Six Flags having difficulty calculating cash flow

Posted | Contributed by Skyboss

Six Flags says that overall attendance at their parks are up, but it's too early to tell if they will reach their 2001 cash flow target. Weather is attributed to softer earnings in many of their markets.

Read more from MSNBC.

Why does it seem weather is always to blame? Is weather reeally always to blame, or is this just an excuse?

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CDNSN
It's not the weather. It's the economy, everyone is scared to spend money, myself included. Waves of layoffs, and the stock market crash put a hold on spending, I'm in save mode. Plus the new rides they added are similar to existing rides, some are even clones. None of the new rides have made me want to jump on a plane and fly to ride them. Of coarse, if X opens, I'll try to fly out there to ride it, but I doubt it's gonna happen because it will open in August or September when the crowds are heavy and then the park only runs on the weekend.

Sure, the rest of you are gonna tell me it's the locals who are visiting, yeah, I hear ya. But everyone who enters the park counts, and I'm not going anywhere this year.

I was in the mall last night picking up a gift certificate for a birthday. The place was empty, looked like a ghost town. I bought two dresses for my wife at JcPenny's for $10 each, that we're marked at $59. They're practically giving stuff away to get people to spend money. If you wanna make your girl happy, take her to JC Penny's and let her buy a couple items from the clearance racks. Girls get all googoolie after you buy them something from the mall.

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Rockell - "Let Me Take You Higher."
*** This post was edited by robvia on 7/19/2001. ***
ok thats probably a sale...you make it sound as if our economy is in a full-blown depression when its just a little trough. This is normal behavior for a growing complex economy such as ours. Besides, if there were a full scale recession, I think the amusement industry is not going to badly hit. As for the attendance numbers...who cares. Six Flags shouldn't have invested so much capital in one year.
Jeff's avatar
Yes, it's weather. Weather is the one thing that you can't control in the industry. Reading Cedar Fair annual reports over the years, you can see that even during the best economic years, they miss expectations at some parks when the weather isn't agreeable.

I don't agree about this recession or "soft" economy nonsense either. Maybe it's because I just moved into a new subdivision where dozens of young couples live in new houses, or maybe it's because I don't see any material suffering. Just because the tech sectors are going through an adjustment phase following over-saturation doesn't mean that we're in a recession.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Mamoosh's avatar
Jeff...gotta agree with you. No amount of PR or promotion is gonna get the crowds to a park if the weather sucks. Only people I know who pray for an early morning rain are enthusiasts who like to see an empty park...LOL!

Sorry Robvia but I'm gonna disagree with something you've said: YOU'RE not excited about the new SF coasters and won't travel, ergo that's why attendance is down? Enthusiasts know about other coasters and travel to ride them. The average park-goer does not. Heck...I still talk to people here in LA who have never heard of Ghostrider!

Sure, you can tie the economy and the general unwillingness of people to spend less on leisure travel to a decrease in attendance but NOT the fact that people are not excited about new coasters at parks they've never heard of.

If anything going to your local theme park is a less expensive alternative to taking that cruise or trip to Europe. While people *are* spending less money on leisure travel I'd be willing to bet they'd consider a day at a theme park quite readily.

Matthew
-who works in the travel industry.
Robvia--on a side note, JCPenney is going out of business, thus the drastic mark down in price, but your point is understood. Sounds like you scored some points with your wife though! LOL!

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