Nine people arrested at Six Flags Great America, three sent to hospital, in apparent "mob action"

This is why I opted not to get a 2018 season pass. Park's only 30 mins away; but I've seen the place deteriorate rapidly the last two seasons.

The late 90's early 2000's were horrible, with lots of gangs, violent fights, obnoxious and rude behavior etc. It's why I took a 14 year hiatus from the park.

Buddy told me the park did a 180, and I sprung for a season pass deal Labor Day 2013. Park was indeed well maintained, lots of security, and minimal problems outside of Long queues for rides and food.

These last two seasons have been horrible. Kids shouting in line, spitting on riders below them (especially on the flume rides) line jumping, fights (went three times this year, each time saw at least one fight), and people just dumping trash on the ground. (Really? There's trash cans literally two feet away and they opt for just tossing refuse on the ground). I see they're slipping back into that 90's-00's mode of just plain dangerous place to visit. Man SF as a corporation just sucks.

It reflects more on the type of clientele drawn to the park more so than on the park itself, in my opinion. Security can only be in so many places at once, and they've probably got their hands full as it is. Maybe they should cut off the bus lines from the inner cities to the parks to keep those types from getting there; I'm only half joking. SFGAm isn't the only park located near a major city that has this problem, either.

How would a park go about cutting off publicly funded transportation?

The most direct way to reduce crime in a park is to raise the price to get in.

Its an unfortunate part of cheap season passes as well. Parks have become regular hangouts for people instead of a special vacation destination. Not saying that parks should price people out, it should be affordable to go a day or 2 every year. But when it becomes a regular hangout problems come with that.

The coasters at this park are great but that's about it. In fact it is the park with more of my favorite coasters in one place. They used to have a great flat ride collection, but that has deteriorated. Landscaping is practically non-existent and the last time I was there there were weeds growing throughout the park. Six Flags has also deteriorated the original theming to the point that its really become a crappy park all around.

Trips to this park have also been not great because of the big crowds (more people, lower quality experience), and Six Flags super poor operations. It basically forces one to buy a Flash Pass or wait in a miserable slow moving line.

Pass pricing is inversely proportional to the volume of security issues. The more they give away the gate, the more problems they have.

Yeah, completely agree. I renewed my Gold Pass for 2018, and even added on the Season Dining plan, and the total came out to less than $160. That's absurdly inexpensive, and clearly their low admission price is bringing in a less-than-favorable clientele.

There are the fair share of rich suburban kids causing problems too. I think the crazy low cost of a season pass AND the insane amount of "bring a friend" days contributes to the chaos. It'd be simple to escort trouble makers out of the park setting the example; but that never happens. If you're shouting and making a jackass of yourself, they should show you the exit. If you're spitting on people (happens a lot on Yankee Clipper, from people in the queue above) they should show you the exit. If you're fighting, they should take your pic and show you the exit; banning you for the rest of the season and maybe the next.

I see line jumping all the time; ride ops rarely take action. When they do; it's just to make them go to the end of the queue. They should be tossed from the park. I didn't see these problems at Carowinds, Busch Gardens, Dollywood, Cedar Point or Kings Island. But both SF properties I visited this year had these problems in abundance.

This is my home park also and I still go 10-15 times a year just because of my passion for coasters and Halloween activities but it is becoming so depressing. Every year seems to get worse with the people that are at the park. I agree a big issue is the low cost of the season pass. During labor day weekend you could get it for $60 and that includes free parking and gets you in the rest of this year and 2018.

I went to CP this past weekend and my wife and I were discussing how the difference is night and day with the people that attend. I know CP has its fair share of idiots but there is no comparison.

Hey; how long you been going to SFGA? Do you remember the late 90's early 00's crowds? I tried to go only on holidays, or rainy days this year and last hoping to avoid the riff raff. It's really a shame. I remember the Mariott days in the 70's and 80's; and waiting in line 3 hrs for American Eagle wAsn't bad. (The old queue is now filled with kiddie rides like the crazy cars, all that canopy was queue lines/rails) Today; I can't stand 30 mins, and its because of the trash people. Lots of loud swearing, screaming teens. Hordes of nasty/rude people pushing in line, jumping lines, and looking quite dour. Fright fest last year was horrible. Took my nephew for the haunts; we got caught in the middle of probably 60 people brawling at the food court near XFlight. My nephew had his haunt band stolen off his wrist. Who steals a wristband off a six year olds wrist. Crazy how quickly its deteriorated.

Hey Tbone, I have been going for years. I am 39 and I have visited the park at least one time each year dating back to 1985. It all depends on when you go. In May and early June during the week its not too bad. Also Friday nights during Fright fest is much better than Saturdays.

But I hear you as I get older it is much harder to deal with the people there. The park is fine to me, love the rides and I know its not a Cedar Point but still happy to have a park only 30 min away. Again though every year seems to get worse with the people!!

Cheap season passes! A few years ago Six Flags promoted "our cheapest season passes in 20 years!" like it was a good thing. Who doesn't like getting something for cheap... but dang you really get what you pay for in the case of Six Flags. Unless of course you can go weekdays before school lets out.

Even if they tripled the price of a season pass (which would be an acceptable price, but still cheap in my opinion) it would take them years to try to attain halfway decent operations. I'm getting very close to the "well, if Cedar Fair owned the six flags parks" wish, so I'll stop there. But really, these parks deserve better. So much potential. Especially Great America and Magic Mountain.

Tbone's chop said:I remember the Mariott days in the 70's and 80's; and waiting in line 3 hrs for American Eagle wAsn't bad. (The old queue is now filled with kiddie rides like the crazy cars, all that canopy was queue lines/rails)

Hey wait - you must have gotten Eagle on a bad day. In the Marriott days, they ran 3 trains on each side and that entire queue moved fast. Maybe you got a break-down day? Today, it's a different story. They DO race it when both sides are running, which rocks, but man do they move em out slow. Related, it went down to 2 trains ("we will never run 3 on a track" on the news) when Six Flags purchased the park and the ride had a collision. Six Flags has had a HUGE list of operational errors over the years that have cost everyone, in a sense.

In my experience, one of the biggest contributors to line jumping is the length as well as the slowness of lines. When lines are moving quickly, people seem less inclined to line jump even if the lines are long. Slow lines also mean that when line jumping happens it's more maddening.

My worst experience along these lines was a couple of years ago at Lake Compounce. It was the last park on a New England trip I'd long wanted to do, and Compounce was supposed to be one of the highlights of the trip since I'd never been there and had really wanted to go for years. Unfortunately, at the end of the day my husband ended up getting in an altercation with a line jumper in the endlessly slow line for Boulder Dash (which was operating one train). So much line jumping was going on that he couldn't stand it anymore and told a kid not to cut in front of him, the kid got his scary father and the father went totally ballistic threatening my husband. Scary Guy then went up to the station and waited for us the whole time as we slowly made our way to the front through the line, then when we got on the train he threatened that he'd be waiting for us when we got off. We told a ride op and they got security and security's response was to come and tell both Scary Guy and my husband, "you two just stay away from each other the rest of the night." I realize they only had our word and his (he made up some lies about how my husband "grabbed his kid") but they didn't make any attempt to point out that maybe they shouldn't have been line jumping in the first place.

So I guess I think that the problem is twofold: first, parks with slow operations bring on more of this, and second, they are not interested in enforcing line jumping or other conduct rules.

bjames said:

Maybe they should cut off the bus lines from the inner cities to the parks to keep those types from getting there; I'm only half joking. SFGAm isn't the only park located near a major city that has this problem, either.

Per the story - the perpetrators are from Waukegan, a nine-minute drive from Gurnee, which is about an hour from Chicago city limits. Bad behavior isn't a result of geography. It's a lot more complex than that. There are also lots of people in cities (and the mythical "inner cities" you reference) who are polite, friendly and civil.

Absolutely.

I haven't been to the park in many, many years. But the last time I was there we drove through Waukegan. Either we stayed there, or maybe it was for gas, I can't remember. What I do remember is thinking the town looked a little sketchy, and I thought it was maybe a little odd knowing that the northern burbs are "nice".
Thus, proving the point.

Exactly right. There are several sketchy north suburbs and Waukegan is for sure one of them

There are some rougher looking areas within a 20 minute walk of the park.

Schwarzkopf76 said:

Hey wait - you must have gotten Eagle on a bad day. In the Marriott days, they ran 3 trains on each side and that entire queue moved fast. Maybe you got a break-down day? Today, it's a different story. They DO race it when both sides are running, which rocks, but man do they move em out slow. Related, it went down to 2 trains ("we will never run 3 on a track" on the news) when Six Flags purchased the park and the ride had a collision. Six Flags has had a HUGE list of operational errors over the years that have cost everyone, in a sense.

I'm gonna scour some pics. Confirmed with my siblings that there were rountinely 3 hour lines for Eagle. From about '78-'89 we visited GAmerica about once a year. I continued going through '93 with friends, from about '94 I stopped going because of the downward turn, and didn't return to the park til 2013. (Wow, just realized I took a 20 year hiatus...man I'm getting old). 13 and '14 were both nice years, '15 was okay, last year and this year were HORRIBLE.

Tbone's chop said:

I'm gonna scour some pics. Confirmed with my siblings that there were rountinely 3 hour lines for Eagle. From about '78-'89 we visited GAmerica about once a year. I continued going through '93 with friends, from about '94 I stopped going because of the downward turn, and didn't return to the park til 2013. (Wow, just realized I took a 20 year hiatus...man I'm getting old). 13 and '14 were both nice years, '15 was okay, last year and this year were HORRIBLE.

I was referring to the Marriott years of American Eagle, 1981-1984.