Six Flags Corporate Discussion Thread

[liftsifter]

^ Mostly because they just shake themselves to destruction.

[Chroniq]

^^^^I thought I'd be in before a joke about strokes... Well played sir, well played.

 

 

 

Chris "... not sure if anyone will get this..... " Connolly

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^If you like, it could be a dual coaster where it runs both sides and then one side goes limp.

[Jew]

Six Flags Team,

 

Over the last four months we have successfully realigned our corporate structure and made adjustments to our corporate and park leadership. In order to make our Company even stronger and more efficient, today we are announcing additional park level organizational changes that will affect all of our parks.

 

Today we have implemented changes at our parks to better align our park operations with the new corporate structure. Although these were difficult decisions to make, members of the corporate and park teams collaborated closely and are confident that these changes will help us to further sharpen our focus on being the preeminent regional theme park organization. The following summarizes the organizational changes in each park, effective immediately:

 

* The Park General Manager positions have been eliminated and each has been offered the position of Director of their respective divisions- Operations, Maintenance, and Finance;

 

* Our Water Park Directors, with the exception of the Directors at SFOT and SFOG, now hold the title of Water Park Managers, and, along with the Entertainment department, report to the Director of Operations;

 

* The Food, Retail, and Games departments, along with the Purchasing department at each park, will all report to the Director of In-Park Services;

 

* The Loss Prevention and Audit Manager departments have been consolidated into the Resource Protection Department and, along with the Labor Optimization Managers, report to the Director of Finance; and,

 

* The Marketing, Sales, and Communications divisions have been consolidated into one division led by the Director of Marketing, which allows for a stronger and more focused marketing effort. The Group Sales Managers and Communications Managers will report to the Director of Marketing.

 

To better align our operations with the seasonal nature of our business, effective today we have also reduced the number of supervisory level positions at the parks and discontinued park assistant manager positions. In addition, we have carefully assessed all areas of park management and adjusted staff levels to create a leaner and more efficient organization. This was done taking into account certain exceptions for alternative structures and staffing levels that are necessary to accommodate variations in park facilities, scale, and other factors.

 

As always, we remain fully committed to providing our Guests with friendly, clean, fast, and safe services and to focusing on excellence and innovation. The adjustments we are announcing today support these core values and are expected to accelerate and solidify Six Flags’ improving performance.

 

I appreciate all the hard work and on behalf of the entire senior management team, thank you for your commitment to Six Flags.

 

Al Weber, Jr., Ph.D.

Chief Operating Officer

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation

 

This memo posted on Screamscape should make it clear which direction the company is headed: bigtime cost cutting to make it attractive for investors. Welcome back to the Premier management days!

[jamesdillaman]

^ Seems like a survival tactic in an economy that is stalled out for the moment. Until there's more growth in the job market and people get more expendable income, Amusement parks will suffer. It isn't that less people are going, but I'm willing to bet that parks made less money on every guest while IN their parks this summer than say the summer of 2000. Every industry has been scaling down and cutting costs. Decreasing overhead is a great way to maintain profit during an economic slowing like we're experiencing. If they have quality people in the positions, hopefully it will buy them the time until growth returns to the job market.

 

On a side note, being a marketer myself, I like the idea of consolidating the sales and communications department under a single director of marketing. It helps if they move and act as one voice in a company. Some of these moves make sense to me, but it is always a danger when you get rid of quality managers...

 

-James Dillaman

[Jew]

^What are they preparing for, a nuclear holocaust? The amusement industry isn't suffering to the point where it requires raping the management team from top to bottom. In fact, Cedar Fair reported a gain in revenue for the 3rd quarter, not a MAJOR reduction of its management team to "survive."

Edited September 28, 2010 by Jew

[CoasterGuy06]

The thing that stands out to me is the eliminating of the GM position. Did these parks REALLY need both a GM and a park VP? I'm kinda surprised those positions have coincided for so long actually.

[Orient Wolf]

^^ Cedar Fair is already ahead of SF. They eliminated about 70 full time positions before the start of the 2009 season.

[Jew]

^That was when they were trying to cut costs for the potential Apollo buyout. I'd be willing to bet the new senior management team is making SF as lean as possible so they can unload their stakes in the company...

[Chroniq]

It's interesting to see that so many predictions people made on this thread came to fruition. While I believed the integration with dick clark holdings and auxiliary companies like "coaster cuts" was really stretching it by Redzone to present themselves as they are Disney (or a content company), I'm concerned the new management team is simply removing as much overhead and ancillary costs as they are able to , as quickly as possible, to bleed the company into great single year earnings , but then destroy the brand.

 

 

As has been intimated on other posts by other members, look for six flags to liquidate many properties that aren't showing correct profit margins. The bankruptcy allowed them to remove lots of "legacy" debt and I fully expect them to to close any underperforming properties to boost quarterly earnings percentages. I'd also venture to say this new team will only do major capital spending projects (new, expensive coasters) in highly profitable parks.

Edited December 21, 2010 by Chroniq

[PayneTrain]

^SFA fans are sad now.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

Glad I live in L.A. and not Baltimore...

[chadster]

I think it would be better financially if they sold off properties and put a little cash in their pockets so that their investors are happy and stock looks better. Just ask Madooooofus. Looks are everything. (not suggesting they are doing anything illegal, so no one get unhappy)

[Chroniq]

Of Note-- Screamscape reported that Six Flags removed all of the branding from Great Escape and intimidated that they were possibly prepping for a sale.

 

The most recent update from Screamscape squashes those sale rumors by mentioning that Six Flags doesn't have a blanket license for the Looney Tunes characters. I can tell you with absolutely certainty, that Six Flags is planning on selling Great Escape and Lance was either fed these rumors by a PR person or an overzealous fan.

 

Since statements without any proof are frowned upon here, I will share this.. I was told that the park is about to be actively shopped from an executive of the Corocan Group. I'm told that this sale is not a fire sale and that Six will market it privately and only sell it if the correct price is found.

Edited December 29, 2010 by Chroniq

[jedimaster1227]

ince statements without any proof are frowned upon here, I will share this..

 

At least you know what you are getting yourself into...

[coasternut]

Of Note-- Screamscape reported that Six Flags removed all of the branding from Great Escape and intimidated that they were possibly prepping for a sale.

 

Was the misuse of "intimidated" a typo or a Freudian slip??

[Chroniq]

^lol .. Sorry.. I've typed intimidatour and intimidator too often on these boards..... I meant intimated.....

 

 

@Adam-- LOL. That's why I shared my source and I hope other members look at my plethora of posts and decide for themselves.

[ginzo]

Since statements without any proof are frowned upon here, I will share this.. I was told that the park is about to actively shopped from an executive of the Corocan Group. I'm told that this sale is not a fire sale and that Six will market it privately and only sell it if the correct price is found.

 

It's not hard to believe they would quietly try to sell some of the smaller properties. Maybe the Spanish are looking to pick up more American parks.

 

I'd be surprised to learn of efforts to sell the larger properties after the EPIC FAIL they had trying to sell SFMM a few years back.

[carolinacaniac]

That would probably depend on the property they are trying to sell. I am sure that one larger park could be much more attractive than another could be. While I don't know this for sure, I would almost guess that SFOG could get a better asking price than SFMM since it is more well rounded of a park, and from what I saw in my visit to SFOG (havn't been to SFMM yet), it seems to be a better park in general. SFOG also does not have the competition that SFMM has, as it can pretty much hold its own on the Atlanta market, while SFMM competes with Disney, Sea World, Knott's and Legoland for the Southern CA market.

 

-Gary

[John Knotts]

^ yeah I'd be willing to bet that Six Flags wouldn't get a single offer for SFMM, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the park. First, they wouldn't get anything close to what they would want for it, and the city would fight them tooth and nail the whole way. Shipiro already tried it, and got his ass handed to him. His tune change real quick soon after that. At this point both SFMM and SFOG are parks that they should definately want in their line up, along with SFGad, SFGam, SFDK and Texas. I also don't think SF could sell of SFOG even if they wanted to.

[CoasterGuy06]

Six Flags doesn't even own SFOG or SFOT...

[jedimaster1227]

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9MP02600.htm

 

An arbitrator has awarded $23.65 million to the former chief financial officer of Six Flags Entertainment Corp. over his departure.

 

Interest and attorney fees could increase Jeffrey Speed's win, but the company said Friday it disagreed with the ruling and was considering an appeal.

 

Six Flags said costs from the case would be treated as a restructuring charge.

 

The company said the arbitrator sustained some of Speed's claims and denied others. It did not describe other details of the case.

 

Six Flags said in a news release last September that Speed had left "to pursue other opportunities."

 

It said Friday that Speed also filed a claim with the Department of Labor "relating to his discharge."

 

Speed joined Six Flags from Euro Disney while Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was chairman of the board. Snyder was ousted when the company emerged from bankruptcy protection in May 2010, and Speed left the company four months later.

 

Six Flags, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, operates 19 theme parks in North America. It reported in February that in 2010 it earned $599 million, including a $732.5 million equity infusion, and had revenue of $976 million. It emerged from bankruptcy court protection in April 2010.

 

Speed testified during the bankruptcy proceeding that the "taint" of going through reorganization hurt ticket sales. He said the company saw a huge increase in calls from visitors, asking if the parks were open.

[David H]

It's interesting that part of the Snyder regime is now testifying that a reorganization had tainted the chain and cost the company ticket sales, since people didn't know if they were open. Especially when you consider that they were the ones who did pretty much the exact same type of reorganization a few years prior to that, kicking out Shapiro and company.

 

Or is their argument that reorganizations that put us in power are good for the company, but reorganizations that take us out of power are bad for the company?

[jedimaster1227]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/six-flags-announces-two-for-one-stock-split-and-quarterly-cash-dividend-121314924.html

 

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX) announced today that its board of directors has approved a two-for-one split of the company's common stock in the form of a stock dividend of one share for each outstanding share. The number of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation's outstanding common shares will double to approximately 54 million. On June 27, 2011, each shareholder of record at the close of business on June 15, 2011 will receive an additional share of stock for each outstanding share.

 

The company's board of directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of six cents per share of common stock to shareholders of record as of May 31, 2011. The dividend will be payable June 13, 2011.

[ParkTrips]

WOW. It pains me, as someone who lost money on the old PKS/SIX, to see the stock doing that well. d'oh!