Impacts of the Six Flags Merger on Kings Dominion
- Thread starter TPoseOnTantrum
- Start date
I’ve heard this from a large handful of sources too, so I feel comfortable corroborating this. This is no doubt part of the wave of exits of talented leaders that former CF CEO Matt Ouimet was lamenting on Linkedin yesterday.
Absolutely heartbreaking. Bridgette was an incredibly strong, caring leader who clearly cared about the park and its people. Every encounter I had with her made me feel reassured that the park was in good hands.
I’ll wait for someone else to spill the details about the circumstances behind her departure (I don’t know how many details I can share), but I’ll say this: for the first time ever, I feel like KD’s best days may be behind it. Her departure is sad enough, but what’s to come is even more unsettling. I’ve tried to be optimistic about this merger, so I hope people don’t take this statement as being overdramatic.
Genuinely depressing things are happening from what I’m hearing. At least BGW seems to be on the upswing again…?
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This is the part that gets me, being that I’ve felt the same about the merger and have agreed with a lot of what you’ve said regarding it. I do still think it’ll be for the better for some parks (primarily SFOG, SFOT, and Great Adventure) but it’s definitely going to hurt others. We’ve already seen that with SFA, although I do honestly believe it only accelerated its closure and that it was inevitable in the somewhat near future.
What do you mean good for great adventure?! They took out the worlds tallest coaster for crying out loud!
Sadly, from what I’m hearing, the circumstances that led to Bridgette’s departure will be (negatively) impacting most of the SF parks, if not all of them.
Hopefully someone can share more soon.
The world’s tallest coaster that soon wouldn’t have been the tallest anyway, cost the park a ton annually in maintenance fees, and really just wasn’t very popular for several years until the rumors of its removal began, likely due to its remote location within the park.
Was the closure handled poorly? Yes, but when emotions are put aside, the sad truth is that it’s one of the more logical moves the park has made in many years. I likely had more attachment to Kingda Ka than most of those angry about its removal, as someone who grew up an hour away from the park and got my first rides in at 8 years old in early 2008, and yes, I wish I had been able to get my last rides in KNOWING they were my last rides (last visit was in 2022), but there had already been discourse about how much longer Ka had.
This is upsetting. She was visible in the park and. always very approachable. In speaking with her, one could tell she cared about the park. Her face lit up when discussing the good things being done.
The park is in its best shape probably for the last 30 years. All of the major improvements to get there happened under her watch.
This is definitely a bad sign of things to come. Losing talent kills companies.
The park is in its best shape probably for the last 30 years. All of the major improvements to get there happened under her watch.
This is definitely a bad sign of things to come. Losing talent kills companies.
welcome to the era where dominator becomes batman knight flight and alot of in park ads
God, how can I not panic when my favorite theme park is being completely fucked over by corporate? What do we do? Do we just sit here and let this corporation ruin our favorite parks just for the stupid share holders?
While it won’t bring Bridgette back, stupid-as-fuck decisions like this one, plus WinterFest’s cancellation, make me wonder if KD would be better off being sold to another chain.
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I think it’s important to remember that most theme parks we love have always ultimately been in service of shareholders. The only reason we love them is because people invested in making and running them to make money. I don’t mean to sound like a “bootlicker,” but I think it’s important not to lose sight of the real dynamics here.
What’s really happening is simply a paradigm shift in how shareholders are being served. The parks we love will still exist, and by and large they’ll still continue to put forward things for us to love. In many ways, a data-driven company with a strong planning and design wing may actually give us more of what we want, in some ways. In theory, our incentives are aligned: the more they give us things we’re willing to pay for, the more money they make. Many day-to-day guests might never even know a change happened.
But the fact remains that for 27 (soon to be 25) parks throughout the country, the old-school way of managing parks — with boots on the ground, and general managers and their team tinkering with the dials to deliver the best experience to their guests — is done. And maybe I’m an old-school theme park fan, but I think I’ll really miss the small touches and personal feeling that that management style brought to the parks.
I am not sure that I believe those days are gone an done wiyh but they are certainly on life support as we begin the great experiment of running these parks by satellite. Time will tell if this new method leads to a sleeker more streamline cost effective operation or if it leads to a complex slow operations that drive guests away.
Same old boring routine that is the Six Flags suicide roll. How many times have they ruined good parks and cleaned house of good talent that loves what they do for the sake of a few dollars. And to the fans of these parks it is a huge middle finger to them saying they don’t care if you are happy or not, we got our money out of you already. I was negative on this from the first rumors I heard and seeing mor parks ruined and or dismantled is heart breaking. Keep in mind I have worked in multiple regional parks over the years and had a true passion for providing an escape to the patrons each and every day.
It’s always baffled me that in professional sports, fans are willing to publicly pressure ownership to sell a franchise if they aren’t actively working to make it better. In the theme park community I’ve always felt like we have a tendency to defend ownership.
There was a lot more capital investment in KD during the early days of cedar fair, and under previous owners, than there is now. That’s a fact. Now with the merger, there’s a lot of experimentation with cost cutting with KD - selling off excess land, laying off most of the full time staff, managing the park remotely, cancelling a large seasonal event, removing a handful of older rides.
They should sell this park to another company with a smaller portfolio who has interest in investing more in this region.
JUST GIVE IT TO HERSCHEND! I want to eat cinnamon bread while I marathon grizzly!
While I personally think Herschend would do an AMAZING job with KD and KI, I'd be wary of them overextending their portfolio. I'll give it some time before I ring the alarm and cancel my pass. The quality of presentation for additions at SF parks these next few years are gonna be telling
or we need to reform kings entertainment and buyback the kings parks (and maybe bring back hanna barbera ip to the parks while we at it)
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Not to defend corporate’s decision, however I am genuinely curious how much control GMs actually have over the parks vs corporate decision making. What tasks are part of their day to day beyond being just a name and a face representing the park. In the retail world they would monitor and submit data to corporate, scheduling and customer service, hiring/firing, exc. Given they have departments and department heads that handle those tasks for their respective departments (hr, operations/aqutics, park services, entertainment, food and beverage, guest services, exc). I kinda fail to see where in this industry with 25 parks vs 2500 retail locations, that position is critical to park operations. I can see how that job can be handled at the corporate level. Once again, not defending, just sort of playing devils advocate a little bit.
Personal relationships with employees improves morale and having boots on the ground allows you to put your finger directly on the heartbeat of the park to know what makes it work and what doesn’t. You can’t really quantify that though. I hope these regional managers still spend plenty of time at the parks they preside over.
John Hildebrant was a GM for Cedar Point and then Dorney Park and wrote a very insightful book “Always Cedar Point”. He loved walking around and getting to know the parks on a personal level when he was GM.