One thing I’ve always admired about professional sports franchise fans is that, despite all the toxicity in that community, when a team is failing, fans hold ownership accountable. They yell at the franchise owners. They tell them clearly: sell the team. If the team sucks, they tell ownership to sell it. So I’ve always wondered why theme park fans don’t do the same thing.
When I was growing up, Kings Dominion would get a major new attraction every two to three years, with a medium-sized attraction in between. Every single year there was something new to look forward to — new rides, new live stage shows, new restaurants. The park map would even list everything new for that year. But ever since I graduated high school, we’re now in a world where the park gets maybe one major attraction every ten years, with a medium one halfway through. That’s not growth — that’s maintenance.
The park’s capacity has actually shrunk. They removed two big roller coasters — Anaconda and Shockwave — and in my opinion, neither was ever properly replaced. Rapterra is a good ride, but it’s not an E-ticket attraction or a standout the way Volcano was. The only ride removed since I graduated high school that got an appropriate replacement was Hurler. So they’re effectively shrinking the park by reducing the number of high-capacity, large E-ticket attractions, and they’ve slowed the rate of major investment to less than 25% of what it was in the first part of the century.
And now, on top of all that, they’re planning to sell the land around the park to developers building AI data centers. I don’t know exactly what the impacts of data centers are on a theme park’s electrical grid, on noise pollution, or on the small businesses that rely on park traffic. But is Six Flags even asking these questions? If they seriously intended to grow this park — to build large new attractions, a second gate, a resort hotel — why would they be selling off all the surrounding land to be converted into AI data centers that will strain local resources? I think they’re going to permanently kneecap this property, and I don’t hear anyone saying it. Maybe we all think it’s inevitable, or maybe it’s human nature to rationalize things we can’t control.
At this point, Six Flags has stated clearly that they will sell parks that aren’t part of their long-term plan for growth. And it’s been clear since at least 2015 that Kings Dominion is not part of that plan. It’s not in direct competition with any other Six Flags park, now that Six Flags America has closed. So why don’t they sell it?
I think fans of this park — people who grew up going there as children, many of us who worked there as teenagers — should rise up and demand that this company sell it. It should go to a different operator. If Worlds of Fun and Valley Fair can be sold, Kings Dominion can be sold. And it’s obvious the park could be what it used to be: Busch Gardens has grown tremendously over the last ten years, the surveys BGW sends out prove they intent to grow. So that suggests demand is there, and also the DC Metro is growing. The market is still there, in fact now more than ever. It’s just that this ownership and management aren’t interested in growing this property.
You may say we don’t have any influence over it. I disagree. I think these people pay attention to message boards and forums and online communities. And I think the theme park community — for the sake of the park itself, for the sake of the small businesses and employees who rely on it — has a duty to demand that the park be sold.
One more thing I want to mention: the removal of Volcano was preventable. The cancellation of WinterFest was preventable. The revolving door of full-time employees is preventable. I’m not here to say that everything Cedar Fair / Six Flags has done to this park has been bad. Twisted Timbers is good. The new Grizzly is good. Planet Snoopy is good. They’ve done plenty of good things. What I’m here to say is that they are not going to invest in this park. They’re going to invest the bare minimum needed to keep it running, and they’re going to do cheap cash grabs — like selling off all the excess land. They should sell the park instead.
When I was growing up, Kings Dominion would get a major new attraction every two to three years, with a medium-sized attraction in between. Every single year there was something new to look forward to — new rides, new live stage shows, new restaurants. The park map would even list everything new for that year. But ever since I graduated high school, we’re now in a world where the park gets maybe one major attraction every ten years, with a medium one halfway through. That’s not growth — that’s maintenance.
The park’s capacity has actually shrunk. They removed two big roller coasters — Anaconda and Shockwave — and in my opinion, neither was ever properly replaced. Rapterra is a good ride, but it’s not an E-ticket attraction or a standout the way Volcano was. The only ride removed since I graduated high school that got an appropriate replacement was Hurler. So they’re effectively shrinking the park by reducing the number of high-capacity, large E-ticket attractions, and they’ve slowed the rate of major investment to less than 25% of what it was in the first part of the century.
And now, on top of all that, they’re planning to sell the land around the park to developers building AI data centers. I don’t know exactly what the impacts of data centers are on a theme park’s electrical grid, on noise pollution, or on the small businesses that rely on park traffic. But is Six Flags even asking these questions? If they seriously intended to grow this park — to build large new attractions, a second gate, a resort hotel — why would they be selling off all the surrounding land to be converted into AI data centers that will strain local resources? I think they’re going to permanently kneecap this property, and I don’t hear anyone saying it. Maybe we all think it’s inevitable, or maybe it’s human nature to rationalize things we can’t control.
At this point, Six Flags has stated clearly that they will sell parks that aren’t part of their long-term plan for growth. And it’s been clear since at least 2015 that Kings Dominion is not part of that plan. It’s not in direct competition with any other Six Flags park, now that Six Flags America has closed. So why don’t they sell it?
I think fans of this park — people who grew up going there as children, many of us who worked there as teenagers — should rise up and demand that this company sell it. It should go to a different operator. If Worlds of Fun and Valley Fair can be sold, Kings Dominion can be sold. And it’s obvious the park could be what it used to be: Busch Gardens has grown tremendously over the last ten years, the surveys BGW sends out prove they intent to grow. So that suggests demand is there, and also the DC Metro is growing. The market is still there, in fact now more than ever. It’s just that this ownership and management aren’t interested in growing this property.
You may say we don’t have any influence over it. I disagree. I think these people pay attention to message boards and forums and online communities. And I think the theme park community — for the sake of the park itself, for the sake of the small businesses and employees who rely on it — has a duty to demand that the park be sold.
One more thing I want to mention: the removal of Volcano was preventable. The cancellation of WinterFest was preventable. The revolving door of full-time employees is preventable. I’m not here to say that everything Cedar Fair / Six Flags has done to this park has been bad. Twisted Timbers is good. The new Grizzly is good. Planet Snoopy is good. They’ve done plenty of good things. What I’m here to say is that they are not going to invest in this park. They’re going to invest the bare minimum needed to keep it running, and they’re going to do cheap cash grabs — like selling off all the excess land. They should sell the park instead.
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