Six Flags [FUN] Corporate Discussion Thread

[Haymaker]

16 hours ago, anonymouscactus said:

My sources seem to think a certain *cough* grizzly *cough* has had its "run" *cough*

Don't tell the Darien Lake thread.
 

Aside from the strange cough, that would be a significant subtraction but also open up a good chunk of primo land. Its still a popular ride. It seems that its mostly been subtraction there lately, with Pirate having been closed for 3 years, Sleighride supposedly on its last legs and losing Thunder Rapids a few yrs back. 

[AmyUD06]

26 minutes ago, Haymaker said:

Aside from the strange cough, that would be a significant subtraction but also open up a good chunk of primo land. Its still a popular ride. It seems that its mostly been subtraction there lately, with Pirate having been closed for 3 years, Sleighride supposedly on its last legs and losing Thunder Rapids a few yrs back. 

Are you actually suggesting that Darien Lake might be getting a new major ride?

[Haymaker]

2 hours ago, Mike240SX said:

Are you actually suggesting that Darien Lake might be getting a new major ride?

[AmyUD06]

1 hour ago, Haymaker said:

 

Sorry, I guess I misread your post.  I figured with you mentioning the "primo land" cleared up by Grizzly Run and the other removals, the next logical step (for a Darien Lake fan) is to presume they're getting some new major ride.  You have my apologies.

[bert425]

sounds like we can add Superman from SFStL to the list (the old Dungeon Drop from Astroworld).

it's currently SBNO, but a reliable source is telling me that the plan is it won't open and will be removed (1/2 of it hasn't operated in a number of years, and apparently the maintenance cost to keep it going has gotten too prohibitive).

 

Glad I got to ride it back in 2019, since I used to love it at Astroworld.

[Haymaker]

4 hours ago, Mike240SX said:

 

Sorry, I guess I misread your post.  I figured with you mentioning the "primo land" cleared up by Grizzly Run and the other removals, the next logical step (for a Darien Lake fan) is to presume they're getting some new major ride.  You have my apologies.

Accepted.... I guess I could see why you thought that but thats not my MO. Besides that, theyve had a large chunk of primo land thats been empty for almost 10 years now, so why not add another

[jconsolmagno]

I read Moon Patrol / Antique Cars are getting the ax at St. Louis as well. Is that true?

[bert425]

9 hours ago, jconsolmagno said:

I read Moon Patrol / Antique Cars are getting the ax at St. Louis as well. Is that true?

I can check with my 'source' - but considering how connected to American Thunder they are - there's not really a point to remove them (it doesn't free up any space), and it's such a short track anyways that I'm not sure they need that much staffing on it.

I can't imagine gas powered buggies need that much expensive maintenance (aren't they basically lawnmower engines?).


EDIT to add:  "source" came back and said they hadn't heard anything about the Antique Cars going anywhere.
doesn't mean they might still go, but source was unaware of  any plan to remove them.

[Jason Maier]

I just checked out the Six Flags America thread here and noticed that Zoomazon Falls is the ride that is being cut (so far, the confirmed subtractions we have are this, Sky Buckets at SFOG, and La Ronde isn't bothering to construct Vipre this year, and the aforementioned Tower of Power at SFSTL).

This one took me as a bit of a surprise: Zoomazon Falls seemed to get decent crowds in the water park. I would have thought Penguin's Blizzard River or Shipwreck Falls would have been axed.

[bert425]

. . and via a tweet posted to the TPR Facebook page from the park, it does appear they have confirmed both Superman *and* the Moon Cars are gone.

[Haymaker]

53 minutes ago, bert425 said:

. . and via a tweet posted to the TPR Facebook page from the park, it does appear they have confirmed both Superman *and* the Moon Cars are gone.

If its from SFStl Twitter page, I dont see anything on there

[bert425]

43 minutes ago, Haymaker said:

If its from SFStl Twitter page, I dont see anything on there

it was a direct response to someone's tweet. . SFStl responded to them:

[Canobie Coaster]

I really enjoyed that drop tower since it had a great location atop the hill, but at least half the carriages have been broken in all my visits to that park.  I'm not surprised that ride appears to be a removal candidate.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Eh, I'm all right with the Moon Cars leaving. They removed most of the track when Evil Knievel was built, so the current version was already a shadow of its former self.

[prozach626]

That really sucks about Superman. I really liked it. That area in the park will be even more dead. I wonder how long it will be SBNO. It might give Hannibarrels a run for its money.

I would have liked to take my daughter on the Moon Cars this year, but they sucked anyway.

[Haymaker]

8 hours ago, bert425 said:

it was a direct response to someone's tweet. . SFStl responded to them:

Oh no wonder I couldnt find it, I was looking for tweets, which are on Twitter... not Facebook comments.

[bert425]

^ or you could have just gone to the TPR Facebook group - which I referenced as my source (and I pulled the screencap from).

but tomato toma-to

[mary.pesik]

Why are they closing Superman? It's a good DC ride that was relocated from AstroWorld. Is the Intamin 2nd Generation Drop Tower finally going extinct?

[Zand]

13 hours ago, mary.pesik said:

Why are they closing Superman? It's a good DC ride that was relocated from AstroWorld. Is the Intamin 2nd Generation Drop Tower finally going extinct?

I think Dorney should buy it, put it right next to Demon Drop, and open some kind of f*cked up living Intamin Tower museum.

That would get me to visit Dorney like once a week.

[coasterbill]

No random regional park in Pennsylvania is going to put a bunch of different size drop towers right next to eachother, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Please don't be ridiculous.

[coasterbill]

Bump...

I skimmed the Q1 conference call so you don't have to. Here are some brief highlights. I highlighted some park-specific stuff for the uber-nerds that only care about that.

- Total attendance for the quarter was 1.3 million guests, a 38% decline from first quarter 2019 which makes sense with covid restrictions and with two year-round parks in California (one with daily ops in 2019) being closed for the entire quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $46 million compared to a loss of $32 million in the first quarter 2019 (largely for the same reasons). One thing that bumped the numbers up was that Six Flags over Texas was not year-round in 2019 but that doesn't make up for California or capacity restrictions elsewhere.

- They expect to be profitable in Q2

- They have an Active Pass Base of 4.1 million passholders, which included 1.7 million members and 2.4 million traditional season passholders at the end of first quarter 2021. The Active Pass Base is up 1% compared to first quarter 2020 and down only 9% compared to first quarter 2019. In short, they retained 91% of their passholder base through Covid which is kind of insane, especially since they've been charging a lot of them unlike uh... that other company. The number of paused memberships is around 5% right now.

- They will continue to operate the Drive-Thru Safari in New Jersey as a separately gated attraction

- Applying a pro forma allocation to 2019, admission spending per capita increased 17% and in-park spending per capita increased 14% compared to the first quarter of 2019.

- When allowed to raise capacity restrictions by their respective states they do it quickly if not immediately. The Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia parks are already at 100% capacity. When more states allow it they will do it basically right away. (Just me speaking here: This means that the reservation system at those parks only exists to give guests the illusion that they are capping capacity. They are not. At all...)

- They want to work on reducing wait times at food stands . They see this as a major problem and are ramping up staffing to deal with it. They're confident that they can reach desired staffing levels soon. Unlike other chains that are blaming all of their problems on staffing, it's not a major concern for them going forward.

 

[disownedpear]

Thanks for the info, didn't feel like sitting through that myself. I wonder why they aren't having major staffing issues like other parks? I know SFA raised their wages this year, maybe other parks in the chain did the same?

[coasterbill]

I'm going to assume that part of that is that they always understaff their parks anyway and at this point they're just very efficient in that regard. It's a frustration that I have with them in peak season but it's also a skill that other chains just don't have and it often hurts them a lot (See: Cedar Point on a Halloweekends Friday being entirely unable or unwilling to run rides with smaller crews to ensure that they can open everything).

[CoasterGuy06]

Honestly at SFOG on Sunday there were several rides that dare I say seemed OVER staffed. 

[wildcattb5]

On 5/6/2021 at 10:29 AM, coasterbill said:

- They will continue to operate the Drive-Thru Safari in New Jersey as a separately gated attraction

Not a surprise as this is the most financially viable option. Since bringing it back impromptu last year during the lockdown, they have definitely improved the experience with an audio guide, refreshed signage, and a gift shop/food stand at the exit (versus just porta-johns last year). It'll continue to attract an audience who maybe wouldn't normally pay admission to go into the park, even if they were just interested in the safari. Staffing wise you're only adding gate attendants (which anyone can do) while not utilizing caravan drivers that would command a higher wage and specialized skills; the animal caretakers obviously continue to work 24/7/365 as usual. And any liability concerns have been addressed (mainly not having the baboons tear up vehicles).

Is this a viable long-term solution? I don't know. But there's currently no sense in bringing it back as an included-with-admission attraction when there's financial benefits to be reaped from the drive-thru operation, just as there had been for years previously.