NEWS: Snyder's New Plans For Six Flags!!!

[Will_Holder]

All I know is if that they end the Mr. Six ads, they need to at least have some kind of funeral for him on T.V. or something. I will need some sort of closure, I don't know what I'll ever do.

[Meteornotes]

Um, SF parking prices need to be higher? Are they not already the industry leader in this category? I think he's crazy if he thinks people are going to pay $20-$50 like it's a football game.

 

Selling off the land is potentially a HUGE error. Not having expansion space could be a major disaster down the road. Plus, the closer you let housing developements to a park, the more problem you're going to have with dumbass homeowners that will simper if they hear someone using a trashcan in the park, despite the fact the park was there long before their McMansion.

 

Higher priced season passes are a good thing, though. SF passes should be a minimum of $100, if not more. It would keep people from using the parks asa baby sitting service.

 

Not sure about the rest of it. Most parks are already full of corporate merchandising, so that's not really all that different. SF food blows for the most park, so outsourcing it can likely not make it worse.

 

I'm thinking that all of this is likely going to result in a lot of lawsuits back and forth, only making the lawyers rich. We shall see...

 

dt

[ParkTrips]

He only mentioned the premium parking, and I see no problem with it. The park I am most familiar with, Six Flags Over Georgia, only has a $2 difference in the price of "gold" and "standard" parking.

[OzCatter]

From a business perspective, this is brilliant. Outsourcing food items is brilliant. Having Subway, McDonalds, Burger King, you name in your parks makes people happy. You dont even have to follow thier cheaper menus, just have regular prices instead of inflated ones. If he's able to rid of some of the undevloped land, such as SFGAdvs, it would help in the saving of Astroworld. So watch and learn for the bidding for the park.

 

-Cal

[Cameron]

You know, I could live with that crappy slogon .. I could live with less coasters .. and I could live with higher priced season passes.

 

But please, Please, PLEASE don't inject MORE freaking advertising into our lives. Oh man .. that would just be the last straw for me. It's already bad enough to have to wait in line and listen to Ellen De-whatshername prattle on in her "I'm a retarded 5-year old" kind of way .. and see ads for stupid TV shows and other crap all over the place. This, of course, comes after driving 30 miles and seeing nothing but billboards every 10 feet along the freeway.

 

It's enough already.

 

Mass market advertising is a horrible, *horrible* thing, that is totally and completely out of control. If Red Zone wants to add even more advertising, then he needs to just go and get the hell out of there. It's not needed, not wanted, and not the solution to Six Flags' problems.

 

Cameron.

[DATman]

well, can we at least asassinate frye?

[MF310ryb]

SFGADV has had out sourcing food places for years. We used to have a McDonald and you would pay like 5 dollars for a hamburger that would be on the dollar menu at the one down the road. They have a Wok N Roll and you pay 10 dollars for food that is worth maybe 6 dollars at a normal Chinese food place. I don't think out sourcing is a good idea since most people bring their own food to parks and eat the picnic areas or at their cars. We already pay a ton to get into a park why make us pay more money. I am not speaking on an enthusiast side but more on a GP side. Most people that go to theme parks bring their food. When I was younger and we had a family pass my mom would stop at Jersey Mikes Subs or make sandwiches. We would eat at are car and have the one day a year to buy souvenirs. When we would go to are car their would be lots of others doing the same and still happens. So how would out sourcing be any better? That company still needs to make there profit and so does SF.

[ebl]

I do agree with raising the prices on season passes. Then they'll stop being used as cheap babysitters. This year, I got SFMM's Xtreme Play Pass for $125, and I've more than gotten my money's worth out of it.

 

The place to raise money is not by increasing parking fees. $10 is already too much just to leave your car. Fast food outlets inside the parks aren't a bad idea, but charging a premium isn't right. My wife used to travel more on business, and she said that the city of Pittsburgh, PA, has a law where food vendors within the airport must charge comparable rates to the same ones outside of the airport, that is, the regular ones along the roads. $8 Big Macs just aren't right. Besides, keeping food prices reasonable will, in my opinion, increase sales because value priced food will encourage guests to spend more on it rather than having meals outside the park before or after the visit.

 

More family attractions? Yes! Coaster after coaster after coaster is just wrong and it leaves out family members who prefer other types of attractions.

 

People go to theme parks to escape regular life, which is why I've never understood having advertising thrust in our face when we go to a park. I remember when SFMM had their TVs going in line and watching the very same commercials that I saw at home encouraging us to "come to Six Flags Magic Mountain!..." Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't I already there?

 

Six Flags' future is going to be...interesting...

 

Eric

[Sir Clinksalot]

I think there are some good ideas that he's coming up with.

 

Eric, we noticed that the Philly airport food was priced low, for airport food. But I didn't know that, it makes sense.

[ParkTrips]

SFGADV has had out sourcing food places for years. We used to have a McDonald ......

 

I'm not sure exactly what he means by that, especially since most food vendors in parks are from the outside.

 

The place to raise money is not by increasing parking fees. $10 is already too much just to leave your car.

 

From what I read, he was talking about premium parking. Read the article again and tell me if I'm wrong.

[ebl]

^ You are correct, the article did say "premium parking." However, look at how fast even the regular parking has gone up. Just a couple of years ago it was $7.

 

Eric

[MF310ryb]

Parktrips I mean that GADV has food stores that are ran from in the park. Meaning the park gets the full 100% profit verses the outsiders that the park probably gets a small percentage of the profit. Some examples would be Granny's Chicken near the Big Wheel, some of the smaller food and drink stands, Best of the West near log flume, The new Out Post Grill used to be Doge House. Those places are ran by GADV the old McDonalds and the Wok N Roll are out side vendors. You can tell because they don't have the SF uniform shirt like the food places that GADV runs have on.

[XanderLee]

The only thing that bothers me about what Snyder is trying to do, is that it seems that he doesn't really know the company all too well...

 

In addition to new marketing launched around the company's 45th anniversary next year, a Snyder-controlled company would:

 

Partner with one exclusive food provider, such as a pizza company or an ice cream company, per category.

 

Create a Six Flags Rewards program to track attendees spending habits at the park.

 

Outsource concessions and sell related equipment.

 

Have official sponsorships, such as an official energy provider, a Six Flags credit card and bring cellphone, cable and satellite providers into the parks to sell their products.

 

Alright. Partnering with one exclusive food provider. Well, Six Flags has partnered with ConAgra Foods and Ben & Jerrys. Sounds about the same

 

Outsource concessions and sell related equipment. Our concessions are already outsourced. Jay Vending sucks.

 

Official Sponsorships:

Energy Provider - Direct Energy is the official provider...

Six Flags Credit Card - Go watch the banner ads on the website for a while, you'll see they already have that.

Cellphone, Cable, and Satellite providers - The SBC Experience (Cellphone, satellite, and such) has been at SFOT for a month and a half or so now.

 

It just seems to me that he isn't really trying to change all that much, he just wants the credit for it.

[Twister II]

hmm....

after!

Before...

[DonkeyBreath]

LMAO that's exactly what i'm scared would happen with Snyder in control...Red Zones Sponsorship Mountain

[rollocoast]

Besides, keeping food prices reasonable will, in my opinion, increase sales because value priced food will encourage guests to spend more on it

 

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[ebl]

Good for the park, bad for guests' stomachs!

 

Eric

[djrappa]

I think some people have really missed the point here... I'm with Robb.

 

I'll admit that I have only experienced SFMM so I'm going to have to speak with that bias...

 

What I will say about SFMM is that is was clearly once a nice park that has basically been turned sh!t, it's got some good coasters but they just barely make up for the rest of the joint. The park amenity is poor, stuff is always closed, the employees are a joke at best and then...

...we get on to the patrons. The demographic that seem to populate the place make me ill. Most of them are just 'turds' plain and simple. Noisy, obnoxious kids and teenagers with no discipline. I hate to say it but most of these I find to be from a 'particular' background.

 

If this guy can raise prices and get rid of some of the less than desirable patrons that would be a step in the right direction to begin with. Next step would be to do the same for the staff and you would be halfway there.

 

As far as food, well the food pretty much sucks so I don't see any real harm in going down the path of letting Mc Donalds, Subway or Pizza Hut in. At least people will know what they are getting and the quality of the food may improve.

 

Like some have said, they couldn't get much worse so why not bring on some changes.

[FlyingScooter]

I don't believe outsourcing food will help the parks. They tried that SFWOA and it did not work. They had a Pizza Hut, Subway and a couple of Aribica and Starbucks coffee stands. I don't remember the other restaurants they had, but it didn't help. The prices were twice as high as the Pizza Hut and others just 1-2 miles down the road.

Granted, the food smelled great, but one look at the price, and forget it. Why spend 4.50 for 3 breadsticks w/cheese when you know you can get them for half that.

The Pizza Hut manager I spoke to said they had to charge that much just to cover their rent and employee wages, (he said they paid them more because they would not get tips working at a park and the 3/4 mile walk to the stand from the parking lot kept many from applying.)

[DenDen]

I'm not a particular fan of the flags, only because I've only had 3 experiences, and all three were very disappointing. (2 at MM and one at what is now GL) Going under new ownership certainly won't hurt the parks, to me. They can't go any lower. I won't spend money at one until I hear of drastic changes.

 

When you grow up in parks with character, like Kennywood, your standards for parks are very high.

[ChrisZer0]

SFOT has been my home park since I was a kid. I think the main issues are three things:

 

A) Park Asthetic

B) Food Service

C) Dollar Value

 

 

First, The asthetic of a park, be it WDW or a Kennywood, is the key to making or breaking a day out. One reason the Disney parks are sucessful is not only because of their staff, its the fact your transported to another place,another time. SF has made some half-hearted piecemail attempts in this department over the years. With the recent ownership, who was more concerned with buying every half-assed backwoods park in places such as Pigsknuckle, Arkansas and Inbred Heights, Kentucky, they put the idea of "theming" on the back burner. Another issue along this line is filling the parks full of "cheap and easy thrills", be it a trampoline bounce, go-carts or skycoaster, which take away the "magic" a park should have.

 

Second on my list of complaints is Food Service and Quality. One thing the SF parks have severly lagged in behind other major themepark chains is food. One can make the argurment that putting in a "brand-named resturant" in the park would boost quality, sadly, it doesnt. This is place where SF should take a page from Mrs. Knotts on this one. Open up "true-sit down" resturants, one where your order is taken by a knowledgable server who knows the resturant backwards and forwards,where the food is of high quality and decent price. This can also be translated in fast service offerings as well. Hire staff who are both professional and competent in their job,unlike the ghetto thugs SF uses for their employment base now. Also make the food on site, in real back kitchens, not just warm up a pre-made dish in the nuke.

 

 

Lastly, I think its about time I get my money worth at the parks. One thing that has bothered me about SFOT,in particular, is the prices charged for admission and parking. For what the typical family pays for a summer days fun at the park, they're not getting their monies worth. The new managment team needs to start offering theme park/water park duo tickets like other park chains, in addition to selling a dual theme/water park season pass as well. Also, take a page from schlitterbahn, make a water park (such as hurricane harbor) a year round destination, by enclosing the park. This would not only attract business during the colder months, but also increase the bottom line revenue as well.

[Real]

Synders not the only one whos interested (not sure how recent or if this was brought up - didnt see it in last 3 pages)

 

http://tinyurl.com/9krzk