Free admission promo causes chaos at Six Flags Over Georgia

It's also not like there isn't precedent for Bad Things to happen when you hold "FREE Days" at parks. I am thinking that several years ago, Knott's Berry Farm held a Cinco De Mayo promotion - Admission to the park 5 CENTS or something like that. As you can guess the place was a madhouse.

Chuck mentioned the Bring a Friend Free days at PKI, and at the end of 2005 they gave every season passholder an email that could be printed out for free admission, and those weren't even tracked at the gate. That final day in 2005 may be the one Chuck is thinking of, the one that caused people not to want to come back.

As an aside: I just downloaded Firefox 2 which has on the fly spell checking for text boxes in forms, such as this one. It needs to learn some words like "passholder" but, its a good start.

I was thinking more of another infamous Cincinnati event, the Who concert.

I don't agree that everything is out of the park's hands. If a radio station or any other business came to me with such a promo, you better believe I'd have a list of questions longer than the Q-bot line. I sure as hell wouldn't tell them to do what they wanted and I don't have anything to do with it at this point. It's still the park's property and their employees and their liability for ensuring order.

3000 is your magic number? OK, how do we ensure that only that many get in in a span of 3 hours? Someone actually thought that only 3000 people would show up? "Gee looks like I'm #3001, guess I better turn around and go home."

So how many of these people do you think will be coming back later on this season?

I am defintly thinking this is the radio stations fault, because my visits to SFOG in the past were all nice and I think that the management at SFOG is one of the best in the SF chain.

Gonch:

I see exactly where you are coming from...you are arguing how is should be. In a perfect world nobody would blame Lord Gonch when a private-promoted party got out of hand at Lord Gonch's mansion...complete with fighting and children walking the Interstate.

In the real world...people will ONLY remember the famous Lord Gonch who had a bunch of hooligans at his mansion. Hell I've read this thread and still don't know the name of the radio station or what format they played. What I do know is Six Flags had fights at their park and parents allowed kids to walk the Interstate.

Six Flag's is in a business that is highly dependent upon reputation. In the real world...if they allow things to get out of hand on their property...you can bet your bottom dollar their reputation takes a hit. Lucky for them...this is just more of the same.

Lord Gonch would have been more careful and NEVER let himself get into this situation...even IF Lord Gonch did not believe he should be to blame for problems at his home when under the control of private promoters. Deep inside Lord Gonch there is a common sense. Apparently Six flags did not have this common sense...OR (I just thought of this at this very moment) Six Flags took a calculated gamble that the bad PR from troubles at the event were the lesser evil to not having the event at all.

This last part is a new thought of mine...I will now investigate that radio station and see if there were possible social implications had six Flags refused the event. This may have been a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

...I'll report back!

*** This post was edited by Jeffrey R Smith 4/7/2007 7:09:36 PM ***

My last take of the prior post was off base. Q 100 appears to be a standard Top 40 station...which should have left no social stigma had Six Flags just refused to allow the promotion under such unregulated conditions. This leads me back to…Six Flags are idiots that just do not get it. Funny how often I’m lead back to this very conclusion time and time again with these guys.

…indeed maybe there are other circumstances I’m not aware of that would have made it impossible for Six Flags to refuse this promotion…but given my experiences at this particular park and the entire chain in general…I’ll stick with my initial gut reaction. Smart operational decisions are not the norm.

P.S. You smart business guys tell me how running a promotion in cahoots with a Top 40 station jives with their stated intention to draw more families? The next poster who comes on here and starts talking about how Shapiro “gets it” when he glowingly talks of attracting parents with their kids at the next conference call should be banned for life and kicked in the knee. Of course this would knock out half our posters. ;)

P.P.S. It is what you DO that counts. Not what you SAY!

*** This post was edited by Jeffrey R Smith 4/7/2007 7:24:58 PM ***

The only thing I see SF guilty of here is allowing a promotion that had the possibility of getting out of control.

Prepare for the worst and then reduce.

Chuck