Six Flags to close one of its parks after this year

Not a shock really given how little investment this park gets which is usually hand me downs plus it does sit on valuable real estate.
Now perhaps they can move most if not all the rides from SFA to Michigan's Adventure.
So now the question is who is next on the chopping block? Great Escape? Darien Lake? Frontier City? La Ronde? Valley Fair?

The only surprise here is that they announced its closure before closing it.

In all seriousness it was obvious this was going to go from the moment the merger was announced. Its in direct competition with KD, the land is valuable since its next to DC, and its just a really bad park that would take an insane amount of money to bring up to standards.

I always got a kick out of how this park was the poster child for the early 2000s era Kirean Burke/Gary Story Six Flags manifest destiny where they tried to buy almost every non corporate park in the country, add a bunch of big roller coasters (and other rides), not do anything to the parks infrastructure, then run it like hot garbage so everyone hates it and it ends up being dead and losing money anyway. They literally built one narrow long path in the middle of a grass field that leads all the way to Superman and Batwing and there is nothing else there, it looks ridiculous.

@the_man25,0n the contrary I don't think it's a bad park at all. Haven't been there in years but I was impressed with how hospitable team members were. I was probably in my mid to late sixties when I visited and some people are unusually solicitous of those who are older than the typical park guest. One team member greeted me cordially and asked whether there was anything he could do to help. Apart from that, the rides were enjoyable. There was nothing really spectacular but Superman, Joker's Jinx and Batwing were worth making the trip. Vekoma Flying Dutchman coasters are among my favorite models - I give high marks to coasters which are unusual and innovative - and with both Firehawk and Nighthawk gone, Batwing was the only one remaining. It won't be relocated; it will go to the scrapyard. I wish that I had visited this park more than once; only reason I didn't is that of all the parks I've visited, this one was the most challenging to find, basically in the middle of nowhere, which may have been part of the problem.

Unfortunately for me, the most notable ride here was Batwing. It'd always been a bucket list coaster for me and I'd always promised myself I'd go. This is just like La Vibora- the death of a kind. I wish I'd at least gotten to ride one of the other, but now my only source of weird old flying coasters are those Zamperla Volaires that look like medieval torture devices.

I can't say I'm surprised by the decision to close this park, but I am a bit surprised that the new Six Flags didn't give it a couple seasons for the new investment to set in before making the call. During Bassoul's tenure, this was one of the parks that got the most capital as it was viewed as one with untapped potential, but it seems new Six Flags would rather cash it in for an instant paycheck than reap the smaller rewards year over year that may have resulted if the recent investments had been successful. In the grand scheme of the chain the park was fairly insignificant, but it does mean the Washington-Baltimore area no longer has a local park and residents will now need to travel 90+ minutes to Hersheypark or Kings Dominion, which could absolutely lose a portion of SFA's passholder base.

So SFA is technically my "home" park since it's the closest park to my house geographically. I'm not really surprised at this closure with KD about a 90-minute drive away and SFGAdv a 2.5 hour drive away, and other competing parks within reasonable driving distance including BGW, Hersheypark, and Dorney Park, because SFA was easily the weakest of all of the major theme parks in the Mid-Atlantic region.

However, I'm a bit surprised by the sudden timing of this, though I think this abrupt decision may be related to this week's news that the Washington Commanders have signed a term sheet with Washington DC to build a new stadium at the RFK site. If this deal actually goes through, it will create a massive vacant property less than 8 miles from SFA (you can see the current stadium in Landover from the top of Superman and Wonder Woman). As part of the proposed move, the Commanders have reportedly agreed to help Maryland redevelop the Northwest Stadium (formerly FedEx Field) property, which is within walking distance of a Metro station.

Why would the football team relocating back into DC impact a theme park? It's very simple, there are only so many major development projects that can occur at the same time in close proximity. If SFA, which is not within walking distance to a Metro station (you have to transfer to a bus from the subway if you want to take public transportation to the park), waited just a year or 2 to sell its property, major developers would be hesitant to buy knowing that the Landover stadium property would soon be available and is a far more attractive parcel compared to SFA. By getting ahead of the Commanders move, Six Flags is able to optimize the value of their property.

FWIW, SFA is not a terrible park, and for my money has a better attraction lineup than some other smaller parks in the Six Flags chain like Valleyfair, SFStl, Worlds of Fun, Great America, Great Escape, and Darien Lake. The problem is that it is too close to other theme parks that are way better and have historically committed to theming to the point that whatever SFA did seemed like a cut-rate, discount version of what other nearby parks were doing.

The most disappointing part of this announcement is that it impacts a lot of people who relied on this park. SFA was a major employer of local college students (many from Morgan State and Bowie State as well as the University of Maryland), and had quite a few unique entertainment offerings that employed local artistic talent. I think SFA and SFoG were the last parks in the chain that were running a full-time stunt show, and the cast/crew at SFA won numerous industry awards for their presentations over the years. Also, seasonal offerings (Halloween and Christmas mostly) employed lots of local talent who will now lose opportunities to perform in front of an audience. Finally, Six Flags provided a safe and inexpensive place for local youth to spend the day during the summer. While Prince George's County has become far more affluent over the past 20 years, SFA is an inexpensive entertainment option for lower income families. There are only so many pools and recreation centers that a county can operate, and SFA provided a similar function on a much larger scale, which helped to provide something for local kids to do when school is out for the summer.

While it's nice that SF is giving folks plenty of notice before closing this park, I could definitely see operations this season grinding to an all time low. Employees will have ZERO incentive to work at this park, and longer tenured employees that actually cared about the park's presentation will lose all incentive to keep the park running reasonably efficient. This season could be a slow decline into oblivion for a park that I thought was making incremental improvements over the past few years and had promise to become a decent regional amusement park.

After the merger announcement a lot of folks noted the combo of poor park performance and extremely valuable real estate would be difficult for SFA to overcome. I could see the new Six Flags getting out of the management contracts for Darien Lake and Frontier City. And if Herschend has some cash left over flipping Great Escape, which fits much better in that portfolio.

I'm not surprised, and I have to say good riddance. The one time I went, it was a sad experience. One-train operations, entire sections of the park closed, or rides down for extended refurbishments. IN THE SUMMER.

They could easily build some affordable, medium-density housing in this space. There are far better parks within driving distance, and SFA was never going to be able to compete with them.

I loathed my day at Six Flags America last year, a horribly ugly park with gutter-level operations that was somehow overcrowded and lifeless at the same time.

However, I think this is a really sad bit of news. Batwing is a great ride and a major loss, even if I had accepted the death of the Flying Dutchman a long time ago. Wild One is well over 100 years old and Roar was running well last year and still had plenty left to give; two more historic wooden roller coasters sent to the scrap heap in what's become an incredibly alarming trend for preservationists. And perhaps worst of all, as Russell alluded to, SFA served a part of the population that doesn't really have access to theme parks, and this safe place is being taken away from them.

This merger has been a death sentence hanging over the American regional park scene, and I fear we are still just in the opening stages of its assault.

No shock, by reports one of the poorer-maintained Six Flags parks. Still sad to see it end, especially as they just opened this cool-looking Steampunk section that promised new life to the place.

I live in the DMV area and have been going to SFA for years

While it is sad to see any big park close down, I cannot say I am a bit surprised with this move. SFA was never a destination park, and was visited mainly by theme park junkies and locals. And with the merger, there are other SF owned parks within an hour or two away.

It was also hard to ignore the enormity of the tract of land this park sat on. Only a fraction of that land was useable for the park itself, given its proximity to residential areas.

While this was far from being a 'bad' park, there was very little investment made since the early 2000's Premier spending spree. The layout was very awkward and incohesive. The coaster selection was decent, with S:ROS and Joker's Jinx being two of my favorites in a SF park.

I maintain faith that the SF chain is moving in the right direction even though ride and park closures will sting at first.