News Cedar Fair Merges with Six Flags

[CoasterAuditor]

so, what's the point of changes to park presidents & the removal of rides?

A publicly traded corporation, like Six Flags Entertainment, has the #1 prime objective of “shareholder wealth maximization.” If they deviate from this objective too much they could be at legal risk from the shareholders. The main point of the merger they’ve stated is “cost synergies” which means budget cuts, layoffs (like the park presidents and KDs full time staff) streamlining of operations (new regional managers), restructuring of hierarchy, all with the objective of reducing costs and increasing profit as Zachary said.

Odds are anytime a consumer product or service has decreased in quality without any clear reason it’s likely from the pursuit of shareholder wealth maximization.

 

[warfelg]

Odds are anytime a consumer product or service has decreased in quality without any clear reason it’s likely from the pursuit of shareholder wealth maximization.

All the result of a terrible SCOTUS ruling. The part with this that sucks the most is it often matters who the majority holder is too. Private equity firms have discovered sometimes that certain individual parts of a product are worth more than the whole, so that’s where you see something like what’s happening to chain restaurants going on.

 

[SweetBabyJames]

I thought this was a good article which seems to sum up what most of us are saying here. Six Flags’ Structural Overhaul: Operational Efficiency at the Cost of Institutional Knowledge?

Six Flags’ Structural Overhaul: Operational Efficiency at the Cost of Institutional Knowledge?

On May 20, Six Flags had its "Investor Day" Presentation — a strategy emphasizing improved guest satisfaction, capital discipline, and stronger local responsiveness. The narrative was compelling: optimize operations, elevate the guest experience, and reallocate resources where they will drive the mo

www.linkedin.com

 

[bill s]

^^ The term "empowered leadership" catches my eye in that article. This may have been missing with many park presidents always having to run almost anything past corporate. The presidents moving to regional were the ones most trusted and already empowered. Perhaps they will bring that to all the parks they manage. At the same time, there still has to be a person or a few at the top of the local level. Maybe the idea is to divide power at that level.

The thing about “shareholder wealth maximization" -- short term or long term? And while Henry Ford claimed his company was also in the public interest and found out that doesn't work, parks are about the public and must act largely in public interest to make money long term.

Looks to me a lot of the cuts are towards the top, or at least that's what we're hearing about now, and a bunch of corporate-speak. I have no idea how top heavy or bloated they are, but it is certainly possible it's not a problem. If they were assuring us of no more cuts lower in the food chain, even expanding where necessary, my confidence would be higher.

Years ago, I don't think there was an expectation for parks to be high earners, more like good steady businesses. At least that's what my Dad said maybe 30 years ago. That's changed more recently with Universal on top of the continued rise of Disney, and at the same time, it's become easier to lose money. 2020 showed steady business is not assured. So stockholders have become louder. Sounds like Dendur's trying to run the company yet only owns 3%?

 

[CoasterBroCam]

Will there likely be another coaster purge at the end of 2025?

 

[horsesboy]

Will there likely be another coaster purge at the end of 2025?

I think you will see more go then what we were use to seeing pre merger but I don't think it will be as drastic as 24. I do remain fairly worried that Flight of Fear at KD will close possibly with no announcement.

 

[paintervision]

Not great optics:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/six-flags-california-layoffs-merger-20348618.php

 

[JohnKell]

And it continues…

Cedar Point hit by layoffs

As Six Flags cuts jobs across its parks

sanduskyregister.com

 

[horsesboy]

To be clear not a single park in the chain has been spared from layoffs. I heard it was about 30 employees per park on average which would match pretty nicely with the 135 employees in California number stated. More concerning to me then the layoffs is the timing right at the beginning of the summer season when many of these parks are about to be at their busiest. I question if the cost savings really add up to the possible harm by removing senior leadership headed right into peak vacation season. If SF is really solid cash strapped that they couldn't float these jobs for another quarter that seems like abad Oman to me.

 

[Unagi]

And it continues…

Cedar Point hit by layoffs

As Six Flags cuts jobs across its parks

sanduskyregister.com

From what I've heard, the Food department took the biggest hit.

 

[Thriller]

Without getting to specific as I don't want to share personal information about jobs an people that I know were let go but are so far not publicly known.

I expect to see a vast down grade in food quality with a new push to cheap pre-made an bulk produced foods. I expect to see significantly less theming and the quality of what theming we get to be generic and low. I personally would be shocked to see any new Haunt houses at this point for example. I expect to see less clean parks. I also am anticipating longer an more frequent down time on rides. I guess in short I expect a more Six Flags experience.

The dirty parks have already started. I went to Kings Island this week and it was pretty nasty. Dirty tables and restrooms that smell like urine.

 

[bill s]

The dirty parts have already started. I went to Kings Island this week and it was pretty nasty. Dirty tables and restrooms that smell like urine.

But do we know if a single person who wipes tables or cleans bathrooms has been let go? And I could complain about that smell at KD but it's NOT new. We have all seen grunge before they fired anybody, so if it's the fault of the people that tell others what to do, maybe they should have been fired. In 2023 when KD tried year-round I don't think the bathrooms were cleaned after New Year's Eve until March. Almost as bad as SFA's on Opening Day* -- them suckers need a DEEP cleaning, but they all do.

(*The first one you see upon entering the park. The new one back near Superman is great! 40 years less buildup.)

 

[Mushroom]

For anyone who doesn’t know, today is the last day for most of Six Flags’ GMs and park presidents across the country. Sad day. Literally centuries of collective theme park experience will walk out of the parks for the last time tonight. Wishing them all luck in the next chapter of their careers.

 

[harry580]

would that included Jeffrey from fiesta Texas or that would stay with fiesta Texas (or even better, taken over the parks in the southern states)

 

[wasteman]

Nothing concrete but I’ve heard that Jeffery Siebert is gonna be moved to a regional manager role. Would make some sense considering he’s been posting about Over Texas a lot lately.

 

[I305Evan]

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Jeffrey posted on Instagram and his name tag reads "Regional GM" previously it was "Park president"

 

[Timchat2]

Do we have a sense of the six new regional Six Flags general managers yet?

It appears that Jeffrey Siebert has the Texas region and Jason McClure has the Great Lakes region.

 

[harry580]

I wonder who's regional gm of six flags great adventure & dorney park now?

 

[GAcoaster]

I think they should work to standardize branding of the water parks in the coming year. Make it so all the waterparks included with admission have one name (Wildwater Kingdom, Splash Kingdom, Soak City, whatever), and all the separate admission water parks have another name (Hurricane Harbor, whatever). As it stands the branding is all over the place with small tacked on waterparks having the same name as complete separate parks.

 

[Zachary]

As it stands the branding is all over the place with small tacked on waterparks having the same name as complete separate parks.

I definitely agree that this is bad. Super confusing for the consumer I'm sure. If parks are going to share a name, they should function similarly.

I don't think fixing that has to lead into the standardization of all the water parks though. Many of the water parks have existing local brand recognition that's worth holding onto. Others have themed names to go along with their overarching presentation. I think retaining those is valuable.