Six Flags to drop Wiggles World and Tony Hawk licensing on attractions?

Tony Hawk is not influential. He's a brand, and that's why Six Flags associated with him. He moves product. And I hear he's a pretty good skater.

I'm a little more cautious than Gonch regarding the license abandonment. I think Six Flags may have taken it to a point well beyond a solid return on investment. And with all of the ridiculous ticket discounting, I think it makes it that much harder to figure out which of these efforts really resulted in an increase in revenue and/or attendance.

It seems to be official now:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/25/news/la-trb-six-flags-retheme-20101122

LostKause said:

I stand by this. He is one of the most influential people in the world today.

You didn't say that with a straight face, did you?

Okay, you guys are right. I may have been stretching it a little.

He is one of the most influential male roll models for teenage boys who enjoy skating in the U.S. today.

LostKause said:
He is one of the most influential male roll models for teenage boys who enjoy skating in the U.S. today.

I'm always looking for a good male roll model. Kaiser is a candidate, but Portuguese and cinnamon are also good. Bagels try hard, but there's a lot of holes in their character.

But how does one tell the difference between a male roll model and one of the female persuasion?

Mike Gallagher said:
But how does one tell the difference between a male roll model and one of the female persuasion?

Has it been buttered?

I am a little surprised about thomas leaving. However, I am not surprised at all about Tony Hawk or wiggles leaving. Eather of those two brands really did not add anything to the rides they were themed to.

This had to be a real recent decision, because they just built a new thomas town at sfa this year. I imagine it can't be cheap to remove and replace all the thomas theaming, but I guess it must be cheaper than the license fee.

I would fix it, but then your posts wouldn't be as funny. lol

Anytime I read about licensing or theming being dropped I can't help but have Nam like flashbacks of the remnants of Geauga Lake's Dominator seat padding. How creepy would Thomas look if they "cedar fair unthemed" his face?

Jeff touched on this a bit but I also felt they kind of over extended the license stuff. Is the average park or their kids going to make a decision to go to a park to ride the new ride or not based on it's branding? Probably not. Tony Hawk is a great brand name but I doubt that the name brings people in any more so than the fact that there's a cool new ride to check out. Terminator is themed after a poorly received sequel that's come and gone so I can't imagine that brand has much value at all now.

I can understand the kids area licenses being fairly valuable. But can't imagine that Eval Knievel's name being slapped on a ride will make or break anyone's decision to come to the park. Possibly someone with more marketing experience can chime in but I just don't see the value of those licenses when the parks are trying to drive their turnstyle numbers.

Not sure why this topic reminded me, but I saw something last week that's semi-relevant....and probably interesting only to Gonch. ;)

Lloyd's of Loondon is considering issuing insurance policies to cover companies in case their "celebrity endorsers" take a fall in terms of their character/good name being besmirched by scandal, etc. This story came out on the heels of the latest Charlie Sheen incident...and I couldn't help but think that I'd either buy the insurance...or hire Tim Tebow as my celebrity endorser (which could be useful for a "Go Gator" I suppose). :)

Now if they would just drop the stupid superhero licences on the coasters and come up with some original names! A good creative department could come up with better ride names and themes than all that licensed stuff they have. Six Flags definitely likes to take the lazy way out when naming/theming rides. Its as bad as the awful names Paramount stuck on their rides!

The Thomas theme is a good concept though for an amusement park, but of course Six Flags did it half-way.

I totally disagree, Super7. Totally. I suspect many others will disagree as well.

I will even go as far as saying that the super hero theming is some of the best ideas for coasters, creatively speaking.

Superman can fly. Perfect for a flying coaster or a coaster with a single tower that is as tall as a skyscraper.

Batman flys a "Bat Jet" Perfect for an inverted coaster.

These are probably the best examples, but the list goes on and on.

I even think that Green Lantern, arguably, is a decent idea for a stand-up coaster, because that particular character, a lot of the time, seems to be in a standing position while he is flying. Plus, it's a great tie-in for the new film.

What kid, or kid at heart, doesn't want to "be" their favorite superhero, if only for a few minutes?

How long until we see a red and gold Iron Man coaster? :)

There's a park in Aus that has two Batman rides and a Superman coaster. They make the license fee back in one month on merchandise. It's totally worth it for them.

Great point, Rick. If people didn't enjoy the super hero themes, the parks wouldn't be using so much retail space for super hero themed merchandise.

Rick makes a good point about the ROI. I suspect the bottom line for a tie-in is impacted a whole lot more by merchandising than by increased attendance.