Six Flags for Sale!

[SLUSHIE]

I remeber somewhere that Bill Gates has a large ammount of stock in Six Flags. Man I sure hope he doesn't buy the company.

[OzCatter]

Dan Snyder is more likely than Gates. I could see CF maybe buying SFDL possibly, but they may buy one, only one though, their money is kinda down too. Definatly dont see Paramount buying any.

 

-Cal

[coasterdude5]

Personally, I doubt Cedar Fair will buy Darien Lake. After seeing what how Geauga Lake is doing, I doubt they'll touch DL

[Stitch]

Donald Trump should buy Six Flags and make "You're Fired : The Ride" . I don't see any major changes happening to the Six Flags parks if they are sold, I just see name changes and re-themeing like Cedar Fair did with Geauga Lake.

[coaster1]

SFOT and SFOG cannot be sold b the company since they do not own the parks, they are merley managed under a contract which the limited partnership who owns the parks were looking at getting out of in the first place.

 

So if worse comes to worse .. SFOT and SFOG will be given to the highest bidder when they decide to drop the management contract with Six Flags since this failed obviously and take the Six Flags name with them since these are the two original parks and the name is in fact belonging to the Limited Partnership.

 

Should be interesting to see what happens, but I doubt they would trust another large company like Cedar Fair again .. remember before Premier Parks bought the chain, they bid $900 million for only Six Flags Over Texas then turned around and bought the chain for $1.1 billion .. just shows you the worth of SFOT alone in the market.

[OzCatter]

SFOT is about as historic in Theme Park status to me as DL is. Heck, If I could find 1 billion, I would buy SFOT myself.

 

-Cal

[CoasterFanatic]

^^ Doesn't that also apply to Marine World. I think remember seeing that somewhere.

[WillMontu]

I remeber somewhere that Bill Gates has a large ammount of stock in Six Flags. Man I sure hope he doesn't buy the company.

 

Just imagine:

Windows ME - The Ride (an okay ride, but it crashes too much)

Blue Scream of Death (Drop tower painted blue)

Clippy's Revenge (that annoying paperclip returns)

XBOX Arcade

Halo - The Escape

Microsoft Bob's Play Area

The Minesweeper Haunted Maze

Windows Media Player 3D Theatre

Internet Explorer train ride (the only way to get from one part of the park to another)

And don't forget the interactive games like Solitare, Hearts, and Wack-A-Worm

[ChrisZer0]

I going to go with the crowd here on SFOT and SFOG, they'll going to be

sold to an outside group (Cedar Fair/Paramount/Snyder INC.) who'll more than likely will give them the TLC and attention they deserve.

[socalMAN123]

I remeber somewhere that Bill Gates has a large ammount of stock in Six Flags. Man I sure hope he doesn't buy the company.

 

Just imagine:

Windows ME - The Ride (an okay ride, but it crashes too much)

Blue Scream of Death (Drop tower painted blue)

Clippy's Revenge (that annoying paperclip returns)

XBOX Arcade

Halo - The Escape

Microsoft Bob's Play Area

The Minesweeper Haunted Maze

Windows Media Player 3D Theatre

Internet Explorer train ride (the only way to get from one part of the park to another)

And don't forget the interactive games like Solitare, Hearts, and Wack-A-Worm

 

ROTFL! I can't imagine that! If I had 1 billion dollars I would totally buy SFMM and make it way better!

---Brent 8)

[coaster1]

Yeah SFMW and SFNO ( i think ) are still not wholly owned, but no one really cares about those parks

 

As for SFOT and SFOG .. the management may go to another chain, but I don't see the limited partnership selling anytime soon with how much they earn out of the parks.

[Jew]

Six Flags owns 25% of the SFoG partnership and 37% of SFoT's, and has the option of increasing their ownership by up to 5% every year...

 

Not to mention Six Flags has agreements in place with SFoG until 2027 and SFoT until 2028...

 

And those partnerships definitely don't own the Six Flags name.

[FlyingScooter]

Wish i could say that this surprises me. 6flags has been hurting for a while now. Their debt-load is huge.

I'd like to see Bill Gates buy small and make big: Parks like CLP, Americana, or any other small and closed or near-closed park.

MicroSoft World! yeah, that could be fun. Hell, imagine the Arcade!

Like DW has a replica of Dolly's old shed, this could have Billy's old garage where it all started.

Okay, so maybe this isn't even a mediocre idea. It's all in fun.

[Red Benny]

The LA Times posted their version of the article today. It's geared more towards the implications to SFMM. Interestingly enough, they got a quote from Robb! (It's all the way at the bottom).

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sixflags26aug26,1,3106700.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

 

Six Flags Auction May Shake Up Southland's Theme Park Sector

Magic Mountain's owner seeks a buyer. Knott's operator Cedar Fair may be interested.

 

By David Colker and Jerry Hirsch, Times Staff Writers

 

Debt-ridden amusement park company Six Flags Inc. put itself up for sale Thursday, raising the prospect of a shake-up in the Southern California theme park industry.

 

Six Flags owns thrill-ride mecca Magic Mountain in Valencia and neighboring water park Hurricane Harbor. Those properties could be attractive to Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair, which owns Knott's Berry Farm and three Soak City water parks in Southern California, a person familiar with the company's thinking said.

 

The Valencia venues would be of interest to Cedar Fair because it would present marketing opportunities with its local water parks and Knott's, this person said. Cedar Fair would be unlikely to acquire all of the Six Flags properties because of the Oklahoma City company's debt load — more than $2 billion as of June 30.

 

Six Flags is also much larger, with 30 parks, compared with Cedar Fair's 12.

 

There is precedent for a limited acquisition. Last year, Cedar Fair paid $145 million for Six Flags of Ohio, located a few hours from Cedar Fair's flagship Cedar Point park in Sandusky.

 

With more properties in Southern California, Cedar Fair would be able to use media buys to advertise all the parks simultaneously, said Carl Winston, director of San Diego State University's Hospitality and Tourism Management Program.

 

"In the last five years Cedar Fair has gotten three local water parks — in Buena Park, San Dimas and San Diego," Winston noted. "Now they market them all on the radio as Knott's Soak City…. It's a lot more cost effective than a one-off park."

 

He also noted that Magic Mountain and Knott's both emphasize gravity-defying rides.

 

"It would make a lot of sense from Cedar Fair's point of view," he said. "It's a good cultural fit — they have experience in dealing with the young adult market."

 

Six Flags declined to discuss a possible sale of its Southern California properties.

 

The company put itself up for sale one week after Dan Snyder, owner of the NFL's Washington Redskins, filed papers stating his intention to take control of Six Flags and install Mark Shapiro, an executive at Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN, as chief executive.

 

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Snyder offered $6.50 a share, or about $140 million, to bring his current 11% stake in the company up to 35% — enough to wrest control from the current management team.

 

Putting the company up for sale to the highest bidder is designed not to block Snyder, but to "deliver maximum value to all stockholders," said Six Flags spokesman Dan Katcher.

 

Snyder's Red Zone investment firm declined to comment, making it unclear whether he would now move to buy the company outright.

 

Six Flags shares rose 72 cents, or 11%, to $7.26.

 

Industry analysts were hard-pressed to name other possible buyers, ruling out Disney and Universal Studios Hollywood owner General Electric Co.

 

"The larger media conglomerates are looking to get into growthier businesses such as Internet and cable," Prudential Equity Group analyst Katherine Styponias wrote in a note to investors Thursday. "At this time, we don't see any other likely bidders in the market."

 

Disney declined to comment, and Universal executives did not return a call for comment.

 

At least two potential bidders emerged, however — Orange-based Vision Maker and Los Angeles investor Ron Bension. Last month, both lost out to Blackstone Group in bidding for four Legoland parks, including the one in Carlsbad, Calif.

 

"We raised nearly a half-billion in our bid for Legoland," said John Cora, president of Vision Maker, "so it's clear we think theme parks would be a good business for us."

 

The company's projects include the 2,350-acre Peninsula Papagayo resort opened in Costa Rica last year.

 

Bension was CEO of Universal Studios' recreation group from 1990 to 1996, overseeing the company's theme parks. He said Six Flags was a good opportunity, despite its debt.

 

"It has good assets that have been poorly managed for some time," Bension said. "It needs people who are familiar with the industry and know how to make parks work."

 

Robb Alvey, who runs a website for roller coaster fans, agreed that Six Flags needed new management.

 

"When Magic Mountain built Scream in 2003, they just plopped it down on a corner of the parking lot without even an attempt to theme it," Alvey said. "You can still see the stripes of the parking spaces on the asphalt beneath the coaster."

[ChrisZer0]

Robb Alvey, who runs a website for roller coaster fans, agreed that Six Flags needed new management.

 

"When Magic Mountain built Scream in 2003, they just plopped it down on a corner of the parking lot without even an attempt to theme it," Alvey said. "You can still see the stripes of the parking spaces on the asphalt beneath the coaster."

 

This sounds about on par with the Premier managment era of the parks, cheap and easy. Another fine example of this is at my home park (SFOT), where they have thrown in both a trampoline jump and go-kart track smack dab where a line queue was for shockwave. SFOT also hosted a "wild animal" picture area, where a tiger cub ended up badly injuring a small child in the process. I certainly hope whoever takes park management over will realize that it takes more than "cheap thrills" to make a themepark a legend.

[FlyingScooter]

^Sounds like the theme that 6Flags did with X-Flight at SFWOA. Gravel and a parking lot.

Interesting article.

[SharkTums]

LOL,

 

Robb's famous! Too bad they didn't use any of those other quotes you gave them!

[MagnumForce]

That started way before Scream and X Flight.

 

Back before the Warner Brothers years even,Shockwave at SFGAM was the original parking lot coaster, curbs and all.

 

Of course the reason for that was that they were forced to slap it in there as it was originally intended for GADV and approval fell through and the ride had to be put somehwhere with very minimal site preparation.

 

At least they themed the queue house though to the New Orleans section.

 

i sure miss that big painful Arrow

[Sir Clinksalot]

Alright, let's just get this fixed.

 

Pass the hat. Everyone toss in 20 bucks.

 

That should be enough to buy them off, right???

 

(no? Crap. I had already planned on determining upper management by a spirited game of "duck duck goose.")

[CoasterCrazy88]

LOL,

 

Robb's famous! Too bad they didn't use any of those other quotes you gave them!

 

That is so cool! I was just going to start a new topic about this! I just read it in the L.A Times Business section. Congrats Robb!

 

Antonio"I guess HH isn't going to be SF anymore either"G.

[Skyscraper]

Robb's famous! Too bad they didn't use any of those other quotes you gave them !

 

I'm curious to know what are the others quotes....

 

C'mon tell 'em !

[ChrisZer0]

I wonder if Big Robb dropped some curses about SFMM and his disdane for the punks from van nuys?

[Coasterlicious]

Hmm... X and Scream would be nice for Cedar Point.. I mean those are coaster types that Cedar Fair is missing... 8) .. but only in ones dreams..

 

I mean come on.. SFMM is the xtreme park.. but CP is the coaster capitol

[Homer]

Theres now rumors flying out the wazoo... a stupid one would have to be Cedar Fair eyeing on buying out SFMM. I doubt that though...

[Sir Clinksalot]

The only way I would want CF to buy SFMM is if they sent the CP crews out here ... Using Knott's crews would be worse than SFMM's current crews IMO.