Six Flags Parks?

I agree with both Magnum Force and flickchick. While they do need to pay more attention to the parks they already own, some are run pretty well. It all depends on the emplyees of each individual park. Everything little thing they do affects your thoughts of the park. They have to act as if they were the guests and how they would see the park.

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Go AVS!!! AVS will repeat!!!

The Six Flags saga continues.....I found some of the same things at SFWoA, but I have found two main points, and the reason I still purchase a SF Season Pass. a) Seasonal workers are just that......seasonal. High School kids, who find a quick summer job in the 'neighborhood' SF park. CP, in comparison, has dormatories for their seasonal workers of mostly college students. b) By June, SF parks are running mostly, and I use that term loosely, at full capacity and clean. When I travel during the summer, SF parks are in most major cities, so why not get in for $50 (Season pass price) to ride a few coasters? I have family in Chicago and Dallas, the perfect 4 day gettaway.

Six Flags Maine Adventure? Ok, I'll stop. But, what about Six Flags Cheyenne?

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There's nothing like a woodie...

Whoops! Forgot something: The deal on the land in Dundee, MI is, just that, a DEAL. There has been no word on how the land will be used in years. We can only hope, but hope is leading us to fantasy. I am fortunate to be good friends with the Head of the Village (parks and recreation) in Dundee and he has always said, "The land is theirs, but they won't do anything about it," he also said, "I'm moving out if Six Flags moves in." I think he's pretty safe. Overall, it may be a playing card for a later date.......I may be retired in FLA when or IF it happens.

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There's nothing like a woodie...

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RubberDucky said:
Most parks that SF builds from scratch are near places that will bring in the profit needed, such as SFMM near L.A.

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SFMM was not built from scratch. It was purchased. The only Six Flags parks that were built (not bought) are (in order) SFOT, SFOG and SFOMA.

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This Six Flags company is not the same as the one that built the original Six Flags parks like the ones in Texas and Georgia. For some time the label of SIx Flags has been traded from one group to another.

For those who didn't know SFI was until two summers ago called Premier Parks. This company started out in the land speculation business (among other ventures) so it is quite unremakable that they own parcels of land all over the country. It has been their strict policy to purchase promising/underdeveloped properties, throw millions into a revamp and branding of the property and then ignoring the needs of the park as it grows because they need to get a return on the initial investment.

It is clear that the company was sreading itself thin when they had to sell off debt last year. I to am of the opinion that the company should focus on the parks it has. But i take it one step further. I say the company picks its six to ten parks in the largest markets worldwide and sell off the rest. Of course the company should take into consideration the possible expansion capabilities.

But by selling off the bits like Darien Lake, Elich, Frontier City and the small parks in France and Montreal; the park can reduce or eliminate its debt and turn its attention to the parks it wants to beef up. And as we all know, if the SF chain would like to be considered with the upper tier theme parks like IOA or Disney they MUST do a better job. In nearly every catagory. But in the end the smaller parks can get better management from a company more aggressive for thier situation and the SF name can be revived. But then who am i to tell a multi billion dollar company what to do??

What do you mean revive the Six Flags name? Revive it from what? You could stop anyone on the street and ask them if they knew what Six Flags was and probably 90% or more would knew. If your talking about their "reputation," I think everyone overhypes SF's problems just picking them out because everyone else is. I have only been to a few of their parks, but they can not be as bad as some of you make them out to be. They may not be the most heavily themed (theming doesn't matter to me, I've always said Disney overdoes it), but I would take my SFOT any day over any other parks, yep even Disney and CP.

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*** This post was edited by The Shy One on 6/4/2002. ***

Six Flags Long Island ;)

I know I was watching a Top Ten Parks that is about 2 years old, and it said SFMM opened in 197?. It never said anything about opening as something else, but it could have just not mentioned it so...

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www.rct-central.com
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GO AVES!!! AVALANCH WILL REPEAT!!!

Six Flags Downriver! (area of Detroit). I have been saying that a park here would do well.

I think SG should revieve the old BOBLO island.

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I fool so feelish....

Six Flags announced corporate objective is to be the top operator of regional parks, not to operate a smaller number of super parks such as Disney or Universal. For this reason, I find it unlikely that they will be selling off any of their parks unless their are special issues with a particular park.

I have found that Six Flags is generally on an upward trend with their operations. Hopefully, this will continue.

The problem with the welds on X was just plain bad welding. I haven't been able to find any evidence that it was a design issue. Six Flags did make a strategic error in going for several new Vekoma coasters at a time when Vekoma fell flat on its face. Batwing is now operating well on 2 trains, though it has yet to run 3 trains. The problems with the Deja Vu coasters appear to be more basic.

Firstly, I agree with a lot of opinions that you guys share. Speaking as an employee of a Six Flags park, I would like to say this:

There are many employees, from attendents to full-time managers, that want the parks to be better. We know our shortcomings, but unfortunately ever year budgets are always tight, so we do the best with what we can. For instance, ride crews have to clean their own rides. I don;t mean just cleaning the trains... I mean sweeping up every night and pulling trash too. Park services doesn't have the manpower or budget to do that stuff anymore.

Years ago, Six Flags was an instituation in the industry. We were what others wanted to be (besides Disney perhaps). Yet today we don;'t have that reputation. I believe this is due to corporate policies, rather than induvidual park policies. Seems like now SF Inc. is more worried about making their investors happy and keeping their bottom line high than having good parks. This is a shame, and is a problem in many industries besides the realm of amuesment parks.

I believe SF Inc. has spread its resources too thin. Having the most parks doesn't help if they don't attract visitors back again. I think the system should sell off international parks and many smaller ones domestically, such as EG and KK. We definitely need a handful of great parks rather than a bunch of mediocre ones. I don't think that will happen, but we can all dream, right?

In the meantime, there are still those of us that try to make SF the best.

--Richard

Six Flags doesn't have a park in Pennsylvania YET, but I do know they've tried to buy out Knoebel's AND Hershey, but both turned the offer down. Thank heaven Knoebel's didn't sell themselves! A hyper in those woods would be cool, but there would go the family atmosphere!

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Planned parks: Astroland, Knoebel's, Hersheypark, SFNE, SFGadv,SFGam,CP,PKI,PKD,PCW,HW,Indiana Beach,SFWOA,SFKK,SFDL,SFSTL,Lakemont,DelGrosso's... Need I say more?

hershey would never sell! They have enough money. Thank god to chocolate.

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I like maryland because i live there aND ITS AWsome!

http://www.geocities.com/poojaxland/delmarva

What proposed theme park in Cypress Bayou. Can i have some info on that. The mayor's "bring home the kids campaign" doesn't support the many casinos in the area. Shreveport is like a mini-Vegas. But you have to start somewhere. Maybe if S'Port were to get a theme park, and it were to go bankrupt, Six Flags may buy the property, not a bad idea, but i would want a theme park to prosper in our area.

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Zero-G said:
"Six Flags is following a plan to have a park within an hour of America's 40 most populated metropolitan areas, according to the latest Six Flags annual stock-holder report.

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I'm still waiting for a Six Flags in Phoenix. I mean, I live in the 5th largest metropolitan area in the entire country. I hope we're high on the list for future Six Flags park considerations, but I'm not holding my breath though. However, it would be nice to live within a hour of a park instead of having to drive 6 hours to Southern California to get to one.......

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There are some guidelines to making a sucessful theme park.

1. There should be a large populated area to support the park.

2. You should have good advertisement to attract people from other areas. This should include billboards, tv commercials, etc

3. Hotels should be in a convenient place and rates should be low.

4. Park should have some of the newest rides.

5. Good theming and landscaping.

6. Park should be located on good land, next to a major highway or interstate.

7. Normal admission prices.

Shreveport has all of these or will IF we were to get a theme park. Six Flags Over Louisiana.