It doesn't necessarily have to be the tallest, fastest, etc., it just has to be a reliably top tier attraction for their market. See Diamondback and Banshee. They're probably not world class, but they are widely regarded as some of the best of their respective models.
@@TheRealPSKilla502 100% agree! I prefer this style like you.. but I simultaneously hope a world class could come once again one day
@@TheRealPSKilla502 Kings Island tried cutting-edge with the (original '80s) Bat and Son of Beast. I think since they got burned badly with both (especially the latter), they've taken a more conservative route since. However, the Vortex plot opens all sorts of possibilities, so maybe they'll swing for the fences again. With the merger, there will be less pressure to not outshine Cedar Point in something.
@@thomasrinschler6783 I don’t think not outshining CP was ever a big concern. If anything, CF probably views CP and KI as complementary to one another, since KI is a much better park for young families than CP, unlike Geagua Lake, which had basically nothing to offer that CP didn’t have, except live animals, which CF has made clear they do not want to deal with. Thus, instead of looting the park for all its assets and selling off the land, they have invested heavily in it, and I have seen 2 day passes sold which offer 1 day in each park.
Ninja is such an over-hated rollercoaster. I’ve marathoned it 6-7 times in a row before because of no lines. If you know how to ride these older rollercoasters you can brace yourself and it’s fine. It’s a simple but fun layout. I think with new trains with vest restraints and a bit of retracking it would get a lot more love.
Why not a Raptor for Michigan? There's none anywhere near there, it could be original too and would still cost less than any Mack.
Leave Nighthawk alone! Get rid of the bangerang and the bang-your-bang.
But yes, RMC Roar. Roar is the closest coaster layout to the old Hersheypark Wildcat. Wildcat’s Revenge is a winner and a top tier RMC. This would be a game changer for SFA.
Also, leave Viper alone at SFMM. I don’t visit that “awesome park” in NJ because of its many ride removals. GASM was one of them. Hershey is equal distance to me and I will choose it every time.
Consider: the Normal case scenario for California's Great America is no additions and it closes as planned within ~10yrs. I think real worst case scenario is it closes sooner rather than later and they don't bother relocating ANY coasters, especially railblazer and gold striker 😢
It would be nice to see Firebird go to either Kings Dominion or New England.
Are they crazy? I thought they were planning about adding dark rides to the parks like cedar point, dorney park, kings dominion, kings island, carowinds and worlds of fun. What about their plans about building indoor water park hotels for their parks?
Maybe they should look into buying Great Wolf Lodge. That would solve the problem for at least one of their parks.
Enjoyed the video overall. Would have liked to hear your serious worst case scenario for WOF though
@@ralseineo9481 same
Also: a key reason Cedar Fair was willing to invest in hypers and gigas? They actually BOUGHT Paramount Parks instead of merging with them. As a result, Kings Island, Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, and Kings Dominion needed to be **elevated** to the Cedar Fair brand standard for high-visibility thrill coasters. Even parks like Dorney, Worlds of Fun, and Valleyfair! had mile-long hypers since '98.
Since the combination of Cedar Fair / Six Flags is a "merger of equals" to reduce administrative costs, where both sides of the company largely retain their established brands, there's no strong incentive to, say, give Kings Dominion a hyper just because Six Flags America has one, too. Park improvements will be focused on bringing the Six Flags day-to-day experience up to Cedar Fair's level, which is why Zimmerman & co will be handling routine operations for the combined company.
As a Kings Island local, I really hope this doesn't mean investment in the top tier former Cedar Fair parks suffers too much. Maybe that's me being spoiled, but it's a very likely scenario that we don't get a new thrill coaster for several years while our revenue is spent providing aid to the lower performing former Six Flags parks.
Unpopular opinion: I love Viper, they just need to change the restraints, the current ones are so heavy, so new trains could make the janky transitions less bad and also make it so it doesn’t rattle your head. I truly believe it’s a good ride and it’s one of mine and my dad’s favorites. I hope it sticks around for a healthy long while.
OKANA Indoor Water Park and Resort over 140 acres (built fully by the Chickasaw Nation at $400 million) and is one of the largest in the nation opening in the spring of 2025, Legends Tower complex should be completed on or before 2028, a billion dollar arena for the Thunder in 2028, American Heartland Theme Park and RV Resort is fixing to restart the construction process later this summer and is still planned to open up in the latter part of 2026, then, LA 2028 Olympics with 2-3 events being held here in OKC. Hope to see you guys here!
The EPR lease parks have been 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 16M impairment on the Houston water park. SF stated they do not expect the situation to change in the near future. Cedar Fair management is going to look for a way to get out of these leases early if the penalty clauses are not prohibitive.
Why did you leave out Knott’s :/
Best case scenario, Giga. Worst case scenario, Camp snoopy doesn't open on time, Monte gets neutered and they remove a lot of things they promised. Oh wait...
Knott’s?
Best case scenario for Kings Island is indeed getting a Striker Coaster, but for the inversions, do more than double, let’s say 15 and return the inversion record to Kings Island
here's my Cedar Point prediction. a tornado strikes and takes TT2 completely out, thereby proving that the ride is cursed
😂
Absolutely worst case scenario is they file for bankruptcy. Excellent all around
I feel Great Escape could focus on the thrill ride ls a couple years but they won’t be for just kids. The potential for a next coaster and hopefully thrill coaster will be in about 5 years for the parks 75th Anniversary. I feel a Raptor or a new Vekoma Thrill Coaster. There is a couple spots they could add a coaster without removing but the most likely scenario is it replaces Steamin Demon. I could also see something in The water park. They should use the resort aspect more to its advantage.
That would be nice to see a new coaster, mainly a Vekoma Suspended Thrill Coaster (STC), and a thrill ride open at the Great Escape in the next few years. I predict that the park will become Six Flags' version of Dollywood.
I kind of disagree about Great America. It's my home park but every year i keep saying they need to do something about the American Eagle. It's still a decent ride but it never races anymore, they have only one side of the trains open at a time, and the line is always a "walk right on" kind of line. That's a huge plot of land that could be used for an even better ride. I would love to see it get the RMC treatment but the chances of that happening are basically zero
Hey, you never know. After receiving Sky Striker this season I'd be up to see American Eagle get the iron horse treatment as well.
With a couple of parks that has two RMC's(Magic Mountain/Fiesta Texas), I wouldn't be surprised with SFGAm having two as well: Goliath as the wood topper track RMC, and American Eagle receiving the Twisted Colossus Mobiüs Loop RMC Hybrid treatment:
The Great American Iron Eagle!!!
I know why kbf was not mentioned. It's the perfect Park. Love the videos
Once it was clear the merger was going to happen I think Cedar Fair has been licking their chop to get control of a few parks.
The park I am most interested in is over Texas. I could seriously see this being the Carrowinds of this merger. I know it may sound outrageous but I think Six Flags opening move could be big changes to over Texas. A new front gate would be the start and since everything is bigger in Texas a giga coaster. The giga would replace La Vibora and would interact with the new gate but also would interact with the entrance road and also the lake by Judge Roy Scream.
That was my fear for fiesta too😢 but I hope they replace the picnic area (bc no one uses it except for roller coaster rodeo) with a maverick style roller coaster and the beach style themed hyper coaster in the boardwalk
Carowinds has plenty of excess land. They painted Night Hawk and upgraded restraints. The line is always full. Hurler - no one loves it. RMC, Wing, Dive-bring it on. Plus the new headquarters will be in Charolette - so favoritism. One of the fastest growing metro areas with no competition.
I kind of wonder if the merger will reduce investments into their parks. I had heard that Cedar Fairs basically saved Six Flags from going into bankruptcy, and probably ate up Cedar Fairs profits or their saving.
I dont think Magic Mountain will get rid of Viper. If they do, they are going to put something that has the same kind of inversions that Viper does that coaster is too iconic to just tear down and not pay tribute to it. So whatever coaster replaces it, it better be crazy. Boomarang corkscrew with three loops. I once rode Viper six times in a row. Rough or not, there have been times when it had lines to get on.
Im not against tearing it down. it's just got to have the type of layout to pay tribute to it.
You nailed the worst case scenario for Six Flags America. It's expensive land and Kings Dominion is 2 hours away.
Yup. Unfortunately
Whizzer was my first coaster ever when I was a little kid. Would be sad if they got rid of it. I hope it never happens too!
Canadas Wonderland is already getting a new Premier launch coaster in 2025. Currently the footing are being constructed in and around the mountain
SFStL best case scenario-remove ninja and replaced with a new dark ride like boo blaster. SFStL worst case scenario-Boss doesn’t get rmc’d.
Kings Island is my home park, and I’m really hoping for them to remove the unused music venue and Invertigo (Faceoff for the old heads), and in that area build an Intamin Blitz Coaster along with a retheme of Action Zone
Came for the Kings Island section, stayed for the "Go Bengals, Who Dey!"
Haha love it
Why does it feel so weird to see the Six Flags logo look like the Cedar Fair one, down to the flag as the dot in the “I”
People are definitely scared about a new Geauga Lake Worlds of Adventure closing with the merger
No. The worse case scenario for Cedar Point is that they standardize the nomenclature and it becomes Six Flags Ohio.
Michigan's Adventure needs a B&M Hyper or something. The park has the two woodies, the invert (which my son is too short to ride) and kiddie coasters. I'm halfway between Cedar Point and MI Adventure, so the Point always gets my visit for the coaster variety and the fact that my son can ride about 8 coasters at the Point vs MI Adventure.
Best case scenerio: all the parks turn into budget trashy typical six flags parks..
Worst case: they all close
Well it really is Cedar Fair taking over Six Flags but keeping the Six Flags name. Almost all of the upper management is from Cedar Fair. So given that it will be more likely that the parks will look more like Cedar Fair parks than Six Flags parks.
What that means in practicality is that management continues to focus on coasters and rides with minimal theming. Cedar Fair also very much plays favorites with giving a lot of love and investment in its "golden children" (i.e. Cedar Point, Kings Islands, Carrowinds) and it's problem children getting no investment.
So I expect the best Six Flags parks to get some much needed help and will look more like Cedar Point and Kings Island, with underperforming parks being sold for scrap metal.
@@jonathanbowers8964 yeah, i know...just.keeping the six.flags name chaps my hyde
I would absolutely hate to see the Six Flags name slapped on every Cedar Fair park. To me, calling every park “Six Flags: This or That” makes them all feel generic. Same with almost every Six Flags park having a Goliath, Superman, Batman, etc.
I honestly don’t like Six Flags name. I’ve never really liked anything about Six Flags, and I’ve always felt that Cedar Fair was a much better company. I know there is a TH-camr with cedar flags, but I do think that would’ve been a much better name.
I wonder if Kings Dominions Dominator will revert name and color scheme to its former DC theming, since the parks share IPs now.
I just wanted to put this out there. I just got back from a trip to CP and I noticed that they are filling in parts of the lake along the side of the causeway. I wonder if maybe a coaster could run along the waterside. I guess we’ll have to wait in see!
I believe that's just necessary to maintain the causeway.
@@carysage That’s a good point though I do believe they may be trying to do something, because it stretches a very long way back towards the empty Valraven area
I feel that best case for America is for it to be sold, Roar and Jokers Jinx moved to Great Adventure and RMC Roar. Send Superman to either Dorney or Kings Dominion. Firebird to Kings Dominion.
I think some of the less profitable parks are in danger of being sold off.
Best comment of the video was Who Dey! No more Chiefs SB wins!
Funny enough, SFOG having a champerone policy is actually happening, in which starts on July 26
the absolute worst scenario for kings island is banshee getting removed because of the accident
They opened it back up two days after the incident and have been running it since. Obviously they feel that the bad press was minimal enough (which it was because it was pretty obviously the result of the deceased ignoring multiple warnings from both signs and staff) that re-opening it isn't going to be a bad look for the park. And since it wasn't a mechanical issue with the coaster itself, they have no reason to stop running, let alone removing it.
I agree with the wing coaster for Over Texas. Would be a great addition.
I don't think Six Flags will be able to sell off any of the parks in the new chain. Looks like there's room for a smaller independent park near Detroit😮
Expect them to drop a TON of money at carowinds. That’s the new HQ
Six Flags Great America's best scenario...refurbish the American Eagle. It DESERVES to have both the red & blue trains running together again! Worst scenario: maybe remove Demon, It's been there since the park opened in 1976; may be time to remove it for something new.
Why do you keep saying scenrario instead of scenario?
SFDK needs to update and reopen the Imax theater
I think you are very optimistic concerning want Kings Dominion would get. I think best case at this point is a replacement for Anaconda.
If they close Six Flags America, Firebird would be a good addition to either Kings Dominion or New England. The Batwing from America might be a good addition to Kings Dominion.
@@TJAllcot I could see Friebird at Kings Dominion.
I don't think KD would get a B&M hyper, because it's too similar to Apollo's Chariot. I think a Mack hyper would be a better and more likely fit for the area next to Grizzly.
I think the best case scenario is, the merger fails and everyone goes back to the way it was, because Six Flags SUCKS! The worst case scenario is the merger fails and the parks have to close and maybe the top tier ones get sold off into one company, maybe back to Cedar Fair with a new CEO!