Six Flags Great Adventure announces new "super boomerang" roller coaster

Velocicoaster seems to be one of the better crews, and Hagrid's has the moving trains to keep the pressure on. But I don't get over there a ton, so anecdote.

“I don't think SF really cares. Between the Freespins and Larson Loops of today, the Boomerangs, SLCs and Batman:TRs of the past, SF has always taken the cheapest way.”

Today, I would agree. In the era of B:TR, I would disagree. Jim Wintrode, SFGAm park president at the time, was an old school coaster/park guy who worked with B&M on the project. Then full support from Bob Pittman, new CEO of SF at that time and the former CEO at MTV, came to create the entire Batman universe experience starting from the queue entrance and throughout the entire ride and gave it the budget needed. Pittman wanted SF to capture the “theme experience” as much as possible to harness the power of their licenses with Warner Bros. and DC Comics, it worked. Had that culture continued we’d see a different SF today, not the mess that the Burke/Story created that has never been corrected.

Ah, LK, what you forget though is the guests have already emptied their wallets for the privilege to not wait in line. Two birds, one stone. And Cedar Point ain’t doing any better with capacity issues, even with a STL system. There are so many complaints about how long the lines are now, with multiple reports of even FastLane being waits of 45 minutes or more. I think at this point it’s not so much about capacity of the rides as it is they’re letting too many dang people in the park.

bunky666:

I think at this point it’s not so much about capacity of the rides as it is they’re letting too many dang people in the park.

Attendance at Cedar Point has never topped the 1994 season. And there are significantly more high capacity 'must do' coasters than there used to be.

Remember that 90-120 minute wait we all used to stand in for Magnum, Raptor and even Mantis back in the 90s? That's the same 90-120 minute wait that's the norm on Steel Vengeance and Maverick. The difference now is I can pay to avoid it.

I visited Hershey Park for my Birthday at the beginning of August, and both of their high capacity B&Ms ("Candymonium" & "Great Bear") had horrible operations. Dispatches were averaging 4 or 5 minutes, and "Great Bear" was only running 1 train. "Candymonium" was stacking with 3 trains, leaving riders on the brake run in the extreme heat. That is the absolutely unacceptable. Meanwhile, "Wildcat's Revenge" had their 3 train ops running smoothly, making for the shortest wait times for any of the top 5 coasters in the park. If the B&Ms were run like they were designed to, it would make for a better guest experience for sure. If there is no switch track, hopefully "The Flash: Vertical Velocity" at Great Adventure will have quicker operations.

super7*:

The only disappointing aspect of this ride is that it doesn’t go very far up the forward spike. Most of the train stops on the slope when it reverses directions.

Is this the Dragster thread?

Seriously though our biggest issue with SFGAdv when visiting this summer was rides breaking down. Our waits weren't terrible even with a large chunk of rides down. Granted this was a weekday.

Disney does a great job with operations but it isn't absolute. I didn't get the feeling they cared about guests when visiting Animal Kingdom last summer without Genie+. Na'vi River's line absolutely crawled. Couple that with an insanely hot queue and little to no airflow and it was just an unbearable experience.

djgreghaus:

both of their high capacity B&Ms ("Candymonium" & "Great Bear") had horrible operations.

Great Bear has had horrible operations as long as I can remember. There’s almost never less than a packed queue unless the crowds are unusually light.

Hersheypark has somehow (thankfully) figured out how to operate Wildcat's Revenge efficiently. I think the separate unload helps a lot. It seems like standard protocol on the other rides is to completely empty the platform at unload before opening the load gates. It drives me nuts. Candymonium running three trains is just silly.

Something I've noticed, and this is more industry wide, is almost every train has a problem rider. Somebody can't get their shoes back on. Somebody doesn't fit. Somebody absolutely has to wear their hat when they've been told repeatedly they can't. Little Bobby wanted to sit in the middle but accidentally sat on the end and already pulled down the restraint.

Or maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety. I swear I do really enjoy amusement parks.

You may be getting old and crotchety but I’ve seen the same thing. I think another reason Wildcat’s Revenge is so efficient is the lockers right before heading up the stairs. No issues with loose articles.

Jeff:

According to whom

According to their own financial statements. At the end of the last quarter they had only 51 million of cash and 54 million of accounts payable

Anytime accounts payable is higher than the cash the company practically has no cash. A company also needs to keep a certain amount of cash on hand for payroll, etc..

Then there’s the debt….if they only have $51 million of cash and more than that and payables, all of these new rides are going to increase their debt.

with the path this company has taken under this inept CEO I don’t see how anothet bankruptcy is not inevitable

This is probably the reason those kisdie coasters are not open yet this year. They can’t afford to pay the vendors.

The balance sheet backing up all these facts is the fourth report on this link

https://www.businesswire.co...rformance/

I don't think you understand what cash flow is.

I am an accountant and completely understand what cash vs payables is a sign of. If a company has open invoices on accounts payable that is higher than their cash on hand, it’s a sign of financial distress and cash flow issues.

A company that is not having cash flow issues, always pays their payables, timely, and always has more cash on hand then payables

Open payables is just a portion of where cash goes. They have to pay payroll, debt etc that NEVER hits accounts payable

In order to install new attractions they must take on more debt since current invoices will use all their cash If invoices continue ti accumulate vendors will refuse service

There is a good reason the stock has nosedived from the 40s to the 20s. It’s not done yet given their shaky financial state.

How is a company "cash strapped" with positive, improving EBITDA? That sure implies they can service their debt. No one makes big capex moves out of cash. Their net operating cash was $84m for the first half, and their biggest months are in the third quarter.

Sure, I think their strategy sucks, but they do not appear to be in imminent danger.

Easy now. It's tough to grind an axe with facts.

Both Six Flags and Cedar Fair have almost the same debt at around $2.4 billion. Don’t hear people saying “the end is neigh” for CF very often.

It’s doesn’t take an accountant to know if one has less cash than outstanding bills, one has a cash issue.

They don’t have cash on hand to pay for these new rides so that means more debt. That was the point of my first post. They are buying cheap ish rides because they don’t have cash on hand to pay for the rides.

EBITDA doesn’t include interest and taxes. Payments on interest and taxes eat cash Increased debt increased interest payments

Their net income after interest and taxes actually decreased from $45 million last year to $20 million this year They are spiraling down with items that use cash (3rd report on that link)

They may not be an imminent danger, but they are not a good financial shape

I think the difference between Cedar Fair, and Sux Flags is that in Cedar Fair hasn’t willingly chased off a large number of their customer base over the last couple years.

Six Flags already had a soiled reputation as a lower class theme park operator, and they have only worsen than that over the last few years. I don’t believe these new additions with the exception of the shuttle coaster will bring back many people.

You also need to look at when the outstanding bills are due and how much cash you expect to collect/generate in the interim. Busy season for seasonal amusement parks is the 3rd quarter. Most cash will be generated then.

Cedar Fair's accounts payable at June 30, 2023 were $79 million. Cash/cash equivalents were $49 million (so less than a/p). But at December 31, 2022, a/p were $55 million and cash/equivalents were $101 million.

https://s2.q4cdn.com/170666...P-10-Q.pdf

And a lot of businesses have lines of credit to help even out cash flow. When they have cash, they pay down the line (have less cash on balance sheet than they otherwise would) to reduce interest costs. But typically keep a minimum amount of cash on the balance sheet. Draw on the line for liquidity when its needed. Had they kept cash on balance sheet, result after paying obligations is the same but your interest costs are higher and thus net cash position is less.

That was going to be my next point, that credit is like lubricant, and certainly necessary for a seasonal business.

PhantomTails:

Both Six Flags and Cedar Fair have almost the same debt at around $2.4 billion. Don’t hear people saying “the end is neigh” for CF very often.

super7*:
I think the difference between Cedar Fair, and Sux Flags is that in Cedar Fair hasn’t willingly chased off a large number of their customer base over the last couple years.

I have no idea if these figures are accurate, but if they are, they don't look good for Six Flags. Their biggest park SFMM (a non-seasonal one at that), had attendance fall well below Kings Island, a regional, seasonal park.

https://blooloop.com/theme-...h-america/