Six Flags Over Georgia Free Admission!

Yeah I personally cant believe this happened. I was going to go and now Im not.

They definitely should have seen this coming. They should have made it free till longer to prevent this.

Im disappointed.

This is top-story breaking news on morning news radio here in Atlanta. In addition to the fist fights, there have been numerous reports of traffic accidents and wrong-way drivers to get out of the mess. Think of all the kids on spring break that got dropped off with no money who ended up wandering the jammed interstate (before sunrise) looking for their ride.

Funny thing is that the promotion was scheduled to run from 6 to 9 am, yet ended at 5:55 because the park was at capacity.

They should have never made it free to begin with.

you can count on the crowds being high down there.

I saw this on the news this morning too. Never underestimate the draw of free. :)

To make up for the cost of the "Free" admission, the radio station has asked SFOG to charge $25 for sodas, $45 for sunscreen, and to discontinue the Q-Bot service for the day to ensure that people will in fact be forced to purchase these items.

Yes because "free" is never really free...right Gonch?

I survived a Japanese typhoon and the Togo flat ride of death!!!!!!

From the AP wire:

AUSTELL, Ga. (AP) -- Six Flags Over Georgia closed its gates early Thursday after the amusement park's offer of free admission created a traffic jam on Interstate 20.
Cars began lining up as early as 3:30 a.m. for the offer scheduled to run from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. As a result, traffic was jammed in both directions on the interstate.
By a few minutes after 6 a.m., the parking lots already were full and the park closed its gates.
Some parents had let their children out of the car to walk down I-20 to take advantage of the free admission. But Six Flags' officials turned those people away, saying people had to arrive in cars to take advantage of the offer.

Well that was managed well! Great job Six Flags.

I want to know what the actual capacity of the park is; none of the news stories are saying. I heard there were 10,000 people there by 6 am, but certainly it must be higher than that.

Welcome back, red train, how was your ride?!

I got the impression that the park was at capacity, but I guess they just cutoff free admissions to around 10 or 15,000. I believe it's actually around 40,000 for the whole park...and they surely would have hit that if they let people in for free until 9 am. The main lot was less than half full when they cutoff access to the property.

The AJC has pictures at:

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/04/05/0405metsixflags.html

People had to arrive in cars to take advantage of the offer.

So does this mean that those who stayed at one of the hotels right next to the park had to drive their cars onto the parking lot, and were not allowed to just walk up to the front gate?

^ I know, right? What a bunch of BS. And how could they even tell if you arrived in a car? What if you walked from the interstate through the parking lot and to the front gates? Who would know the difference?

Welcome back, red train, how was your ride?!

I canot help but wonder how many people wound up late to work because of the gridlock this fiasco caused? I wouldn't be surprised if someone sues Six Flags and the Radio station over this incident, :(

I can't believe they turned people away and then allowed people in later in the day if they paid. That's pure cr@p. The promotions I read all said if you showed up before 9:00am, you would get in for free. There was never any mention of "the first 15,000 people to show up get in for free."

They've got a lot of balls to cause that much confusion and then let people in later if they pay full-price admission. Typical Six Flags.

All of you are accusing Six Flags without knowing the whole story. Let's remember there are two parties to this dibacle.

A day at the park is what you make it!

What else is there to know? They dropped the ball big time on this event. They closed the park when 15,000 people were in line saying they were at capacity and then opened the gates later in the day if you paid admission. Seems pretty shady to me.

Maybe they were at capacity, or reasonably close to it, when they closed the gates, then reopened once people had started leaving. Or maybe they were asked to close by local officials dealing with the mess, who figured if the park was closed, people would leave. SF may have mishandled it, but the radio station didn't think it through, either, and SOMEONE should have seen this coming. SF, the station, local officials, whoever. I'm sure enough people knew of this promotion ahead of time to be able to prepare, which doesn't seem to have been done. Plenty of blame for everybody, not just SF. *** Edited 4/5/2007 8:15:50 PM UTC by ilovethewildone***

My best guess is that between SF and the radio station, somehow the attendance for this event was VASTLY underestimated....

coasterguts said:
All of you are accusing Six Flags without knowing the whole story. Let's remember there are two parties to this dibacle.

Well, I don't know why we're blaming SF in the first place. I was under the assumption that this was a Q100 promotion that just happened to be at SFOG. Not a Six Flags promotion.

Am I mistaken?

Because if I'm not, there's absolutely no reason at all to put even an ounce of blame on SF.

If you ask to throw a party at my house and tell me 20 people are showing up and I agree to it - your guests can't get pissed when 200 show up and I can't accomodate them.

However, if this was a SF promotion then they f'd it up pretty good. But i don't think it was.

coasterimage - lordgonchar

halltd said:
What else is there to know? They dropped the ball big time on this event. They closed the park when 15,000 people were in line saying they were at capacity and then opened the gates later in the day if you paid admission. Seems pretty shady to me.

Do you really think Six Flags said sure, show up and invite as many people you want, tell each one of your listeners to post it on blog after blog, but keep quiet the fact we're cutting you off after 15,000 people? Then let's talk about a radio station from what I've been reading was laughing during the whole thing. Then didn't have the ability to turn the tide of public opinion their way did they?

All I'm saying is there are two sides to every story and the only people we've heard anything from are the disgruntled guests and the media who seems to have fogotten about unbiased reporting.

A day at the park is what you make it!

I'm just saying the park said they were at capacity at 15,000 people and we all know their capacity is probably three or four times that. They just weren't able to control the crowds.

And, if they were at capacity at 6:00am, why did they open the gates hours later for the paying public?