Capitalize Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 What's funny to me is that after all the speculation that Six Flags, SFMM specifically, was going to be sold, we've seen Busch, Universal, and now Cedar Fair all sold first! It wasn't that long ago Six Flags sold off all their international properties except Mexico, then later numerous properties in the States. And of course there was the stockholder revolt which put the new management in place back in 05... So its not like Six Flags has been unscathed the past decade. Just saying. And this is disregarding the whole bankruptcy and de-listing of stock thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagicMountainMan Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Wow. This came out of left field. It definitely will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. There were so many question marks facing Cedar Fair even before being sold. When you're over a billion in debt and you're not a big money maker, assets have got to go. I think that they will be shedding some parks to relieve the debt load. If they don't, Cedar Fair will probably end up being the Six Flags of the next decade... Am I the only one that thinks $700 million is a bit on the low side? I actually have no statistical or financial proof, but it just seems a bit low for what, 11 parks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 ^ Especially when you consider that Cedar Fair bought Six Flags World of Adventure for $145 million... ...Just to close it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemical_echo Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Am I the only one that thinks $700 million is a bit on the low side? I actually have no statistical or financial proof, but it just seems a bit low for what, 11 parks? Considering they bought the Paramount Parks for something like $1.24 billion, I'd say yea, it's a little low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Gumball Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 With the new management, I wonder how that will pan out for CGA and the whole 49ers fiasco. Should be interesting, a bit worried now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Yes it is low, but you have to remember that the 700+ million is what they are paying in cash. They also are acquiring the billion plus in debt of the company, which makes the deal seem for more logical. At least that is to my understanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knottslover77 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 ^ Especially when you consider that Cedar Fair bought Six Flags World of Adventure for $145 million... ...Just to close it down. And knotts for about $250million i believe too! --Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI Jizzman Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 ^ Especially when you consider that Cedar Fair bought Six Flags World of Adventure for $145 million... ...Just to close it down. I do think they made the money back by re-opening them at different theme parks across their chain. But if it was worth that much then? Didn't it say CF was worth 700M? It's a pretty big chunk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveydo5172 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 The price tag is very low....but remember, they are also acquiring the billion plus dollars in debt.....so, they actually are paying close to 2 billion....which is still low.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 What's funny to me is that after all the speculation that Six Flags, SFMM specifically, was going to be sold, we've seen Busch, Universal, and now Cedar Fair all sold first! It wasn't that long ago Six Flags sold off all their international properties except Mexico, then later numerous properties in the States. And of course there was the stockholder revolt which put the new management in place back in 05... So its not like Six Flags has been unscathed the past decade. Just saying. I get what he's saying, though. Here in So Cal, the whole "possible sale of SFMM" was a huge, HUGE deal! I think he's just simply saying how 99% of everyone in So Cal really thought (and some still do) that SFMM was going to be sold and turned into a parking lot but yet somehow the park has managed to dodge the bullet while so many other major parks have now been sold or traded since then! --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveydo5172 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 It will be interesting to see if the Apollo group has any conflicting entities that will go against the current properties.....they own so much, something has to be connected somehow......MGM/Mirage Corp bought the 5 Mandalay Resort properties here in Las Vegas for 1 reason only, and that was because they wanted the Mandalay Bay convention center....thats all.....but they had to buy the whole package....close to 8 billion......just because they wanted the convention center at one of the properties.....perhaps this deal with Apollo could be similar....time will tell when everything comes out.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolliger&Mabillard Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Most likely Apollo will wipeout the debtload faster than CF could have...which might lead to a faster buildup in capital. Lokks like Knott's will be getting that giga after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-Force! Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 ^Heck, I'll take a new hyper if that's the case. It should be very interesting to see how much change comes to the parks, especially my home park as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 What's funny to me is that after all the speculation that Six Flags, SFMM specifically, was going to be sold, we've seen Busch, Universal, and now Cedar Fair all sold first! You might as well call Six Flags re-organization plan a sale... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1pizza14 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Please don't close Canada's Wonderland Please don't close Canada's Wonderland YIKES. I hope they don't close any of the parks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolliger&Mabillard Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Assuming we see ANY CHANGES AT ALL. It would be a while before we see any noticable difference at any parks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Please don't close Canada's Wonderland Please don't close Canada's Wonderland YIKES. I hope they don't close any of the parks Why would they close a very successful park? Wonderland might get the highest attendance of any seasonal park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgwfreak777 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Sometime soon they'll be announcing Dick's retirement. If not, I'll be very surprised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannerman Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 They'll announce it the day after (if) the stockholders ok the "merger" I also find it interesting (understandable, but interesting nonetheless) that the stock price is now up over $11/share. Greedy little vultures. With the stock price so close to $11.50/unit, I'm thinking of selling now before Dec 31st just so I won't have to worry about the tax implications in 2010. LOL. Edit: Cedar Fair has always been Kinzel's baby. It actually makes sense to me that he'd want to sell it before leaving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiyoh1984 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 ^ I've seen that happen before not long before the president/ceo/ whatever decides to retire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorkscrewFoley Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Does this mean all the Cedar Fair parks will have theming, and the generic theme is gone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingsdominionlvr Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 My beef is that they may have added "big rides" but they have really sucked some of the "atmosphere" out of Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Kings Island, and Great America, IMO. For whatever reason Canada's Wonderland didn't seem much differet, and I'd say probably the biggest offender was Kings Dominion, but all of these parks I used to frequent at least once per year (KD and CGA probably 4-5 times per year) and while they may have been lacking a B&M or other major rides, they really did seem to have a "pulse." Last year visiting KD and this year visiting CGA I found the parks to be more "lifeless" than ever before. Not sure why, but they really seemed to lack much excitement. And not with the rides, just with the entire park in general. Carowinds and Kings Island weren't as bad, but I've noticed this there too since the Cedar Fair takeover. --Robb The more I think about it, the more I see what you mean (about Kings Dominion at least). The reasoning perhaps why KD has lost just a little of its "pulse", in my opinion is that Cedar Fair had to re-theme a lot of Paramount based rides (such as Tomb Raider and Italian Job). And, we all know Cedar Fair was not the greatest at theming rides anyway. But, I still will probably visit there at least 15 times for 2010. I really don't think you can blame them for having to re-theme rides, and they have added 3 water attractions, 2 huge coasters, and 2 flat rides to Kings Dominion since they have acquired them. Perhaps Paramount was a bit better in theming, but in the first three seasons after they acquired Kings Dominion, they sure did not do that much. Anyway, hopefully this does not have too much of an effect on any of the former Cedar Fair Parks (it sounds so weird to say that). I think most parks will not be receiving coasters as frequently as they did under Cedar Fair, due to Apollo having to manage this huge debt load. But, if they already have obligations to buy and build new coasters for perhaps the 2011 and 2012 seasons, hopefully those arrangements will not be changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillerman1 Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 I think I'm most curious to see what Apollo will do with Geauga Lake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolliger&Mabillard Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 But, if they already have obligations to buy and build new coasters for perhaps the 2011 and 2012 seasons, hopefully those arrangements will not be changed. In MOST cases, if contracts were already drafted and signed...It still costs money to pull the plug on it. So whatever was in the works for the next two seasons should still happen (Take all Tatsu and SFOG's Goliath and Mark Shapiro wanting to cancel them for example) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkTrips Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 ugh I wish I had read this earlier. Could have made some good money this morning =( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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