NEWS: LA Times Discusses Six Flags Buyout...

[robbalvey]

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."

[SharkTums]

+ 5 points for getting to use the word 'plop' in an LA Times article!

Edited August 26, 2005 by SharkTums

[Sir Clinksalot]

NICE!!!

 

I can say I knew you when ...

[FlyingScooter]

Congrats, Robb! I remember seeing your pictures of the 'parking lot coaster.'

They did the same thing when they put in X-Flight in Cleveland. Well, they did add gravel.

[DerekRx]

Awesome jobb, Robb. I still think Comcast should look into buying Six Flags. I'd buy it, but we've spent all our money at Garden Hose Kingdom on the new for 06 Toilet Bowl and Funnel slides. These aren't the ones you find at your local water park, they're in fact a toilet bowl and a funnel. We may even add a funnel cake stand, if I feel the urge to count change.

 

Hehe, Robb said "plopped"

[robbalvey]

^^ X-Flight looked GREAT compared to Scream. I mean, at least X-flight had the gravel and they added the little airport beacons on the ground. SFMM didn't even do that!

 

[Sir Clinksalot]

Too bad they wouldn't have printed anything about the bleach stains.

[coasters 4 me]

I am glad you said that in the artical Robb. That is the thing that reminds me of SFMM, car parks. They really do need new management.

[Shockwave]

^^ X-Flight looked GREAT compared to Scream. I mean, at least X-flight had the gravel and they added the little airport beacons on the ground. SFMM didn't even do that!

 

 

Even a few cars in the car park would make it look better.

[CoasterCrazy88]

Wow! That's really great Robb! I was just now going to start a new topic about this. I just saw it in the business section.

 

Congrats!

 

Antonio G.

[pianojohn]

So, what if no one comes forward to buy the parks OR worst case scenario, someone buys all of them and then turns around and closes them all for the land they are built on.

 

Any thoughts about what we would really lose if all of the Six Flags parks closed? Seriously! I was thinking about all of the top ten coasters in the country, and not one is at a Six Flags park. (Ok, maybe Supermen at SFNE, SFDL, and SFA, but they could be moved to a park that would take care of them!!)

 

I, for one, would miss the history of the park chain, but since it was bought by Premier, the parks have gone so far downhill that I cannot remember a time when we did not complain about them. They took a successful chain, added WAY too many smaller parks, slapped the Six Flags name on them, and basically watered down what was once a reputable company into one that is the laughing stock of the industry.

 

Discuss among yourselves...

[CoasterFanatic]

^ I seem to only make it to one or two a year so ... life would go on.

 

[Sir Clinksalot]

I hate to admit this, but I would actually be sad if Six Flags was gone.

 

Yeah, they aren't the best parks ever. Yeah, they aren't run the best, but it's cheap and it's fun, most of the time.

 

Like everything else, it's about the people you hang out with at the parks more than anything at the parks.

 

I don't think it's even possible that the parks will cease to exist though.

[OzCatter]

I dont wanna imagine a world without SFOT........

 

-Cal

[arrowfanman]

Very nice!

 

 

I am assuming you guys dont have as good of a relationship with SFMM as you do other parks, eh? lol.

[Coasterlicious]

Very nice!

 

 

I am assuming you guys dont have as good of a relationship with SFMM as you do other parks, eh? lol.

 

 

or not anymore atleast right?..lol

[coasterdude5]

NICE!

 

What an honor it is to have plop in an article!!

[coasters 4 me]

^^ X-Flight looked GREAT compared to Scream. I mean, at least X-flight had the gravel and they added the little airport beacons on the ground. SFMM didn't even do that!

 

 

Even a few cars in the car park would make it look better.

 

Thats why in the last avatar contest I put real cars as the trains so then it would go with the theming.

 

Also, about "Plop!", I havent seen that in an artical before. Good on you Robb!

[maliboomer]

Imagine how the fan boys would react if Cedar Fair bought SFMM.

[Real]

It would be a horrible desicion. Thats what.

[FlyingScooter]

Wow, wonder how i missed the beacons? I've ridden X-Flight about 80 times. It is amazing how they made the mud look so, [real.i][/i]

[socalMAN123]

Congrats Robb! I don't get the Times (I get the OC Register ), but I would've read it a couple of times. Brownie points for saying the word "plop" in an article. The more down to earth people would say something else, but then again, that's just you ! JK, JK, JK.

Brent "I hope you don't take that the wrong way!" Shenton

[BarryH]

If I recall, Robb went to X-Flight around when it first opened. When I visited SFWOA in 2001, I think there was gravel on the ground then.

[PhishyBrewer]

I was reading this acticle on the A-B employee website, not knowing it was the LA Times article, and all a sudden I read "Robb Alvey"...

 

What a suprise! Nothing like seeing the name of someone you know while at work at 3:30am and on the employee company website.

[robbalvey]

Yeah, that photo was taken just after opening. In fact, what I am saying in the video is "Two thumbs up for the theming" sarcastically because they had just dug up the ground and were working on it! I believe that there were construction workers JUST outside the camera's view.

 

--Robb "What's in the pictures isn't always as it seems!" Alvey