Redskins' owner Daniel Synder wants to oust Burke from Six Flags

Seeing how his *other* baby is sitting in eyeshot of the top of SROS's lift, I would see good things for SFA at the very least....

I like it....I really do...

I don't know... I'm scared to death he's going to close the park and sell it's assets off. Honestly! I don't put it past him.
*** This post was edited by coasterguts 8/18/2005 8:03:27 PM ***

Now why would he do that Guts? certainly as it stands now SFA is not a threat to Fedex field.....besides football season is at it's height during the off season for most parks.

What is the unused real estate the chain owns? Expansion land next to parks? Parking lots? Or underperforming parks?

Oh, I don't know. ;) Let's say the fact their building $600,000 homes on less than 1/4 acre of property no more than a mile from SFA. Yes, I would say all of the above with the exception of parking lots. Does the chain still own the Old Indiana Fairgrounds?

Jeff will appreciate this article from smartmoney.com. It discusses Six Flags giving the gate away.

http://yahoo.smartmoney.com/onedaywonder/index.cfm?story=20050818&afl=yahoo

In this article Shapiro says he will visit 30 parks in 30 days and address customer service. I hope he announces his tour:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801991_2.html
*** This post was edited by coasterguts 8/19/2005 7:14:35 AM ***

Reading that last article, when did Great Adventure's attendance dip to 2.8 million? Last time I checked, it was 3.8 million. Am I missing something here?

SF Critic, if you think that advertising towards mothers and young children is going to stop thugs from bringing guns to the park, you're delusional. It doesn't stop people from fighting with one another either. Now where I will agree with you and Mr. Snyder is that they should focus more on family entertainment. SFA for example, has no junior, mouse, or mine train coasters. To clarify what I mean by junior, I mean a ride like Blackbeards Pirate Train at Great Adventure, not the Great Chase which you have to have a kid in order to ride as a teenager/adult. GC is a kiddie coaster.

It's unfortunate that the industry has been in such an arms war, to which I hope Kingda Ka is the last of such rides. I'm not saying that I haven't enjoyed some of the benefits of the war. But unfortunately, people will still probably continue buying "stupid rides" just to pull people in the door.

Hopefully management can get their act together by improving the quality of the parks.

My opinion would be to improve what they already have by doing the following:
1. Cleaning up the parks dramatically - Like painting all the rides at a much shorter interval than they currently are doing, perform some kind of landscaping to the areas around coasters that have been built in or nearby parking lots to remove the ugly parking lot lines, and have a better clean up staff
2. Improve the Maintenance to bolster ride reliability
3. Create a more family friendly atmosphere
4. Find a way to make the employees love or simply enjoy what they do, because a friendly, smiling park worker can have a serious impact in the overall park experience of your average visitor.

I wouldn't necessarilly say that six flags doesn't have many loyal fans, I will say that Six Flags doesn't have strong family connection, but there are tons of kids to the Mid 20's that love going to the parks despite the state. Typically these are the ones that want the faster, taller, and scarier thrill rides. Family groups usually want more tame, slower rides that nearly everyone can ride and enjoy. I really don't care who runs Six Flags because I don't hold a major stock positon ( I only have 4000 shares purchased for $4.15) but it would be great to see Six Flags be able to run and really compete with with the big dawgs like Disney and Universal but maybe that's saying a lot.

While I'm very leary of Snyder, I say at least he is trying. I'll watch and see, as long as Burke and the Bad Business Boys are gone, at least some things might get better.

Intamin Fan said: "SF Critic, if you think that advertising towards mothers and young children is going to stop thugs from bringing guns to the park, you're delusional. It doesn't stop people from fighting with one another either."

I never mentioned anything like that, yet I do agree with you that it won't stop thugs from bringing guns also. Currently Six Flags is just building thrill rides for what crowd? The people that ride them. I would say about 65% of the people that Six Flags draw (well SFA) are teens. There is nothing wrong with building coasters, but they need to build more family rides and have a friendly atmosphere.

The sell offs and sponsorships might be a good idea for revenue generation, but he misses the bottom line.

The parks need to be cleaner and run better before they can ask 50.00 a head, and have repeat business from the general population.