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Six Flags

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, or simply Six Flags, is an American amusement park corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It was formed on July 2, 2024, following a merger between longtime rivals Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags company. The combined company owns and operates 51 properties throughout North America, including amusement parks, water parks, and resorts.

History

Pre-merger

Six Flags

Six Flags Theme Parks originated in 1957 with the creation of The Great Southwest Corporation by Angus G. Wynne and other investors, who would go on to open the chain's original park, Six Flags Over Texas, in August 1961. After the Pennsylvania Railroad gained a controlling stake in the company's shares, a handful of new park were constructed and multiple independent parks purchased over the following two decades. Following the acquisition of Marriott Corporation's Great America theme park in 1984, Six Flags acquired the rights to feature Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes animated characters at their properties; Time Warner subsequently purchased much of the company and was its sole owner from 1993 to 1995. Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. was later bought out by Premier Parks – an Oklahoma-based real estate firm and theme park chain – on April 1, 1998, for $1.86 billion.[4] Premier began to apply the Six Flags name to several of their existing properties in North America and Europe, eventually fully assuming the brand name in 2000.

Throughout the 2000's, Six Flags began to suffer from growing debt and organizational bloat, eventually first resorting to selling off its European parks in 2004. Some of the company's largest investors grew frustrated with Six Flags and demanded change; Daniel Snyder's Red Zone, LLC successfully gained control of Six Flags' board of directors in 2005 by means of a proxy battle. New management continued to sell off various American amusement park locations throughout 2006-2007, although their cash flow continued to decrease, falling $120 million annually under Red Zone's board. Weighed down by the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the New York Stock Exchange's decision to delist their stock, Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009 but continued to operate the parks as normal. Six Flags re-emerged as Six Flags Entertainment Corp. on May 3, 2010, moving head offices from New York City to Grand Prairie, Texas and allowing lenders to control 92% of the company in exchange for canceling $1.13 billion in debt.[5]

Jim Reid-Anderson was instated as chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) on August 13, 2010 and succeeded by Mike Spanos in late 2019. New initiatives were launched to build Six Flags theme parks in global markets; the previously cancelled Six Flags Dubai was revived in 2014 before being called off again in 2018. Six Flags Zhejiang and Six Flags Chongqing both began construction in China before a declining real estate and the collapse of its local investment firm in 2020 forced both projects to be sold on to other developers. The COVID-19 pandemic also hindered Six Flags' operations during 2020, forcing many parks to remain closed for the year. Mike Spanos stepped down in 2021, allowing chairman Selim Bassoul to assume the role of CEO. Seeking reinvention, Bassoul announced a new strategy favoring guest experience over capital investments; this meant raising prices in order to lower daily park crowds, thus improving the park experience for higher-paying guests.[6] The initiative and various comments made by Bassoul proved controversial with shareholders, and was abandoned in November 2022 after park attendance plummeted by 33%.[7][8][9][10]

Cedar Fair

Merger

Previous unsuccessful attempts had been made to assimilate Cedar Fair in the decade leading up to the merger. One such deal with Apollo Global Management fell apart in April 2010[11] October 2, 2019, Reuters reported that Six Flags had first approached Cedar Fair with a cash-and-stock acquisition offer, although the proposal was quickly rebuffed.[12][13] In February 2022, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (now United Parks & Resorts) made an unsolicited all-cash bid to buy Cedar Fair for $3.4 billion; the offer was rejected two weeks later.[14][15]

Properties

Year acquired lists the year the property was acquired by the property's previous respective owner among the current company's two predecessors.

Amusement parks

Water parks

Outdoor

Indoor

Upcoming properties

Amusement parks

Former and abandoned properties

These properties are listed in alphabetical order by the final name of the park while under Six Flags (or Cedar Fair) control.

North America

Europe

These parks were all sold to StarParks in 2004, unless noted.

Cancelled parks

References

  1. ^ a b "2022 Annual Report" (PDF). investors.sixflags.com. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  2. ^ a b "Six Flags Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Performance". investors.sixflags.com. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  3. ^ "2022 Annual Report" (PDF). investors.sixflags.com. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  4. ^ "Time Warner Completes Sale of Stake in Six Flags for $440 Million in Cash | Time Warner Inc". Time Warner.
  5. ^ Church, Steven (August 21, 2009). "Six Flags Would Be Owned by Lenders Under Proposal (Update2)". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  6. ^ "Six Flags Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Performance". businesswire.com. February 24, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  7. ^ "Six Flags CEO draws ire over remarks about avoiding attracting 'Walmart customers' and saying discounted tickets turned parks into 'cheap day care for teenagers'". Business Insider. August 13, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  8. ^ Fickenscher, Lisa (August 12, 2022). "Six Flags CEO blasted over 'day care for teenagers' remark, price hikes". New York Post. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  9. ^ Niles, Robert (November 10, 2022). "Attendance, Revenue Plummet at Six Flags". Theme Park Insider. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  10. ^ Mooney, Michael (November 29, 2022). "The rapid decline of Six Flags". Axios. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  11. ^ "Apollo's deal for Cedar Fair collapses". Reuters.
  12. ^ "Exclusive: Six Flags in bid to acquire Cedar Fair-source". Reuters. October 2, 2019.
  13. ^ Roumeliotis, Greg (2019-10-04). "Exclusive: Cedar Fair rebuffs $4 billion offer from Six Flags - sources". Reuters.
  14. ^ Hammond, Ed (February 1, 2022). "SeaWorld Makes $3.4 Billion Takeover Bid for Cedar Fair". Bloomberg. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  15. ^ "SEAWORLD ENTERTAINMENT, INC. MAKES STATEMENT CONCERNING CEDAR FAIR". Cision PR Newswire (Press release). PR Newswire Association LLC. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  16. ^ "Marriott to Sell Park to Bally". The New York Times. 1984-04-27. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  17. ^ "Six Flags Magic Mountain To Close Colossus For Good After August 16". KHTS FM 98.1 & AM 1220. 2014-06-03. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  18. ^ "Six Flags Operations Inc 1999 Annual Report 10-K". SEC.report. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  19. ^ Alm, Rick (March 10, 2009). "Worlds of Fun, Oceans of Fun up for sale". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  20. ^ Shastry, Sangeeta (2012-08-31). "Oceans of Fun prepares for a huge expansion". The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  21. ^ Harpster, Lexi (2023-03-23). "Six Flags unveils plans for regions tallest water coaster at Hurricane Harbor Maryland". WJLA. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  22. ^ "Concord Water Park is Now Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Concord" (Press release). 2018-02-22.
  23. ^ "Six Flags Announces Reopening of Six Flags Great America Parks". investors.sixflags.com. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  24. ^ Henry, Natassia (March 23, 2023). "Six Flags introduces rebranded water park". KENS. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  25. ^ Revell, Eric (2023-11-19). "Record-shattering roller coaster simulates falling from cliff with 155 mph speeds". FOXBusiness. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  26. ^ "International Expansion Continues with Six Flags-Branded Park in Saudi Arabia". investors.sixflags.com.
  27. ^ Roth, Melinda (2000-06-07). "The Albatross". Riverfront Times. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved 2022-06-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  28. ^ "What's next for Six Flags? No signs of reversal in closing decision". WHAS-TV. Tegna Inc. February 7, 2010. Archived from the original on February 10, 2010. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  29. ^ "N.O. plans to sue Six Flags". WWL-TV. Tegna Inc. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  30. ^ "City now owns Six Flags". WGNO-TV. Tribune Broadcasting. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  31. ^ "Who wants Six Flags?". WVUE-TV. Raycom Media. Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  32. ^ Silvestri, Scott (1997-11-04). "Gurnee creates committee to keep tabs on Six Flags Plan". Daily Herald.
  33. ^ "Lake County by the Numbers - One Thing Missing". Daily Herald - Lake Zurich, Wauconda Neighbor via Newspapers.com. October 4, 1999. p. 98. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  34. ^ "Formal Agreements Signed to Build Six Flags-Branded Parks at a Second Site in China". investors.sixflags.com.
  35. ^ a b c d e f "Six Flags raises possibility of canceling China theme parks, shares plunge". Reuters Business News. January 10, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  36. ^ a b c "Six Flags Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Earnings". investors.sixflags.com. February 20, 2020. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  37. ^ a b c "Three New Six Flags Parks Coming to China". Business Wire. October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  38. ^ "Plans cancelled for Dhs2.6bn Six Flags Dubai theme park project". Gulf Business. April 25, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  39. ^ a b c "Three More Six Flags Parks Coming to China". investors.sixflags.com.
  40. ^ "Six Flags Announces 11th Park Coming to China". investors.sixflags.com.
  41. ^ "Six Flags and Riverside Partner with Turner to Offer New Attractions". investors.sixflags.com. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  42. ^ "Six Flags Announces Waterpark and General Manager for First China Property". December 19, 2016.