Yeah that is very eye catching and alarming. Why would these entire sections just close for the season in August?
I could see the park moving to limited operations during the week since some schools are back, but good god, having two large areas of the park closed on weekends heading into (and during?!) Fright Fest? Not good.
Paired with the termination of Holiday in the Park, I think this paints a grim picture regarding SFA's current status.
Yeah I agree this gives a very ominous outlook. Hopefully everything is alright, scary with the shake ups in the corporate right now. SFA seemed to be surging a bit when I was there on a Sunday in July.
If they keep Coyote Creek closed during Fright Fest, it will massively effect the event.
I’m betting new corporate realized how little revenue SFA actually generates and is having to adjust operations accordingly, vice simply clubbing its financials together with other park’s performance. Not sure what that means in the medium or long term, but there could easily be a reality check coming to the park.
I'll take it over Firebird any day.....
That's how SFA gets you.......they have both!
No complaints about them having both at all..... just saying Mind Eraser is just as important as Firebird despite what many people try to say.
I imagine this is both cost-cutting and trying to make the park feel more crowded by simply making the park smaller. Pretty awful. I hope this isn't the beginning of the end. I want my only 45 minutes away park.
Ha, I wasn't going to at first. When it was discovered that the app shows these "Closed for the Season" rides still, it made it super easy to just click through each park and scroll down their attraction lists.
Why would they try to make the park feel more crowded? The CEO has repeatedly said he wants the parks to feel less crowded.
Yes, but they obviously didn’t expect it to go too far in the other direction, which it did.
So you’re saying they’re responding by artificially creating an appearance of being crowded by closing part of the park?
The app is not even showing the closed rides for SFA. Mind Eraser, etc, aren’t even listed any more. So would need to know all the rides at each park to spot which ones are now missing.
The main problem is there’s a fundamental mismatch between what SFA can charge and what it cost to run a theme park in the DC area. SFA probably needs to be in the $150-200 range for season passes to realistically cover costs and make investments, but the park as it stands isn’t worth nearly that much in value.
Maybe shrinking to expand further is the only strategy that can work. The other option would be a massive park investment coinciding with major price increases, but that would probably entail a $50-100M investment in the park that Six Flags probably can’t make.