Impacts of the Six Flags Merger on Kings Dominion

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TPoseOnTantrum

Sep 28, 2023
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Not sure how substantial this is but word is that Kings Dominion just laid off all of their full-time staff this morning, effective immediately. It's mostly affecting the rides and maintenance departments, not sure whether leadership has been affected or if anyone's moving to other parks.

I've admittedly not visited the park so I don't know much about how it's run, leaving it to you guys to see if you can make sense of it.
 
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Where did this come from? I assume you can't share a source, but nothing about this makes any sense. With the current chain-wide cuts, nothing seems that surprising anymore, but to lay off all full-time staff? That would make no sense at all, especially given that apart from the parks that are already open, it has one of the earlier starts to a season compared to many in the chain.

If this rumor floated about from a park like CGA, or even Six Flags America, I'd be less shocked, and more "well, that's the end of the park" but for a park that's about to open a brand, new coaster, and is in the middle of multiple construction/demo projects, surprising is an understatement.

If this is in fact true, I'd imagine that they'd be rehiring many/most of those employees, but under a new six flags-umbrella contract, which probably would be worse for the employees, and better for a cost-cutting leadership that just went through a major merge. Otherwise, I have no idea why those departments would be let go, if not for a reason to just pay them less, or offer them less benefits, or to force them to go through the interview process all over again. Awful either way.
 
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TPoseOnTantrum said:
Not sure how substantial this is but word is that Kings Dominion just laid off all of their full-time staff this morning, effective immediately. It's mostly affecting the rides and maintenance departments, not sure whether leadership has been affected or if anyone's moving to other parks.

I've admittedly not visited the park so I don't know much about how it's run, leaving it to you guys to see if you can make sense of it.
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They definitely did not lay off all full time employees. My source on that is a still employed full time employee. Said person said they had heard rumors of lay offs in other areas but can not confirm where or to what extent but again definitely NOT all full timers.
 
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JohnKell said:
They probably sent employees home due to the extreme cold.
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Nah, a very large portion of the full time staff was just actually fired. My understanding was every hourly, year-round employee but that may not be true per horsesboy. I personally know multiple areas supervisors and even more location supervisors and team members that were all fired this morning.
 
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That is insane, they have a hard enough time hiring new people, makes no sense
 
My understanding is many if not all that were let go have the option to return as seasonal hires. This also makes me concerned about the future of Winterfest.

guy305 said:
That is insane, they have a hard enough time hiring new people, makes no sense
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For what it's worth my understanding is this happened chain wide today.
 
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Why would this even happen? It's not like there has been some major leaks coming out of the park that infuriated leadership, nor was the park mislead, misrun, or had a bad reputation. By all accounts operations, human relations, PR, seemed decent, if not pretty great. It's not like this happened at a legacy six flags park that has been struggling for years.

Has anyone else heard about something similar at other parks in the chain, or is there a chance this could be just the first of multiple-park staff layoffs? I know Cedar Point just took away "legacy" hourly pay (which was an additional $5 an hour since COVID), which in and of itself is frustrating and hard to understand given staffing issues already, but layoffs like this is a totally different beast altogether!

Most people know that the Cedar Fair/Six Flags merger came out of a crisis of bankruptcy, mostly on the part of six flags, so the former cedar fair leadership (mostly in charge now) had to find ways to take on that debt and turn the company around. Unexpected ride demos with no notice has been unfortunate, but something feels extra off about this one.

Kings Dominion was never a top-tier CF park, but it was a solid mid tier park and still got modest attention/investment compared to some. I have a hard time believing KD is in crisis mode, and is suddenly having the rug pulled out from under them by chain leadership. Why would they self-sabotage the park like this? Unlike saving money by removing costly and outdated rides, they are still going to need employees to fill these roles. Maybe the roles are changing, or leadership structure is changing, but at the end of the day, they will still need SOMEONE to fill out the workforce. This is pretty devastating news.
 
MusicEnlightens said:
Why would this even happen? It's not like there has been some major leaks coming out of the park that infuriated leadership, nor was the park mislead, misrun, or had a bad reputation. By all accounts operations, human relations, PR, seemed decent, if not pretty great. It's not like this happened at a legacy six flags park that has been struggling for years.

Has anyone else heard about something similar at other parks in the chain, or is there a chance this could be just the first of multiple-park staff layoffs? I know Cedar Point just took away "legacy" hourly pay (which was an additional $5 an hour since COVID), which in and of itself is frustrating and hard to understand given staffing issues already, but layoffs like this is a totally different beast altogether!

Most people know that the Cedar Fair/Six Flags merger came out of a crisis of bankruptcy, mostly on the part of six flags, so the former cedar fair leadership (mostly in charge now) had to find ways to take on that debt and turn the company around. Unexpected ride demos with no notice has been unfortunate, but something feels extra off about this one.

Kings Dominion was never a top-tier CF park, but it was a solid mid tier park and still got modest attention/investment compared to some. I have a hard time believing KD is in crisis mode, and is suddenly having the rug pulled out from under them by chain leadership. Why would they self-sabotage the park like this? Unlike saving money by removing costly and outdated rides, they are still going to need employees to fill these roles. Maybe the roles are changing, or leadership structure is changing, but at the end of the day, they will still need SOMEONE to fill out the workforce. This is pretty devastating news.
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My understanding is that similar layoffs are occurring at every park in the company today. They were unexpected and are part of a company wide fat cutting. It leaves me very concerned about what else might be on the chopping block.
 
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horsesboy said:
My understanding is many if not all that were let go have the option to return as seasonal hires. This also makes me concerned about the future of Winterfest.
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For what its worth, they still have Winterfest as a benefit of season passes/
 

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At least in my time in Sandusky, FT was rare and there was basically a skeleton crew left for these parks over the Winter. I don't know if that's changed but usually they were cut to the bone during times when the park was not open, and even at Cedar Point a lot of the Marketing/PR staffed pulled double-duty with CF Corporate just to stay on during the offseason, and they were doing things like direct group sales (or tedious tasks, like sorting ticket gift cards for grocery stores) to keep hours. If any cuts happen, that could affect rides opening late or things not being ready on time, as even with proper staffing there's still a scramble for opening day. Not good...
 
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horsesboy said:
An as late as Labor day Grwat Adventure passes included the ability to ride Ka all of 2025.
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For what it's worth I got the email from a birdie in corporate on September 9, 2024 that Ka and Green Lantern were dead and a replacement had been signed off. I don't know how much time passed between then and when the call was made, but yeah your point stands.

A park like CGA cutting their calendar was preposterous enough but idk if KD would really do it. Seems like a way to burn cash, from what I've personally seen at other parks the winter events are very profitable.
 
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This also concerns me about Winterfest. The few pictures fans have taken driving by the park the last few days seem to indicate the Christmas Tree in the entrance plaza still stands. That would be taken down by full-season hourly employees no? This can have a HUGE impact on the park being ready in time for opening (also concerning that KD is on the half of the chain's parks that have yet to confirm an opening date yet).

I had been dismissing the rumors of Winterfest leaving, because they seemed to just be rumors, and at minimum, you have to assume that KD breaks even with the event, if not profitable like the other parks. It would seem especially weird to end the event on a 50th anniversary year when they are hoping to get more past customers back into the park, and could really drive up the event to be more populated than previous years.

I thought the interesting news of the day would be that Great Adventure confirmed their opening day and Frightfest/Holiday in the Park returning. At a minimum, the chain will go another year with different holiday events in name (and not switch the whole chain over to one or the other). Now, we have to remember that Winterfest is not necessarily a given at all.
 
I’m interested in knowing specifically which departments/positions are seeing cuts. The situation will depend solely on that. For example, if we’re seeing rides and maintenance staff cut, I don’t necessarily think that spells doom for WinterFest. If it’s across the board (like all departments), that could be a game changer. But I could be wrong.
 
horsesboy said:
My understanding is many if not all that were let go have the option to return as seasonal hires.
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I've heard the same with the stipulation they are all now required to take a 13 weeks meaning the earliest anyone could return is late April.
 
mtorange said:
I’m interested in knowing specifically which departments/positions are seeing cuts. The situation will depend solely on that. For example, if we’re seeing rides and maintenance staff cut, I don’t necessarily think that spells doom for WinterFest. If it’s across the board (like all departments), that could be a game changer. But I could be wrong.
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My understanding is guests services, Culinary, park ops, and landscaping the brunt of the hit with maintenance taking a very small hit as well.

Xenite said:
I've heard the same with the stipulation they are all now required to take a 13 weeks meaning the earliest anyone could return is late April.
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That would fit with labor laws. If I remember correctly though they would only be allowed to work 6 months and then depart for at least 13 before being eligible to return but it's been almost 20 years since I delt with seasonal hiring so my memory might be off.
 
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