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Is'nt the DC Maryland VA Region due for a new theme park?


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Six Flags America located in Upper Marlboro,MD is a park in the Washington DC area I thought would be pretty decent to visit but over the years I have heard some not very good stories of this theme park and I am wondering why no one will do anything about it to make the theme park better going forward in the near future. I understand not to get really touchy on this subject but their have been reports of gangs coming to the park, stabbing incidents, I am not sure about any shooting I have'nt heard of any, rides breaking down constantly not sure why they would'nt keep some of those attractions in good enough condition. I am trying my very best not to call this park a dump because I've noticed some people that have visited this small six flags park they actually like it alot. So I don't know if it depends on the day when visitors visit this theme park and they have a good experience and on the other hand another day a visitor gets a pretty bad experience. I am hoping that Washington D.C/Maryland, Northern Virginia are can get a really good theme park one day since Six Flags America looks like it's not really turning things around for the better. I was hoping that a huge expansion on the drier side of the park could help bring more visitiors to the park, the water park seems to be fine but they are adding Wahoo River in 2018 maybe that'sa a good move for the park. Strangely I saw the grim reaper appear around the park to see what the big surprise was going to be announced of what's to come to Six Flags America in 2018 alot of people were disappointed because the grim reaper stopped at Roar, Gotham City section, and the Penguins Blizzard River, and one last stop at Hurricane Harbor...the end result well it ended up being the new Wahoo River that's going into the water park like I was saying earlier above next year. So I don't know what Six Flags America future looks like ahead for the next decade come 2020 but I really do hope people that live in D.C, Maryland, Northern Virginia area can have a great all around world class theme park like Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA which is a pretty far drive from D.C just to go to a theme park yes like an hour and a half. Their needs to be some serious discussion as to why Six Flags America has not been a success in the last few years what it needs to do to improve. If it's hiring new employees, making the maintainence better, cleaner park, no gangs, no stabbings, none of what I just mentioned yes shootings of course not should'nt be in any theme park at all. So better security to make the park safe I should say. This is a really long post but a much needed one of this theme park which has gotten alot of negative reviews for awhile. I am trying my best not to say too the park's location is in Prince George's County not to talk about race but the park is located in a predominately african american region. I happen to be black yes and I don't think this park should get criticism because the park is in PG County no no no. Their must be another reason as to why the park has not lived up to it's expectations. Please read this throughly and I mean no harm to bring up race in this topic because we are hear to talk about theme parks but the location of this six flags park to you guys is it a cause of concern why this park cannot succeed because it is in a black area? It is a sensitive question I know but any way this park can be considered as one of the top parks in the country going forward for years and years to come. I hope their is a piece to the puzzle and a great solution to fix up Six Flags America. Don't tear down the park and start from scratch. A new theme park in the DC area if SFA does fail I think is the right call if it ever happens in my opinion. Disney's America in Northern Virginia if any of you remember that one rumor was going to happen getting built in Arlington,VA I believe but never took off. It had to do with American History.

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That wasn't that long, except as a single paragraph.

 

Recently there was discussion of Elitch Gardens which is right in Denver, which relates to something I've thought about, is it good to have a theme park in a city? For example Kings Dominion is a half-hour up the road from Richmond. This is enough to keep people from running up for a quick meal on their Dining Pass and a lot of other short visits where people don't stay long enough to spend money (e.g. me), but is still pretty close. The population within 5-10 minutes is very small. Another example is Hershey is very near Harrisburg which probably relates to their very high season's pass price.

 

SFA probably also operates on the idea it is successful enough. If they were to come out with a ride that really gets attention, it might result in a short period where the park is horribly crowded and people don't want to come back, followed by becoming normal and not getting extra income from it to pay for it. I think theme parks have a bit of a balancing/juggling act. As to racism, things are getting better but 20 years ago and less, yeah some people wouldn't have wanted to go there no matter what the reality. I had one friend that would usually be OK there until the first little thing to complain about and the racist switch would flip in him.

 

The thing that decides if an area gets a park is not if they need it or deserve it, but if someone decides they can make money off it. Along with their judgement of potential audience, the people in the area and tourism, there's the actual cost of doing business there, which could prohibit any new park close to DC. See Six Flags Astroworld, closed because the land was too valuable and closed in for space (although in the end, a stupid decision).

 

I used to live in the DC area and it seems like a big population to draw on, but they seem highly distracted. Tourists have a lot to do already. You can get into a traffic jam right in front of SFA every day that has nothing whatsoever to do with the park. For people living to the west side of DC in VA it's really not that much closer than KD. I live near KD and it's usually a stressful experience every time just getting to SFA. That could be a factor in views of the park, how they feel just before they get there.

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I truly believe that the ONLY reason SFA is there at all now is because of the parks origins and how it grew over time. You must remember that Six Flags America started as a Wild Animal safari. Over time, they added a few rides, got rid of the animals, added some more rides/coasters, got bought out, added more rides, etc. The park actually has a decently long history. If SFA would have been proposed to be built from nothing to what it is today in just a year or two, I don't think it ever would have happened. They have an extremely strict planning board which scrutinizes EVERY little detail of everything they do and they have strict limitations on what they can and cannot build.

 

I don't think you'll every see a park of any significant size be built new anywhere in the Baltimore/Washington area. The top five wealthiest counties in the country (with regards to median household income) are all DC suburbs and those people have a serious case of the NAMBYs (not in my backyard). The major reason Disney's America failed was because of all of the wealthy locals putting up such a complaint (concerned that their quiet rural areas close enough to DC to be able to commute but far enough away to have the benefits of rural living would become crowded and overrun with tourists, cheep fast food locations/hotels, and noise). It should be noted that Disney's America was not the first major park that was proposed for the region. Back in the 70s when Marriott was building theme parks (think of what is now California's Great America and Six Flags Great America), they had plans to build a third park near DC, however, similar to Disney's America, the locals drove them out.

 

The other big issue is that they just aren't building regional theme parks anymore (name the newest regional theme park in the United States that is still operating) and a lot of the bigger players get squeemish about the idea that the park would potentially need to be closed 4-5 months out of the year due to the weather. There's still hope that someday SOMETHING might break through (there were some pretty serious talks of a new full size Legoland being built south of DC off of I-95) and Disney came pretty close to building a hotel (think of something like Disney's Aulani) in National Harbor within recent memory. But I'm certainly not holding my breath.

 

With regards to making Six Flags America a better park, the competition really hurts them in that regards. Six Flags America does see attendance increases when they add major new attractions, but the increase is typically limited to just a season or two as anytime SFA has an "off" year, it's likely that at least one of the three other big local parks (BGW, KD, or Hershey) will have added something major to get the attention of the region that year. SFA could likely see a nice return of guests if they added a $10+ attraction EVERY year, however, I'm sure that Six Flags figures they see a better return on investment if they would invest the same money in a park with less competition. Sure the one year attendance increase may not be as significant if you invest in another SF park, but the attendance increase would be longer lasting which ultimately makes the return on investment a better option.

 

Honestly, I think the best option for SFA would be to be bought out...

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when we did a trip to DC, we did a few days at BGW, and then King's Dominion, which were both very short drives from Washington DC.

 

now, OK, I'm used to driving in Texas (a very big State), so maybe it's just that to me a 1 1/2 (KD) or 3 (BGW) hour drive is just not that big a deal, and not considered "far". . . but with SFA, KD, and BGW all "close" (at least to me), it seems crazy that anyone would think another park would be needed/wanted there.

 

 

to be clear, we did NOT go to SFA, and I've never been, so can't comment on how that park is. If we had Six Flags Season Passes, we absolutely would have swung by tho. . .

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Do you think maybe if the economy gets better we ca n possibly see a new theme park in the DC/Maryland/Northern Virginia area? Or the best this region ca n do now if you do not want to drive an hour and a half to KD or drive to Hersheypark or drive a few hours to Williamsburg to go the BTW perhaps expand on the drier driver side of SFA to bring in New attractions from scratch instead of beinging in relocated attractions like SFA has done in the past? And BTW in terms of the rides breaking down sometimes at SFA why does this happen more often at this six flags park compared to other SF parks around the states? And make this park safer.

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I tried copying and pasting that and adding my own paragraphs but it's still a disaster. I don't want to be mean and correct grammar (I'm in no position to do that since I abuse commas like they're going out of style), but it seems like every sentence is an independent thought that's in no way related to anything else you're saying.

 

I tried my best though and it seems like there are 2 major point you're trying to make...

 

The first point is that the park is perceived to be in a bad area. This is a point that's been brought up for years by people who are far more familiar with the DC suburbs than I am. I can't speak for and don't care about the racial demographics of the area but just from getting off of I-95 and driving down 214 to the park I always got the idea that this was an affluent, nice and most likely expensive area with high property values given the proximity to Washington DC.

 

The crime statistics seem completely average. Neighborhood Scout lists Bowie as perfectly average, and then lists "Central Ave / Enterprise Rd" (where the park is located based on what I can tell) as the safest part of a neighborhood with already perfectly respectable crime statistics. Honestly 54/100 seems impressively low since the statistics are based on population and ignore the swell of people going to Six Flags. Generally places like that score terribly since there are more people actually there at any given time than the census data would imply, so crimes are being divided by a smaller population than they should be.

 

I've heard for years that this park is in a bad area and have never once understood why. The statistics don't seem to back that up, it's a nice looking area. I don't get it. I don't want to make any bold claims, throw labels or pretend to be an expert on an area that I've only visited a handful of times but the area always seemed very nice to me and the statistics back that up. Am I off base, or do people just say this is a bad area because a lot of black people live there and they're ignorant dipsh*ts?

 

At this point I'm out of my comfort zone, discussing something that has little to do with theme parks and discussing an area I don't know much about but personally I have never understood this. The area seems lovely and statistics back that up. The park sucks, but the area it's in doesn't seem to.

 

On that note... let's talk about Six Flags

 

While there's no reason to believe that this park isn't successful, I'm surprised this place doesn't do gangbusters business. It's within an hour of 2 major cities in a suburban area that (on it's own) is very densely populated. 5,453,323 people live within 30 miles of this park.... THIRTY MILES. That's ridiculous. Great Adventure's number for the same radius is less than half that, La Ronde (which is literally in a f*cking city on the subway line, is about 2 million less), Six Flags Great America (right between Chicago and Milwaukee) is about 2 million less, Six Flags over Texas (with Dallas and Ft. Worth) is about a million less... the only major American parks with a greater or even comparable population density within that small of a radius are the ones in the Los Angeles area (aside from Magic Mountain, which is about 2 million less than Six Flags America as it lays a bit north of the city). Rye Playland and Coney Island are obviously well ahead of it also, but I don't think anyone would consider those "major" parks.

 

Six Flags America (correct me if I'm wrong) is the the only major theme park in America with anywhere near that kind of population that close and no competition in that same area. In theory this place is a goldmine, and I'm sure Six Flags was seeing dollar signs when they bought it and made enormous investments in the late 90's and early 2000's. They built Roar, Superman, Joker's Jinx and Batwing in successive years for a reason.

 

Honestly I have no clue why they don't invest more money in it but they're the ones crunching the numbers and there must be some logic behind it. I dug up some reports from 2000 and 2001 and they all seem to note that the park was packed with multi-hour lines so it's not like those rides didn't bring people in. This is a strange one...

 

All I can do is guess, but my guess is that Six Flags America could probably do gangbusters business if they invested a lot of money into it but it's location is both a blessing and curse. Six Flags knows that because it has the best location of any park (arguably) in America in terms of nearby population density and lack of competition the park can turn a profit with minimal investment. It most likely prints money for them with no effort required so it's probably tempting for them to direct their funds to parks like Great Adventure and Magic Mountain who have fierce competition or Great America that already has massive crowds descending on the park on a daily basis and has a much cheaper path to attendance growth.

 

In addition, the park has a reputation problem. Part of it might have to do with the first half of my post and part of it might have to do with the fact that (based on reports) they didn't have the infrastructure and staff in place to handle the crowds of the early 2000's so while people went to the park, they had negative experience and they remember those experiences. Things like the Fright Fest "purge" don't help, but parks like Six Flags Great America and California's Great America had major security issues at haunt too and people didn't seem to react to those incidents in the same way... probably because the Six Flags America incident just served to reinforce existing biases.

 

This park sucks, but I firmly believe that if Six Flags was willing to make a MAJOR investment in it it would pay dividends over time. That said, I understand why they're tempted to sit on it and let it print money thanks almost entirely to it's location while directing their funds elsewhere.

 

I'd love to see another park move into this area but at this point I'm sure the cost of land acquisition would be huge and it would get hung up for years on political bullsh*t. I have no doubt that it would be successful and that some actual competition would make Six Flags America much better too, but I don't think it's likely and Six Flags knows this. It's a shame, but as a company focused on showing short term quarterly growth while spending as little money as possible to generate that growth, Six Flags has no incentive to make a massive long term investment in Six Flags America when they could continue to do next to nothing and let it print money.

 

Perhaps if the chain gets sold another owner might be willing to go the Cedar Fair route and make major long term investments but that's not really in the Six Flags playbook.

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That's a very good point on the population near the park, but I think you hit the nail on the head that the park doesn't have much in the way of competition. Sure there's Hershey and Kings Dominion relatively close, but those parks are all 2.5-3 hours away assuming you don't hit DC traffic.

 

From non-enthusiasts I have talked to that live near Six Flags America, they would rather go to Hershey. A few reasons I've heard was price (even though Hershey is expensive in its own right), long lines, and the park's appearance.

 

I also wonder if the park has improved operations somewhat. You can laugh all you want saying this is Six Flags America, but as a chain I have noticed far improved operations from Six Flags in the past year.

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I tried copying and pasting that and adding my own paragraphs but it's still a disaster. I don't want to be mean and correct grammar (I'm in no position to do that since I abuse commas like they're going out of style), but it seems like every sentence is an independent thought that's in no way related to anything else you're saying.

 

I tried my best though and it seems like there are 2 major point you're trying to make...

 

The first point is that the park is perceived to be in a bad area. This is a point that's been brought up for years by people who are far more familiar with the DC suburbs than I am. I can't speak for and don't care about the racial demographics of the area but just from getting off of I-95 and driving down 214 to the park I always got the idea that this was an affluent, nice and most likely expensive area with high property values given the proximity to Washington DC.

 

The crime statistics seem completely average. Neighborhood Scout lists Bowie as perfectly average, and then lists "Central Ave / Enterprise Rd" (where the park is located based on what I can tell) as the safest part of a neighborhood with already perfectly respectable crime statistics. Honestly 54/100 seems impressively low since the statistics are based on population and ignore the swell of people going to Six Flags. Generally places like that score terribly since there are more people actually there at any given time than the census data would imply, so crimes are being divided by a smaller population than they should be.

 

I've heard for years that this park is in a bad area and have never once understood why. The statistics don't seem to back that up, it's a nice looking area. I don't get it. I don't want to make any bold claims, throw labels or pretend to be an expert on an area that I've only visited a handful of times but the area always seemed very nice to me and the statistics back that up. Am I off base, or do people just say this is a bad area because a lot of black people live there and they're ignorant dipsh*ts?

 

At this point I'm out of my comfort zone, discussing something that has little to do with theme parks and discussing an area I don't know much about but personally I have never understood this. The area seems lovely and statistics back that up. The park sucks, but the area it's in doesn't seem to.

 

On that note... let's talk about Six Flags

 

While there's no reason to believe that this park isn't successful, I'm surprised this place doesn't do gangbusters business. It's within an hour of 2 major cities in a suburban area that (on it's own) is very densely populated. 5,453,323 people live within 30 miles of this park.... THIRTY MILES. That's ridiculous. Great Adventure's number for the same radius is less than half that, La Ronde (which is literally in a f*cking city on the subway line, is about 2 million less), Six Flags Great America (right between Chicago and Milwaukee) is about 2 million less, Six Flags over Texas (with Dallas and Ft. Worth) is about a million less... the only major American parks with a greater or even comparable population density within that small of a radius are the ones in the Los Angeles area (aside from Magic Mountain, which is about 2 million less than Six Flags America as it lays a bit north of the city). Rye Playland and Coney Island are obviously well ahead of it also, but I don't think anyone would consider those "major" parks.

 

Six Flags America (correct me if I'm wrong) is the the only major theme park in America with anywhere near that kind of population that close and no competition in that same area. In theory this place is a goldmine, and I'm sure Six Flags was seeing dollar signs when they bought it and made enormous investments in the late 90's and early 2000's. They built Roar, Superman, Joker's Jinx and Batwing in successive years for a reason.

 

Honestly I have no clue why they don't invest more money in it but they're the ones crunching the numbers and there must be some logic behind it. I dug up some reports from 2000 and 2001 and they all seem to note that the park was packed with multi-hour lines so it's not like those rides didn't bring people in. This is a strange one...

 

All I can do is guess, but my guess is that Six Flags America could probably do gangbusters business if they invested a lot of money into it but it's location is both a blessing and curse. Six Flags knows that because it has the best location of any park (arguably) in America in terms of nearby population density and lack of competition the park can turn a profit with minimal investment. It most likely prints money for them with no effort required so it's probably tempting for them to direct their funds to parks like Great Adventure and Magic Mountain who have fierce competition or Great America that already has massive crowds descending on the park on a daily basis and has a much cheaper path to attendance growth.

 

In addition, the park has a reputation problem. Part of it might have to do with the first half of my post and part of it might have to do with the fact that (based on reports) they didn't have the infrastructure and staff in place to handle the crowds of the early 2000's so while people went to the park, they had negative experience and they remember those experiences. Things like the Fright Fest "purge" don't help, but parks like Six Flags Great America and California's Great America had major security issues at haunt too and people didn't seem to react to those incidents in the same way... probably because the Six Flags America incident just served to reinforce existing biases.

 

This park sucks, but I firmly believe that if Six Flags was willing to make a MAJOR investment in it it would pay dividends over time. That said, I understand why they're tempted to sit on it and let it print money thanks almost entirely to it's location while directing their funds elsewhere.

 

I'd love to see another park move into this area but at this point I'm sure the cost of land acquisition would be huge and it would get hung up for years on political bullsh*t. I have no doubt that it would be successful and that some actual competition would make Six Flags America much better too, but I don't think it's likely and Six Flags knows this. It's a shame, but as a company focused on showing short term quarterly growth while spending as little money as possible to generate that growth, Six Flags has no incentive to make a massive long term investment in Six Flags America when they could continue to do next to nothing and let it print money.

 

Perhaps if the chain gets sold another owner might be willing to go the Cedar Fair route and make major long term investments but that's not really in the Six Flags playbook.

 

Well Thanks for telling me that....i am still a bit surprised as to why the grim reaper went around various locations at six flags America to unveil it s New attraction for 2018 which ended up being at Hurricane Harbor Wahoo River. I am a bit confused why the reaper if you saw the six flags announcements at the end of this past summer revealed every New attraction for all six flags parks decided to stop at roar, penguins blizzard river, and the Gotham city area, could this point to signs of new attractions coming here in 2019, 2020, 2021? I dunno. But I am saying the drier side of six flags america is long overdue for an expansion IMO.

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No.

 

DC already has plenty of parks within reasonable distance. If I wanted to build a new theme park, I would much rather invest in a large metro area with no large theme parks and one near several established ones.

 

There are round 6 million people in the DC area. But the Phoenix area has around 4.5 million, and basically no competition for a theme park. Where would you rather build? Same question for Houston, Portland, etc...

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Or, they open the park in DC area and the crowd that go to the theme parks around that area would visit there too and that can bring more guests in. This is a much less risky move.

 

Thats what I mean have a new park in the dc area if six flags america cannot get Any better. I would think like I said if the economy can get better I was thinking maybe six flags america ca n look into expanding the dry side of the park. Look their are new dc comic movies coming out now with the new dc cinematic universe with superman, Batman, aquaman, flash, wonder woman. Not to mention Six flags fiesta Texas in San Antonio is getting a wonder woman roller coaster next year why can't six flags america get a roller coaster like this from scratch instead of having a roller coaster relocated to the park like apocalypse-the last stand which came from Six Flags great america just outside of Chicago. I personally think in a big city a theme park should be no less than an hour at least 30 minutes to going too in the summer time with good rides, shows, games, etc. Rides that are well maintained and don't break down that often. To kings dominion I just looked up the driving time from DC to Doswell va where the park is located and its about a 2 hour 18 minute drive depending on where you a living in the DC metro area. Thats a pretty far drive to an amusement park. Once six flags america America was built I am wondering why couldn't they invest more in building top of the line attractions like Magic Mountain, Great Adventure, Great America, even a cedar fair park like Cedar Point I am serious laugh at me if you want of me saying this but visitors want something thats a thrill not something thats an average height average speed type of ride. Yes their are no rides at six flags america that break 80mph or as tall as 315ft range like Millenium Falcon like Cedar point. Just think of SFA had a roller coaster like that. Building a new theme park is alot to ask for obviously but 9 times out of 10 people wanting to go to a amusement park for a day

shouldn't have to to out of their way to burn up gas for a 2 hour 18 minute drive to kings dominion even though the park is better. An hour like i said is more like it or 30 minutes. Does the dc area not have the infrastructure to build a good size world class theme park it's never going to happen your saying?

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ThrillRideFan, you sound like you’re, what, 12 years old? Not because of the way you (try to) put together sentences and paragraphs, but because it just sounds like you’re a bored young coaster enthusiast who is tired of being dropped off by his mom at SFA and doesn’t get to go anywhere else. I’d be bored too if I only had arguably the worst Six Flags Park to go to. Fret not, when you grow up, you’ll have the ability to travel and actually LIVE anywhere you choose, and you won’t give a single crap ever again about SFA

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I've been to DC twice, once for a week and a second time for two weeks. During that time, I never went to any of their theme parks. Just too much other stuff to do, with the Smithsonian and monuments and all. So that should give you a good idea of how much the average DC visitor cares about theme parks.

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