Six Flags / Cedar Fair: WHICH Parks Are SAFE & New Coasters Coming!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Which Six Flags & Cedar Fair parks are safe and which ones are not? How does the merger look for new roller coasters and attractions and so much more! My in-depth analysis of this crazy news and why you should be more excited about this!
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#SixFlags #CedarFair
The Six Flags History video that you must watch... Will we see this type of new coaster expansion going forward? th-cam.com/video/Cjmi3-ASoSY/w-d-xo.html
I have a question. If I memebership at six flags will be able to go all the cedars parks now? My girlfriend has a season park pass. Will that work all parks? I’m really curious about that at the moment
I know this is kinda dumb but I hope its named cedar flags
Cedar Fair is still in charge of the new company, I believe they're using the SixFlags name because its more recognizable. They have also said that they're not changing anything name or operations wise, the meger is meant to keep the companies afloat and allow them to save more money every year.
I can agree with this. If you ask many people if they have heard of Cedar Fair they are like "who?" since they have not used that name in any of their titled parks. The stable name SixFlags is immediately recognized.
@@marcfrey8019doesn’t really matter though since I don’t think they’re changing the name of the cedar fair parks
Thank goodness! I had a mostly positive reaction to this merger even with that possibility, but most of the Cedar Fair park names just aren’t compatible with “Six Flags” slapped on the front. Six Flags Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Kings Island, Six Flags Cedar Point 🤢
Makes sense they’d go with the Six Flags name for the merged company as well. The Six Flags that exists now was actually originally called Premier Parks. They actually bought the entire six flags chain back in 1998 and decided to take their name since it was so recognizable. Of course that over expansion was the main reason for the 2009 bankruptcy, but I digress.
I guess this means no Intamin or RMC
It's being led by a team made up of heads from both companies. Selim is executive chairman
For Branding, the Cedar Fair parks are likely to be named:
“Cedar Point: A Six Flags Theme Park”
“Carowinds: A Six Flags Theme Park”
Not bad at all!
Edit: didn’t realize Brandon says this in the video until I just watched now. Glad we had the same thought LOL
I hope they do the same with Fiesta Texas
They could also do "a member of the Six Flags family", similar to the now-defunct AstroWorld in Houston, Texas.
California's Great America gets renamed to Cedar Fair Great America
@@ChuckE.CheesesIllinois It was going away before the merger, and now there's even less reason to keep it. All those flats can get shipped off to Six Flags parks, too.
@@brianfoss571The problematic RailBlazer should be one of the rides that would for sure get relocated to a Six Flags park.
I think this is a brilliant move for both companies. We've seen similar success in 2017 when Bass Pro Shops acquired Cabela's, so I don't see why the same thing can't happen here either.
I don’t. I feel coaster installations will slow right now… surely there’s little reason to invest when they have such a monopoly on the industry? People will visit regardless, they won’t have to pick between Six Flags or Cedar Fair.
@@jameswatkins3375new attractions are still the best way to spike attendance up and in most markets, the GP isn't picking between Cedar Fair or Six Flags anyways, they are simply going to their local theme park. Like I live in the Chicago area, there's already no competition with SFGAm having a monopoly on the market here. Yet we are one of Six Flags premier parks with lots of investment, because you still need to keep things fresh for people's desire to keep coming. We have to remember theme parks aren't only competing with other theme parks, there's lots of places and activities GP could choose to do instead.
Apples and Oranges. Great illustration for all everyday pea brains. Cedar Fair was inching its way to Charlotte, in fact some operations were already there. Waiting was great to calm Texas by making it look like we both were losing our grip. Not really the case. The opportunists in Sandusky were just carefully backing away from public sentiment to be on their way. Cold weather states are disadvantaged. Tappan, NCR etc. BP was just a result of greasy palms. Firestone and others. I think it amusing when a head of a corporation is from other locales: How long will a corporation stay? Corporations were once considered monoliths but now with all the global influence we realize how flimsy a house can be built on sand.
Season pass prices will definitely increase. Cedar Flags doesn’t sound bad and HQ will be in Charlotte
I’d take an increased season pass if it meant I can use it across all of their parks, a lot of us have home six flags parks but also like to travel to bigger parks such as cedar point
They announced later on it will be called Six Flags. But the leadership will be Cedar Fairs.
Thanks Brandon, I appreciate your positive outlook on this merger and I think it could be a good thing in the end. Hopefully Cedar Fair protects their name brand and reputation.
I hate parks using IP as a crutch. Its so lame especially the super hero stuff. Sad that people are so conditioned to sacrifice uniqueness and atmosphere for generic familiarity
We live in the Charlotte area and Carowinds is our home park. We are taking a wait-n-see approach for now. We love how Cedar Fair operates its parks, specifically here at Carowinds. Six Flags is known for not taking care of their parks and I would hate to see our CF’s parks start getting run down. With CF’s owning 51.2% of shares, it makes me not worry as much. I’m praying that any changes that take place will be for the positive.
Selim was basically trying to turn Six Flags into Cedar Fair and create a “premium” experience already. Poor decision making and COVID just prevented it.
I think Carowinds and SFOGA will become the two new experimental parks. They have the land, the flexibility and they both are in cooperates backyard. Not to mention these two parks are located in between Dollywood and Sea World and the Universal properties.
What about Worlds of Fun?
@@JaejoongPrincessMaybe to a smaller extent since it has to compete with Silver Dollar City (and Adventureland - they've received decent investment from Palace Entertainment). But the central FL market is too massive to ignore from ATL and CLT, and those parks can operate a bit longer in the year than northern parks. So that spreads out the risk of an experimental addition.
I agree with that. Over Georgia has so much potential will likely help them join to top tier category as the best case scenario. It’s 4 hours away from Carrowinds
As long as the prices don't go up too much, I think this is great. I think Six Flags could use an upgrade in food, so here's a great opportunity for improvement.
I cant wait for SixFlags Cedar Point Resort. Or 2 SixFlags Great Americas or SixFlags Kings Island.
I'm still having a hard time with this, I think I'm gonna cry... 10 years of YT comment bashing on SO many channels about CP vs. MM, Top Thrill vs. KA, and I'm supposed to just "throw it all away"...omg.. After STEVE, The Boardwalk/Pavilion, the new Dragster...The AMAZING job they did with the new parades and "main stage", all the things they did to celebrate the 150 anniversary (which rivaled something even DISNEY would do), omg...If I come up to that Causeway, and I see a SF logo of ANY kind, that car is turning around.
I’m excited to see what comes of this! Let’s stay positive!
Cedar Fair is in control of this entire merger they will be the captains of the ship, Richard Zimmerman The CEO/President of Cedar Fair will be the CEO/ president of the new company. Also the majority of the upper level financial, & executive positions are remaining in Sandusky Ohio for their headquarters💯
Does it matter that someone from Six Flags is executive chairman?
@MrJohnJLewis let's be honest six flags can run a park to save thier lives.
After seeing so many takeovers and mergers I can assure you that once a new building goes up those offices will have a new home.
@@MrJohnJLewis I don't know if you're being funny or not, but it's public record that the CEO (#1 guy) from the old six flags will be working UNDER the CEO of the new formed company who is the CEO from Cedar Fair. Cedar Fair just needed six flags money 💯 in every other way, shape, & form this is Cedar Fair completely taking over SF, but because SF has so much money to bring to the table, on paper their partners. Cedar Fair will be overhauling six flags and teaching them how to operate parks
@@bluewater4 they may move them to new buildings in Sandusky yeah but they're not leaving Cedar point. Cedar point is what made Cedar Fair there would be no Carowinds or Kings Island or anything else without Cedar point. And obviously I know those parks were Paramount Parks etc as you go further back in time, but the POINT is Cedar point made so much money that Cedar Fair was able to be born, and they will never abandon that. Also, these last couple years, post covid, that have been filled with spoiled employees forcing business owners to allow them to work from home and forcing telework and demanding things is OVER💯💯💯 that's all ending abruptly, and people will go to work where they are told or they'll be replaced, so all the people who say Cedar Fairs headquarters is in
N.Carolina because it has better weather then Sandusky thus making it more appealing to potential employees were correct however the most important offices are in Sandusky and will stay in Sandusky and if people don't want to work there they'll be advised to find employment elsewhere as reality is returning, the inmates ran the asylum for long enough. Thier is actually an article on CNN.com about Owners and upper management finally regaining control of the American workplace. Interesting read, anyways, I di-gress as I am now rambling
Agree with the assessment on Over Texas. Its my home park, and while its far from a bad park, a little tlc from cedar fair management could take the park from good to great. It has a lot of good going for it (the original rmc and, in my opinion, the best coaster Schwartzkopf ever created to name a couple) and with a little love I think it could become one of the premier parks in the country. My only hope is that the upgraded experience doesn't increase prices too much. I'm a college student so one of the huge benefits of SFOT being my home park is the lower six flags price point. I guess we will have to wait and see!
3:50 MM actually had all coasters open for most of October for the first time in years.
Can confirm. Visited 10/21 and to my surprise, they were all open.
I think, in my opinion, the reason that Six Flags and Cedar Fair are merging is to better compete with SeaWorld, Herschend, and possibly Universal. SeaWorld has been putting a ton of money into their SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks, and with Universal opening up their new Epic Universe park in a year and a half it will bring a lot more attention to thrill seekers. Now I do believe that Universal is the in-between when comparing amusement parks like Six Flags and Cedar to theme park destinations like Disney World.
Universal has definitely become a theme park destination, and Disney is constantly having negative press. I think you'd be surprised, Disney relies a lot on foreigners who aren't in the loop who Still think Disney park is the best, and only theme park Not realizing how much it's changed.
They aren't anywhere near SeaWorld and Universal level
Sea world and universal parks are not located near six flags/cedar fair aside from BGW and KD. They’re not direct competitors.
Man I hope six flags gets some of that cedar fair money and use it to buy a giga. Whether it be from RMC or B&M. Having a giga coaster that close to my home would be a pipe dream.
In 25’ great adventure is supposed to get an Intamin multi launch of some sort. Hope it still happens.
This is probably not happening so that they can improve the parks. It's probably happening because they both feel they need to cut assets and feel they'd be stronger doing so together than separately. I wouldn't hope for major new investments just yet. We'll have to see what they slash first.
The best thing that could come out of this would be if a chain like SeaWorld or Herschend were to pick up any disposable parks and improve them. Or if some small group was willing to buy a park at a bargain and then build it up as an independent park. But I'm also worried they just sell some parks and then redistribute the rides and sell the land to a developer. I'm especially scared for Magic Mountain and the bay area parks because that land would go for a serious premium.
Kings dominion better be safe. It’s my home park and my place of employment. I’ve been going to KD since I was a baby.
Maybe too soon but... does this mean that we might see renewed relationships with coaster manufacturers? Especially those that may have fallen out with Cedar Fair or Six Flags?
Unlikely, if I'm reading the reports right this is basically cedar fair taking over six flags but using six flag's branding. Sure some of six flag's top peeps will still have a lot of say in the restructered company but it more than likely will follow cedar fair's way of doing business. Too early to tell how that'll play out but my best guess is that the companies that cedar fair primarly works with will also now be the primary companies that six flags will work with. We won't see the early signs of how it'll play it out until 2025 at the earliest but realistically more like 2026-27.
I don't think Cedar Fair is necessarily making every single decision. From my gatherings, it'll be both of them
@@Sir1188 Good point with most of the Cedar Fair executives staying on and a majority stake in the merger it may just be business as usual. I suppose my eagerness got the best of me. Only time will tell what happens next.
At best, the combined company would only pursue 2 or 3 projects each by Intamin and RMC over the next decade. RMC is no longer Six Flag's go-to manufacturer, and almost all of the Intamins would go to legacy Six Flags parks. Of the Cedar Fair parks that don't have an Intamin, the park that needs one most is Worlds of Fun. But that would be a smaller project. I'm sure both sides of the board are EXTREMELY eager to leverage their mutual partnerships with *Vekoma* as much as possible.
I believe Over Georgia will be safe and stay in the new chain. They’ve been on a roll by getting 2 back to back coasters in a single year and has been getting a lot of love from Six Flags recently.
Yeah it's pretty much the only park around and Atlanta is a huge metro area. That park has plenty of potential but needs some basic tlc along with better staffing and ride ops.
I was happy to hear this particularly for Over Georgia because it's got so much untapped potential that only needs some dedicated attention to it.
@@skrapdiggyI agree. They have a lot of untapped areas to build the next major coasters had them receive constant investments every 2-3 years
yeah six flags over Georgia has been one of six flags biggest money makes for years , no competition in sight , not that many coasters, lower maintenance cost, it's probably a top 3 park in net revenue for the chain at the moment
Still competition: Bush Garden parks, Sea World parks, Universal parks, Disney parks, + many independent parks like Dollywood, Hershey, Silver Dollar City…. Etc.
The competition is strong. CF + SF is going to be fine, IMO.
I think your assessment are spot on, and I'm looking forward with some optimism!
😂😂😂 he's just joking about the "Six Flags Cedar Point" name he knows they will never put Six Flags in front of Cedar Point 💯
This change might be a success story for both Six Flags and Cedar Fair, or could end in total disaster. Positives and negatives will be encountered along the way. Let's hope the best.
I could see the Cedar Fair parks being mentioned as "a Six Flags Theme Park" or "a member of the Six Flags family", similar to the now-defunct AstroWorld in Houston, Texas from it's purchase from 1975 up to the mid to late 1980's.
Considering six flags bad reputation that would be horrible
Omg the millennium force to Goliath joke dropped at the end of the vid was toooooo goooood lolololololololololol
Great analysis. Thank you for adding some context and positivity to this for the people like me who are nervous about the whole thing.
I thought the day would never come, but its here and we have to accept it. I definitely am curious going forward what changes will come over the next few years, but it definitely gives early 2000s vibes, minus the overspending (hopefully)
The La Ronde will remain in the chain because the City of Montreal has experienced a population and economic growth and the La Ronde will potential to become nearer the top-tier park in the chain.
Six Flagging the Cedar Fair parks just sounds awful
Scrap the name top thrill 2 change it to the flash vertical velocity 😂😂
Great insight as usual & now looking forward to more predictions. Your predictions have always been my favorite part of the channel.
Cedar Fair and Six Flags were rarely in direct competition. Their main competition for most of their parks was always other regional parks and as always other non themed park entertainment options for people. People have limited time and money, so other entertainment options is always part of the competition. They aren't going to massively cut Capex and not give the most profitable parks the top 5 for Cedar Fair( Knotts, CP, KI, Wonderland, Carowinds) and the top 4 for SF(Magic Mtn, Great Adventure, Great America, Fiesta Texas) stuff. KD will also get its proportional share along with Over Texas and Over Georgia.
This news is crazy. So the cedar fair name will be gone. Rip cedar fair name 1987-2023. I think this move will turn out good. I know there’s so many parks that people think that will just get abandoned in all of this but I would like to believe that wouldn’t happen. Also I still have my six flags legacy membership from years ago which I’m worried I might lose since the cedar fair guys are taking over. It’s so odd that six flags will own the cedar fair parks now.
I agree with virtually everything you said. Regarding competition, at first I was also thinking that because of reduced competition there would be less investment. But then I realized that these parks don't compete against each other so much as they do the rest of the world in general for your entertainment dollar. Thinking of it that way, the competition remains the same.
The biggest mystery as far as parks that are going to stay or get sold off is Six Flags America. That park has amazing potential. If the right investments were made there, It could become a major player in the theme park industry. But would it being so close to Kings Dominion, In this instance they actually would be competed against themselves. I think rather than being sold, one of these parks closes and their rides are distributed through the chain. And if that happens, I'm not convinced that SFA is the one that will close. SFA has by far the better location, in a massive population, whereas Kings Dominion is in the middle of nowhere with almost no supporting infrastructure nearby - Not to mention it's proximity to Busch gardens Williamsburg. However SFA would be much easier to clear out and sell off the land versus Kings Dominion. So to me this is completely up in the air
I can see some pro's and cons of this merger:
Pro's:
- This new corporation will now have much more buying power when dealing with coaster manufacturers on total costs of coasters, they will be able to negotiate multi coaster deals at the very least.
- The ability to have a universal season pass for both parks.
- This is something I consider a pro but something that SF has done (not for some time but still a possibility) is transfer coasters to other parks in the chain, I think this is a great idea to transfer less popular rides from main parks to smaller ones, the smaller parks still get a new ride and the coasters get to have another life.
- The use of IP's from both parks - I would like to see SF/CF really have 2 large kid areas in each of there parks "Camp Snoopy" and "Bugs Bunny land" seems to be a great for families.
- Hoping CF invests time to improve the SF operations and care of the parks in the SF chain.
Con's
- I really hope that CF is going to avoid the heavy use of Clones that SF seems to love doing, and considering this merger was to save money, I don't see this type of business stopping.
- Since they are now are the main dog in town I will not be surprised of raising overall park prices .
- The overall lack of competition - I just think rides like Kingda Ka and future rides like this will not exist in the future. What I mean is their is less likelihood of the these parks trying to one up each other with the same ride type.
Neutral
- The overall sale of some parks within each of the chains, what ever prediction you have I pretty sure there is a guarantee that some parks in both chains will be sold off in the near future. this is neutral in that if they are sold to a company that will actually have more of a focus and care to them it may be for the best.
Please let me know of any others you people may think of pro or con would love to hear others thoughts.
Love this! Thank you
Cedar Fair took over Dorney Park and we're getting a new ride. They seem to take care of the parks.
Given they are doing this to save $. The parks that are not safe are the ones that currently are performing poorly and the new corp deems would not have a good ROI if they tried to bring them up to the level of those performing well. For use of the the IPs my thought is no reason to do one off renaming or even naming for new coasters. Makes more sense to continue the Cedar Fair trend to theme park areas. So I could see them retheming Kings Island action zone to DC Universe and retheming the rides to DC IPs while adding a new coaster and or rides also with the DC name.
I could see the six flags logo being redone to show that this is not the same six flags. Maybe even into the style of cedar fair’s logo to keep the parks on brand with each other
They aren't going to randomly pick 1 ride to change to DC name. They would make an entire DC area with multiple rides and DC if it happened and that doesn't at all fit into Carowinds. A park like Carowinds has a regional theme that a lot of time and effort has been spent recently in enhancing, that won't change.
I can also see St.Louis remaining with the new company as it's one of the original three but you're right Six Flags neglected it and the potential this park can bring.
Six Flags sold their flagship park (which was the biggest in the world even if it existed today) to Cedar Fair. They really don't care about being the first one in their brand it's about attendance and revenue.
It'll be interesting if they change the name to Cedar flags as the company. Allso if they do sell off Six Flags St. Louis. I could see busch gardens coming in and buying it considering Anheiser bush factory is right there
Im scared about ka, that one of a kind roller coaster might get reimagined like dragster. Since we all know that Cedar Fair hates unreliable rides. All I hope is that El Toro and Ka stay.
Michigan's Adventure will almost certainly stay in the chain so that Cedar Fair can prevent it from building up too much. Nearly half of Cedar Point's attendance comes from the Detroit area, and it is so much easier to market Cedar Point as a destination (therefore, more multiple-day stays from large families, which means extra moola 👀) than it would be for a park that is in the middle of nowhere in western Michigan.
And as for the issue about lack of competition, most Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks are pretty darn far apart (with some exceptions). I don't think the investments they've been putting in have had much to do with pulling attendance away from other parks, since so few of their markets actually overlap. Rides are simply added to capitalize more on local population attendance rather than bring people in from other markets.
As far as the names of the parks go, I can see them dropping Six Flags completely when appropriate. Fiesta Texas, Magic Mountain, Discovery Kingdom - makes sense just to drop Six Flags. Now, for the parks where it's not appropriate (e.g. Six Flags Over Georgia) - maybe they come up with a new name entirely. Like Chattahoochee Park.
Frontier City under Herschend makes a ton of sense and I would definitely visit that park if it happens.
Cedar Fair does as many bad things as Six Flags does? What? No. Other than that good video.
so if you have a bad day in Cedar Point, do you called it “having a six flags day”
Sorry but I disagree about Dorney Park. The Feds will NOT allow two parks in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area that are widely known as each others main competitor. They would much rather have Great Adventure, the second largest theme park in America, and of course with King Da Ka.
SFOG(SF owns 31%) and SFOT (SF owns 54%) They are partnership parks. The option to buy the remaining stake from the partners comes up in 2027 for SFOG and 2028 for SFOT. The cost to buy the partners out is about 281M for SFOG and 242M for SFOT. Under the partnership deal has to pay about 48M distribution to the partners, which is based on the parks performance, SF received a 38M distribution form the ops and gets am additional 3% of gross revenue fee for operating the park . Point being these antiquated deals SF had to make b/c of the bamkruptcy are something CF management which are the CEO and CFO in the merger don't do. I think they will buy out the partners.
I honestly don’t see them selling parks off, at-least not initially. If they’re smart, they’ll use this capital cushion and enhanced resources to first go in and overhaul the parks that have been left behind. Some of them have too much potential and local populous that need to capitalized by this merger. They’ve clearly maxed out the draw of their big parks and can’t compete with Disneys and Seaworlds of the world 1 to 1. Rather by owning parks in every market, they can act somewhat like a sports league and generate local revenue vs. the travel destination parks. For example, my home park is SFSL, the local market size and location should warrant a bit more effort. Rather they left that park behind ~2011 and only invested in top parks hoping they could compete. It didn’t work.
One think I think they should do that will save money on re-theming especially for the smaller parks is rotating visits by the themed characters. So like month of June Peanuts Gang, July Justice League, august Loony Tunes. It could help boost attendance at smaller parks but still keep it fresh.
0:09 and even some parks outside of those chains
I could see Six Flags New England, Frontier City, ValleyFair and Michigan being a package deal. I think New England would be the Piece to intise the offloading of the other three
Darren Lake, SF America, Discovery Kingdom and St Louis easily manage once again by Primier Parks.
My prediction
Seaworld: Discovery Kingdom, New England
Herschend: Frontier City, ValleyFair and America and Possibly Darren Lake or St St Louis. It would give them 3 parks close to Metro Area.
I'm not too sold on this idea. This eliminates competition
I do feel concerned about the future of the smaller parks of the merged chain (Dorney Park, Six Flags America, Michigan's Adventure, Frontier City, Great Escape). Moreso Six Flags America because it's only 2 hours from King's Dominion and seems to be prime land area; being not that far from Washington DC. That and the operations at SFA are not that great from what I've seen/read.
They are also surrounded by protected land so they really can't expand; but they could buy out a paintball place next door and expand.
Hope Michigan Adventures gets some love, they haven’t had a new coaster since Thunder Hawk
Zamperla's Kinda Ka 2 is coming
I think you keep CP KI KF CW With their current names just update the logos to include Six Flags Signature “flag pole”logo or just put “A Six Flags theme park” like with Great Escape. But others will be changed to Six Flags (Six Flags WOF, Six Flags Kings Dominion, Six Flags Valley Fair, etc…)
Apparently the new complany will be called "Six Flags" and Cedar Fair will hold 51% and Six Flags will hold 48%
Great, they have a monopoly on regional theme parks in North America. This is totally going to be great for enthusiasts 🙄
Yeah. While they are still going to invest in new rides those rides no longer need to be unique or different from the other parks. Innovation is going to suffer.
Their is still sea world, Disney, Universal, and parks like Hershey and Dollywood.
Corporate being in Charlotte will help Six Flags Over Georgia as well.
It could help them join the top tier category as the best case scenario
BAD...THIS will take me a LONG time to process...So with Cedar Fair having better rides and parks, the 150 anniversary of CP, (not to mention TT2), IT'S ALL supposed to ride under the "Six Flags" shingle(?!?!????)?? F that....Why couldn't they have AT LEAST called it Cedar Flags??
I guess this shows that Six Flags was on the way to failure and this was a way to keep afloat. Now that there's an apparent mega company between Flags and Fair, I don't know if this is going to prove to be the best move totally. **
Well, both chains weren't doing well. Cedar Fair wasn't doing much better
I’m very nervous as a Six Flags STL ride operator!! Be an interesting coming year!!
I'm excited for my home park of SFOT...we haven't received a new roller coaster (Besides the first RMC of Texas Giant) since Titan in 2001...come on...SFOT is the original Six Flags park. They have the Cowboys, the Rangers, and all of these new hotels and attractions 10 minutes from the park...SFOT SHOULD be a destination park.
SFNE is my home park, i dont see it going anywhere. Its' a smaller park by cf and sfne standards, but given it's location, it draws crowds from ct, upstate ny, mass and rhode island. From an attendence standpoint, its actually considered a tier two park and is one of the most profitable in the chain. I always thought that it has such a charm to it that Six Flags does not exploit and unlock. I hope it gets the attention it needs.
Brandon, thank you for getting this information out there so soon! You were on top of this breaking news last night. I always enjoy your content. I was a wee bit surprised that they moved the HQ to Charlotte, NC instead of say KI. Carowinds is a pretty solid park though, and I would imagine they looked at geographical appeal and COL. Charlotte seemed to me to be a fun place to be when I went there earlier this year.
I disagree with Six Flags St.Louis not being safe!! I believe it is very safe and the reason why is the investments the chain has put into that park this past year and the upcoming new season!! I just don’t see them selling this park!! I do see them renaming the park back to Six Flags Over Mid-America though
There is alot of rough coaster there tho and old one easy to axe it and move the good rides
@@MidwestBoomyeah but in the six flags chain it is the only park they fully own!! They own the lane and everything it’s easier to get rid of a park that they don’t have full control over
@@zacharyvickers3100 good point
I hope New Englands safe
I305 being renamed to Superman: The Ride is a nightmare.
Lol
Carowinds should leave Intimidator alone theming considering it’s Charlotte.
I really hope they don’t sell off six flags St. Louis. As it being my home park they have probably the fastest operations I have seen on attractions. Hopefully if they don’t sell, they can put some new big coasters in which the park has been needing for a very long time. If they do get sold, I don’t really know who would wanna buy them. It’s not a big enough property or populated enough for universal or Disney to attempt to buy them. Herschend already owns a park a couple hours away so I would have no clue who would buy. In the end hopefully they don’t sell and start to invest more in the park
Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags St.Louis are always going to be in the chain because they are the original three parks
I think most names might not be changed. I think Darien Lake, La Ronde, Great Escape, and Frontier City might become more "Cedar Fair"-ish, mostly becuase their names don't contain "Six Flags"
Darien is Six Flags Darien Lake.
I hope they improve the six flags parks, not ruin the cedar fair parks,
Watch a flagplate break off of Kingda ka and kingda 2 appears, six flags never works with intamin and RMC again, nitro get a cracked support beam, six flags works with mack and gerstlaur once and never again, and the ceo of six point being absolutely hated.
Frontier City can't be sold, it is a lease park from EPR just like Darien Lake.
They have a huge opportunity with SFA and KD in the same region, to ensure they get the people who would not drive to one or the other.
Maybe I'll start a go fund me to buy Cedar Point myself...
Two separate cooperate cultures merging this is going to be bad
I think this change will be massive. The reason is because people would by six flags passes for all parks, and another they would buy a cedar fair pass for all parks. The combined companies now I’ll have the tallest coaster in the world and tallest and fastest multi-launch coaster in the world. Now u get a pass to both.
It's not even a full merger yet, read this. SF can back out.
"The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2024, following receipt of Six Flags shareholder approval, regulatory approvals, and satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Approval by Cedar Fair unitholders is not required."
Effectively, this merger puts Hersheypark in the drivers seat of coaster competition in the Northeast. And apart from markets where Herschend and SeaWorld have major properties, there isn't much incentive for other parks in the combined company to spend $15M+ on a new coaster.
I'll admit i was wrong, and the merger does seem to be going through (though the FTC could stop it).
I am still concerned about this merger because i like to say competition breeds better products/services, while consolidation breeds lower (initial) prices.
This merger isn't likely to give the main benefit of consolidation (lower prices) as CF and SF already have some of the lowest prices in the industry. The one cost saving feature i could see is a mega pass for all parks, but that is such a minority user base benefit.
I will say, in terms of pros, the big one is SF parks getting major operational overhauls. Over the next 5 years i see the big focus of the new company being raising the SF parks to Cedar Fair quality standards in terms of staffing, food, park cleanliness etc.
The downside being, i feel the Cedar Fair parks will get a little less investment in those next 5 years as the big focus will be on salvaging the SF parks. Which if feel will hit KI and Canada's Wonderland hardest as they seemed lined up as the next parks to get major overhauls. So i unfortunately don't think a Mach Extreme spinner is in the budget for Vortex's replacement. Which sucks.
just a question, but how do you think this will affect the company's reputation with RMC and Intamin. Obviously Cedar Fair has distanced itself while Six Flags dives in head first on any project they can get from these companies. According to google Cedar Fair will own 51.2% giving them a majority vote. Does this mean Six Flags will no longer get along with these companies too? If so then we might see a huge change in companies like RMC and Intamin because they would have to satisfy the merger. Without the business from the merger, those coaster companies would go out of business!
What will happen with Intamin? Because what I've heard is the Cedar Fair manager is in charge.
I use to work at six flags over Georgia years ago my first job. It’s the second oldest six flags park.
Working at parks are great!!
This just made me cry. I grew up in southeast Michigan and we regularly went to cedar point. Obviously it was awesome. Then we moved to Georgia and I quickly realized that not all parks are like cedar point! Six flags over georgia is awful. I just recently went back to cp this year and had a fantastic time. A few weeks later I decide to revisit sfog thinking it can't be that bad. They did their best to prove me wrong. I have had 2 miserable trips to sfog this year. Everything is poorly ran, food, rides, fast lane is horrible, costs are high, and general cleanliness is bad.
I pray cedar point isn't ruined because of this.
SF has gotten themselves into a bunch of antiquated deals that are not what CF really doesn't. Ideally they
1) EPR lease deals for Darien Lake and Frontier Ciry and for 4 other separate site water parks ay Oklahoma City, Spring Tx, Phoenix AZ, Concord CA These will likely be gone if they can get out of the leases early. These are low attendance, low pass price parks with low profit margins according to SF in the past, lower than the legacy parks. Lease Expire 2033 to 2037 depending on parks
2)LaRonde is leased from the City of Montreal, very low price point park--- Lease ends 2065--needs to go
3) Rockford Illinois leased water park from the city of Rockford---needs to go, adds nothing-lease end 2029
4)SF Mexico is leased,----they will likely keep it, lease expires 2024
5)Oxopaotex Mexico Water park - leased from Mexico government expires 2037/
27 theme parks and 15 waterparks is too many mouth to feed,. Getting it down to around 20 parks and 10 waterparks would make it more manageable to give parks the Capex they need to thrive. Eliminate low price point parks with low margins and the lease parks except SF Mexico.
Also parks like Escape & America should be sold.
I’m optimistic on this move. I’d rather they work together than compete. There’s not much incentive to go to regional parks for your average consumer, and I hope this helps them create environments like the pre-COVID Cedar Fair.
Wait…the chain now has 2 Great Americas.
Yes sir
SFGAm might be confused about another one at California having the same name as them
I see them combining being the only real way for them to compete with what Disney, Universal and SeaWorld are doing. Cedar fair did a pretty good job but they need to up it even more if they want to compete with the big dogs.
Keep DC out of Cedar Fair parks. It's dumb enough in every Six Flags park having the lack of imagination to name everything Joker, let CF keep their identity.
I think overtime they will start tacking the name Six Flags in front of the parks name.
Really hoping six flags america doesn’t get sold off because that is only 30 mins away from me I do not want to drive 2 hrs to another six flags park
That would be crazy if i305 went to superman, i was think cheetah 🐆 or something like that to fit jungleX
They aren't going to randomly pick 1 ride to change to DC name. They would make an entire DC area with multiple rides and DC if it happened and that doesn't at all fit into Carowinds. A park like Carowinds has a regional theme that a lot of time and effort has been spent recently in enhancing, that won't change. FYI, DC is a haggard IP, people are over it. SF has veeb figured that out as they have had less and less merchandise with DC stuff on it, while they still are foolishly still naming rides with DC.
I wonder if this means viper at magic mountain is history, even though it is an iconic ride now that cedar fair has merged with viper I wonder how much time it has before cedar fair decides to scrap it just like they are doing with their other arrow loopers, but maybe cedar fair brings old names back to new rides, like viper, shockwave, and ninja, now six flags seems to always want to name rides after super heroes, which cool cause I like super heroes especially dc and marvel but I think they are over doing it with super hero names, maybe they'll make looney tunes six flags icons again too.
Cool maybe they’ll rename Top Thrill 2. And if we’re lucky maybe reprogram the LSM to give us a respectable first launch.
TT2 would be renamed to The Flash™ vertical velocity if they were to rename it in the six flags style of things.
@@Sir1188 who’s the weakest, most underwhelming super hero ever? That should be the new name of TT2
Renaming I-305 to Superman only makes sense if Six Flags America is getting sold off. Not an unlikely scenario, but Herschend or Merlin would have to be willing to bite and invest a fair amount in that property.