SFOT, SFMM, SFGAdv, and SFGAm all should be running the same kind of at attendance as CP, KI, and Canada's Wonderland but have all fallen behind.
News Cedar Fair Merges with Six Flags
- Thread starter horsesboy
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Disgusting and heartbreaking… they used the wrong “whose”!
Interesting that there was nothing said about Carowinds, good nor bad.
paintervision
Coasters: 653 🎢
That’s a heartbreaking post to read. Matt Ouimet turned Cedar Fair around when he was CEO, and everything I’ve heard says that he was responsible for kicking off the quality-focused strategy and surprisingly people-first internal culture that the pre-merger Cedar Fair had for the past decade. He had led a similar “return to form” at Disneyland Resort before that. I trust him as a leader who believed in the magic of the theme park industry in the same way that I do.
For him to say that is damning. I’ve heard whispers of an absolutely brutal wave of layoffs and demotions across the company in recent days, and I’m sure we’ll hear more details about it soon. I was sad enough to hear about it already. But to hear it from the man who in many ways revived the company, who worked firsthand with the talented people now being ousted, makes it even more painful. It just sucks for everyone.
This is ALARMING:
"I recognized that what was going to be required after the merger would be very different from the strategies that had worked for me previously and my sticking around would just make it harder on all involved."
This is the first solid indication I've seen that the new Six Flags may not be looking/planning to implement the same park-turnaround strategies that Cedar Fair did so successfully over the last 15 years or so. Big yikes.
"I recognized that what was going to be required after the merger would be very different from the strategies that had worked for me previously and my sticking around would just make it harder on all involved."
This is the first solid indication I've seen that the new Six Flags may not be looking/planning to implement the same park-turnaround strategies that Cedar Fair did so successfully over the last 15 years or so. Big yikes.
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Based on the context of the rest of the post, I interpreted that paragraph to more likely refer to Cedar Fair’s long-term investment in people and leadership development. For example, during COVID Cedar Fair was the one major theme park company that didn’t furlough any full-time employees, and they’ve proudly talked in earnings calls about a pipeline program they developed to upskill emerging leaders they identified as potential future general managers. Especially before COVID, Cedar Fair had a strong hire-from-within culture, with many of its leaders having worked their way up at the company over decades.
It’s certainly possible Ouimet is referring to a larger break from Cedar Fair’s approach to operating and improving its parks, but I think what he’s saying is meant to be an indictment of the company’s apparent abandonment of its longstanding people-first strategy.
I'd argue the people-first strategy was probably instrumental in the improvement to these parks though, to be fair. Strong leadership empowered to make the right decisions for their markets have created a diverse and successful park portfolio. Centralization and "one-size-fits-all," top-down management feels far more akin to what got Six Flags into trouble.
I can’t wait for the return of the ride rotation program and 20 coasters named “Max Force” and “Goliath”.
Carowinds and Knott's were brought up several times as positive examples of management growing parks that were underperforming their markets.
That is the first thing that has made me actually, truly worried about the future of the chain.
Really hoping that guy that had the “revolutionary cost cutting strategy” where expenses can’t just be rolled over YOY without “justification” is not who they put in the CEO role. I can’t imagine what the hell would happen to the parks with that line of thinking. Imagine “we’d like to run Celtic Frye (not six flags but as an example) again” “hmmm why though? Is there an opportunity for savings?” “Um……I mean it really adds a lot to the atmosphere and character of th——“ “so it IS an opportunity for savings you’re telling me?”
My understanding is that somewhere between 600 and 800 employees have been let go company wide between yesterday an today. I expect that as the dust settles we will see level of upper mid level management at the parks missing and I am becoming very concerned about what that means for the future experience at the parks.
paintervision
Coasters: 653 🎢
That sounds like a lot. Looking around LinkedIn again, I see a few people leaving the company (won’t post them here out of respect but they are public).
With 27 parks in the company pluss the combined corprate structure that could be as little as 15-20 per a park. More concerning to is the types of people being let go.