Six Flags moving corporate headquarters to Arlington, Texas

I don’t think the location of the corporate office is an indicator of what parks are the priority nowadays, although it certainly was that way in the Kinzel days. They will keep investing in Carowinds if the demand is there.

Honestly, their priority parks, regardless of where their HQ sits, should be the very underperforming legacy SIX parks in big markets - like Dallas, NYC/Philly, Atlanta, LA, maybe Chicago although I thought Great America was doing pretty well attendance wise. The trick is to lift those parks up to where they should be (probably about the 3 million mark in attendance) while at the same time, not neglecting the legacy FUN parks that were doing well previously (CP, KI, Canada's Wonderland, Knotts). It's a delicate balance to strike in terms of capital expenditures. I think the days of any park getting a major ride every two years are long gone and people have to start getting used to the idea that even a park like CP might be on a stretched schedule where they get a big attraction more like every five years and just small things in between.

They seem to be leaning big into Halloween IP this year. Hopefully it pays off and delivers at least as much as is promised.

One thing I have to say that is very disturbing to me is I'm not sure they are putting stress on operational excellence. They spent all that money on Tormenta in Dallas and reports are they are still running one train on many coasters there. El Toro in NJ is still on one train. It took until July to get multiple trains on Raging Bull and Wrath at Six Flags Great America, etc. Yes their passes are cheap and offer a lot of value for the price, but if people have a lousy time when they go, they will not be interested in repeating the same mistake again, at any price.

To be honest, middling parks like KD, Carowinds, Dorney, are the ones I'd be most worried about losing in the mid-term. These are good parks, but they've never been huge in terms of attendance so I'm not sure there's enough reason to believe they ever will be. Cedar Fair spent a ton of money on Carowinds over the past 15 years, and I have to believe they're disappointed in the return. Of course that place is hotter than hell in the summer so maybe the water ride they are putting in next year will do well for them.

I don’t doubt your overall sentiment, but the one day I was at SFGAm. in late May, everything but X-Flight was running two trains.

MDOmnis:

midling [sic] parks like KD, Carowinds, Dorney, are the ones I'd be most worried about losing

Dorney was doing quite well on an ordinary Monday (with thunderstorms threatening) two weeks ago. If that was any indication, the place is doing just fine.

There is an agreement to keep a corporate presence is Sandusky until 2047 but it doesn't specify how large.

https://www.cleveland.com/n...large.html

They can just keep the Executive Vice Janitor there and call it good.

According to an Arlington spokesman, the package includes annual grant payments of $200,000 to Six Flags through 2035, plus marketing funding through the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau. The agreement also allows Six Flags employees and their families to pay in-state tuition at public colleges without first establishing residency.

So ... either $9 billion, or $2 million and change.

GoBucks89:

There is an agreement to keep a corporate presence is Sandusky until 2047 but it doesn't specify how large.

Maybe Kinzel still living next to the parking lot counts.

So ... either $9 billion, or $2 million and change.

Im sure this was some weird calculated tax cuts for the length of the agreement. also this was from before the merger apparently.

Dorney has had a nearly full lot all 3 times I have gone this year, there is reason that team is now in-charge of Great Adventure.

One thing I have to say that is very disturbing to me is I'm not sure they are putting stress on operational excellence. They spent all that money on Tormenta in Dallas and reports are they are still running one train on many coasters there. El Toro in NJ is still on one train.

Compared to Legacy SF opps are night and day, and the speed they have turned around Food is frankly surprising, much quicker than old CF. Also I have a feeling lots of things are getting much deeper and proper refreshes then under legacy SF. El Toro retracking, Batman was apparently down long cause all the wheels fully changed, etc. John also announced a doubling of maintenance budgets in the last conference call, and after the security and food, it’s definitely the harder legacy SF issue to fix. The paint and polish of SFOT main gate, and the front half of the park is a good start. And with corporate back at one of the most underperforming legacy SF parks, and the namesake park. Im sure it will get more attention. CF spent alot at Carrowinds and KD and compared to CW, didn’t get the bumps they wanted.

It's not $9 billion. Arlington's entire annual city budget is less than $800 million.

And the hq was down the street from SFOT for several years before the merger. That means nothing.

"The call is coming from inside...the country"

This time of year I'm typically making a variety of phone calls to Cedar Point setting up an annual group trip for myself and my (30ish) students. Call me weird, but I usually enjoy these calls, because after taking care of whatever, there is almost always a quick chat about the park, the season, whatever.

Last week I gave them a call, jumping through the system to get to "group sales", where I got a new "thank you for calling, your call is important, yadda yadda yadda", so I waited on hold. And waited. Then I just hung up and tried again because I figured a wire got crossed. Second try was more of the same but there was an option to leave a message, so I did. Just odd as believe it or not, I've never not spoken to a person at the park on the first try.

About 5 days passed and I honestly forgot I ever left a message because I had already figured out the answer to my question. I noticed a missed call from an area code that I did not recognize (817) so I ignored it. Then I noticed this person left a message so I listened to it.

"This message is for Kevin. This is Bill from Six Flags and per your request we are returning your call. Please call us back, yadda yadda yadda". I don't want to talk to Bill from Six Flags, I want to speak to Betty from Cedar Point. And why in the hell did it take 5 days?

Then I looked up the area code. It's Texas.

Something tells me "Bill" wouldn't be able to have a very interesting conversation about Troika, or Magnum's debut, or the disaster that Disaster Transport became, or....well....anything. Maybe we could talk about the Alamo's basement.

When they dropped the season fast lane price for a Kings Dominion home park pass from the $999 I paid in august 2025 to $499 in January this year. I called the KD Customer Service number and ended up talking to a person who was maybe in Texas as they sent me an email with an 817 area code to call back if I needed to get help with the process after they issued me a refund and I had to then rebuy the season fast lane at the new price.

Also Call Centers are a weird thing now. You can literally be anywhere and have an area code local to corporate. I know as the Philly area health system I work for has call center agents in Washington State and Tennessee. They both started working for us locally but then moved to their new locations and the company kept them as employees.

OhioStater:

Something tells me "Bill" wouldn't be able to have a very interesting conversation about Troika, or Magnum's debut, or the disaster that Disaster Transport became, or....well....anything. Maybe we could talk about the Alamo's basement.

While perhaps factually accurate, it's also meaningless to someone who needs to book a group outing for next year. (I get the joke, and the snark, but their knowledge of past park history is of no concern to somone trying to book a group event now/next year). That doesn't mean that there isn't value of having a local person who knows "the park" as opposed to some inside sales call center person in some far away state handling your group outing. In fact, I think it very much would benefit to have local people who know the local park and the local communities being the team to lead group buy outs. However, I don't know the pure economics.

That being said, SF is about to be hit with a metric F-ton of bad economic news so these moves that look shortsighted now, will seem to have been almost obligatory over the next 6-7 months. Gas/oil shock is going to the hit the US economy hard, and well, theme parks are discretionary spend. That's why the stock is trading at or near 52 week lows right now.