News Six Flags to Sell Non-Core Parks & Undeveloped Land

[YachtyLogs]

I know this has been discussed before in other threads, but wanted to make a dedicated thread about it so we don't get off topic.

On the earnings call it was mentioned that the company has decided to sell smaller non core parks and extra land around some parks.

This is incredibly interesting to me. We know the extra Kings Dominion land is for sure being sold, but what other parks/lands around parks could be sold off? I think separate water parks they operate (other than Schlitterbahn) are on the chopping block most likely.

 

[GAcoaster]

SFA, SFGAdv, KD, and I’m sure others have acres of undeveloped land, but the all have to be careful they don’t sell to developers who then create NIMBYs who fight any kind of new rides planned.

Smaller parks like the stand alone water parks I would guess would be the first things sold off.

 

[Gavin]

I wonder if we'll see more land sales/lease buybacks, like Darien Lake and Frontier City.

 

[GAcoaster]

This is better than the activist investment group that was trying to get Six Flags to sell all the park land to a separate company then lease it back to the parks. That’s what happened to Sears/Kmart which drove them out of business.

 

[MaxxForceFan]

I would think Worlds of Fun is on the sale list. I am curious if it is more valuable as an amusement park or developable land.

 

[GAcoaster]

Depends on the market and if there are buyers out there— United Parks was looking to expand a few years ago, but I think the market cooled

 

[MusicEnlightens]

It's astounding to me that after 50 years nothing has really developed immediately surrounding Kings Dominion. The park itself was built right off of 95 but in the middle of nowhere, more or less, but you'd think after all this time developers would have seen opportunity for dining, shopping, small amount of residential. Instead, the uncared for truck stop, one Burger King, and a few less than stellar hotels is all we got.

Of course, Six Flags doesn't own anything on that side of route 30, but I think that alone has been a telling sign over the years about the lack of attendance growth at KD. There are parks in the chain that are way luckier in proximity to major cities populations, but KD should be doing a better job of drawing people from Richmond and from DC in. I'm sure at this point if they do sell some of the land it will just be more of the same, and not anything that draws people to the area unfortunately, but if the surrounding area was developed differently, I think KD's future would be vastly different.

 

[GASM]

This is better than the activist investment group that was trying to get Six Flags to sell all the park land to a separate company then lease it back to the parks. That’s what happened to Sears/Kmart which drove them out of business.

Used to work for Sears and cringed when that group popped up trying to do the same. Worked there pretty much through the end of them having any respectable footprint, so I saw the rapid decay in real time.

 

[SweetBabyJames]

Used to work for Sears and cringed when that group popped up trying to do the same. Worked there pretty much through the end of them having any respectable footprint, so I saw the rapid decay in real time.

Wow, so GASM is an "Arrow AND Sears apologist"

 

[MusicEnlightens]

In the Six Flags Earnings call, Richard Zimmerman mentions that this year they are introducing major new attractions in 11 of their 14 largest properties:

Cedar Point - Siren's Curse
Six Flags Great America - Wrath of Rakshasa
Canada's Wonderland - AlpenFury
Six Flags New England - Quantum Accelerator
Kings Dominion - Rapterra
Six Flags Great Adventure - Flash Vertical Velocity
Six Flags over Georgia - Gold Rusher
Six Flags Magic Mountain - Hurricane Harbor upgrades
Six Flags over Texas - Hurricane Harbor upgrades
Carowinds - Camp Snoopy Upgrades
Six Flags Fiesta Texas - DC Universe

Assuming these are the 11 of the 14 largest parks, and perhaps the most safe from sale, and most likely for continued investment (Six Flags New England would be a surprise to be included in the top performing parks), Kings Island and Knotts Berry Farm are clearly the largest, most profitable parks that are not getting investment this year.

That leaves one additional spot. If the 13 parks listed above are the chain's most profitable, which is the final park in the chain considered a top-performing park that is not listed?

I would lean towards Dorney Park, with a close second to Worlds of Fun. Which park do you think is considered top 14 in the chain?

Link to transcript is below:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4762974-six-flags-entertainment-corporation-fun-q4-2024-earnings-call-transcript

 

[YachtyLogs]

I would think Worlds of Fun is on the sale list. I am curious if it is more valuable as an amusement park or developable land.

I can't imagine Worlds of Fun is on the chopping block. It's an incredibly clean park and it's in a fast growing area.

In the Six Flags Earnings call, Richard Zimmerman mentions that this year they are introducing major new attractions in 11 of their 14 largest properties:

Cedar Point - Siren's Curse
Six Flags Great America - Wrath of Rakshasa
Canada's Wonderland - AlpenFury
Six Flags New England - Quantum Accelerator
Kings Dominion - Rapterra
Six Flags Great Adventure - Flash Vertical Velocity
Six Flags over Georgia - Gold Rusher
Six Flags Magic Mountain - Hurricane Harbor upgrades
Six Flags over Texas - Hurricane Harbor upgrades
Carowinds - Camp Snoopy Upgrades
Six Flags Fiesta Texas - DC Universe

Assuming these are the 11 of the 14 largest parks, and perhaps the most safe from sale, and most likely for continued investment (Six Flags New England would be a surprise to be included in the top performing parks), Kings Island and Knotts Berry Farm are clearly the largest, most profitable parks that are not getting investment this year.

That leaves one additional spot. If the 13 parks listed above are the chain's most profitable, which is the final park in the chain considered a top-performing park that is not listed?

I would lean towards Dorney Park, which a close second to Worlds of Fun. Which park do you think is considered top 14 in the chain?

Link to transcript is below:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4762974-six-flags-entertainment-corporation-fun-q4-2024-earnings-call-transcript

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I bet its Six Flags Mexico.

 

[MusicEnlightens]

I can't imagine Worlds of Fun is on the chopping block. It's an incredibly clean park and it's in a fast growing area.

I bet its Six Flags Mexico.

That makes sense I always forget about Mexico. Especially because we already know they are getting a boomerang coaster next year, they would clearly be higher on the tier list.

 

[GAcoaster]

The Mexico and Canada Wonderland parks both make money, so the only reason I could see them sell either is political and economic forces beyond their control.

Anything is possible— we think about the smaller parks as being targets, but in reality many of them make decent money or they would have been gone long ago. I always have thought with potential park sales that one of the big parks (like Great Adventure or Magic Mountain could unexpectedly become an attractive target for sale that would also yield a lot of money for the remaining company to pay down debts.

I’ve always thought Great Adventure would fit the Busch Gardens profile better than it fits with Six Flags, but that was the “old” company, not the present incarnation.

We could just as easily see GA or MM sold to build houses as parks since they are both on valuable land.

 

[b.mac]

Anything is possible— we think about the smaller parks as being targets, but in reality many of them make decent money or they would have been gone long ago. I always have thought with potential park sales that one of the big parks (like Great Adventure or Magic Mountain could unexpectedly become an attractive target for sale that would also yield a lot of money for the remaining company to pay down debts.

Part of the Redzone plan circa 2006-2008 was to shut down Magic Mountain and sell it to the highest bidder. The 2009-2010 plan tmk was to shut the park down for a year, fire everybody, and bring in all new staff for the next season to cut down on bloat.

 

[GAcoaster]

And MM and GAdv both have higher operating costs than most parks because of their labor markets, so both are hard to keep as profitable as they might like.

 

[MaxxForceFan]

Here is a breakdown of the owned and leased parks from the new annual report.

 

[MusicEnlightens]

Here is a breakdown of the owned and leased parks from the new annual report.

Links are broken.

 

[MaxxForceFan]

What’s next for Six Flags? Cedar Point parent faces park sell-off, possible bankruptcy

Speigel expects as many as half or more of the company’s parks to be put up for sale. And bankruptcy is not out of the question, he said.

He’s not alone in his concern.

James Hardiman, an analyst with Citi Research, said he too thinks the company will need to shed parks to raise revenue and reduce debt.

“Everything should be on the table as we think about asset sales,” said Hardiman, of Shaker Heights, who has followed the industry for decades.

“The Cedar Fair assets can’t have changed that much in last year or so,” said Hardiman. “And there now have been three or four management teams to try to turn around the Six Flags assets. Each has struggled. The fear is that there’s something irredeemable there or that it’s going to require a lot more investment and/or time than anybody expected.”

 

[warfelg]

Why does this just keep getting worse and worse?

 

[Mojosdad]

Yesterday I got a survey concerning my purchase of2026 season pass and I read into they are looking to cut more benefits including parking and access levels. This indeed keeps looking worse.