Shapiro announces reorg moves at Six Flags

I know it's something everyone knows, but Six Flags needs lots of help. They just can't seem to figure it out completely, though they seem to be plenty busy. The park experience varies so much from park to park. I happened to get to Magic Mountain today to find it very busy, but, as always, it seems to have one of the worse park experiences in the chain. The following rides were closed (who knows why):
Superman, Ninja, Tilt-a-Whirl (where did it go?), Swinging Ship, Freefall, and of course Thrill Shot.

Now that wouldn't be that bad for Magic Mountain if Revolution and Thunder Rapids were not already down. Also, the monorail, Skytower, and Flashback were closed as always.In addition, Goldrusher and Psyclone were both one train operation (still better than usual.) Both had lines and could have used additional trains. I can't remember the last time Psyclone had a wait...

Now since the Orient Express and the walkway to the south was closed, the park paths made a large U shape making it take a LONG walk to get back to Deja Vu, and up to Superman (which was testing but never opened.) You would think on a busy day like this, they would be trying to keep capacity up, and other coasters/rides open since the needed closures to build Tatsu.

I knew what to expect since I was going to Magic Mountain, and actually had a good time, but it is still a bit frustrating, as always. The crews are yet another problem, they are never even smiling, although there are a few cases of good ops. The line for X, which the wait would normally be something like 1 hour with the number of people that were in line, took 2 1/2 hours with two train operation.

I hate sounding like those people that complain about Magic Mountain all the time, and I'm not one of those people. Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Great America are just so different than Magic Mountain. They are both much more organized, clean, and it feels like they try to make your day fun. Those parks also have room to improve, but I think Magic Mountain has some of the most potential of all the parks in the chain. Now the managment just needs to focus on them and realize it. This has all been said for years now, but it's just as true as ever to this day.

*** This post was edited by GoliathKills 12/28/2005 4:03:19 AM ***

Ok I am going to say something about the choice of Mr. Quenzel that may not have been seen to easily. He was one of the people behind the X-Games and the Outdoor Games. What are they? Live events that are done to entertain crowds. They may be sport events but they draw people to an area for a time period and have to have security, some have ticket sales, and they also need to monitor revenues from many sources(souvenirs, refreshments, and sponsors to name a few) coming in. Ponder that for a second please. Every thing he is tasked with running at SF but the actual ride operations he has done. I know when the X Games were in Philly they were a huge event that drew guess what... FAMILIES not just kids. They also were very entertaining.

Please let them do their jobs before you say they are not a right fit and I don't mean for 1 year. It is going to take 2-5 years to be able to see the whole effect of this but to me it seems like a start.

As Dutchman said, Paul Pressler came from the retail industry and is an example of someone who didn't make the transition from one industry to another with great success. But that doesn't mean that other non-amusement people can't make the jump and pull something off.

Seriously, some of you act as though you actually work for these parks and know everything there is to know...

Most of us don't know everything... which is precisely the reason we'd hire people that do know!

But how do you explain the fact that the people hired who were supposed to know ended up running the company into the ground?

Besides, I still don't see how great corporate minds can't switch gears. Before Gordon Bethune turned Continental Airlines around, he was CEO of Boeing. The CEO of an aircraft manufacturer wouldn't be my first choice to turn a bankrupt airline around but he pulled it off pretty well. Before Steve Jobs became CEO of one of the most successful animation companies of all time, he was "just" the CEO of a computer manufacturer. I wouldn't have expected Pixar to thrive under the leadership of a techno geek but it did...

Gordon Bethune was also a commercial pilot, so obviously he would know something about airline operations. Plus Boeing is also in the aviation business. Running the production end of a television network does not teach the skills needed to run operations in the theme park industry.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/13495528.htm

Rob: The people running Six Flags were bankers and lawyers. I thought we all knew that? The people running every other chain, and most of the independents I can think of, are run by life-long industry career people. The rest of the industry is doing just fine.

...from the "dfw" article link above....

But Shapiro said his company already has some of the best roller-coasters in the country. He doesn’t want to get hung up new rides.

"These parks are not going to be about building big roller coasters anymore,” he said. "It’s going to be about service and the family experience. It’s going to be about a diversification of entertainment. It’s not just the shows. It’s animals, petting zoos and 3-D movies. Let’s get back to the basics.”

Boy....for a guy with no theme park experience, he sure hits the nail on the head. Agian, Six Flags problems are not that complicated, and with the proper leadership, operational standards and vision, they have a pretty good chance of succsess. I think fresh ideas at this point is better for them then a good 'ole industry boy comming in and being the "expert".

Bankers and lawyers? Wasn't Burke an industry career person? He was supposed to know what he was doing but that certainly didn't seem to be the case.

The way I see it, Six Flags needs to work on customer service and diversification. Not many people want to spend money at a place where the service sucks and the only new rides are enormous coasters. Considering Shapiro's statement above, it doesn't seem that he needed an extensive amusement industry background to figure out what needs the most attention.

As for Bethune, he ran Boeing- a company that engineers and builds aircraft. From what I can tell, an aircraft manufacturer and a commercial airlines have very little in common aside from the fact that their business is based on planes. That's like saying someone that runs a Honda manufacturing plant would be good at running a Honda car dealership. There is a common thread but the differences between the two are like night and day. My point was that Bethune jumped from one aspect of the airline industry to another so why can't these people jump from one aspect of the entertainment industry to the other?

The only person in the old regime that was an industry person was Gary Story when he was COO, and he left (can't say I blame him either). Burke was a banker or lawyer. I don't remember which.

What is a so-called "expert" anyway? Someone who has been in the business for 30 years? Well, we had that, it didn't work.

It makes perfect sense for Shapiro to appoint people that he knows. Knows their commitment, creative ideals and work ethic. These are people he wants to impliment his vision and he knows they will do it. This may not line up with what enthusiasts envision for the company, but it's the everyday consumer they have to convince not a bunch of enthusiasts who will whine about Six Flags till the end of days.

Besides, is the industry really crawling with these so called experts? If it is, how did we get stuck with so many boneheads?

Who was in the business 30 years among the execs at Six Flags? None that I'm aware of.

There are a ton of qualified people, in part because the industry is so small that people frequently have nowhere to go. I know for a fact that Cedar Fair is crawling with good people, because no one ever gets to move up unless someone dies, retires or the company buys another park. Paramount Parks have a lot of good people too.

I was speaking of Gary Story, the one who bombarded Six Flags with record breaking coasters, with very little regard of people who didn't ride them.

How quickly we forget...

I do agree that Cedar Fair has an awful lot of underused people, but so does Six Flags themselves. But I'm talking about people who'd be coming into a bad situation, attempting to fix it, along with 2 billion in debt. "Theme Park" experts are one thing. The chain needs much more than that now.*** This post was edited by DWeaver 12/29/2005 2:17:42 AM ***

Some very random thoughts...
ESPN decided not to renew its contract with the NHL to carry games this year, instead providing additional coverage of Poker Tournaments. Yeah, I know the ratings for Poker are actually higher, but what happened to the "brand building" and the "marketability" of the sport and league?

Petting zoos are nice, but how family families are going to drop $200 to shove their kid in front of a llama? Maybe it's because I am in the sticks, but there are dozens of places I can go to do that much cheaper. Families in Jersey and Maryland can travel to several dozen Pennsylvania fairs for much less money than going to GAdv or SFA if they really want their kids to see animals.

It's one thing to draw tens of thousands of people to an Xtreme Sports event on one weekend. It's another to maintain that for 150-200 days in 30 different venues. It's one thing not to worry about constantly building record-breaking coasters. It's another to say we don't intend to build any coasters at all ever again.

Sorry we closed your park... wanna be Senior VP?

I think what bothers people here most is that the new regime has come in like a bull in a china shop. Most of their statements sound (to us anyway) that it's not just the way Six Flags was run that was wrong, but the way the entire amusement park industry is being run.

Crap like "not being afraid to reinvent the wheel." Miller came up with pretty good ones 90 years ago. No statements like "we should see what works elsewhere in other successful parks and what we can learn from them." (Although I guess they could never make a statement like that.) It's all "what sponsorship opportunities can we create... brand names... marketability."

I'm all for diversification, but I have my doubts whether a stunt show or petting zoo should be the centerpiece of your park. The GP may not be into big-ass coasters, but I think they'll still need convincing about the petting zoos. And I still have this nagging feeling that a lot of these improvements are going to be upcharges.

I guess only time will tell, and the archives will be here to either prove me right or wrong. Till then, guess I'll see you at the Visa/Preparation H Stunt Show/Petting Zoo.

I'm not sure that petting zoos are the answer but I can definitely appreciate some out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to Six Flags. As much as I love coasters and spectacular attractions, I'll be the first to admit that those things aren't doing it for Six Flags. Many of the company's parks are in dire need of non-thrill rides and other types of family attractions to make them more than just a hangout for teens that don't spend any money. Maybe a petting zoo, a stunt show, some new flat rides and a parade would do wonders for the average Six Flags park that has seen constant drops in attendance these past five or so years.

As far as Burke goes, I was under the impression he was an industry guy like Gary Story was and I stand corrected. Still, I find it hard to believe that NO ONE in the company right now is an industry person. And as far as there being an overabundance of qualified people in the industry, isn't that the case with most industries nowadays? ;)

The general managers, as far as I know, are industry types. I also have it on good authority though that many have not had the flexibility they'd like to have in terms of doing what is right in their particular markets. Now I'll admit that's he-said-she-said, but when people like Burke were holding you back, that's not helpful.

I don't have a problem with them diversifying attractions. No one here is going to say that's a bad idea, but it's still a small problem compared to the bigger problem of most parks just not being a good experience overall. That starts with the standards they hold their seasonals to, which to date have sucked.

This makes me wonder- how can somebody be a broadcast professional and a programmer with an English degree? I didn't think English 151 covered ASP or radio programming.

Kettle, Pot. Black.

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ESPN all they know is how to attract men into arenas using sports, women ,and booze.

Now they have to do the opposite and attract women and children into amusment parks. I hate to see what the parks will look like.when they are through with it.

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This is exactly what Shapiro did at ESPN. He broadened the programming offered to bring in a new audience. Hardcore sports fans are always going to watch sports, but that isn't enough to get good ratings. Some things that changed included producing movies and mini-series, taking on the X-Games, World Series of Poker, and new format talk shows like PTI. These have all been very successful, even if they aren't popular with the hardcore sports fan. Think about it, he is one of the people resonsible for making people like Tony Hawk, Matt Hoffman, and Cary Hart as popular as they are.

I see some similarities in what they want to do at Six Flags. While they care about keeping the "hardcore fans" (people posting on this board), their focus is to expand the audience to people who actually spend money in the park (families with children)

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ESPN decided not to renew its contract with the NHL to carry games this year, instead providing additional coverage of Poker Tournaments. Yeah, I know the ratings for Poker are actually higher, but what happened to the "brand building" and the "marketability" of the sport and league?

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They did this when the league was defunct, how do you market a defunct league that has a lockout or strike every time their CBA expires? Hockey has never been that popular and serves a niche audience. You said it yourself, poker gets better ratings.

I think a lot of you are getting a little too excited, most of these ideas aren't new. Most of these ideas have actually worked at other parks for years.

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It's another to say we don't intend to build any coasters at all ever again.

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Was this actually said or is this a sarcastic exaggeration?*** This post was edited by The Lorax 12/29/2005 12:40:18 PM ***

Are you in love with me, Gilman? Because you don't ever post unless it's to annoy me or recite facts about my life that only a stalker would know.

There's a big difference between learning a new skill and understanding an industry at an executive level.