CoasterNews.Net

http://www.greatcoasters.com/?p=trains It says that they are able to fit the trains on existing coasters if they meet the standards. Not knowing what those standards are I can't say for sure if it is feasible or not. As for the 3rd row airtime, I think the Flyers get better airtime in all the rows because each row articulates independently instead of 3 rows on one car.

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Given the proximity to HH and the parking lot I could see them making this a separate entrance area for HH while adding some new slides. Like it or not HH is a big draw for families and is packed when the mercury rises.

It always surprises me how quickly people are to bash Six Flags and put them down. I think many people forgot how big Six Flags is. Being the biggest operator of amusement parks in the country and possibly the world, change takes many, many years. You cannot change your image overnight and you cannot one night just decide to make a profit. The direction they are going is the correct one and as Shapiro has said multiple times, the park operations are not the problem, the debt load his team inherited is. Imagine how horrible for the industry it would be if all the six flags parks just disappeared (not bought out by anyone else, just gone). Competition would go down and we'd have less coasters to ride.

It could have something to do w/ the park only being open in the summer months as opposed to most of the year like magic mountain, and operating costs are much lower in the offseason with nobody there as opposed to being fully opened with a small crowd. Its also possible that the park is seen as more of a family destination with not a whole lot of theme/water park competition except from maybe the Dells. Families tend to spend more per capita as they generally purchase food inside the park for the convenience and the little ones always want to play the arcade games.

You better believe they use computer programs and simulations on the ride to make sure all the forces that could ever occur on the ride are accounted for and the track is supported properly and the forces aren't dangerous for the riders.

I would at least go lower than Lagoon's season pass prices since they have a waterpark as well. Definitely understand wanting to make it more of an exclusive thing though as the capacity of the park could easily get overwhelmed on a hot Utah day.

We knew this was coming for awhile. Good to hear they plan to offer stock when the company does restructure.

They are attempting to not file bankruptcy though. If they don't pay this they will have to file because a default of any payment triggers defaults on the other outstanding payments. Obviously they are pretty confident they can hold it out and see how their numbers do this summer so they should pay it to avoid bankruptcy now.

I'm sure they can find $7 million in the $200 million in cash they have on hand.

They do have a plan. They want to convert their debt to equity in the company giving 85% to bond holders, 10% to PIERS holders, and 5% ownership to common-stock holders. The issue is one of the bond holders is holding out, everybody else is in agreement w/ this plan. They aren't bringing parks to bare minimums, they have $200 million in cash to cover operating expenses this year. If they did get a new loan, that is great news because that new loan won't be due in August.

I would wait to hear more details on what they actually plan on doing before judging if this was a good move or not.

Even if Six Flags files for bankruptcy I'd give it a 90% chance that they come back as Six Flags and all of these plans still go through. Its not like Six Flags is going to disappear. They would file for Chapter 11, not Chapter 7 (circuit city filed chapter 7, which = liquidation). Most of the airline companies today have filed chapter 11 at some point and they are still around and doing fine. Chapter 11 has to do w/ restructuring debt and a lot of times operations, but Six Flags operations are doing fine. It is the debt that they inherited from the 90s and early 2000s that is weighing them down.

That's really what it comes down to. If you are in a position to take a gamble, you could really pay off big with Six Flags. You can buy 1000 shares for dirt cheap and if the stock price hits even only $1 you could make a ton.

You basically lose everything if they go under and you are a common stock holder. In rare cases it is possible for a company to offer some kind of equity if they plan to come back but the company ownership goes to whoever owns their debt. If SFI goes under they would become owned by the current major bond holders and it would be up to them if they wanted to keep current management and try to come back or break the company into smaller pieces. Eventually the company would probably offer publicly traded stock again but you'd have to buy back in for full price.

The problem with selling parks right now is that no one is buying, at least not for any price that would make the move a profitable one.

I wonder if a community wait time mobile website/iphone app would work out. For parks that don't have a similar service to that you could let users submit their experienced wait time and show other users the last reported time. Would anybody be interested in this? I would be willing to do a project like this if I thought it would get used.

I know psyclone was scrapped because it was sinking. Is this what is happening to TG or has it gotten rough for other reasons?

Do you think if they replaced the top X (10, 20, ??) feet of the top of the track all over that it wouldn't make a difference? They would also fix all the spacing on the track to make sure the track is the correct distance apart and smooth out all of the curves where it is probably warped now. The only thing that would remain of the old ride would be the supporting structure so the layout would be preserved but all the track would be new. I think that would make a huge difference and keep costs much lower than a whole new ride especially the size of TG.

We already knew that is could happen. It is really up to the bondholders at this point, Six Flags is doing the best they can do and it is starting to pay off so as long as they can hold on a little further. I imagine if we make it to June (should be their next earnings call) they should be able to report good things (hopefully) and they'll be able to restructure out of court.[/i]

I'm sure the structure is pretty solid and from what I've heard TG is already a great ride. They can re-wood the whole track and get new trains and the ride would probably be considerably smoother and I'm sure they will spend a lot of effort making sure it won't get rough again just a few years down the line.

Cedar Fair is in no position to buy any parks, especially low profit ones. They had enough fun with Geauga Lake and they are looking to sell parks themselves.

Here's the link: http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/TerminatorConstructionUpdate.aspx

From what I've heard the park has been PACKED recently, which is always good news to hear and its understandable why they need to add more rides to meet the demand. As a reply to the poster on the news article, in the very very very unlikely event you do get hurt on their rides they will still pay your medical bills. Bankruptcy does not mean they are stopping payment on their own insurance, they have enough money to pay for operations this year already. The only issue is their debt from years ago.

In the conference call today Shapiro said that ALL of the parks would be getting new attractions in 2011.