Six Flags makes Aquisition Bid on Cedar Fair

Name change to "Six Flags California 'Not' So Great America Park"

 

I know everyone likes to crap on Six Flags, and no doubt they do have their issues, but so does Cedar Fair. For Cedar Fair, just look at how the Kings Island Vortex is being closed in what seems like a total budget cut move, and then there is the whole Mystery Lodge mess which Cedar Fair has been silent on. Also, Xcelerator has been on one train ops for a very long time now. Not to mention, Kings Island and Cedar Point require paid lockers for a lot of rides that really shouldn't require them.

The best case scenario for everyone is that Six Flags buys the less attended Cedar Fair parks like Michigan's Adventure and Velleyfair. That way those parks will finally start getting some significant new stuff after years of neglect. Ideally, Cedar Fair would just keep Knott's, Cedar Point, CGA, Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, and Canada's Wonderland. That would give Cedar Fair more money to spend on the parks they like.

Six Flags can do good stuff, just look at how Magic Mountain has improved. I wouldn't want them to own Knott's though, since I'm not sure if they would maintain Ghost Town and keep up quality at Scary Farm.

 

CONFUSED SCREAMING

 

All Six Flags are second rate amusement parks with terrible operations. They essentially are a daycare for teenagers during summer break, when parents drop them off while they go to work.

 

I wonder how this will affect areas like SoCal and the Bay Area that have both Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks. I worry that them not having to compete with each other in those markets will have negative effects. However, in SoCal, Knott's could lean even heavier into being the family theme park and Magic Mountain could lean even heavier into being the thrilling park. The opposite thing might happen in the Bay Area. With the animals at Discovery Kingdom, it would make more sense to make that the park that is more aimed towards families.

Also, I really hope they don't add Six Flags to the front of all the names of the Cedar Fair parks. Long before this, I kind of wished that Six Flags Magic Mountain was just called Magic Mountain since that makes the park sound more distinctive and unique. Also, Six Flags Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Cedar Point don't really sound right.

 

Gross!

 

hahahaha good one. Magic Mountain is terrible and now they are 365 it is worse.

 

Expect if this happens all the parks will receive the Six Flags name (it is a nationally known brand much more than "Cedar Fair"). Six Flags strategy has been expanding their membership base and create a steady and predictable revenue stream. They've been adding parks in overlapping areas (additional waterparks near their theme parks), with the idea of adding more people to their membership ranks. The low cost of memberships is a big enticement to people to go to Six Flags. When you spend so little (I think my SFOG pass was $68) you don't expect a lot either. You put up with billboards and operational issues, or you decide not to.

When you can visit any park in the chain for a payment of less than $100 for the year you tend to forgive a lot. Yes, you complain and remember how nice the parks had been in the past, but you also realize things change and maybe someday the pendulum will swing back and they'll improve. Honestly Six Flags parks can all be hit or miss with much of the operations and maintenance dependent on the local park's management and their priorities. The biggest issue they suffer from is a consistency of vision and management, with their park managers moving too frequently.

 

Cedar Fair of course has issues. However, as far as Knott's Berry Farm is concerned (the only CF park I can speak about) the last handful of years has been on the up and up. They've managed to find a middle ground between adding to the park and preserving/honoring the history. It took a while, but the direction Knott's has been going in has been great in my opinion.

Aside from being worried about Knott's Berry Farm's future under their management, I am also concerned at how much of the theme park industry will be owned by the Six Flags company if this deal ever went through.

 

How many Harley Quinn themed scramblers does this acquisition include?

 

None.
But with a little black and red paint... as many as they want!

 

CGA was going to be sold for a while right? I didn't know the entire company was lining up for the firing squad. Dang, there's alot of redundancy too; Six Flags competes with Cedar Fair in alot of places.

 

There have been some great improvements like Calico River Rapids, but the park suffers from poor ops sometimes, just as much if not moreso than Magic Mountain does. I like Knott's and think that a lot of great things have happened to it lately. However, it does get held back by poor ops. I'm not saying that Six Flags will improve those, but Twisted Colossus has faster ops than any coaster at Knott's.

 

I wonder if they would sell off some of their parks but not all

There are some bottom tier Cedar Fair parks that are at capacity and not really lucrative for the company to keep

 

Ain’t gonna happen lol.

 

Six Flags doesn't care if the parks under perform, they still bring in money. They have several parks already that perform worse than CFs worst parks and still make investments in them.

 

if they touch Cedar Point we riot!

 

All the Cedar Point fan boys who dissed Six Flags are crying in their mommies arms. I don’t see any rioting happening.

 

The price of 4 GESWL for the entire chain of parks. Sounds undervalued to me too.