eltoro

People have trouble pronouncing the names is utter BS, Just b/c you can't may say something about yourself.

Spoiler alert: There is no Ziz at Canada's Wonderland, nor will there probably ever be. Don't be so butt hurt over someone's opinion. You'll exhaust yourself. I personally don't think the names at CP are dumb, but I also don't think their that great. "Rougarou" is a little strange sounding to the average Joe who doesn't give two shits about mythology. Granted, their all better than the countless Batmans, Goliaths, and Supermans. Regardless, if he thinks the names are dumb, who cares? Opinion based on ignorance have no value. The trilogy of Behemoth, Leviathan, Ziz are part of hebrew mythology. They were not chosen at random as someone at CF is into Hebrew mythology. They represent land, water, air. The names were trademarked for the trilogy and Ziz is not improbable, CW just hasn't built a new coaster. Ziz, a wing or dive coaster for a mythological bird creature is likely. Also, there is the fact wing ot dive is what CW is missing from their lineup as they have a flyer, invert, hyper, giga. suspended, launch, woodies, etc...

Those names are mythological creatures, they aren't dumb. They are actually related to Gatekeeper. Last 3 coasters names are related I bet you think Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz are dumb too, though again related in Mythology. Yes, Ziz is incredibly dumb. I think Jews may disagree, since it like Leviathan and Behemoth are in their religious writings/books as mythological creatures

No surprise that will be the 3rd Schartzopf enterprise to go SFOG, SFGAm and now Stl since 2012

Those names are mythological creatures, they aren't dumb. They are actually related to Gatekeeper. Last 3 coasters names are related I bet you think Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz are dumb too, though again related in Mythology.

Short wait times seem to be common across a lot of parks, I always go to parks on weekdays so I initially thought I was just getting lucky, especially in my June visits. Things don't seem to have picked up to the level they should be in July. I have a feeling earnings report next quarter are not going to be good for many parks. Attendance appears to be down anecdotally everywhere or everyone I talk to are picking all the lucky days.

Don't see RMC venturing into launch coasters for again for some time. The profit they made on LR is surely getting eaten into big time by having to come back time and again for repairs. Not to mention, RMC has other great products that haven't had issues so there is no need to deal with headache of putting launches on RMC coasters.

There are only a handful or original rides left looking at the ride list from 1971, which are the Mine Train, flumes, antique cars and the rail road.

JL's cost more than 4D's by 3-4M and as much as a moderately priced coaster. They do need to perfrom as much as coaster when they coast as much or more. That may be the problem SF is noticing, the drop off in JL's lines might make then rethink the ROI on them. If I were SF I'd be more concerned about the guest drop off in general throughout their parks. I think that may be a factor in the shifting going on in the CEO department. Perhaps it's time to get a little more creative than a one or two ride "one size fits all", buying in bulk like you're shopping at Costco formula, that just isn't going to work long term. You've got to know your markets, and be prepared to adapt when what you're doing begins to stale. The fact is Duffy hasn't been around long enough to be blamed for down attendance if it's actually happening. I do think SF is possibly about to report a below forecast Q2 earnings and Duffy may be the preemptive sacrifice. If attendance is down this may be the 1st crack being shown in the SF plan. They reported 60% of attendance last year were season passes, one would assume those people are still coming and even so SF has already got some money off them with passes. The down attendance may be in 1 day people. SF did add a bunch more bonus BFF days and that may have been to boost lagging attendance. I think attendance across all parks SF, CF, etc... may be down. I have been to a lot of big parks this year and the crowds have been very light, even for weekdays. I have friends at Carowinds, KD, BGW this week and they have been messaging about the abundance of walk on rides or minimal wait times. 2017 the parks took a year off with lack of new big attractions and many people might have taken a year off too.

The JL rides don't need to perform as well as multi million dollar coasters to be considered a major success for Six Flags. The fact that they have been replicated across the chain for a fraction of the cost of a multi million dollar coaster IS the success. JL's cost more than 4D's by 3-4M and as much as a moderately priced coaster. They do need to perfrom as much as coaster when they coast as much or more. That may be the problem SF is noticing, the drop off in JL's lines might make then rethink the ROI on them.

LOL..Your delusion is noted that SFGAm is the best..far behind SFMM and GAdv, not even 3rd best. Better rounded line up than SFMM is .pure insanity.

Duffy might be the preemptive sacrificial lamb for the 1st below par earnings report in a long time. Him leaving so close to the July 26th Q2 earnings report raises some suspicion. They might have a miss on Q2 earnings. Duffy wasn't there long enough to have a positive or negative impact really. But, there are some anecdotal reports of a lot of parks reporting shorter lines than usual for the busy season thus far. There could be some evidence of this b/c SF keeps adding bonus bring a friend free days. This might be to prop up attendance b/c they are missing their projections.

I think most would disagree, there are better/favored parks and worse/neglected parks Places like Escape. SFA. La Ronde not only do not get big investments b/c lack of perceived ROI, but they also are maintained worse than other parks IMO. They don't even really seem to try to keep what they have at least "spit shined and polished".

I disagree. If upper management viewed us as the worst, they would try to make more drastic improvements to increase the value for the park and company as a whole. Perhaps we're viewed as less important than parks like Great America of Magic Mountain, but I would be more inclined to believe our park is viewed as being well put together for its size, as it needs less to keep it relevant. Stl may not be viewed as the worst by corporate, but it's clearly in the bottom 1/4 with La Ronde, Escape, SFA. The parks SF neglects seem to be ones viewed as places where bigger investments will not produce a good ROI.

Annual reports will tell what is spending on Capital Expenditures overall. For SF it's easy to know the ride budget, it's 9% of revenue and then take 60% of that 9%. Cap Exp was 124M and ride budget was just under 75M last year. Cedar Fair Cap Exp was 161M, what part was spent on rides is not really known. You have to take each additions costs and make a guess estimation. There are some places, articles, etc where parks have announced the cost of rides. The cost of some Zamperla rides were revealed when they filed the lawsuit against knock off manufactures trying to pass things off as Zamperla in Asia. The costs were in the filings to get damage awards.

There have been anecdotes at other parks of JL's falling off too. What were 1 -2 hour waits are now 15-20 minutes, sometimes less. But to most they are a success and SF thinks so. I was never a fan of them to start, as I was skeptical of them, as well as the 4D Free fly's long term staying power. Neither IMO is going to be viewed as a solid ride 20+ years later like the B&M Batman invert clones.

Don't think it matters b/c SF business strategy is not based on people who travel 200+ miles to parks, SF is about selling season passes at a low cost to people within 50 miles. max 100, that are unlikely to visit other parks.

The big hint "based on the investor presentations is "water coasters" are going to be cloned, He spoke of their relative low cost and popularity. He spoke about them in the same vane as Justice League'sand 4D's as being the cornerstone of the past and water coasters were hinted as the future..ie...one of the new clones. I would not be surprised in the next few years to see SF try some of the S&S concept coasters. Skywarps, and plenty of parks don't yet have Zamperla Giant Discoveries.

SF spending 20+M on a coaster? They don't do it b/c of their post bankruptcy Capital expenditure formula. SF EBIDTA is thru the roof without big coasters, there is no reason to change. They have set a 750M Modified EBIDTA goal for 2020, they are at 545M in last annual report. The investment strategy is not changing. Guys listen to him he's 100% correct he's an expert SF will be installing nothing more than S&S free spins, justice Leagues , larson loops and giant discoveries for the rest of their history. The idea of SF spending conservatively to be able to spend on something big is just impossible and according to the experts SF 2018 will be Skywarp for every park lol It's not SF spending conservatively to be able to spend on something big. This is they are saving up notion, which is put out by people that don't know the finances. SF is actually not saving up, they are actually spending slightly more in dollar amount each year. SF cap expenditures never exceeds 9% of revenue, Of that 9%, 60% goes to actual rides. They were touting in their investment presentation that they never over 9%. They also said that % will essentially decrease as revenue grows. Also, the foreign revenue does not count in calculating cap expenditures for North American parks. They said in no uncertain terms they are happy with the spending level which is just under 75M/yr on rides. Spending 75M/yr, which is their happy spot essentially and it prevents them from spending 20-25M on 1 coaster, while giving all 13 parks something each year. SF by design is going to "live: in the lower end of the coaster market. They aren't going to be CF building gigas, massive wings, massive dives, massive inverts like Fury 325, Gatekeeper, Valravyn, Banshee, etc.. You either don't understand SF clear strategy, which has been successful financially, while relying heavily on cheap cloned rides or you are in denial. They are not saving up for something big, that's not how SF works and they are transparent about it.

SF spending 20+M on a coaster? They don't do it b/c of their post bankruptcy Capital expenditure formula. SF EBIDTA is thru the roof without big coasters, there is no reason to change. They have set a 750M Modified EBIDTA goal for 2020, they are at 545M in last annual report. The investment strategy is not changing.

Stl needs a real roller coaster, not a water slide.

Wrong. CF worked with Gerst in 2016 to build Canada's Wonderland's Sky Roller Hardly a renewed relationship 1 year and were they really talking about flat ride relationships. Most took it as coasters.

Well if your right and CGA gets a Raptor, that is the first of it's kind in the CF chain. The renewed relationship then must be Knott's. The rumored Gertlauer would be out b/c they never worked with them, so KB would likely get an Intamin?

LOL..The 2 best in the chain.

I'm curious to see what becomes of Maverick's normally long line with NMS debuting next year. It could go one of two ways: Mav will have no line because everyone is flocking over to NMS... or, NMS has such a long line that people don't want to wait and so they go to Maverick next door which means Mav's line won't really change. Either way, Millennium Force will continue to crank out trains of happy riders. We're getting a freaking kick A$$ RMC next to an amazing Blitz so it's all good! With MS closed Maverick line usually really short till about 1045 -11am. My 2017 with early entry strategy was Valravyn 2x, Millenuium 2x and then trek to the back of the park and ride Maverick till the line starts to get long. Easily got 5 Maverick rides in, some days could get double digits. I usually never come back to Maverick till twilight. Next year I'm heading to RMC MS at early entry and doing a marathon till the line gets long. The great thing about the back is even when they let the swarm in at 10, it still takes 10-15 minutes to walk to the back of the park if they walk straight with no stops. But, most GP's are going to see Gatekeeper, Raptor, Valaryn and TTD and thus take even longer to get to the back. There is also the fact many will have no idea about RMC Mean Streak till they wonder upon it. The last 2 big new coasters have been front of the park attractions, thus easily noticed.