News Cedar Fair Merges with Six Flags
- Thread starter horsesboy
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The mentions of reducing the portfolio means additional closures or sale of parks is coming. It will be interesting to see if United or Herschend or maybe even some other operator ends up acquiring a park or two. I don’t think any of the current parks are unprofitable, just that their focus needs to be on the most profitable.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised to see Great Adventure up for sale— the Safari is really outside the scope of any other park in the chain, and while the theme park and water park can be profitable, they need investment. The park would fit the United Parks portfolio better, though I don’t know if they have the capital.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised to see Great Adventure up for sale— the Safari is really outside the scope of any other park in the chain, and while the theme park and water park can be profitable, they need investment. The park would fit the United Parks portfolio better, though I don’t know if they have the capital.
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Yes, there was a comment that the smaller highly profitable parks that previously had a place in both chains, may no longer have a place in the chain and could be monetized to pay down debt.
IIRC, they said the core parks that are currently underperforming could become non core parks if they don't see the expected results from the investments in the parks. It that happens, they will cut investments in the park or monetize the park. Some parks have a poor reputation that might not be fixable. I will try to find direct quotes from the transcripts later, but that is my rough summary from memory.
Attendance was down in October 2025 according to the press release (under "October Update"):
Based on preliminary operating results, attendance for the Combined Company over the five-week period ended Nov. 2, 2025, totaled 5.8 million guests, representing an 11% decrease in attendance compared to the same five-week period last year when October attendance was up approximately 20% due to exceptional weather.
Based on preliminary operating results, attendance for the Combined Company over the five-week period ended Nov. 2, 2025, totaled 5.8 million guests, representing an 11% decrease in attendance compared to the same five-week period last year when October attendance was up approximately 20% due to exceptional weather.
So what you're saying is that in a longshot, if we could get the right financial support lined up we could be the new owners of a cast-off Six Flags park when it comes time for them to sell?
So in my mind, maybe this was a result of cutting experiences from parks at the last minute and people just didn’t come. For example charging for experiences that had always been included.
That helps explain the mid-October pivot to drop the Haunted Attractions Pass at several of the legacy Cedar Fair parks.
Good quote to illustrate @MaxxForceFan's point:
My biggest takeaway from this call is that it's no longer enough for a park to be currently slightly to somewhat cash positive. If a park is in the chain's underperforming group of parks and doesn't respond adequately to new investment, the chain intends to consider that property non-core and will look to options to monitize the property in other ways.
Written all over the subtext of this call for me was that Six Flags intends to close and/or offload more parks in the next few years. Basically zero way to read it otherwise in my opinion. Buckle up folks.
My biggest takeaway from this call is that it's no longer enough for a park to be currently slightly to somewhat cash positive. If a park is in the chain's underperforming group of parks and doesn't respond adequately to new investment, the chain intends to consider that property non-core and will look to options to monitize the property in other ways.
Written all over the subtext of this call for me was that Six Flags intends to close and/or offload more parks in the next few years. Basically zero way to read it otherwise in my opinion. Buckle up folks.
AmyUD06
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Thanks for posting the link to the transcript. I skimmed it and it had a few very interesting moments, specifically the part where they're apparently showing a slide with a "overperforming park" and an "underperforming park." Do you know if there's any way to view these slides?
So what are some of the small profitable parks besides Michigan's Adventure? What parks haven't been profitable lately?
It's clear that SFEC would like to sell profitable properties that aren't necessarily ripe for major investment / growth. During the call Q&A, a question was asked if more SFA/CGA-style closures to sell the land beneath the park were coming. The SFEC speaker stated they had no current plans, except for the spare acreage surrounding Kings Dominion.
Also worth noting from the Q&A is that they plan on proceeding with the previously announced major 2026 CAPEX projects. Hopefully we'll see more announcements soon...
Also worth noting from the Q&A is that they plan on proceeding with the previously announced major 2026 CAPEX projects. Hopefully we'll see more announcements soon...
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My fear is that there may not be a way forward for Dorney and SFGA to coexist in the future and honestly it could be a coin flip as to which one makes more sense to get rid of. I have long held the belief that the safari side of SFGA went on life support as soon as the merger happened and so far I have seen little to change my mind.
A few quotes that stood out to me...
Given SFEC's propensity for pivoting on a dime, this is slightly terrifying for parks that won't be seeing any substantial fruit from their projects until 2027 at the earliest. (*cough* GreatAdventure *cough*)
This should have been a priority from the beginning and they absolutely dummied themselves in this regard in 2025. Far too many unpleasant surprises with sudden removals, closures and upcharges. It will take some time to regain that consumer trust and I'm not sure if this regime has the patience for it.
If the past past year was Exhibit A of this being a poorly executed merger, the quote above is Exhibit B. We've spoken at length about the communal losses from SFA and I hate the idea of more of that being on the way. Not everyone can center their travel around destination parks and localities are going to suffer because these execs bit off more than they can chew.
Given SFEC's propensity for pivoting on a dime, this is slightly terrifying for parks that won't be seeing any substantial fruit from their projects until 2027 at the earliest. (*cough* GreatAdventure *cough*)
This should have been a priority from the beginning and they absolutely dummied themselves in this regard in 2025. Far too many unpleasant surprises with sudden removals, closures and upcharges. It will take some time to regain that consumer trust and I'm not sure if this regime has the patience for it.
If the past past year was Exhibit A of this being a poorly executed merger, the quote above is Exhibit B. We've spoken at length about the communal losses from SFA and I hate the idea of more of that being on the way. Not everyone can center their travel around destination parks and localities are going to suffer because these execs bit off more than they can chew.
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Ah man, it’s too bad they fired all the general managers he said that to.
along with discovery kingdom since that park is also animal based (maybe spin great adventure & discovery kingdom off as great adventure inc?)
This quote that @Great Adventurer pulled says it all. I think it substantially changes an assumption we enthusiasts had about the merger. Even small parks that are “cash cows,” that are good and profitable, are not safe in the current Six Flags portfolio. Parks that were strong, steady assets in the legacy Cedar Fair and Six Flags portfolios no longer have a home in the combined company.
As an enthusiast, this stings. On the legacy CF side, I’m worried about parks like Valleyfair and Michigan’s Adventure, and who knows how many other parks (WoF? Dorney?). On the legacy SF parks, it seems like half of those parks could fit the bill.
In fact, this is the first time that I can ever recall them explicitly saying the “underperforming parks” = “small parks.” I think we all assumed that most of the underperforming parks were small, but the statement that “most of our smaller parks” fit into the “underperforming” bucket seems like a shocking new revelation.
The only silver lining is that, for the parks that survive, I do think this is the right strategy to improve them. As I said here, Six Flags desperately needs focus. Stripping the company down to their best, core parks gives them a strong portfolio that lets them really focus on developing and executing a coherent strategy that lets those parks thrive.
Is it safe to assume that most of the smaller parks probably wouldn't be considered "underperforming" if they were independent of the larger Six Flags chain? I assume they would generally be viable businesses on a local level, particularly markets with only one major park.
Something not sitting right with me is the comment about consumer satisfaction. I mean let’s face it the current corporation couldn’t care less about satisfying consumers. If they did, when someone complained and had a legitimate complaint, they would offer a refund instead of telling you that you should not have bought the item. In my case a season pass that two weeks later they announced changes to the operation going forward.
Previously Carowinds in particular had a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Now mind you the only time I used it was around 2000. But still the aim was to keep patrons happy.
Previously Carowinds in particular had a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Now mind you the only time I used it was around 2000. But still the aim was to keep patrons happy.
https://www.investing.com/news/tran...sults-miss-forecasts-stock-drops-93CH-4342916 They've indicated that smaller "cash cow" parks that generate profit without much investment may no longer be safe.
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"What are some of the big hurdles and where you are, how you’re looking at that at this point? Yeah, I think when we look at the portfolio of parks, and we talked about this all the way back to when we completed the merger, that as a combined company of this scale, the ability to sell off and monetize parks that were not going to contribute a great deal of growth. Maybe nice parks from a standpoint of what we would consider little mini cash cows, so to speak, parks that do not require a lot of capital, generate a nice amount of EBITDA and throw off cash flow. Those had a home, I think, in both standalone portfolios.
In a bigger company where we’re trying to narrow our focus and shrink our capital needs as well as our risk or our liability exposures, getting the portfolio smaller and more nimble is a priority. We’re going to look at the parks where our returns are the greatest, where the opportunities for growth are the highest, and we’re going to focus on those parks. The other parks we’ll look to monetize and use those proceeds to reduce debt. Thank you very much. Best of luck, Richard. Thanks, Arpine. Your next question comes from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Hey, Chris. Yeah, I guess I’m curious to say, hey, guys."
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"What are some of the big hurdles and where you are, how you’re looking at that at this point? Yeah, I think when we look at the portfolio of parks, and we talked about this all the way back to when we completed the merger, that as a combined company of this scale, the ability to sell off and monetize parks that were not going to contribute a great deal of growth. Maybe nice parks from a standpoint of what we would consider little mini cash cows, so to speak, parks that do not require a lot of capital, generate a nice amount of EBITDA and throw off cash flow. Those had a home, I think, in both standalone portfolios.
In a bigger company where we’re trying to narrow our focus and shrink our capital needs as well as our risk or our liability exposures, getting the portfolio smaller and more nimble is a priority. We’re going to look at the parks where our returns are the greatest, where the opportunities for growth are the highest, and we’re going to focus on those parks. The other parks we’ll look to monetize and use those proceeds to reduce debt. Thank you very much. Best of luck, Richard. Thanks, Arpine. Your next question comes from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Hey, Chris. Yeah, I guess I’m curious to say, hey, guys."