What If Six Flags Goes Back To B&M?

Six flags already spends $1 a year on their attractions. You think they want to spend another $20 Mil for a B&M? Six Flags used to take pride in their work, but now it's not the same.

But to take the hypothetical situation as it is, honestly I can't see anything from B&M. Every big Six Flags park has at least one B&M. The chain also has many of the standard models. However the only models that are seeing attention are the Gigas, Dives, and Hypers. If Six Flags wants something from B&M, then they'll have to introduce a new model. Maybe the surf coaster will be a hit? For now, I just see them sticking to S&S, Premier rides, RMC, and maybe GCI. I'd love to see them work with Intamin and B&M again, and even Vekoma if that ever works out.

You know they won't be working with Gerstlauer ever again thats for sure.

Where would the giga go hypothetically?

After thinking about it, I can't see any Six Flags park get a B&M giga. I mean you could demo Viper at Magic Mountain but even then, Gigas have an out and back layout while Vipers footprint is very rectangular. It could start near Viper then go out along the edge of the park going from West Coast Racer, to Batman, then back to Viper, but I don't see that happening. Great America already has a B&M hyper so thats pretty much off the table. They could demo American Eagle but I'd much rather see a GCI Hybrid conversion. Great Adventure already has a Hyper and has more than enough airtime with El Toro, Nitro, and New Jersey Devil. If the top three six flags parks can't get a giga, then the other parks for sure won't.

If Six Flags were to start buying from B&M again, I can only really see four parks in the chain big enough to justify investing $15+ million in one: Great Adventure, Great America, Magic Mountain, and Over Texas. Let's cross-reference these four with the core types of B&Ms out there:

Inverted: All four have a Batman clone, so this type is out.
Dive: None of them have a dive coaster (nor does any park in the Six Flags chain), but Over Texas is the only one of the four I could maybe see getting one. Great America is too close to Cedar Point, and both Great Adventure and Magic Mountain feature coasters with more impressive drops. However, I could see Over Texas getting a dive coaster of some sort as it's a type of ride not present in the region and other than Titan, the park doesn't have any rides known for large drops.
Wing: The last B&M ride purchased by Six Flags was X-Flight, and this was actually supposed to be a design rolled out at other parks. However, the ride's so-so response at Great America, combined with much stronger response for cheaper RMC projects in the following years, led to this plan being abandoned. If Six Flags does start buying from B&M again, I think a wing coaster is probably a safe bet for parks that lack a large mega-looping coaster, like Over Texas (and possibly a few others as well).
Hyper: Great Adventure and Great America already have B&M Hypers, and both Magic Mountain and Over Texas have Giovanola hypers, so I doubt those parks would get one either. You could argue that Six Flags could do a giga as none of their parks have one, but past management has stated they don't feel there's much advantage to building a giga over a hyper (in fact, Cedar Fair is reportedly done with gigas) and Six Flags isn't a company that would ever drop $30+ million on a coaster.
Flying: Over Texas is the only one of the four parks that doesn't have one of these already, but it is a design that seems to have largely fallen out of favor due to poor capacity. I wouldn't count on one of these.
Floorless: Another design that experienced a burst of popularity when it was introduced then lost interest, I don't see this as particularly likely at either Great America or Over Texas (Great Adventure and Magic Mountain already have one). However, it is one of the few types that would make sense at Great America as they've been lacking a large multi-inversion coaster since Shockwave closed.

The short version of all that is that I don't see future B&Ms as too likely, but if there are any I expect them to show up in Texas and likely be of the wing or dive variety. However, given that Six Flags is getting similar attendance bumps through more modestly priced coasters (or even major flat rides like the Giant Discovery), I'd bet against even that in the foreseeable future.

Great analysis AJ. I completely forgot about the wing model, but maybe that's because X-flight was so bad that I don't want to see any other wing coaster come to a six flags park. I also agree with you on a dive possibly coming to Over Texas. Maybe when La Vibora has reached it lifespan the park could demo that and that log ride next to it and put in a dive.

A little off topic but I am really excited to see Six Flags' newfound relationship with Mack (if you don't count those dark knight clones). Ik they're up there with B&M and Intamin in terms of price, but I'd love to see a Time Traveller or DC Hyper coaster come to one of the big Six Flags parks.

I will say that Six Flags did work with B&M to convert Apocalypse into Firebird at SFA just last year.

But, in the end it comes down to $$$, and with the added pressures from the pandemic, I doubt SF will buy a Cadillac (B&M) when they can only afford a Chevy (S&S or RMC). You do get what you pay for with B&Ms demonstrating long-standing reliability and high capacities, but SF is all about getting the attendance/revenue bump from the first year of a new coaster, so B&M just doesn't fit into their profile and goals right now.

As a stock model, the Mack PowerSplash is only around $10 million and qualifies as both a roller coaster and a water ride, so I do suspect Six Flags will buy more of these for installation at various parks. However, I'm doubtful we'll see any custom projects from Mack, as their rides are comparably priced to B&Ms yet don't offer anything that can't be done more cheaply by Premier, RMC, or S&S. As much as I'd love to see Mack hypercoasters or launch coasters in the US, I don't think Six Flags is likely to deliver any of either.

I expect more PowerSplashs to come to six flags parks and a inverting PowerSplash to SFMM and SFGA. And yeah, I dont see SF doing much else with Mack other than their cheaper models but, I just really want some of their cooler models on the west coaster. Mainly I just want to ride a hypercoaster backwards... It sucks that the only intense backwards riding experiences are so far away from the US. Did you ever experience that summer where they made Batman at SFMM backwards? Man I'd take that version over the one we have now.

Yes, I did ride Batman backwards...I got off the sickest I've ever been from a coaster. I was there on a fairly busy day and the ride only had a two train wait, so it was telling most of the public wasn't into it.

As far as Mack on the west coast goes, I think Magic Mountain's next coaster after the rumored raptor will probably be a PowerSplash, but for a custom ride Knott's is the only park in California I could maybe see going for Mack. To be honest, with the exception of Time Traveler I haven't been that impressed by any Mack coaster I've ridden, and have often found similar rides by other manufacturers to be superior (for example, while I still like the ride, Manta is probably my least favorite magnetic launch coaster in California except Mummy).