News Six Flags Financials
- Thread starter Phoggy
- Start date
well, looks like 2026 will be having nothing (other than potential rethemes of snoopy (expect for knotts) to looney tunes)
Gee, it’s like slashing park operating seasons and events does a bad thing for your business. Who’d have thunk?!Yikeswww.facebook.com
It’s going from 525 million to 400 million, we’ll still see new stuff opening.
I agree, Facebook is quite terrifying.Yikes
This just showed up as a "Login to Facebook" link on my end.
Cedar Point parent Six Flags to cut 2026 spending on new rides after attendance drop
Six Flags Entertainment plans to reduce capital spending by as much as $100 million next year while canceling events at smaller parks and selling off properties.
www.cleveland.com
This couldn’t happen to a finer company. They have reaped what they have sewn. A company cannot continually grab customer’s money in pre-payments (season passes) then not provide the advertised and expected services.
This includes closing entire parks early because of low attendance, slashing operating hours, canceling entire events, cutting pass benefits and charging for experiences that were previously included in the passes.
Plus, add to that they’re poor operations and lack of cleanliness due to lack of staff.
There is no way selling these cheap season passes is going to save them. It’s only going to make it worse.
This includes closing entire parks early because of low attendance, slashing operating hours, canceling entire events, cutting pass benefits and charging for experiences that were previously included in the passes.
Plus, add to that they’re poor operations and lack of cleanliness due to lack of staff.
There is no way selling these cheap season passes is going to save them. It’s only going to make it worse.
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SweetBabyJames
Conservative Coaster Connoisseur
Spelling errors aside, I do generally agree with your post. I believe the former Cedar Fair approach of "guest focused" spending was the way to go, and stock prices reflected that. Cedar Fair stock prices ($52.00) were almost double Six Flags ($32.00) before the merger in June of 2024. There's also a reason why the legacy Cedar Fair parks outperformed most legacy SF parks as stated in this year's Q2 conference call. Legacy CF parks IMO have an objectively better overall experience. This includes cleanliness, live entertainment, quality /uniqueness of rides, food and not price gouging guests once they're in the park (like legacy SF does) to name a few things. IMO it is a real shame that the new SFEC has opted to take many plays from the legacy SF playbook recently rather than doing what seemed to work well for legacy CF which was truly putting the guest first.
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SweetBabyJames
Conservative Coaster Connoisseur
Sorry for my double post... but I can't help but wonder with all the financial strife the SF parks are having, if any theme park executives read our forums. I know we don't have all the answers, but I believe we have a lot of quality information that we share and ideas that would greatly benefit parks. Some of us have experience working first hand at theme parks and even held positions of influence. Additionally, many of us pay very close attention to detail, at a level I believe some current employees don't even come near or care to. While we make up a small number, quantity wise out of the overall attendance at parks, I believe as far as a fan base goes we are at the top and must carry some influence.
What does this have to do with park financials? Well, we do unpaid advertising for these parks. Us "thoosies" make videos, post content, buy up tons of park merchandise and generally love the parks. We get the word out to friends, family etc. and be it small, we also get the word out in powerful ways to the general public on forums like this. If a theme park company disappoints us, I feel like they should take notice. (It usually takes a lot to really disappoint us). Many of us will continue to go to the parks regardless, but when quality falls substantially, it will show financially and we will talk about it... a lot!
Any thoughts?
What does this have to do with park financials? Well, we do unpaid advertising for these parks. Us "thoosies" make videos, post content, buy up tons of park merchandise and generally love the parks. We get the word out to friends, family etc. and be it small, we also get the word out in powerful ways to the general public on forums like this. If a theme park company disappoints us, I feel like they should take notice. (It usually takes a lot to really disappoint us). Many of us will continue to go to the parks regardless, but when quality falls substantially, it will show financially and we will talk about it... a lot!
Any thoughts?
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I was thinking of buying a 2025/2026 season pass, since fairly cheap now. But I don't know now. If they are cutting spending next year and lowering pass costs, seems like spending is going to have to be cut again next year. Spend less, I suppose, but also earn less... that doesn't seem like a winning combo.
AmyUD06
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I'm in the same boat. Part of me knows I'll end up buying a pass next year, even if it's not until this time next year (thus getting Fall of 2026 and all of 2027, without the Spring and Summer of next year) and they are super-cheap now, but a large part of me doesn't want to support the horrible, anti-consumer decisions this board has made.
Honestly the biggest thing pushing me to renew now is the fear that I don't renew and end up having to buy a "new" pass in the future and lose my physical card. Yeah, if you didn't notice in the fine print, physical pass cards for new passes don't exist - gotta use your phone.
Edit: English is my first language, I swear.
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I think they'd be more apt to listen and incorporate thoosie suggestions if they can trust that those making the suggestions aren't based on wishlists or rumors, but instead come from solid understanding of the fundamentals of their lines of business.
Some folks here and in the larger community qualify, but most of us don't.
Then the second part is based on connections - while there's been suggestions in these forums that some park execs monitor our discussions, I'm guessing they're either doing that for some kind of marketing/PR pulse check (if that) or for their own amusement - likely they're not reading individual posts and forming plans and strategies based on our opinions.
It’s a downward spiral. It seems the only thing they know how to do is cost cut to make up for their bad decisions which just leads to less revenue which leads to more cost cutting, etc.
I fear that they’re going to reduce operating hours of Kings Dominion and start closing earlier. They’ve already started to do that at Carowinds because of low attendance. Both of those parks are miserable in the heat and the evening is the only pleasant time to visit.
The next earnings call is Friday Nov 7. I can't remember the last time Six Flags or Cedar Fair had an earnings call on a Friday.
https://investors.sixflags.com/news...Earnings-Call-Starts-at-8-AM-EST/default.aspx
https://investors.sixflags.com/news...Earnings-Call-Starts-at-8-AM-EST/default.aspx
Coliwood did a great video looking at the recent quarterly report.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Cedar Point came within 5,000 guests of beating the park’s record attendance of 3.617 million in 1994.
Finally some good news. I know they basically had two brand new rides this year, but this is impressive post-COVID nonetheless.
Finally some good news. I know they basically had two brand new rides this year, but this is impressive post-COVID nonetheless.
They should open up for one Saturday this month just to try to beat the record.