News Cedar Fair Merges with Six Flags

[horsesboy]

More than anything they need to keep offering seasonal festivals and events to keep passholders coming back throughout the year. That gives people reasons to visit multiple local parks multiple times.

I am not sure that is a 100% accurate statement. A year ago the President of SFA took Q&A at an ACE event and the subject of a return could the park see a return of Holiday in the Park. He gave a very blunt and refreshing straight forward answer and details of how the event had been a financial drain and resources pit for the park while barely breaking even on the income side. I know some parks have seen great success but it sounded like it needs to be closely examined on a case by case basis instead of an across the board policy.

 

[GAcoaster]

Festivals like food festivals, music festivals, beer festivals, etc., not necessarily Holiday in the Park. Simple, limited time events which compliment each other. Like Dorney offers a “Kids Festival” for several weeks, Great Adventure offers a Craft Beer Festival, etc, to give people more reasons to come back all the time. It’s very effective with the Orlando parks for getting locals to visit more often.

 

[rswashdc]

I am not sure that is a 100% accurate statement. A year ago the President of SFA took Q&A at an ACE event and the subject of a return could the park see a return of Holiday in the Park. He gave a very blunt and refreshing straight forward answer and details of how the event had been a financial drain and resources pit for the park while barely breaking even on the income side. I know some parks have seen great success but it sounded like it needs to be closely examined on a case by case basis instead of an across the board policy.

Hard to justify Holiday in the Park when Winterfest is just down the road now. It wouldn't surprise me to see Halloween culled back as well.

 

[GAcoaster]

Or a different type of Halloween event— maybe only do “family” at SFA and offer “scary” at KD

 

[horsesboy]

Hard to justify Holiday in the Park when Winterfest is just down the road now. It wouldn't surprise me to see Halloween culled back as well.

Halloween has draw big crowds and income I would be very surprised to see it down graded.

 

[netdvn]

Honestly Holiday could work as long as the park expands the event and offers something the other parks in the area don't. Start it out small to see if anyone has interest and if there is, start expanding the event.

Winterfest is great but the event is starting to feel a little stale. Bringing Holiday back might shake things up but I wouldn't go totally all out. Maybe just have a section or two with a coaster, a large stage show and some elaborate light displays and if its popular enough, slowly expand the event.

There's a lot of established competition for Christmas stuff in the area so that might've hurt them in the past, but if they can figure out something unique to bring, maybe Holiday could work out well for the park in the long run.

 

[Riboflavenus]

God I forgot about Cocoa Beach!

But yea. New SF can really put the screws to Hershey if they wanted to by positioning Dorney as a family friendly park (despite the current coaster collection), SFGAdv as the thrill park, SFA as the water park. Meanwhile let each park still offer some of the other but it’s not the priority.

I'd support that, especially if one of the inverts found it's way to Doswell

 

[MaxxForceFan]

See point five of the new long range plan:

Long-Range Plan – Project Accelerate

Six Flags today also announced the core objectives of its new long-range plan designed to deliver on the full growth potential of the Combined Company. In many cases, the new objectives represent the natural extension and evolution of strategic initiatives that contributed to the success of legacy Cedar Fair.

• Enhance the guest experience to deliver a stronger price-value proposition and drive demand .
• Identify incremental operating efficiencies that generate cost synergies and help drive margin expansion .
• Maintain a disciplined approach to the prioritization and activation of capital investments to realize the full market potential of each park, while maximizing free cash flow efficiency .
• Integrate technology stacks with a focus on harmonizing systems, eliminating redundancies, and enhancing the guest-facing digital experience.
• Review the park portfolio over time, to optimize the asset base , narrow management’s focus, and help reduce net leverage .

Six Flags also noted that as part of Project Accelerate, it has established a new annual unlevered pre-tax free cash flow target of at least $800 million by 2027. Management believes the sustained level of free cash flow growth necessary to achieve this target can be achieved by increasing annual attendance to more than 55 million guests and expanding full-year Modified EBITDA margins(2) to more than 35%, all of which would support the Combined Company’s goal of reducing Net Total Leverage(5) to less than 3.5x Adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2027. Doing so will help position Six Flags to drive sustained, profitable growth and considerable value for its shareholders.

Source: https://investors.sixflags.com/news...-Long-Range-Strategic-Objectives/default.aspx

 

[rswashdc]

Halloween has draw big crowds and income I would be very surprised to see it down graded.

It really depends what the metrics look like across the company. If half the Halloween attendance comes from guests who would go to KD or even GAdv otherwise, it's hard to justify having events everywhere.

 

[bill s]

^^-- Halloween is 5-7 weeks long, plenty to do more than one park.

I think parks in the same region have a lot of potential for cross-promotion. It is not a disadvantage. Where there is long term plans to sell a park that plan is unaffected. Note, while I think SFA will eventually be sold for the land, it is not the right time yet. As to closing Dorney -- this isn't a theme park game. Great park, quite popular, and very little of what it is can be moved, before even getting into its latest addition.

 

[horsesboy]

Six Flags is looking at the possibility of selling some parks.

Redirect Notice

 

[GAcoaster]

Six Flags is looking at the possibility of selling some parks.

Redirect Notice

More than anything I’d suspect the random little water parks would go away

 

[Shane]

I saw this coming as soon as the merger went through. I just thought they'd wait at least a year before consider doing something like this.

I wonder if it will mostly be the smaller Cedar Fair parks, the smaller Six Flags parks, or both? I feel like it will likely be parks like Dorney, Valleyfair, Six Flags America. But like you mentioned, maybe we'll get lucky and it will just be the random small water parks that no one cares about.

My only hope is that they get sold to another park operator and not sold to real estate developers. Maybe SEAS is looking for another Sesame Place location?

 

[warfelg]

I feel like the Schlitterbon’s, Daren Lake, MA would be on the block; SFA feels like ie’s a park that will just be gone sadly.

 

[YachtyLogs]

MA isn't getting sold, it's like the most profitable park in the chain and they barely need to put any money towards it.

 

[paintervision]

Six Flags also noted that as part of Project Accelerate, it has established a new annual unlevered pre-tax free cash flow target of at least $800 million by 2027. Management believes the sustained level of free cash flow growth necessary to achieve this target can be achieved by increasing annual attendance to more than 55 million guests and expanding full-year Modified EBITDA margins(2) to more than 35%, all of which would support the Combined Company’s goal of reducing Net Total Leverage(5) to less than 3.5x Adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2027. Doing so will help position Six Flags to drive sustained, profitable growth and considerable value for its shareholders.

I wonder how the EPR properties contribute to this? Frontier City, Darien Lake, various waterparks - maybe an easy cut for costs without sacrificing attendance? The lease for Six Flags operations goes to 2037, but they haven't done much thus far - so I'm not sure of all the ins-and-outs with that.

We know CGA is closing - could Six Flags Discovery Kingdom be too far behind? That park has issues with coaster heights/placements, so maybe it's time to move them out and sell the park off - either as a Zoo/Marine Life park, or land. Cedar Fair has shied away from running animal exhibits in the past, and I'm guessing Great Adventure's Safari (with it's expensive Glamping tents) will be the outlier.

For SFA, I can see them pursuing a sale. There's not much salvageable there in terms of movable coasters, IMO, and it overlaps with other markets. It would be a good pickup for a smaller chain - IB Parks? Herschend? Palace, if they weren't looking at being sold already? Hershey Entertainment and Resorts? For a smaller chain, a few years of steady investment (RMC Roar, replace Batwing for a modern thrill coaster, letting GCI rehab Wild One, etc) could pay off and bring it back; but likely not to the level of a Six Flags flagship, and certainly that's not happening by 2027-ish under current ownership.

 

[warfelg]

I could see Herschend getting in on some actual parks potentially being sold. Especially if there’s land, it’s not near a major metro center, and is affordable. So like Darien Lake.

I can’t see Hershey getting into any of these parks. I think it’s just so into it’s own thing and it rather reinvest in itself than others.

I wouldn’t want to see Palace buy any parks because they are struggling to do well with what they do own.

I know there’s talk about United Parks getting into other things but I could see them taking a shot on a park ready to go in the Rust Belt should it come available. And label it with a “Busch Gardens” name rather than a “Sea World” title.

I’ll toss out an off the wall thought though:
Universal, Disney, Merlin, and Triple Five Group. Universal is looking to get into some FEC’s and some of these parks could have a coaster or two removed and it splits the difference between a full park and FEC. Disney would never shock me with expanding, and despite it seeming like they would want to start from scratch, being able to do an easy overlay into a market they aren’t in seems like an easy win.

But with the other two - Merlin (IIRC) runs all the Lego Lands, and being able to get into a bigger park model with Lego theme elements without having to spend on building out something and battling permitting would be a good win for them. And Triple Five Group runs Nickelodeon Universe parks that are a quasi-FEC/Theme Park and being able to do something like a water park themed entirely to Sponge Bob seems like something that would be an easy win for them.

 

[b.mac]

I can’t see Hershey getting into any of these parks. I think it’s just so into it’s own thing and it rather reinvest in itself than others.

Hershey Entertainment won't do it, last time they did it they almost bankrupted themselves.

 

[rswashdc]

I saw this coming as soon as the merger went through. I just thought they'd wait at least a year before consider doing something like this.

I wonder if it will mostly be the smaller Cedar Fair parks, the smaller Six Flags parks, or both? I feel like it will likely be parks like Dorney, Valleyfair, Six Flags America. But like you mentioned, maybe we'll get lucky and it will just be the random small water parks that no one cares about.

My only hope is that they get sold to another park operator and not sold to real estate developers. Maybe SEAS is looking for another Sesame Place location?

I doubt Dorney or SFA would be outright sold as amusement parks, as it would be introducing competition against their remaining properties.

 

[paintervision]

I could see Herschend getting in on some actual parks potentially being sold. Especially if there’s land, it’s not near a major metro center, and is affordable. So like Darien Lake.

Herschend did run Darien Lake, I don't think that they want it again and the Six Flags park management deal with EPR runs into 2038? Still could be broken but I imagine someone else would take the contract.

I can’t see Hershey getting into any of these parks. I think it’s just so into it’s own thing and it rather reinvest in itself than others.

Hershey's a wild card - they did buy Dutch Wonderland and tried to make a go of Lake Compounce in the past. SFA's 90 minutes away, and I could see some overlap with season pass tiers and combo tickets. That may be your only chance to see Road RMC'd. Hershey also runs resorts - There's land there to build an indoor waterpark resort (ala Great Wolf or something closer to Cedar Point's Castaway Bay) that could start to make that more of a year-round money-maker for them.

I know there’s talk about United Parks getting into other things but I could see them taking a shot on a park ready to go in the Rust Belt should it come available. And label it with a “Busch Gardens” name rather than a “Sea World” title.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they only have license to use Busch Gardens for the existing parks not for new properties?

But with the other two - Merlin (IIRC) runs all the Lego Lands, and being able to get into a bigger park model with Lego theme elements without having to spend on building out something and battling permitting would be a good win for them. And Triple Five Group runs Nickelodeon Universe parks that are a quasi-FEC/Theme Park and being able to do something like a water park themed entirely to Sponge Bob seems like something that would be an easy win for them.

It could be "Legoland DC" or something similar - that's always a possibility. I think Universal will let the Universal Kids Frisco park stew a bit before expanding and if they do one in the mid-Atlantic area, closer to Philly (near Comcast corporate) is more likely.

Disney would not touch an existing Six Flags property with a ten foot pole. They don't really acquire parks and I don't see them jumping into a seasonal property any time soon. When you say "FEC" I think of smaller properties, like Peppa Pig Park that's going into Texas - that's only a few acres... I don't think SFA qualifies.