Cost of coasters/rides question?

I have been wondering for a while why would CP(and I think other CF parks) be so willing to share how much their coasters cost, but not Six Flags? I can't seem to figure it out.

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I'm not certain, but I would think that Cedar Fair bases their investments on ROI (return on investment). If they believe they can make back the money they will spend, or have already paid for the ride, they will build it, as well as hype the public with all of the info. Cedar Fair is only a few hundred million dollars in debt...I say only because Six Flags is several billion in debt. Six Flags likes to buy parks and just invest like crazy (see SFWoA), which isn't smart in a business sense. Instead of improving their management, they put in lots of rides to bring in the guests. When the guests have a bad experience, they don't want to go back.

Cedar Fair is very public with everything they do whether it's building a new ride, reporting quarterly financial reports, or building new resorts.

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CPgenius said:
Six Flags likes to buy parks and just invest like crazy (see SFWoA), which isn't smart in a business sense.

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I disagree entirely. I firmly believe you need to spend money to make money. Right now that debt looks huge, but when Six Flags owns parks near every major metropolitan area in the country and those parks are full of coasters, people will come. You slow down to a more reasonable expansion pace and let the money roll in.

It's long term thinking and as much as I don't care for Six Flags parks in general, I have to agree with the business plan.

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All parks pretty much do go on a ROI investment scheme. Not every park that SF bought did they pour investments into. Sure they did with SFWoA, but look at where it is at. They are the one and only park that you can say is in DIRECT competition with CP. If they didn't invest heavily, they wouldn't have seen much of a return for their investment. It was a risk SF took, and it's too soon to tell where it will end up.

Other locations, like SFEG, don't see much investment into their park. Sure they got a new coaster, but relatively cheaply compared to other new ones this year. Other of their parks, like SFStL, don't get a whole lot invested either. Why not? Because the park can't pull the people in to pay off the new attractions as quickly as CP, SFMM, PKI, etc... The quicker a park sees a return in their investment and can show that the crowds have consistantly been higher than before their investment, the sooner they can start looking to expand again.

But as to the intial question, I don't know. That would be a decision made by management, of which I think CF's is better. But in the end, we do find out how much just about every coaster costs.