Cedar Fair Parks
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Exclusive: US amusement park operators Cedar Fair, Six Flags in merger talks-sources
U.S. amusement park operator Cedar Fair LP is exploring a potential merger with peer Six Flags Entertainment Corp , people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
www.reuters.com
Pretty sure this FTC will try to block the merger, and I feel like it will be one of their better cases against consolidation that they have filed lately.
I'm not sure where all the doom and gloom is coming from on this news-- my read on this is that if it happens, Cedar Fair would take the lead on management since Six Flags management seems to be practically non-existent. I know CF's style is not always great, but they run clean, relatively well maintained parks compared to Six Flags. This seems like a plus for those parks that have been lacking in any leadership, and they could use the expertise CF would bring.
As a park goer (at least in the short term) I would see the merger as a HUGE win-- one pass for a huge array of parks coast to coast.
My only fear is seeing some parks continually neglected in favor of others in the long run (as Cedar Fair has been doing already) but it's a business, and you invest where it makes sense and you see ROI.
As a park goer (at least in the short term) I would see the merger as a HUGE win-- one pass for a huge array of parks coast to coast.
My only fear is seeing some parks continually neglected in favor of others in the long run (as Cedar Fair has been doing already) but it's a business, and you invest where it makes sense and you see ROI.
I had my doubts about Cedar Fair taking over the Paramount Parks. There was a lot of doom and gloom around that acquisition because Cedar Fair were "over their heads" and "paid too much and could never pay the debts down", but they have thrived as a company overall. There will always be growing pains and culture clashes in any merger, but this is all about Cedar Fair running all the parks since the management bench at Six Flags is empty.
The paramount parks were the best thing to happen to cedar fair in a long time at the time.
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I would argue the other way around. Cedar Fair was the best thing to happen to the Paramount Parks.
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Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer but I do have a friend that is one and works in one of the govt agencies on antitrust stuff and we've had long conversations about the topic.
The standard for antitrust in this country right now really is solely focused on consumer welfare (for better or for worse). And a merger will only be blocked if the govt can demonstrate that consumers will be significantly harmed by that merger and the consolidation it brings. So like if a SF pass is $150 right now and a CF pass is $150 and there's reason to believe that a combined pass would be like $600, that's pretty clearcut. I don't know if you could make a strong argument that it will do that. More likely the companies would say, "well now you can get a pass to both groups of parks for only $200 or we'll include it in your passes you already pay for so it's a benefit to consumers!"
The FTC circulated a draft of new guidelines which closed its public comment period a month or so ago that expand the standards for antitrust beyond just consumer welfare but as far as I can see it hasn't been implemented yet. Even under those guidelines, I struggle to see how this would be a slam dunk for the FTC. Like others have said, there's real competition between the two in only a couple markets: Philly-ish (Dorney & SFGAdv), NorCal (SFDK and CGA) and SoCal (SFMM and KBF). The CF/SF lawyers will point to all of the other theme park companies, some of which are much bigger and better attended than SF/CF and say that it doesn't "substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly" as point 13 says on that list.
I could see maybe being forced to divest one of the competing parks in each market, although CGA, my local park, is planning on closing in the next decade anyways so that problem solves itself. For whatever it's worth, I'll believe this merger when I see it since we've seen so many of these news stories of X chain wants to acquire Y other chain that don't go anywhere but if it does happen, I'd bet good money that it will go through with potentially only minor modifications and divestitures.
The Cedar Fair/Paramount was like all other change— there was good and bad. There always will be trade offs with change, some positive and some negative depending on your POV. Paramount was lousy at running parks, but they invested in them heavily and tried new things. Cedar Fair made those parks more generic for a while, but were much better at operating them.
I think a SF/CF merger would be similar, with more generic/non-IP rides, but improved maintenance and operations.
I think a SF/CF merger would be similar, with more generic/non-IP rides, but improved maintenance and operations.
- Aug 12, 2018
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- Dec 29, 2022
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I look at it as cedar fair was GOOD to the paramount parks because they were the best thing to happen to them in a while, outside of cedar point and knotts, the other cedar fair parks weren't turning numbers like the paramount parks.
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