Six Flags reports loss despite higher attendance

It would be really interesting to see the lists of "overperforming" and "underperforming" parks.

This language and bifurcation of good and bad parks is the prelude to significant asset sales.

it’s happening folks

Holy sh!t!

$1.5B Impairment?

I like that it says "compared to the same five-week period last year when October attendance was up approximately 20% due to exceptional weather." Last I checked, the weather was exceptional this year too, at least in the eastern half of the country. Maybe their arrogance in charging for haunts really drove consumer pushback?

The attendance drop might explain the mid-October pivot to drop the Haunted Attractions Pass at several legacy Cedar Fair parks.

Couple initial reactions:

• They are absolutely telegraphing the fact that the company portfolio is going to change. They've never been this overt in blaming the small parks before.
• Net debt is up 6% over same time last year. The plan outlined in 2023/2024 to pay down debt is not working. Salaries down $6m, interest expense up $9m.
• Looking at admission per cap, it appears that the upcharge Halloween mazes caused single day visitors to stay home, or look for cheaper Halloween alternatives to which there are plenty.
• Six Flags market cap today: 1.87B on ~48m visits. United Parks 2.05B on ~21m visits. I know that is oversimplifying but is quite telling. It may say more about United's value.
• Is this the first 3rd quarter ever where there was an operating loss?
• "Every time you see the word EBITDA, substitute it with 'bulls*** earnings" - Charlie Munger

I expect that, like me, some CoasterBuzzers often have trouble understanding these posts. AI to the rescue. Here is a summary from ChatGTP. I hope it helps.

🏢 What’s Going On
Six Flags — the big amusement park company — released its financial report for the third quarter of 2025 (July through September).
They also gave a quick update for how things were going in October and early November.

Even though more people came to the parks, the company still lost money this quarter — mostly because of a huge accounting charge.

💰 The Big Picture
Attendance (how many people came):
Up 1% — about 138,000 more visitors than last year.
👉 Example: If 100 people went last year, 101 went this year.
Revenue (total money made):
$1.32 billion, which is 2% less than last year.
👉 More visitors came, but they spent less per person.
Net loss:
Six Flags lost $1.2 billion, mostly because of a $1.5 billion "non-cash impairment charge."
👉 This means the company had to admit that some of its “goodwill” (brand value, old investments, etc.) isn’t worth as much anymore.
It’s like realizing your house’s market value dropped — it hurts on paper, but you didn’t actually spend money that day.
Adjusted EBITDA:
(A measure of operating profit that ignores one-time stuff) was $555 million, just slightly lower than last year.
👉 So their day-to-day business didn’t really get worse — the big loss came from accounting, not from running the parks.

🎢 Guest Spending
In-park spending per person:
Down 4%, from about $61 to $59.
👉 People still came, but they spent a bit less on tickets or food.
Ticket (admission) spending:
Down 8%, because of more discounts and more season pass holders.
👉 Example: Instead of paying $70 for one visit, more people used a $120 pass they already bought earlier in the year.
Spending on food, drinks, and extras:
Up 2%, which means guests bought more snacks and premium experiences.
👉 Example: People might skip a pricey ticket but still splurge on funnel cakes or fast passes.
Money from things outside the parks (like sponsorships or hotels):
Up 6%, thanks to new advertising deals and promotions.

⚙️ Costs and Expenses
Operating costs (running the parks):
Down a lot — $122 million less than last year.
👉 They saved money on wages and insurance but paid more for maintenance and utilities.
SG&A (overhead and admin costs):
Down $97 million — mostly because they spent less on advertising and had fewer merger-related expenses.
Cost of goods sold (what it costs to make food, souvenirs, etc.):
Slightly up, but more efficient overall.
👉 They made better deals with suppliers and improved menus.

🧮 Depreciation and Amortization
This means how much value their rides and buildings “lose” each year on paper.
It went down $17 million — so they reported slightly smaller accounting costs here too.

🗣️ What the CEO Said
The CEO, Richard Zimmerman, basically said:

July and August were great, but September was slow.
Some marketing strategies didn’t pay off — they spent more earlier in the year to advertise, but it didn’t boost attendance enough.
Their biggest and best parks are still doing great, thanks to better rides and renovations.
They’re focusing future investments on the parks that give the best returns.
And, interestingly, Travis Kelce (NFL star) and JANA Partners have bought a big stake in the company.
👉 Six Flags is talking with Kelce’s team about branding partnerships — maybe special events or collaborations to attract more visitors.

🧾 In Short
More visitors, but less spending per person.
Small drop in revenue, but massive paper loss due to accounting.
Core business still stable (EBITDA barely down).
Cost-cutting helped.
Celebrity investor (Travis Kelce) might boost the brand in the future.

More customers spending less in total (let alone per person) is never a good sign.

I don't know if I can stand how great the synergy is.

Brian Witherow, executive VP and CFO of Six Flags, on Nov. 7, 2025, during the company’s quarterly earnings call

“

As we look ahead, our roadmap for the underperforming parks centers on two primary pathways: migrating those parks toward the performance profile of our best parks in the portfolio, or classifying them as non-core and divesting them where it makes strategic and financial sense.

We’re approaching this process with objectivity and discipline. We are re-evaluating pricing strategies, operating cost structures, capital allocation plans, and long-term market potential. These evaluations are underway with the full support of our board. We are committed to making decisions that strengthen the long-term output of the company, even when those decisions are difficult.

This isn’t new for us. Remember we have already taken action to monetize real estate in northern California; Bowie, Maryland; and Richmond, Virginia.

When you look at the portfolio of parks — and we talked about this all the way back when we completed the merger — that as a combined company of this scale, the ability to sell off and monetize parks that weren’t going to contribute a great deal of growth may be nice parks from a standpoint of what we would consider mini cash cows, so to speak, parks that don’t require a lot of capital generates a nice amount of EBITDA [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization] for our cash flow, those had a home, I think, in both [Cedar Fair and Six Flags] stand-alone portfolios.

In a bigger company where we’re trying to narrow our focus and shrink our capital needs as well as our risk or our liability exposures, getting the portfolio smaller and more nimble is a priority. So we’re going to look at the parks where our returns are the greatest, where the opportunities for growth are the highest, and we’re going to focus on those parks, and the other parks we’ll look to monetize and use those proceeds to reduce debt.

The D.C. property and the Santa Clara property were exactly that: parks where we felt like the underlying land outstripped any potential for growth and long-term cash-flow generation of those parks based on a number of factors, most notably structural challenges or limitations on the ability to build out those properties. I think those were the two most obvious.

We’ll continue to look for more opportunities like we have with the excess land in Richmond, but for the most part, most of that low-hanging fruit has already been plucked. There are always assets in the portfolio that we get inbounds from that are core, critical, top-performing parks in our system that have been in great markets with high property value — Toronto, Southern California* — but those are parks that are critical to the long-term growth of the business and I think from that perspective would not be something, at least where we said today, that we would be interested in pursuing.“

They also has some commentary on season pass sales which didn't seem like great news for their strategy.

2026 season pass average price was up 5% (probably due to people going from gold to prestige since they lowered the price on prestige to the point where it was about the same as what gold plus all park cost last year), but here is the kicker... Unit sales of season passes were DOWN 3%.

That they literally gave away all of the parks for nothing and still somehow managed to sell less passes than the year before through the end of the quarter is an indication of something bad - either people are simply tapped out and don't want to spend any extra money right now or that people simply aren't seeing the value in your product despite the low cost. Neither really bodes well for next season.

They also mentioned that despite strong July and August attendance, the trend moderated in September. Hmmm. Maybe the knee jerk decision to charge for the same old mazes did not go over well.

I have heard some anecdotal evidence that cleanliness and operations at the legacy Six parks has improved this season. Hopefully that takes root and helps things improve going forward.

They mentioned working with Travis Kelce on modernizing branding. Maybe those commercials with Taylor and him riding coasters will come to fruition after all. :)

We all know the truth and see through the BS. They shot themselves in the foot with their October foolishness, and we called it out as soon as it happened.

For those who don't know, Brian Witherow was a Cedar Fair guy. I have confidence in him where I did not have it in some of the key Six executives. If whoever is running the company will respect and value Brian's input, I think there is some hope.

Re: all parks not moving the needle---That's at least because, for most people, "all the parks" is "only my local park because I am not going to those others."

Every quarter appears to be getting worse.

1. Selling off smaller assets would only make a dent in the debt.
2. Both of the companies followed the business plan of cheap admission. They then attempted to make a profit by gouging for everything else and cost cutting. Both had a severe negative impact on the customer experience.
3. They double down on this plan after the merger by offering even cheaper passes, and then trying to make up for it with another gouge (haunt admissions). That failed. Additionally, these even cheaper season passes probably attracted low spending customers.
4. At this point of the merger, then should be seeing the benefits of combining corporate overhead. Even with those reduced overhead costs, its still a failing company.
5. That corporate overhead will not be reduced that much by selling off parks, forcing the profitable parks to absorb more of those costs.
6. IMO the ONLY way to get customers back required losing money in the short run, and they are not in the financial shape to do that.

   Money has to be spent on the customer experience by reversing cuts over the last several years.

   They need to install attractions and live entertainment venues to attract new customers outside of the thrill rider/little children customer base that they focus exclusively on currently.

   Parks need to stay open as advertised to encourage people to attend on any operating day.

   Prices for in park purchases need to be reduced below gouging levels to encourage in park spending.

   Eventually, pass prices need to be increased but that cannot be done until a superior experience is offered

   And finally, the meal plans need to go. That's a deep ditch they dug with those because eliminating them would cause a short-term loss of attendance.

   They don't have the capital to turn things around correctly.
   

I don't know if I can stand how great the synergy is.

I think we enthusiast have to admit if Legacy SF continued, the bloodbath would be far worse.

Also having been to more parks more often then ever this season because of the merger, ( SF NE Once, GrAdv/HH 3 times, Dorney/WK 3 times, CP Once, Knotts Once)the real positives of the merger have helped a large number of Legacy SF Parks, where food and cleanness and security are night and day. Also CP had two new rides, mostly functioning, and Knotts was Knotts packed good food, but needing even more love.

I don’t get why we are not panicking about United more, that drop is insane. SF gets hammered because of accounting and debit load, and they are pressing issues. But compared to United and Merlin, things are looking pretty good considering tourism and cost of living.

Now with Herschend maybe maxed out, United in worse shape, Merlin in free fall, PR checked out to Europe, selling options are thin on the ground, but we shall see.

As far as Halloween I think they think they can treat it like Knotts chain wide,( a pass does not get you into Scary Farm, but gets you $10 off for a $60 tix for 7p -11p) but that ignores the point that Knotts started all this, even under new SF get two new houses a year, and has more Live E then you can stake a stick at, way more food variety, and happens in the middle of LA, and Disney sucks at spooky. Allentown, PA is not Los Angeles.

TL;DR -

• Cedar Point is lucky to be in a place where land value isn't insanely high
• It's a good thing Magic Mountain, Knott's and Canada's Wonderland are priority parks for the chain
• Pretty much anything outside of the above named parks and maybe a few others is fair game to be Geauga Lake'd

Brian Noble:

Re: all parks not moving the needle---That's at least because, for most people, "all the parks" is "only my local park because I am not going to those others."

The smaller parks probably wouldn't be considered "underperforming" if not tied to the larger Six Flags chain. Each small park is hopefully a viable business onto itself. Frontier City might not be a national destination but it gives those living in Oklahoma City a local amusement park to visit each year.

So what they didn’t say is that FUN is back in the same spot SIX was before the Great Recession. Got it! As the economy erodes due to tariffs and rising inflation, as job losses increase, as delinquencies mount on car loans and credit card debt climbs, FUN is really facing some major problems. Didn’t have to be this way and any former SIX board members still on the FUN board should be terminated, just like they did to so many hard working park employees!