Ccron10 Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 (1/17/08) Six Flags has stated that they will trim up to $60 million in expenses over 2008, trimming $30 million up front from their advertising budget, spending less on TV and Radio ads and more in the Internet. They will save the other $30 million from full-time staffing cutbacks, mostly done through an early retirement program as well as removing expensive “inefficient rides” from their parks. (*Cough*…Déjà vu… *Cough*… Chiller) Six Flags has also confirmed that they are in talks to open parks in the Middle East, India and East Asia and may consider selling 2 or 3 more parks to raise capital. Anyone want to make a guess as to which parks these could be? If I had to guess I would put Six Flags Magic Mountain and Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom at the top of the list with either Six Flags America, The Great Escape or Six Flags Mexico filling that optional third spot. SF over Dubai? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Let the Six Flags Park dead pool begin, my vote, Six Flag Kentucky Kingdom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceace12 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I think SFKK and maybe SF Mexico. The other parks I think are keepers, if they could get out of the SFNO contract, that might get some money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PURE Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 ^^^Where's the link to this article? There's some dumbasses opinion mixed in with facts and there's no way to find out where this really came from. I mean, I know this SF article is true, but you should at least provide proper linkage if you're gonna bother to post something like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceace12 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 This is a legit article, it was in a email I get from Intertheme Park Amusement Services. http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/01/14/daily38.html Dan Snyder's Six Flags amusement park chain, which has lost money in three of the last four quarters, plans to cut expenses by as much as $60 million this year. The company called park attendance over the last two years disappointing. Six Flags will cut cash operating expenses by as much as $30 million by reducing what it spends on advertising. That will include firing one of its three advertising agencies, and spending less money on radio commercials and more on Internet advertising. It will save an additional $30 million by cutting its full-time headcount, primarily through early retirement, and removing what it calls inefficient rides from parks. Six Flags also says it is in talks to open theme parks in the Middle East, India and East Asia, and may consider selling two or three existing parks to raise capital. It will introduce eight new roller coasters at existing parks this year. Six Flags made the announcements during an investor conference Wednesday. Since winning control of Six Flags (NYSE: SIX) in a boardroom fight in 2005, Snyder and his team have worked to increase park attendance and reduce debt. The company sold 7 theme parks last year. The company had third-quarter net income of $89.7 million, down more than 40 percent from $164.7 million in net income a year earlier. Sales fell 1.9 percent to $365.2 million. It's 21 parks drew 24.9 million visitors last year, barely changed from 24.8 million in 2006. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaparri Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 ^^You're right, he should have linked it, but it's fairly obvious to most people that the 'article' is from screamscape.com, therefore, Lance is mixing his feelings about the news in with his actual report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Six Flags has also confirmed that they are in talks to open parks in the Middle East, India and East Asia This intrigues me, why would Six Flags want to build NEW parks and sell old parks? Wouldn't that basically end up costing more money to build and manage a new park rather than just selling their "excess parks" and focus on their "core parks?" Either way, this isn't sounding so good for Six Flags. Besides, why'd you think Premier sold off the Europe parks to Walibi in 2004? That was Six Flags' first foray into the worldwide market anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaparri Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Yeah, that's what I was thinking, but at the same time, those are all booming markets or markets that have a ton of people and a lack of theme parks. It would cost them a lot up front, but could make them tons in the long run so that might not be such a bad idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ccron10 Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 ^^^Sorry about that, but yeah it's from screamscape. SFMM is going to stay a SF park for awhile. After all those improvements that they've made; it would be a waste. But what do I know? They're SF, they did build a parking lot coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ccron10 Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 ^ That doesn't mean it can't be. SF should just stay in the US, they sold all their other out-of-country parks (execpt Mexico). Why build more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceace12 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 IF SFKK is the low end of the parks and SF STL is on the upper end, I been to both. Six Flags St. Louis is nice, no themeing like Disney, but themed areas. It only has one bad coaster to me, Boss, all the others are okay. Good selection of flat rides and plenty of trees. SFKK. I went the Sunday after HWN 07 and wasn't impressed. I went for the coasters and found only 3 of them descent to good. Thunder Run, Twisted Twins and t2 sucked. Flat ride selection looked okay. Hardly any trees and the layout just sucked. If there was themeing, I didn't see it. The one flat ride I did like won't be there if I ever go back. I haven't been to either water parks, but SFKK might have the edge there. ^^ They still have la ronda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six Flags Addict Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I would like to see SFA, SFKK, SFM go but only if they were sold as continuing operations like the other parks. I don't like the idea of building parks over in Asia. I think they should just focus on the parks in the US and add something new every year to every one of them, even if it is just a water slide or kids area. Something is better than nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelTheFORCE Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I doubt they'd sell Magic Mountain. In my opinion, I don't think they will. That is one of their "crown jewel" parks, if you will, and they need to get rid of the ones that are making them a lot less money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkStitch626 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 To quote part of the article "through an early retirement program " would this mean they are getting rid of the aggressive or ratty old people who do the ticket and season pass checking at the gate? I mean seriously some of them are worse then disgruntled postmen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 If I had to take a guess at anything, I think that Six Flags Mexico is a prime target. Where's that Parques Reunidos company? That would be perfect for their portfolio. As for other parks, I could totally see LaRonde and Great Escape on the for sale list. Only because they are not branded as Six Flags, and IMO the non-branded parks are a bit confusing to customers. It's also an easy transition to another park owner to take over a non-branded park. There are fewer licensing issues to have to sort through. But honestly, keep in mind this is the company that closed Astroworld, sold Worlds of Adventure (although that was the Premiere team) and considered selling SFMM. So you never know what parks they might sell off. Or they could maybe not sell any. They decided not to sell SFMM after months of buyers checking it out.... Speculate now...but I'm sure time will tell. --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam06pr Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I see SFA, SFKK been sold. I do not think they will sell SFMM, or SFM. I think Six Flags is improving the quality of their parks. I do not like how they are selling more and more parks, so they can fall on the wrong hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterjunkie91350 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I really think were going to see old worn out rides goto the Steel mill or Lumberyard with what they are doing with Flashback at sfmm it seems a good idea open up more room in a otherwise dead part of the park and put somthing in to draw guests back into that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six Flags Addict Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I think Six Flags is improving the quality of their parks. I don't know about the other parks but SFSTL's quality significantly improved in 2007. Landscaping, employee friendliness, and cleanliness had the most positive changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianfreak Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 That would be very disapointing if LaRonde was sold. It was just getting better thanks to SixFlags, adding new coasters and rides. Before SixFlags came around the place looked horrible imo. If PARC was willing to buy it then it wouldn't be as bad as when the City of Montreal owned it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 If I had the money, I'd buy a park! Don't think much will happen straight after. I'd open it for the income, save on the money, but wouldn't garentee on new things being built every year. Though when things do happen, they would be rather unique. Ok, I'm dreaming here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagicMountainMan Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 IF SFKK is the low end of the parks and SF STL is on the upper end, I been to both. Six Flags St. Louis is nice, no themeing like Disney, but themed areas. It only has one bad coaster to me, Boss, all the others are okay. Good selection of flat rides and plenty of trees. SFKK. I went the Sunday after HWN 07 and wasn't impressed. I went for the coasters and found only 3 of them descent to good. Thunder Run, Twisted Twins and t2 sucked. Flat ride selection looked okay. Hardly any trees and the layout just sucked. If there was themeing, I didn't see it. The one flat ride I did like won't be there if I ever go back. I haven't been to either water parks, but SFKK might have the edge there. I might be the only one to think this but I actually liked SFKK. Granted the only other Six Flags park I've been to is SFMM (my home park) but I actually enjoyed SFKK. The employees were friendly, they did have some decent coasters, and the park had that friendly atmosphere. Definitely not like SFMM. But I could see this park getting sold because value wise it probably does nothing for Six Flags. I went there during the summer and it was almost completely empty. I'm not really sure how much of a profit (if any at all) Six Flags actually makes off of this park so it probably would be best for them to just sell it off. LaRonde and the Great Escape I could also see them getting rid of. But Six Flags Mexico seems like a valuable asset to the chain. After all, it's located in one of the biggest cities in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conpfreak Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I really doubt they will sell SFA or SFMM. SFA is one of the best performing parks in the chain in the summer time. SFA has a bunch of land they could sell off and still have room for expansion, SF is putting too much money in the park for internal expansions and fixing up the rides to run optimally to sell the park off. SFMM also is getting some expansions such as X2 so I really doubt they are going to sell them off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golfie Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 This money will go towards the funds for the SFGAm dive coaster in 2009! Woo! I don't really think the TV or Radio ads are necessary. People pretty much know about Six Flags and don't need to be reminded about it while watching TV. I, for one, probably only have seen one of the many commercials they've ever aired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrenalinejunkie Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I think Six Flags is improving the quality of their parks. I don't know about the other parks but SFSTL's quality significantly improved in 2007. Landscaping, employee friendliness, and cleanliness had the most positive changes. Having been to StSTL several times over the past 6-7 years, I can definitely say that Six Flags has certainly improved the park immensely. Think about it- over the past few years, the park has become MUCH more beautiful and landscaped, as well as receiving such rides as the Boss, the Scooby Doo ride, Xcalibur, the Tony Hawk spinner, and now the Evil Knievel coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaparri Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 A lot of people keep saying SFKK, but I honestly can't see them selling it. It's not going to be purely about how much profit the park makes them, but how valuably the land is that it sits on. SF doesn't even own half the land that SFKK is on, so I don't see it really being worth there while to sell it. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but that's just my theory. I think Robb is probably right on with SFM and the non-branded parks, especially La Ronde. I guess we'll see though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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