Six Flags stock up 25% on SEC filings from disgruntled shareholders

Yay! I bought some last month :)

That's pretty strange. The price went up 25% just because investors were talking about heads rolling.

Damn, should have saw that coming and bought a few days back. But how in the world could anyone have seen that coming?

Edit: Damn you Antuan! ;)

*** This post was edited by janfrederick 9/1/2004 11:19:50 AM ***

I still don't know if I trust Snyder. While I hope that things shape up and SF improves, I can't help but feel Snyder has an agenda, like maybe SF selling off properties that could be bought cheap and converted to other use like housing developments, shopping centers/malls, etc. And as someone pointed out on another thread, if his plan is to simply zap it to the park patron by charging higher parking fees, concession prices, etc, this will only run SF further into the ground. I agree that they need to work on customer service, keeping the rides they have operating, better themed sections, cleaner parks, etc, etc.

Then sell now.

I don't think Dan Snyder is just going to jump in here and say marketing is the key to fixing the issues. I think he is going to jump in and say where are the problems. Maybe the hands on attitude Synder had for several years with the Redskins will actually help Six Flags instead of hurt it. It seems current management looks at the numbers and watches the weather channel and makes decisions vs. getting out and walking around the parks. If I was management of SFA I would be worried about having a hands on owner in the Washington area. I keep seeing this quote:

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Analysts said there does not appear to be a buyer willing to take on the whole company at this point, but that some portions could be sold off.

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I wonder if Mr. Snyder is interested in purchasing some of these portions.*** This post was edited by coasterguts 9/1/2004 12:38:21 PM ***

^I don't know about that Guts because I have on rare occasions seen SFA's VP/GM walking around the park quite a few times.

Still if Snyder makes a successful bid to oust Burke how bad could his management insights be? one things for sure it can't be any worse than the mess that Burke & CO. have made of the situation thus far.

Now it could improve as opposed to decline,but cross marketing a bad product won't work worth of anything.....Snyder & Gates will have to fix everything that Burke has damaged by mismanagement of the chain in order to turn it around.

The MR.Six ad campaign has already got people talking but it's still not enough & with all the problems they are having it'll take more than just a flashy advertisement to draw people into the parks once more.....BTW why have Snyder land his chopper near supes when he can just land it on the station roof instead? or better yet the empty lot next to JJ would make for one nice helipad don't ya think?

BatwingFan,

It's one thing when your CEO lives in New York or Oklahoma and might visit you once a year. It's another thing when the owner of the company lives in the area and can theoretically walk in at anytime. When I worked for WW we were trained, as parking lot attendants, to know who the owners were and what their cars looked like. If one showed up, we got on the radio and notified the person in charge of security immediately. I'm sorry, I have on rare occasions seen the GM of SFA myself, probably twice in the three years I have been to the park. Going into the park once in a while, is not hands on management. Hands on management is walking around the park every day and looking for ways to improve the operation and sales.

Shareholder != management.

When I worked at Great America during the KECO days, not only did Al Weber walk around the park almost every day, he'd bring his family on weekends. It kept us on our toes to say the least...which was a good thing of course. ;)

ApolloAndy, in most cases shareholder may not be a member of management. However, when you own a controlling 8% or 11% interest in a company and you visit said company, a GM or manager of that company is going to take notice you are there and make sure you are pleased with your visit. Because you are only one phone call away from loosing your job.

Here is another intersting article that says how much Burke makes (see page 2)

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/markets/matthewgoldstein/10181068.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

It just seemed like people were using them interchangably.

This is the part I find interesting.

"Management has failed to implement measures to increase revenues and decrease expenses, and its failure to do so has caused the company to be continuously outperformed by its peers," the filing said.

Red Zone, the filing said, "may encourage the company to maximize stockholder value through a possible merger, sale of the company's assets, consolidation, business combination or a recapitalization or refinancing."

Makes me wonder ?
1. What measures to increase revenue?
2. Decrease...have they not decreased enough already?
3. Merger with who?
4. Sale what assets?
5. Consolidate what?

I think this poor guy Snyder is clueless!

It sounds like two stock holders are ready to force a change.
Two things come to mind.

1. Buy stock, some forced turnaround in coming.
2. Write Bill and Daniel. Let them know the real reason people dont return to the parks. Or at least send them some links to coaster sites so they can see what the park community sees wrong.
_________________

What I meant was I happened to see her at one point during my day in the park,she just happened to be in the general area that I was walking through at the time.

When I was there last month I thought I saw her again somewhere near LTMT while on my way into SWT but I couldn't be sure.

you know you guys keep talking about "dan snyder this dan snyder that". what you are failing to understand is that anything at this point is better than what six flags has been doing so far.

so please stop all the dan snyder nonsense because you guys are doing anything better than him so pass judgement on yourself's, all you guys do is poke fun at SFI but you claim to be "enthusiast". Come on we all have complaints of SFi but they have done some good things wiht roller coasters and we should be a little less critical.

I think folks are critical because 6 Flags is 2 billion in the hole and most people have a rough idea why: poor customer service.

It's disheartening to see a company that owns such a large portion of our country's parks running them into the ground. We want to see the parks doing well so that there are more coasters to ride right?

Darien ,

I am not a SF hater like many here. I am in the deep south, Houston to be exact, and we have no C-Fair parks here, so SF's is my love. Yes I even love little Astroworld.

But when I hear thing like "Decrease expenses, possible merger, sale of the company's assets, consolidation", it scares me more than anything.

The parks have already been stripped of so much that made them nice to begin with, the GP knows the parks are run down and dirty, I just can't imagine them surviving through any more negative tweaking!