News Rumor Six Flags Corporate Bloodbath

[halfabee]

Wow, SF is gonna have one hell of a fantastic data set on price sensitivity.

Of course it will end up costing them millions to collect it. But they can just raise parking to $90 to recoup those costs, right?

 

[I64 Trekker]

Not going to lie all these developments are giving me heavy "Mark Shapiro/Dan Snyder" vibes. Which almost resulted in the downfall of Six Flags as a whole. Not gonna be a good few years for the SF parks at all.

Parking costs aren't at Dan Snyder / FedEx Field levels yet, but the gap is narrowing...

FedEx Field Parking

FedEx Field is home to the Washington Football Team team in Landover, Maryland. Here are the parking tips!

thestadiumreviews.com

 

[warfelg]

Let me tell you about Duquesne University parking prices…

…$600/semester in 2003/4 school year, $110 for surface level.

 

[rswashdc]

Parking costs aren't at Dan Snyder / FedEx Field levels yet, but the gap is narrowing...

FedEx Field Parking

FedEx Field is home to the Washington Football Team team in Landover, Maryland. Here are the parking tips!

thestadiumreviews.com

At least football stadiums can point to limited supply as a reason to have high prices. SF has huge surface lots that aren’t remotely full most days.

 

[Jonesta6]

Let me tell you about Duquesne University parking prices…

…$600/semester in 2003/4 school year, $110 for surface level.

Not sure how that's relevant as that's long-term parking/vehicle storage vs single day use?

That being asked, it's kinda odd parking should cost much of anything past whatever the offset cost is for the facilities and/or parking staff.

 

[Unagi]

Not sure how that's relevant as that's long-term parking/vehicle storage vs single day use?

That being asked, it's kinda odd parking should cost much of anything past whatever the offset cost is for the facilities and/or parking staff.

Yeah and $600 a semester back then for a private university in a city setting isn't that bad when compared to some others. Harvard University's parking fees per year back in the mid-2000s cost several thousand dollars for campus residents, and a lot more for commuters.

Back to Six Flags...

Magic Mountain's general parking has gone up to $40 as well and valet is up to $65!

 

[ThrillNerds]

New memberships became available yesterday for SFFT.

 

[Zachary]

Yeah, I think most (all?) parks got them. Seems to be a pretty comprehensive reversal of the 2022 pass strategy—especially with meal plans returning. Curious to see if it works out for them or if they've already seriously damaged their "budget park" reputation amongst budget park seekers.

 

[Crunchewy]

Yeah, I think most (all?) parks got them. Seems to be a pretty comprehensive reversal of the 2022 pass strategy—especially with meal plans returning. Curious to see if it works out for them or if they've already seriously damaged their "budget park" reputation amongst budget park seekers.

Is this a price drop or a raise? I don’t know what it cost before, but SFA Gold passes good at all parks were a lot less than that when I got them for this year.

 

[warfelg]

Not sure how that's relevant as that's long-term parking/vehicle storage vs single day use?

That being asked, it's kinda odd parking should cost much of anything past whatever the offset cost is for the facilities and/or parking staff.

Just conversation on how outrageous parking can get.

Reason parking can get so much is it’s an offset to low profit items. It doesn’t take many days to make enough to cover the costs of the parking facilities and the staff. Allows for other areas to be less profit hungry to keep costs down.

I’d guess in SF case they are seeing so many pass holders and so few daily tickets, they need to make up for the lack of paid parking.

 

[Zachary]

Is this a price drop or a raise? I don’t know what it cost before, but SFA Gold passes good at all parks were a lot less than that when I got them for this year.

Significant drop in price vs 2022 passes from what I can tell.

 

[Crunchewy]

Significant drop in price vs 2022 passes from what I can tell.

SFA just a lot cheaper, I guess. Also SFA did not change their passes again, as far as I can tell. Still have the somewhat recent change in pass types and prices

 

[Crunchewy]

I just went through the motions to see what parking costs at SFA and it is $25. Daily ticket is $49.99. Also they are offering a "2023 seasonal pass", good only at SFA, albeit without free parking, for $59.99. That's not listed when you view the season passes on their site. It only seems to be offered when you try to buy a single-day ticket. Without free parking this makes little sense, though. Might as well get the first tier season pass that is good at east coast parks and has free parking for $95, with a handful of blackout dates. If you go twice that's already cheaper than the seasonal pass + parking twice

 

[rswashdc]

SFA just a lot cheaper, I guess. Also SFA did not change their passes again, as far as I can tell. Still have the somewhat recent change in pass types and prices

SFA went from $96 to $95 for a gold pass as best I can tell. Not much of a savings there.

 

[ControlsEE]

SFA went from $96 to $95 for a gold pass as best I can tell. Not much of a savings there.

 

[I64 Trekker]

Curious if we will see the same deal this Thanksgiving as we did last year...

I got two SFA passes good at ALL Six Flags parks (including parking, but excluding detached water parks) for a grand total, including taxes and fees, of $130.87 ($65.44 each).

 

[Zachary]

NOTE: I haven't looked at other parks much yet, so the info below is only applicable to SFA.

SFA went from $96 to $95 for a gold pass as best I can tell. Not much of a savings there.

Yeah, all the savings are in the other teirs. Makes a lot of sense to me in light of the fact that Six Flags' "core" season-long pass is still cheaper than (almost?) any other chain park. This should help drive what are essentially pure-profit pass upgrades for the chain.

Before:


After:


Note: 2022's Seasonal Pass equivalent was $69 so 2023's lowest price pass option has seen a reduction too.

 

[Nicole]

Can we all just pause and consider how many times in the past two years they have dramatically changed their pass structure?

I have concluded that I shouldn't even consider changing my membership until there is some indication that they are done inventing new tiers, names, types, etc.

 

[Crunchewy]

NOTE: I haven't looked at other parks much yet, so the info below is only applicable to SFA.



Yeah, all the savings are in the other teirs. Makes a lot of sense to me in light of the fact that Six Flags' "core" season-long pass is still cheaper than (almost?) any other chain park. This should help drive what are essentially pure-profit pass upgrades for the chain.

Before:
View attachment 27584

After:
View attachment 27585

Note: 2022's Seasonal Pass equivalent was $69 so 2023's lowest price pass option has seen a reduction too.

That is pretty significant for the higher tiers. I was only considering Gold so I didn't even notice the $1 drop there. It also no longer says "blackout dates apply". Is that right? Or is that info now in the "chart below"?

EDIT: as far as I can tell they have dropped the blackout dates on the Gold tier pass. There's no mention of it any more on their site.

 

[Crunchewy]

My question is since they've sold passes as they were before, with for example blackouts on the gold equivalent from before, and they had different names, will they have to have multiple versions of season pass cards? I.e. a season pass that says Extreme and another that says Platinum? Or are they changing everyone to the new names and benefits. So like will the old Thrill Seeker now be given a Gold card and not have blackout dates?