News Enchanted Parks & EPR Acquire Seven Parks from Six Flags

[TPoseOnTantrum]

Difference with SFA is that the land it sits on has some real value. If that were the case with these parks, they’d probably be looking at the same fate.

I agree. The often case with amusement parks is that they're usually more valuable assets than just as real estate, it's all dependent on long-term revenues and community impacts. Shutting down even modestly-performing parks purely for the land underneath them won't generate the profits expected, Six Flags learned this the hard way with Astroworld and a similar mistake was made for Opryland the decade before.

All of the parks that are being sold off are valuable as theme parks, especially St Louis where the land is most worthless otherwise. SFA was a different scenario in which it had been bleeding far more resources for twenty years and was incredibly unsustainable versus that land actually having potential as something else. The ratio was just different.

 

[Zachary]

I made a quick Google MyMap showing all of Enchanted Park's holdings. Sidebar will let you display or hide the dry parks, water parks, and lodging facilities.

Enchanted Parks USA Properties - Google My Maps

Enchanted Parks USA Properties

www.google.com

Respectable, medium-sized chian.

 

[SixFlagsIssues]

What about the diggerland in Tennessee, do they not own that one?

 

[Zachary]

What about the diggerland in Tennessee, do they not own that one?

That's Dig 'N Zone. Different company as far as I know.

Construction Theme Park Near Pigeon Forge - Dig into Fun!

We are a must-visit construction theme park near Pigeon Forge! One of the best attractions in the Smokies for family fun, thrills, and hands-on experiences.

www.dignzone.com

 

[SixFlagsIssues]

Oops, my memory was wrong. Guess I'm getting old already

 

[Fiender]

This might just be me trying to be optimistic but if Enchanted Parks sought out SF STL to be their flagship park and are committing to investing in it, maybe-just-maybe Darien Lake won't be so neglected in the event the lease shuffles over to EP.

 

[farfeather]

Hmm, the address listed on Enchanted Parks website seems to be a grocery store in Orlando? Strange.

 

[sfnefan]

Hmm, the address listed on Enchanted Parks website seems to be a grocery store in Orlando? Strange.

It's a PO box.

 

[Zachary]

I came up with a few terrible options:
M-AxEP
EP(M-A)
MAbyEP

I am just going to start calling the park MAbyEP and see if it sticks.

Jumping off the Mid-America by Enchanted Parks abbreviation discussion in the St. Louis thread, we need ideas on how to abbreviate the company too. I assume most will shorthand the chain as "Enchanted" but for @Shane's node icons, we need something a lot shorter. Probably EPUSA? Any objections or thoughts?

 

[SweetBabyJames]

Jumping off the Mid-America by Enchanted Parks abbreviation discussion in the St. Louis thread, we need ideas on how to abbreviate the company too. I assume most will shorthand the chain as "Enchanted" but for @Shane's node icons, we need something a lot shorter. Probably EPUSA? Any objections or thoughts?

What about simply "EP"? That seems the most natural and quickest abbreviation.

Or if you want to stretch it out, "EPU".

 

[Zachary]

I think Europa Park is already commonly abbreviated with EP unfortunately.

 

[Coaster_Merrick]

I like EnPar
Flows off the tongue well and theres not many abbreviations that sound similar

 

[DH_The_ThemeParkFaniac]

I wonder if people are doing petitions to save their home parks from Enchanted Parks since the announcement

 

[AmyUD06]

I wonder if people are doing petitions to save their home parks from Enchanted Parks since the announcement

"Save" them from what, the actual possibility of investment?

I have a serious question for you - why do you think this is the end of the world?

 

[DH_The_ThemeParkFaniac]

"Save" them from what, the actual possibility of investment?

I have a serious question for you - why do you think this is the end of the world?

Like stop the sale..


And the reason why I think that is I’ve been going to Great Escape and seeing it as a Six Flags park ever since I was a kid, I feel like the sale would destroy the park and ruin Charles Wood’s legacy, plus i heard what happened to Geagua Lake/Six Flags Ohio that they sold 20 years ago before the merger in 2024 and look what happened to that park

 

[DH_The_ThemeParkFaniac]

Plus Enchanted Park’s logo is AI slop, I don’t want my home park tainted by AI

 

[AmyUD06]

Like stop the sale..


And the reason why I think that is I’ve been going to Great Escape and seeing it as a Six Flags park ever since I was a kid, I feel like the sale would destroy the park and ruin Charles Wood’s legacy, plus i heard what happened to Geagua Lake/Six Flags Ohio that they sold 20 years ago before the merger in 2024 and look what happened to that park

Plus Enchanted Park’s logo is AI slop, I don’t want my home park tainted by AI

I knew what you meant by a petition to stop the sale. I was asking what eminent disaster you see under EnParks ownership that stopping the sale would prevent. SFEC never heavily invested in this park, period. Aside from Bobcat, the every adult coaster addition was a relocation from another park except for the Boomerang. In non-coaster additions, they added a handful of flats over the 30 years they had the park, half of which were also relocations. 31 years of ownership, and they added two coasters and four adult flat rides that they didn't already own. Legacy-Six did not contribute substantial investment to this park, and did not give any indication that such would be changing, so the worst you should expect is status quo.

If you want to bring up history, why do you think that SFEC is the better company to carry on the legacy of Charles Wood, who ran the park for the first 41 years of its life? The park has not always been owned by Six Flags, you know. Or, more accurately, why do you think that EnParks will "destroy the park and ruin Charles Wood's legacy"? Specifically, what makes you think they will do a worse job of it than SFEC?

Geauga Lake/SFO was sold to Cedar Fair, not an independent operator, who closed it partially because it was too close geographically to Cedar Point. SFGE is hours away from the next nearest amusement park in any chain, let alone one under the new EnParks banner. There is no reason to be concerned about the park closing in the near future under EnParks. If anything, the chances of the park closing in the next few years just dropped to near zero, whereas if it had remained under SFEC ownership, there's a very good chance it would have been SFA'd at any time. SFEC was looking to cut their portfolio and reduce the amount of parks they had. This is an indisputable fact. If they didn't sell it to EnParks, or some other owner, it would have likely been closed. That is the cold, hard, and maybe sad, truth.

And yeah, I hate generative AI as much as the next person, but you know that SFEC is using it too, right? Logos, merchandise, advertising....everywhere. It would have come to your park anyway. The "they use AI" argument is a net neutral.

I understand that you only know things that you've personally experienced, but you need to look at the entire circumstances of something to be able to form an educated opinion. Otherwise you just come off as a little kid crying about the fact that the sun went away at night.

PS - You don't need to double-post, you can edit your previous responses.

 

[warfelg]

And yeah, I hate generative AI as much as the next person, but you know that SFEC is using it too, right? Logos, merchandise, avertising....everywhere. It would have come to your park anyway. The "they use AI" argument is a net neutral.

Spinning off this - we’re in an era where everyone is using AI, but it’s amazing me how much better the smaller players in an industry are than the big boys. I personally feel that the smaller players are used to having to find unique solutions or outsource things like that, so they are better at being able to tell AI exactly what to do. Meanwhile the big players are just using it to be cheap, aren’t as skilled at describing exactly what they want, so get far less quality results.

SFEC never heavily invested in this park, period. Aside from Bobcat, the every adult coaster addition was a relocation from another park except for the Boomerang. In non-coaster additions, they added a handful of flats over the 30 years they had the park, half of which were also relocations. 31 years of ownership, and they added two coasters and four adult flat rides that they didn't already own. Legacy-Six did not contribute substantial investment to this park, and did not give any indication that such would be changing, so the worst you should expect is status quo.

And taking off from thus, because I feel it’s a very under-talked-about item:
There’s a lot of parks in the SF ecosystem that would be FAR better off being owned by someone like Enchanted. Beyond what you pointed out, there also has been a lack of investment in the people that work at the parks. And by this I mean training, being given a future with the company, etc.

I was talking with a former student who used to work at SF (pre-merger) about everything going on and he mentioned something that was interesting that I felt with my past. Smaller parks can be seen as a “minimal investment” location because these parks might not always bring in the most money, but you can set the clock by them so to speak. Similar things happen in township parks departments when it comes to something like golf courses or concerts in the parks - While selling off the land may improve one time income, the consistent revenue is good.

I think that Enchanted taking over these parks may mean continual small investments from smaller manufacturers. That means small investments and unique experiences. It also means potential more investment in the people. All in all, for these types of parks, having new ownership that might have smaller pockets is better than a big player who has deeper pockets but also rather invest in a bigger revenue generator.

 

[Mushroom]

Plus Enchanted Park’s logo is AI slop, I don’t want my home park tainted by AI

Not to harp on the AI point too much, but since I’ve seen a few people mention their AI logo, I want to point out that I really don’t think it’s a fair way to judge them. I hate AI-generated “art” as much as the next guy, but using AI to quickly create what may well be a placeholder logo is hardly any different from making a low-effort logo with clip art or a Canva template.

With all that goes into a big M&A like this, I imagine such a small company really wasn’t prioritizing graphic design for a logo that will be seen by very few people. They just needed something quick and easy to get a logo out there, and AI is a tool that can do that.

Not defending AI-generated graphics, and I certainly agree there are broader ethical and environmental questions about gen-AI use, but this logo is really small potatoes as far as all that goes. No point in indicting the company over something like this.

 

[wasteman]

Also on the AI point, we’ve seen Six Flags use AI a fair bit over the last year. Cedar Point is selling AI generated merchandise, Fiesta Texas’ 2027 marketing campaign is full of AI art, just to name a couple examples. Sure neither of these examples are as in your face as an ai generated logo, but we can’t act like Six Flags is much better on that front.