Six Flags Park Sale is Official
Press Release Details
Six Flags Further Streamlines Its Portfolio With Agreements to Divest Seven Parks
March 05, 2026
Transaction Will Optimize the Company’s Portfolio, Sharpen its Strategic Focus and Strengthen its Financial Position by Accelerating Deleveraging
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: FUN) (“Six Flags” or the “Company”), North America’s largest regional amusement park operator, today announced it has entered into definitive agreements to sell seven of its parks to EPR Properties (NYSE: EPR) (“EPR”) for total cash consideration of $331 million, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. The transaction represents a significant milestone in the Company’s disciplined portfolio optimization strategy and is designed to sharpen operational focus while further enhancing its liquidity position.
The parks included in the transaction are Valleyfair (Minneapolis, Minn.), Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, Mo.), Michigan’s Adventure (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston (Galveston, Texas), Six Flags St. Louis (St. Louis, Mo.), Six Flags Great Escape (Queensbury, N.Y.) and Six Flags La Ronde (Montreal, QC). Collectively, the parks entertained approximately 4.5 million guests for the full year ended Dec. 31, 2025, generating approximately $260 million in net revenue and approximately $45 million in Adjusted EBITDA. Cash proceeds, after taxes and transaction expenses, will be used to pay down debt. On an after-tax basis, net proceeds are expected to be slightly beneficial to the Company’s leverage ratio.
“Consistent with our strategy, this divestiture enables us to concentrate our capital, leadership and operational focus on the properties that we believe generate the strongest returns and offer the greatest long-term upside,” said Six Flags President and CEO John Reilly. “Since joining the Company, I have been clear that Six Flags’ earnings power has been under-realized. This transaction will simplify our portfolio, strengthen our balance sheet and position us to execute with greater clarity and discipline.”
Reilly continued, “By focusing our resources on the parks that we believe have the highest growth potential, we expect to drive operating leverage, expand margins and accelerate our cash flow generation.”
EPR plans to partner with Enchanted Parks to run the six domestic properties and La Ronde Operations, Inc., a company owned by Kieran Burke, to operate Six Flags La Ronde following completion of the transaction. EPR will retain the right to utilize the Six Flags brand through the end of 2026, subject to certain requirements, and no significant impact on guests is expected during this transition. The parks will continue their regular operating schedules, and all season passes sold will be recognized through the 2026 operating season, including multi-park pass privileges at other parks within the Six Flags’ portfolio.
Reilly concluded, “We know how much these parks mean to our guests and to the incredible teams who bring them to life every day. Decisions like this are never taken lightly. We’re confident the parks will be in good hands with EPR and its partners, who have strong experience operating parks of this quality and scale. At the same time, this move allows Six Flags to concentrate on the parks that we believe offer the greatest opportunities for growth and long-term success. Our goal is to continue creating amazing experiences for all our guests, and this agreement helps us stay focused on that commitment.”
Six Flags said it plans to operate its remaining collection of 34 parks across 23 locations in North America for the 2026 season.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter or beginning of the second quarter, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions and receipt of third-party approvals.
Perella Weinberg Partners acted as financial advisor to Six Flags, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP acted as legal counsel.
Replies (3)
Velo - EPR Properties is a REIT (real estate investment trust). It looks like they will be the holding company, and then Enchanted Parks and Resorts will be the newly formed operating company. EPR properties will own the actual assets, but not run them. (This is unfortunately how many of the Vegas casino companies are structured, and it has caused financial difficulties for years as the operating companies must continually cut costs or increase revenue through resort fees, parking fees, and check-in fees to continue making their payments to the asset holders.) This structure does not give me a lot of hope that these properties will be in any better financial position than Six Flags.
From their website: EPR Properties(NYSE:EPR) is the leading experiential real estate investment trust (REIT), specializing in select enduring experiential properties in the real estate industry.
The most interesting part of this is that for the 2026 season, the divested parks will honor all 2026 SF season passes. The timing of this is what's most peculiar, because this announcement has occurred just before most of these parks open for the year, so folks who have bought season passes for the year were already invested in the parks and there's no way SF could cut those customers off. So instead of waiting until the summer to execute this transaction and make a "clean" break with these parks, SF is instead plowing forward, and likely having to compensate EPR for the potential lost revenue from existing season pass visits (no doubt there is some agreement behind the scenes that will determine the compensation based on each park's attendance from season pass member. Six Flags did note in their announcement that they're allowing EPR to use the SF branding this year, and likely will allow them to utilize other IPs, so perhaps that's the quid pro quo instead of an actual payment for season passholder visits.
Nonetheless, this has been in the works for months now, so it's not surprising that it's happening, just the timing that's a bit peculiar. It will be interesting to see what the actual amount is that EPR is paying for these properties, and if these parks actually perform better under a new operations team in 2026 and what immediate changes are made to the parks. At some point these parks will need to de-IP their attractions, though it's interesting to note that these parks are some of the least IP-heavy parks in the entire chain - perhaps that's what made them so appealing to EPR since it wouldn't take much effort to strip these parks of their licensed IPs.
However, the most interesting part of this announcement is that while this divestment was anticipated, the specific parks that are part of this is rather surprising, particular from EPR's perspective. In particular, 3 pairs of parks that are part of this deal have significant overlap in their markets, and the perception was that any divestment from SF would jettison just one park in these markets, not both. Perhaps SF didn't see value trying to stay in these markets because there was no clear "winner" between these pairs of parks, but the fact that EPR will essentially be competing with themselves right out of the gate is a bit unusual. Worlds of Fun and SFStL aren't direct competitors, but they do overlap markets just like Valleyfair/Michigan's Adventure and Great Escape/LaRonde, so either SF couldn't decide which one of these parks to keep or EPR wanted to generate regional value by owning parks that can share resources and marketing and not have to compete with SF in these smaller markets.
"EPR"? Is that Enchanted Parks and Resorts?