Six Flags will sell seven parks to EPR for $331 million

Holy cow. They sold off the “fair” in Cedar Fair.

There’s no going back from this, is there?

My understanding is that these parks were generally profitable, and some (Michigan's Adventure) enjoyed insanely high margins. Using the adjusted EBIDTA as a proxy to that, the owners can make back their money in seven years. Seems kind of shortsighted to me. This barely makes a dent in their debt. And you could "focus" on more parks if you didn't fire all of the leaders who ran them.

Interesting times to be a shareholder and someone with an interest in how this industry operates, that’s for certain.

Someone posted elsewhere that these parks combined didn't produce much revenue.

These parks produced very little under 8% of revenue at 260M, 6% of Adjusted Ebidta at 45M, 6% of attendance at 4.5M.

Those parks combined had around the same visitors as Knott's Berry Farm alone.

Honestly, I think this is likely good for both parties. Six Flags can focus on their bigger parks and hopefully enhance the guest experience in meaningful ways.

At the same time, the parks that sold off can start serving the communities that they exist in. Worlds of Fun and Michigan's Adventure were never destination parks, which meant their customer base were locals. Cedar Fair rarely focused on those parks and I can only imagine how bored the locals got with visiting the same park every year. This will hopefully mean an increase amount of engagement in locals. I remember walking to the back of Michigan's Adventure and thinking how cool it could be to have a local market or food festival along the lake.

Either way, I'm sad to see the Fair in Cedar Fair depart. But I want to see parks continue to exist instead of closed like SFA.

Hey, Six Flags, why are you selling off all your parks?

“People gotta eat”

I feel most bad for WOF. I always thought that park was a hidden gem and had tremendous upside.

I am kind of surprised they are selling both Valleyfair and Worlds of Fun, with the thought being that they would keep one to keep a presence in that portion of the midwest.

That said, I have a feeling these seven parks have a better chance of not being the next Geauga Lake or Six Flags America with this transaction.

Touchdown:

I feel most bad for WOF. I always thought that park was a hidden gem and had tremendous upside.

I grew up in KC and that park was so much better back in the 80s and 90s.

it did have that local flair/ customer service and love by the owners. Used to be owned by the Hunts (KC Chiefs) fame.

It’s interesting how little these parks are actually worth on the open market now. It really puts the paper values on some balance sheets into perspective.

Six Flags sold Geauga Lake over 20 years ago for about $140 million. In this latest deal you’ve got three very roughly equivalent parks, two smaller vacation market parks, a large waterpark, and whatever La Ronde's odd deal is all going for maybe $100 million more in inflation adjusted terms than that single GL deal. That’s pretty telling. Granted a lot of that GL offer might have been ego, but it’s still surprising how cheap these parks can be had now considering current land values and the decent amount of capital investments into them (save Michigans Adventure).

The $45 million annual EBITDA being discussed might not sound huge, but that’s kind of the reality of small and regional parks. At their best they are slow, steady cash generators. But that’s seems strategy seems out the door.

Under the old LP structure with the big dividend that actually made a lot of sense. The units were attractive because it was relatively low risk with consistent cash flow. Especially pre Zimmerman when even the smaller Cedar Fair parks tended to still have solid operations and a good guest experience.

Particularly when you consider Star Wars Galaxies Edge at the Disney parks was about $1 billion each.

The transaction represents a significant milestone in the Company’s disciplined portfolio optimization strategy

At least they're consistent.

Anyone else refreshing their LinkedIn account...waiting to see what Matt is going to say about this?

I have a feeling WoF and Great Escape were on the edge, both just got their first coaster in ages. Also Darien Lake staying in is intriguing.

I find it more interesting that they are splitting up Schlitterbahn, and did not sell the Hurricane Harbor in Spring that is very close the Galveston. Also will they be allowed to keep the Schlitterbahn name after a year?

Im curious what they will rename St Louis once they lose the name, cause its the only built SF to be severed and not have a prior SF history.

They had 40+ plus parks and this is by no means a fire sale, and as stated above attendance wise this is like 6%, it’s telling in terms of profit the number of water parks held onto (and that Dorney stayed). If they can right the ship at Magic Mountain and Great Adventure alone which are down from their historic highs by like millions of guests, they will be fine.

I went to Galveston a year and a half ago. It was late July, the park was d-e-a-d dead, they didn’t even have the full park open (no giant water coaster, no watervator, had to bring your tube up to the adventure river portion that was only open half the day) I don’t think that park was making much money. New Braunfels has the resort to make it profitable, they would be stupid to get rid of that, but Galveston wasnt a money maker I bet.

[I deleted my post on the other thread and I'm putting it here. Jeff, it might make sense to close that other one.]

From the customer-oriented announcement: https://www.sixflags.com/bl...-six-flags

• All seven parks will continue normal operations through the 2026 season.
• All 2026 season passes and active memberships will be honored throughout 2026, including multi‑park access.
• EPR retains the right to use the Six Flags brand through 2026, which means you will continue to see the same names, signage, and experiences during this transition period.

Which immediately answers my question about season passes. (It would significantly expose Six Flags to lawsuits if they didn't continue honoring the passes - especially just weeks after announcing the regional passes.)

The surprises for me (although this was greatly hinted at previously):

• Six Flags St Louis remains a surprise. Was packaging with Worlds of Fun needed to avoid potential competition?
• Not including Darien Lake
• Interesting that Schlitterbahn Galveston goes while the original stays.

This also clarifies that the whole Worlds of Fun package got sold, not just the waterpark as the trademark applications seemed to imply.

I thought it was interesting that Darien Lake wasn't included. Is that the only other park with onsite accommodation?

Enchanted Parks is formally known as Innovative Attraction Management if I am reading and digging correctly? This doesn't sound like the end of the world to me. Or maybe they are in way over their head. I don't know enough about any of it.

Keiran Burke has his hands in this. What could possibly go wrong?

EPR already own Darien Lake. Six Flags operate it for them.

I am curious to who actually does the operations for these parks that have been sold.