Breakout year for SF

First off, I am not a fan of Six Flags, nor am I one of Shapiro. I think he is an egomaniac, as are many CEOs. The company still has too many negatives, so I do not plan to visit any Six Flags parks this year. That being said, I think Shapiro has made some improvements, although he has also made plenty of mistakes during his early tenure. I think it was smart to sell off some of the parks to try to lower debt. SF had obviously over extended themselves. I like that they are removing some rides that may have been causing problems. SF should not keep rides that are not operable just so they can say we have X number of coasters, when in reality several of them are not functional. Either fix them or get rid of them. I too would be pissed if half the rides in a park are not working on a day I visited; I would never go back. A major area of concern remains ride unreliability. They need to draw families into the parks, although the small steps made thus far are at least a start.

There are steps in the right direction. The problem is Shapiro has been making unrealistic promises that turn around and bite him in the *ss. If you make a promise, you'd better deliver. Of course this comes with being a CEO. He cannot tell the real story. "This company was being run like cr*p when I first started, and it will be a nightmare to turn around and will take years." As the CEO he has to be the company's cheerleader.

I will quietly sit on the SF sidelines this season and see if Shapiro keeps his promises. If he does, I'll consider season passes for 2008. If not, I'll spend my money elsewhere.

There is a right way and a wrong way for CEOs to go about their business. I agree that they have to remain positive and try to build enthusiasm for their ideas but it's good to do that without making false promises because all that does is lead to disappointment. Shapiro said a lot last year but did very little, and unfortunately that did a lot to damage his reputation. Now not only does he have to come through with what he promised but he also has to gain the confidence of customers and investors. Not like that won't be accomplished by making good on what he said he was going to do, but it adds that much more pressure.

Since, my homepark is SFoT and that is run much differently than all the other parks. (as stated above at one point)...

So, what promises did Shapiro not keep? what promises did he only do half-_ss? and what promises did he succeed in?

Take into account the time he stepped up to bat to today, March 5th.

Example:

Kept: Has turned a focus toward families for sure.

Half: Brought in more characters, but had to pull many of them by August due to lack of money.

Fail: There was a smoking ban in the parks in 06?

All rides open, running at high capacity, clean midways and bathrooms, more significant entertainment options...

How did he keep a focus on families? As far as I know, he just said that, which doesn't mean he actually did it.

Why is everybody blaming shapiro for last year? Lats year they came in after all the budgets and projects were decided upon by the old management.

They did the best they could with what they had.

example. Originally the run away mine train at gadv was going to be closed the later half of the year. People were upset so the new management moved the funding around to open it up again.

The old management would have never done that.

Um, no... last year had a lot of Shapiro all over it. He was the one that stated the parks would be much-improved while jacking up prices... if he didn't feel the improvements were possible, he shouldn't have touted them.

And the prices... maybe Six Flags' prices were low, but if they were to be increased, they should have been increased AFTER he delivered, not before.

As a frequent visitor to SFA last year (and I plan to be one again this year, as it's my closest park, and I love the Wild One), I did notice a lot of changes there last year. Yes, there are still problems, but things take time to change. And what was said a few posts ago about lines for WO and TF was exactly right. I rarely encountered really long lines for anything there, unless you went to Hurricane Harbor. Then, it got busy, but that's part of the fun. I know I'm not the only one at the park, and don't expect to be treated like I am.

Ride maintenance is always an issue (the biggest problem is still TSC, which is rumored to be up for major work this season), but that seems to be improving as well. This will be the first full season with Shapiro and Snyder making the desicions, and I'm watching to see what happens.

Were the lines shorter because the rides were run more efficiently, or because less people went to the park? As a CEO, I could easily shorten the lines at ANY park- just jack up the price of tickets until only the wealthy can afford to go. Of course, maybe that's the ultimate plan... to make the parks like filet mignon for a select few rather than ground chuck for the masses?

Since I only went once in '05, I can't say anything about less people. But the rideops seemed to be doing a rather good job of getting people through the rides.

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Rob Ascough said:

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Ajrides said:
^I totally agree, if anyone thought there was going to be major changes last year was fooling themselves.

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Shapiro promised there would be major changes last year and he didn't deliver? You're saying he basically gets a free pass because it was his first year on the job? No one is foolish for believing him... the only fools are the people like you that for some reason feel the guy can do no wrong.

The weird acronyms and the endless links to SF articles being posted? You ARE a Six Flags tool. Face reality.

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I love Six Flags dearly. However, I agree with you. There should have been better changes last year than what have happened in the past. How much money did he get for his first year of job, and how low did he bring the company in regards to attendance? It's harder to get more people that you lost than bringing back the old people you had.

I worry about what rides he is going to put in. Of course, you have the operation problems at places like Magic Mountain, but what about adding new rides to other places like SFStL, and SFKK? SFStL is a nice quaint park, but it needs more rides. He seems last year he was more focused on the "entertainment" than the rides. Worry about the rides (operations).

Also, he thought charging more money to get in, and to pay more at parking were the right decision. I don't know how paying $15 at SFMM is reasonable for just parking your car. Maybe, it is if you are 4 kids in the car that are friends. Thus, they only pay a certain amount for each person. The non-smoking policy bans people from coming. How many did we lose that way? They can smoke, but they have to be caged up like animals. It's not fun for those people.

Worry about the rides/operations (of rides), and you get even better parks. Also, worry about getting new rides. And NO, they don't have to be roller coasters. Roller coasters are expensive, but some very impresive flats could cost only around $400,000 each. These are awesome, and they aren't Sky Hawk, or the Huss Giant Frisbees. The tweens should also get Flying Bobs rides, Himilayas, Tilt-A-Whirls, and Octopuses. If you have a lot of roller coasters, they shouldn't even think about putting another one in for 8 years or so. Aka SFMM/SFGAdv Work on the flats!!

This should be there main focus. Yes, have some shows, but don't go overboard. People don't come for food, but they just eat it because of there.

"You know, I want to go to SFA for that Papa John's Pizza. I've heard it's the best in world." Instead they are at the park, and find food, or go out of the park to buy food.

Last year is done guys, time to close the books. Even Shapiro admitted that the brand was more damaged than he first thought. But he's a business man who must keep guests coming back despite everything. What's he going to say, "stay home until we can completely wash away the stench of the last regime?"

2007 is the first year that is all Shapiro. He's set the budgets, he's chosen the projects this year which are geared towards families, and with most of the parks still closed for another month or so, we really have to play wait and see just a little longer. *** Edited 3/5/2007 9:53:08 PM UTC by DWeaver***

Understood, but that's not the point of this conversation. We're debating with people that feel Shapiro did a good job in '06. The book being closed has nothing to do with whether or not the promises made last year were fulfilled.

As DWeaver said....

"Even Shapiro admitted that the brand was more damaged than he first thought."

So yes even Mr. Shapiro noticed he fell short of his plans. I think we all knew he was handicapped to start but he thought it was starting at a better situation then it really was. One year later he's trying something else. If at the end of this season he fails to start a turn around, then go ahead and start to gather the angry mob. I always said it would be year 2 or 3 we would see the start of the changes not year 1.

But that's exactly the point. Whether Shapiro did a good job last year is debatable, because we can't be sure how much of it he was personally responsible for. You could argue this all year long and never get anywhere with either conclusion. It's a moot point to make either way.

This year he can't hide behind the past regime, he can't blame the weather, he can't say his hands were tied. So it just makes more sense to move on to 2007, instead of rehashing what's done and already in the books.

Last year was not a clear indicator of Shapiro's capabilities. As someone smartly said earlier. It's not as if he could tear down El Toro or Goliath or Tatsu mid-construction and reset a budget already set in motion. What you got last year was more of the same, Burke's wasting of money on big coasters, with litlle attention paid to anything else. Pin that on Shapiro all you want, but this year is going to be quite different. *** Edited 3/5/2007 7:39:49 PM UTC by DWeaver***

"but what about adding new rides to other places like SFStL, and SFKK? SFStL is a nice quaint park, but it needs more rides."

SFStL is getting a family spinner and SFKK is getting what looks to be one of the coolest waterslides in the world.

All Coasterbuzzers who think that's a bad move feel free to raise your hand but I think you'll be squarely in the minority.

Also, SFStL doesn't need "more rides." Some "different" rides may be appropriate but the total number of SFStL's rides is not one of the park's problems. There are several parks out there that draw higher attendance with far fewer rides.

"The non-smoking policy bans people from coming. How many did we lose that way? They can smoke, but they have to be caged up like animals. It's not fun for those people."

Maybe it's not fun for the one smoker standing in line to ride Mr. Freeze, but letting him smoke is even less fun for the 200 people surrounding him, some children, who shouldn't have to be affected by that one smoker's revolting habit. Designated smoking areas are now a standard of the industry, it's not gonna change.

"People don't come for food, but they just eat it because of there."

Which is exactly the problem with an awful lot of Six Flags parks. Food has become an opportunity to offer sustenance at the highest cost possible. You're right...people don't go to SF parks for the food, but what if they did? Would that be such a bad thing? I know places like EPCOT, BGW, Knoebels, IOA and Kennywood aren't suffering because of it.

Has the bar really been set this low? Have some SF parks been so crappy for so long we don't even imagine they could potentially be up to that kind of standard?

I think that's the case- expectations are so low that people are in disbelief when you try to convince them that things can get better. No wonder why people were amazed by reliable Japanese cars in the 70's- people were so used to unreliable, inefficient American clunkers for so long that they practically rejected the idea of something better until their expectations were raised.

Or are the expectations of some so high that they demand overnight miracles and no matter how much change is made, it will never be enough?

I'm getting the impression that you're playing devil's advocate?

I can't speak for everyone but I don't think that I'm being unreasonable. Decent food options, good ride selection, all rides open and running efficiently, friendly employees and clean grounds don't qualify as unreasonable. All I want is an experience that rivals the quality of Busch parks, for the same price that Busch charges. Do you think that's asking for a miracle?

I don't think that's unreasonable at all.

I think it's incredibly unreasonable considering the timeframe.

Yes it is... which is why he shouldn't have promised the world, in light of what he was dealing with.