News Cedar Fair Merges with Six Flags
- Thread starter horsesboy
- Start date
Just got it working. $99 to upgrade, and it lasts a year. As the Kings Dominion Gold Pass alone was $99, this is a good deal for me, who let his Cedar Fair pass lapse during the pandemic (while never getting around to cancel his Six Flags and United Parks memberships and leaving them active to this day).
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Efforts to centralize PR and marketing have been on going since before the merger. Sadly they don't seem to see the benefits of the local relationships in these positions.
I think it's a smart strategy, and no matter what there will always be some "local" component to each park.
When you have multiple parks in a region, they should be creating strategy to cross sell and promote each other.
When you have multiple parks in a region, they should be creating strategy to cross sell and promote each other.
yeah there's still local social media teams that will be focused on either a single park or a pair of parks depending on proximity. All depends on how corporate pushes for them to interact.
I just hope that the policies are being crafted with enough nuance as to allow park by park differentiation.
Not every park has a strong spokesperson, but the parks who do benefit from it, in my opinion. Similarly, not every park has a unique brand identity and character (tone or an actual character), but the ones who do are better because of it, in my assessment.
I just hope we don't see, say, Alfundo's role in marketing up at Dorney replaced by Snoopy and Bugs.
The new Six Flags chain has a very diverse collection of parks and one fully constructed corporate shoe should not be forced onto each park's unique pair of feet. Obviously we don't have evidence that any sort of forced generic-ification is happening and, in broad strokes, I'm perfectly happy with some centralization of duplicative roles. It is a road that is covered in potential pitfalls though—and I hope the chain is savvy enough to see what they stand to lose if they take it too far.
Not every park has a strong spokesperson, but the parks who do benefit from it, in my opinion. Similarly, not every park has a unique brand identity and character (tone or an actual character), but the ones who do are better because of it, in my assessment.
I just hope we don't see, say, Alfundo's role in marketing up at Dorney replaced by Snoopy and Bugs.
The new Six Flags chain has a very diverse collection of parks and one fully constructed corporate shoe should not be forced onto each park's unique pair of feet. Obviously we don't have evidence that any sort of forced generic-ification is happening and, in broad strokes, I'm perfectly happy with some centralization of duplicative roles. It is a road that is covered in potential pitfalls though—and I hope the chain is savvy enough to see what they stand to lose if they take it too far.
or it would been better if mr six flags is the pr & marketing of all of the parks
They have to try some new things-- if they work, great, if not they can go back to what they did before.
Today I was thinking of how much of a bullet Six Flags dodged with all this. Had the one shareholder/hedgefund had their way they would have sold off the land under the parks and leased it back to them (like Sears did) and bleed them to death so they could eventually sell the land off to developers when they ran the parks into the ground. The combined company is much stronger. There may be growing pains along the way and we may see things sold off here and there, as they refine their business plan, but overall this should work out.
Today I was thinking of how much of a bullet Six Flags dodged with all this. Had the one shareholder/hedgefund had their way they would have sold off the land under the parks and leased it back to them (like Sears did) and bleed them to death so they could eventually sell the land off to developers when they ran the parks into the ground. The combined company is much stronger. There may be growing pains along the way and we may see things sold off here and there, as they refine their business plan, but overall this should work out.
the theming returning!, I think I starting to like this merger
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Deleted User 13503
These are my predictions for the parks included in The Six Flags/Cedar Fair merger. Would Love to hear guy's opinions.
| Park | Coaster | Year | Location | Name |
| Six Flags Great Escape | Vekoma Family Suspened Coaster | 2029 | Where Thunder Alley Is | Timber Trek |
| Frontier City | RMC Raptor | 2028 | Behind Winged Warrior | Bandit's Run |
| La Ronde | Premier Rides Sky Rocket 2 | 2027 | Where Cobra Was | Vol D'essai |
| Six Flags Darien Lake | Zamperla Custom Twister Coaster | 2026 | Where The Grand Prix Speedway Is | Cyclone Surge |
| Six Flags Mexico | Vekoma Super Boomerang | 2026 | Next to Battle For Metropolis | Gotham Gauntlet |
| Six Flags America | Vekoma Family Boomerang | 2028 | Where The Gotham Arena Is | Robin's Rebound |
| Six Flags St. Louis | Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster | 2029 | Across From SkyScreamer | Piston Plunge |
| Six Flags Discovery Kingdom | RMC Raptor | 2027 | Where the Chute The Chute Ride Is | Iron Phoenix |
| Six Flags New England | Vekoma Tilt Coaster | 2029 | Where Thomas Town Was | Specter Railway |
| Six Flags Fiesta Texas | Gravity Group Family Woodie | 2028 | Behind Dr. Diabolical's Ciffhanger and Where Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster Is | Timber Tornado |
| Six Flags Over Georgia | Zamperla Junior Coaster | 2027 | Where Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster Is | Flash's Dash |
| Six Flags Over Texas | Intamin Hot Racer | 2028 | Where La Vibora Is | Gold Rush Racer |
| Six Flags Great Adventure | Mack Extreme Spinning Coaster | 2029 | Behind Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth | Aquaman's Whirlpool |
| Six Flags Great America | Zamperla Custom Twister Coaster | 2028 | Where Winner's Circle Go Karts Are | Vortex Viper |
| Six Flags Magic Mountain | Vekoma Tilt Coaster | 2026 | Where The Golden Bear Theatre Was | Predator's Pounce |
| Michigan's Adventure | Vekoma Super Boomerang | 2027 | Where Ripcord Is | Mamba's Mayhem |
| Dorney Park | Vekoma Family Boomerang | 2029 | Behind Hydra's Cobra Roll | Galactic Rebound |
| Valleyfair | Vekoma Space Warp | 2026 | Where Dinosaurs Alive Was | Raptor Rampage |
| Worlds Of Fun | Intamin Family Launch Coaster | 2028 | Next To Patriot | Trailblaze Twister |
| California's Great America | Intamin Multi Launch Coaster | 2030 | Where Grizzly Is | Backcountry Blitz |
| Knott's Berry Farm | Mauer Spinning Coaster | 2029 | Where Coastrider Is | Sunset Spin |
| Kings Dominion | B&M Inverted Coaster | 2028 | Where Dinosaurs Alive and The Go Karts Are. | Phantom Preserve |
| Carowinds | Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster | 2027 | Where Roaring Rapids Are | Nature's Fury |
| Kings Island | Vekoma Shockwave | 2026 | Where Vortex Was | Voltage Vortex |
| Cedar Point | Gravity Group Family Woodie | 2028 | Where Snake River Falls Was | Frontier Flyer |
| Canada's Wonderland | B&M Wing Coaster | 2029 | Where Flight Deck and Time Wrap Are | Island Adventure |
A fun thought exercise, but considering that some of these parks haven't received a new coaster in over a decade, it's just not feasible for all of them to get a new coaster by the end of this one. The company is going to have to spread around their money to where it matters.
THAT SAID, it certainly wouldn't be a stretch to anticipate that a number of the legacy SF parks will likely receive substantial investment in that time. New rides, yeah, but I'd expect to see a ton of QoL improvements too. Mist on Batman is just a tiny example of the improvements to park quality that can, should, and in my (absolutely worthless less than 50-time poster) opinion, probably will be made.
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Deleted User 13503
I was just thinking if they got a coaster, these are the ones that I that I think that they will get.
So East Coast PR person will be Kristin, who had been Great Adventure’s PR person pre Salim—
I've got to imagine there will be serious consolidation or rationalization of parks in several geographic areas. There's little chance they keep park operations going that are just competing for customers with themselves, whether dry or water parks.
You’re thinking too narrow— if you look at SeaWorld and BGT you can see how two parks can coexist and even benefit each other in a small geographic area.
Dorney's carved out it's own niche and operates fairly successfully as it is. The consolidation is only in how the social media and PR teams are being operated which I'd argue was necessary for both parties even before they merged.
There will probably be some fat trimming in the future but the odds are it will be for parks that are either already planned to close, like CGA, or parks that have operations agreements in place but aren't actually owned by the company like Darien Lake.
I agree. Having a wide portfolio of products is something many companies dream of. It allows you to capture subtle differences in your target audiences and increase your share of consumers’ dollar by having more products to offer them.
For example, Coca-Cola has 50 different brands in the US alone. Each one, in a sense, “competes” with one another. But Coca-Cola uses this portfolio strategy because it allows them to better tailor their products to slightly different consumer bases, and it creates opportunities for consumers to buy multiple products from them.
At the end of the day, SF is going to be looking at current profitability versus the potential profitability of operating with fewer parks. If they’re considering shuttering one park in an area, the calculation to justify closing a park needs to be:
(Park 1 Revenue + Park 2 Revenue) - (Park 1 Costs + Park 2 Costs) < (Park 1 Revenue - Park 1 Costs)
Especially since the merger will reduce overhead costs for all the parks, I’m not convinced there are many areas where the costs of operating two parks outweigh the incremental revenue of operating both parks. The calculation only works if you assume a significant percentage of Park 2’s audience will instead start going to Park 1, but that’s such a massive change in consumer behavior and brand loyalty that it’s a completely unrealistic expectation.
To my knowledge, the only example of a park being acquired and then shuttered to reduce “competition” within its own chain is Geauga Lake. People sometimes seem to treat that decision as gospel, like it’s going to happen again. But people seem to forget that it’s one of the only instances of that ever happening, and it happened at a time when CF was a much smaller company with a completely different management team — who made plenty of other questionable decisions at the time. The current SF management team almost certainly has a more data-driven, strategic approach than the old CF management team that closed Geauga Lake. So I propose looking at GL’s closure not as a warning of will happen, but potentially as merely a fluke driven by short-sighted management.
We’ll have to wait and see.