Are we witnessing the end of the regional theme park?

I've floated this idea before and had it widely panned, but I think that the big players need to start buying regional parks and start treating them like the minor leagues in MLB. Get some synergy from the corporate structure, the IP, and the ride designs.

For those of you who are going to say that it will dilute the goodwill and perception of quality that both Disney and Universal have, I can only say one thing - DVC, specifically the DVC towers on Bay Lake.

@Tim Interesting idea. In some ways it looks like both Disney and Universal are making that move--Universal with the all-year horror experience in LV and the family park in TX, and Disney with the cruise business. If they were to purchase other parks they would have to expend tremendous capital just to get them up to the brand standard, and then risk cannibalizing the big parks' business. But, it will be interesting to see how the future pans out. You may be right that a low-mid regional option continues to be built out by those who can. I think Dollywood is the model. Knott's was as well--but I don't see how you sustain the quality without a park-specific executive to run it... At this point, I would love to see Six Flags sell Knott's to Herschend, a company that I think is better aligned with the park's history and approach. That would also maintain competition in the LA market. But they just finished their round of consolidation as well...

@Jonah I’d also love to see Herschend take control of Knott’s. It survived the Cedar Fair takeover, I’m not sure how well it will cope with this merger.

@Jacob, I'm honestly worried about Knott's because it has been the gem in that company's lineup. I would love for ideally Herschend or Merlin, which has fantastic parks in the UK, to buy Knott's and give it the love it deserves.

Good article with good insight but why all this hatred directed towards Spirit??? Before the pandemic (when I still had a job and enough money to travel frequently to theme parks) I visited SFOT once a year, flying to DFW on Spirit. Never had a problem with these flights. They departed and landed on time and the price was right, even after adding on the cost of a seat and carry-on bag. (Unfortunately, this route has been discontinued.) I believe that one of my flights to Orlando was on Spirit. And while the customer service at the airport was less than stellar, this airline got me where I wanted to go so I wouldn't hesitate to fly Spirit again. If Spirit is more akin to Six Flags America than to Disney, sobeit, as I view air travel as a means to an end and nothing more.

This is a really interesting topic that probably deserves some more ink from this site, but is so often drowned out by coverage of destination parks, and rightfully so. However, I strongly believe that regional parks are essential to the success of the destination parks. For most, not only is it impractical to visit a destination park on a regular basis, but it's financially difficult. Regional park experiences should help foster expectations and enthusiasm for visits to destination parks, and perhaps a bit of competition with neighboring regional parks.

Realistically, that regional competition hasn't really happened in decades as the number of truly independent parks have declined or been consumed by the larger regional park operators (Cedar Fair, Six Flags, Herschend, and Palace). Even when Six Flags and Cedar Fair led the market, their parks were aligned in such a way that very few of their parks truly competed against each other, which is why their merger makes a lot of sense geographically. However, the way the the new Six Flags is choosing to manage their parks on a regional level somewhat undermines what makes individual parks successful. There is no singular strategy to operating a regional park, because each regional (and subregional) market is unique not only from a customer's perspective, but also from a staffing perspective. There is no one-size fits all approach to managing a regional theme park, even within larger regions like the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West Coast (predicted regions under SF management). If Six Flags does indeed start managing their current park portfolio in this way, it's pretty clear to me that the "flagship" parks in each of the regions will get all the attention, while those smaller parks will struggle to survive not only from a resource/capital expenditure perspective, but from an overall operational and customer service perspective. You cannot manage SFNE the same way you manage SFGAdv, and the same goes for Cedar Point and SFStL/WoF.

If Six Flags is going to manage all of these small market parks, they need to have the autonomy and flexibility (and support) to being managed at the park level, not a regional level with a singular regional manager making decisions from hundreds of miles away.

My hope is that Six Flags will eventually realize this and that the current park managers are able to instill some common sense into the new regional-level management, because these smaller parks will eventually fade from the landscape as SF chases bottom-line revenue that the smaller markets just can't generate.

Personally, I think SF would work best as a franchise where they empower local park management and ops to create value within the structure of a generalized park plan. Parks would get a certain amount of annual investment to operate and maintain their parks along with a rolling capital improvement budget (perhaps on a 3 or 5-year basis depending on the size of their market) to install or revamp attractions. As a large company, SF could leverage their size and corporate-level experience to reduce the R&D costs for smaller parks to add big attractions, but ultimately, the parks would be responsible for adding what's right for their individual markets and creating theming that works best for their parks.

Ultimately, SF needs to understand that they're not competing with Disney and Universal, and have to utilize their consolidation and efficiency to not only save costs, but to ensure that their parks remain regionally focused. While most of their guests will probably visit Disney and Universal parks, their parks will fill a vital role just like minor league baseball teams provide cheaper, closer entertainment for folks who just can't afford or travel to an MLB park, certainly not for every game.

@Bobbie

Spirit Airlines is notoriously not great at getting customers to their final destination on time, but I'm glad you have had good experiences! My point wasn't so much that Spirit sucks (although I think it does) it's that this "unbundling" of amenities makes for a crummy guest experience. As I noted, you can live with that on an airplane -- it's not your final destination by definition! But the same unbundling of amenities that you experience at a Six Flags in 2025 ruins the whole point of going in the first place.

@Russell

Agreed. One of my biggest concerns with this merger and the reshuffling that's come with it is that we're straying even further from the local control necessary to make these parks successful. You need people on the ground that understand the market, understand the staff and understand their guests. Now, you could reasonably argue that these presidents have been so disempowered by corporate in the past that they had little impact, but scrapping the position entirely isn't going to solve anything.

I would love to see these parks taken from corporate hands without the financial pressure to boost the stock price every quarter, but I fear we've gone too far down this road to go back. At least, not without many, many parks closing in the process.

I believe the regional amusement park market to be in solid shape, given Kabletown's Texas investment and Herschend paying a billion plus for a portfolio of family focused parks. The regional thrill park model, where parks are required to make regular 8 figure investments in extreme roller coasters that appeal to a small percentage of their least profitable guests, is indeed dead. And it appears that management of the merged Six Flags/Cedar Fair entity knows this, with the recent removal of coasters that may be loved by enthusiasts but don't positively impact the bottom line. I'm hoping that we will see more focus on staffing, maintenance, landscaping, dark rides and original theming at the new Six Flags, but we shall see.

I'm not sure the Big Two getting into the regional market is a good idea. Out of all of Kabletown's expansion activities, I am the least confident in the Frisco property. At the local level price is a major motivator and I am not sure day guests will be willing to pay extra to enjoy lightly themed off the shelf attractions. And you don't want to risk consumers settling for the local property when you can empty their wallets at your destination resort.

I wish Six Flags didnt have the DC rights. Justice League Battle for Metropolis was a cool dark ride but I rode it about 10 years ago in Texas and they havent really done anything that picks my interest since then.

This is one of the best main page articles written in the history of this site. I 100% agree with everything Jake says. The reason these parks are in trouble is because the corporations that own/run them have run them into the ground, meanwhile the parks that do care (Dollywood, SDC, Silverwood etc) are doing better than ever. As far as Six Flags is concerned all amusement parks are, are numbers on a spreadsheet. Its simple capitalism, if you suck your business is going to suck.

Also Six Flags CEOs go like this: A lawyer with no theme park experience, a TV executive (in his 30s) with no theme park experience, a healthcare supply executive with no theme park experience, and a soda/junk food executive with no theme park experience. Zimmerman, Cedar Fair's CEO, is the first person they have had in like 40 years who actually has theme park management experience.

I was at Six Flags Great America recently and the last structure they have built that actually looks good was from the 90s when they built Southwest Territory. Literally nothing else built in the last 30 years has any artistry or even any thought to it (you could argue TDK's entrance facade looks good, but that was just putting lipstick on the old Theatre Royale). Even the new Wrath of R-whatever ride that people are praising, the rides plaza is literally a concrete pad with the track going overhead. They built a big RMC but re-used Iron Wolfs old queue, and not only that they re-used the station as well and just built a little extension on the end of it since the train is longer. It looks like a**. They shoehorned an S&S launch coaster into the park but re-used the old Pictorium entrance sign and walkway (yes, literally used the same SIGN) and it looks like a**. Don't get me started on the DC area...like if you're not going to even try then don't do it in the first place because its embarrassing. The Mardi Gras area, which opened with four new rides, only one is left (to be fair one was replaced, but it was replaced with a S&S freespin which basically means it wasn't replaced). Also Roaring Rapids, the sole other ride that is left in that area, has been SBNO for several years. The Kidzopolis/old Wiggles area, which used to be under a big tent (that was Eagles old queue house), the tent must have fallen down or been removed or something, but the frame of the tent is still there. It looks absolutely atrocious. Then on top of that the area is totally neglected cosmetically and its easily one of the worst kept areas I have seen at any amusement park anywhere in the world. And not only that 3 of the 4 rides in that area have ride vehicles that are tied off. I could go on and on about the volume of visible deferred maintenance. Quite frankly going to SFGAm now is heart breaking. One of the days I went was a Saturday in June and it wasn't very busy, when I was younger SFGAm was PACKED every Saturday during the summer with no exceptions. People just don't like it anymore even with the insanely cheap season passes.

"Now, you could reasonably argue that these presidents have been so disempowered by corporate in the past that they had little impact, but scrapping the position entirely isn't going to solve anything."

I think that's a bit of a misconception, because I do think local park managers had some control over their parks. They weren't necessarily designing or planning new rides and attractions, but they did have the ability to allocate resources to different aspects of operations. Now, some park managers were probably hamstrung by the markets where they operate in having to pay higher wages or more for subcontracted services, but you could see some levels of independence between parks within both SF and Cedar Point chains before the merger happened. I think the general thought from SF leadership is that they feel like they can do better with a top-down approach, but ultimately what I think will end up happening is a greater gap opening between the "haves" and the "have nots" within the chain. In the end, the accountants have taken over, and the smaller parks just don't give the same ROI that the larger parks do, so they will continue to lag further and further behind in terms of investment.

The answer to the headline question is...no. Regional amusement parks aren't going anywhere. I can understand the concern or the questions people have about the recent state of the industry, but people in their enthusiasm and fandom tend to think that these places operate in a vacuum where endless money rains from the sky, and it doesn't work that way. It's an epidemic, the subsequent political and economic measures that were taken, and the necessary industry reaction to survive. We have to go back to the reasons why we are where we are.

1.Covid- 2020 was essentially a lost year for most of these places. Lost attendance, lost revenue, lost operating days, still gotta staff the park (at twice the rate in a lot of parks), still gotta pay the bills, still gotta service the existing debt. I'm not sure people appreciate the insane amount of money they had to borrow just to keep the lights on. Fortunately for them, money was cheap because of the low interest rate...until.

2.Interest Rate Spike/inflation- Another thing people don't quite appreciate is the kind of economic shock that happens to the system when the Fed raises base interest rates from a quarter of a point to 5.5 points in the span of about a year. That's essentially a 2100% increase in the cost of borrowing money in just a few quarters, and that hurts companies that don't have bottomless pockets courtesy of media conglomerate parent companies. Lines of operating credit are the lifeline of all businesses, and financing for expansion and improvement is essential to parks. That spike takes a little while to really hit, and the consequences are still being felt. It doesn't just hit amusement parks, it hits other industries like...

Insurance- Anyone notice how much more expensive their various forms of insurance have gotten compared to a few years ago? Home insurance, car insurance, business insurance..etc. There's a reason for that, and it ain't really natural disasters or fires or whatever, it's because that spike goes to the heart of how insurance companies are actually able to operate and make money and pay out claims (bonds and other bank instruments). Those costs have hit us all personally, and they've hit the industry just as much. Anyone notice the extra amount of rides not currently operating or being removed around the industry this year? It's not because they want to, it's partially or more because insurance companies are probably hacking them like they've hacked the public.

There's a few more financial bullets beyond these that the industry has taken as well as a result of the above factors (wages, inflation, fuel costs), so we are at a point where getting the financial house in order is of paramount importance to the new Six Flags. Cedar Fair management taking the controls of these parks is the best thing to happen, because they have a history of fiscal responsibility, minding the balance sheet and simply operating better than the old Six Flags ever did. Anyone who ever did a real A/B comparison between old Cedar Fair and old Six Flags parks knows that all too well.

And in order to not "lag behind in terms of investment", that unfortunately means that internal changes have to happen and some things are going to have to go for the greater good. Six Flags America has been basically ignored for the better part of 20 years. It isn't that popular, doesn't make money, would cost a lot to get up to speed and more importantly, is surrounded by more successful operations within driving distance. Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Great Adventure, even Dorney Park, all making money doing better in their own right, all on the up. All that and SFA sits on prime real estate that will go a long way to righting the financial ship. Makes sense that this one would have to go, even though nobody likes to see it happen.

Not only do I think that regional parks aren't going anywhere, but I think that as the company sheds the enormous financial weight they've had to shoulder the past few years, that the parks will emerge much better than they were and thrive. I think you'll see the parks in the Atlanta and Chicago and St Louis and Dallas area level up a bunch, along with Carowinds in Charlotte. Magic Mountain and Great Adventure and some the other SF legacy parks will keep trucking and be better operationally and aesthetically, and even the smaller parks in the chain will be solid, as most of those have a market essentially to themselves.

End of the day, not everyone can swing the time required for a Disney or Universal visit, and don't kill me...not everyone cares that much or even likes those guys enough to pay that much money or even go there at all. Many like to stick close to home.

I'd find all that a lot more believable if I thought these parks were in great shape until they got boned by COVID and then inflation. I do not think that. Those financial impacts are real, of course, but I think they're merely accelerants of what was already happening because ... well, I already wrote about it.

Russell brought this up in the other comment threat, but I am also deeply skeptical closing Six Flags America will turn into a massive financial windfall.

And again ... Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Great Adventure and Dorney Park are not close to Washington D.C. Regular people are not driving more than an hour for a park like that on an annual basis, and they're certainly not going multiple times a year.

I agree with others who say the staffing (more specifically the lack thereof) is what will kill regional parks. The big boys like Disney and Universal have the funds to give workers what they want and they still have hiring gaps for less desirable positions. Good luck finding locals who will agree to work for less with fewer benefits.

@James - That's a great point, but I think it does come down to the overall operational structure of the typical regional park. Very few SF parks have a capability to operate a full year round schedule, which means a large percentage of employees are part-timers. Some parks have been able to deal with this issue by using foreign labor and have tailored their schedules to optimize their available workforce. Cedar Fair attempted to shift a few parks to a year-round schedule, which allowed them to create more full time positions, but the financial returns from the additional operational days proved the expanded schedule was not viable. The hope was that a park could tread water during the winter months when parks were scarcely attended, but those losses would be offset by the decreased labor costs because the parks wouldn't need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to train new part-time employees every year since more and more workers would stay with the company year-round. Also, the thought was that by keeping the parks open year-round, maintenance costs would be reduced by not having to winterize attractions and then reverse that process in the spring to get everything ready for the new season. Ultimately, those potential costs savings were never realized, though they only gave it one year (during the aftermath of pandemic no-less), but I doubt it's something they want to take a risk with again.

It has been proven again and again that it's not always great attractions, great theming, or great shows that make a great theme park, it's great customer service and great employees. An excellent interaction with a theme park employee can plaster over so many issues, and when parks are not willing to invest in their employees, that disdain and indifference is reflected in how those employees treat customers. I remember about 15 years ago, SF actually spent some money on additional training and uniforms that displayed the saying "My family goes here too". In one respect, that campaign was about drawing attention to employees who were members of the local community to empower them to approach working the park like they were caring for their home. However, it kind of backfired, because it instead created apathy and unrealistic expectations from employees who still weren't treated with any sort of respect from guests.

One (not the only) reason for Six Flags America’s closure seems to be a relative lack of investment in the park for decades. Of course it’s such a low performer in the grand scheme of things. Locals don’t need to constantly revisit a place that’s getting nothing new, especially when the DC area has other entertainment options. This is not a, “Michigan’s Adventure situation.” Also, whether these places like it or not, locals teens are (and have always been) a cornerstone of their business. Boxing them out with higher prices, fewer new thrill rides, and Chaperone Policies will not help these parks in the long run. Yes, cater to families, but balance matters and teens / young adults need, “third places.”

@John - TBF, there were investments in SFA over the years, they just didn't get any major new roller coasters. I've been covering the park for TPI since it's in my home region, and have reported on some (but not all) the additions over nearly the past 2 decades. Here's a list of some of the major investments since the last "new" coaster (Batwing) was added back in June 2001...

Ragin' Cajun - Relocated from SFGA in 2014
Firebird - Relocated from SFGA (as Iron Wolf and named Apocalpse in 2012) and transitioned to floorless trains in 2019
Bonzai Pipeline - Trap door slide complex installed in 2013
RipQurl - Replaced Bonzai Pipeline in 2024
Wahoo River - Enhanced "lazy" river installed in 2018
Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth - Opened 2017
Harley Quinn Spinsanity - Opened 2021
Bourbon Street Fireball - Opened 2015, but closed in 2024
Steamtown - Debuted 2024 and featured the new Steamwhirler flat ride and revamps/rethemes of attractions including new trains and overhaul for Mind Eraser, becoming Professor Screamore's Skywinder

This doesn't include the other smaller "spot" improvements like retracking Roar, VR experiences on Superman and Mind Eraser, and other minor changes like the new bathroom structure near Superman. Sure, SFA didn't get anything massive, but it wasn't completely ignored like Michigan's Adventure or some other parks. I'd say SF probably invested upwards of $30-50 million in this park over the past 20-25 years. Now, that's probably what the chain spends in a single year collectively on their 4 flagship parks (SFMM, SFGA, SFGAdj, and SFoT), but it's not pocket change for a park that probably doesn't generate a ton of revenue for the chain.

You don’t need to build new stuff every year to keep locals interested … if the park is well staffed and, generally speaking, a good place to hang out. But these parks have done a very poor job of maintaining that vibe, quite the contrary to places like Dollywood and, to a lesser extent, Knott’s Berry Farm.

Dollywood is the gold standard, and what all parks should aspire to as far as maintenance, friendly staff, and ample entertainment offerings for between rides. The only thing it could use more of is some attractions that are friendly for the entire family, having a lot of kiddy rides as well as a lot of great coasters but not a lot inbetween.

Agreed, Dollywood needs a dark ride or two. Same for the Busch Gardens parks. Williamsburg invests in new coasters every year, but they don't have much for the entire family.

I've wanted to have this conversation with smart, even-tempered park fans like myself for some time. As a lifelong fan of Marritott's Great America (yup! an order of magnitude superior when operated by a HOSPITALITY company) I've followed SF and the industry since the 80s. There's so much to add to the conversation...

I think SF has changed hands so many times and through so many eras that a distinct brand identity never really formed. The list of under or un-qualified CEOS is kinda staggering. Each came to re-invent the company but ultimately failed to do so; and then the bankruptcy in 2009. In my recollection, Anderson took over after and implemented cheap passes / memberships. Presto. SF had passive income and the parks slid even further than they already had. Why bother when the money was already coming in the bank? So this was the condition of the parks at the point of the merger, a reliable but saturated customer base constantly paying in with on-going degradation to maintenance, f&B, and value proposition for the unique visitor. My hope is that CF's post covid strategy (Seasons of Fun as I understand it) to invest heavily in family entertainment, f&b and overall guest experience to increase spending per visit/unique visits would be implemented across the new chain.

Not sure. Opening day 2025 at Great America (IL) was a total disaster. We waited an hour in the parking lot, standing in line, just to enter the park. And then the park was completely unprepared to operate at any capacity. Lines/dispatches excruciatingly long, food service overwhelmed, park looking just sad overall like nothing was done is the preceding 6 months... It was a joyless exercise that should have been an exciting, fun day. The comment earlier describing the visit to Great America as heartbreaking felt so true to me. Yukon Territory, without the waterfront, is an exhaust ridden (go karts) noxious corridor to the decidedly underwhelming DC Uni. It's just sad considering the Marriott days when the main entrance gate was repainted DAILY to maintain the dazzle.

There are so many great points made here, this is just what comes to my mind first, having given this a ton of thought from the POV of a park fan and from industry analysis. However, this really IS an extraordinary opportunity for the right visionary: forty plus properties and immediate brand recognition, regional accents to f&b, festivals and theming, entire demographics to unlock esp 30 somethings. We'll see. On my last visit the sound design of the park changed. The original park soundtrack was restored. The whatever-licensed, too loud pop music that drained the place of any uniqueness was replaced by period instrumental music appropriate to each themed land. The atmosphere was improved, transportive, maybe sophisticated. But the park setting (building maintenance, landscaping, liveliness) lagged so far, far behind it.

This is really not a homogenous problem. A park like Dollywood or one of the smaller seaside parks can get away with small incremental changes or none at all if the park is a supplement to a larger experience like a week at the beach or the mountains. The parks that serve primarily an urban audience like Kennywood or SFA have a bigger problem as it takes new or improved attractions to drive attendance numbers as a visit is usually just a day trip. Add in the complication that the population is trending older and older patrons want more expensive family-style attractions instead of head-banging rollercoasters, and the profit margin just gets tighter.
Ultimately, I think we're going to see some winnowing of the urban parks simply because they can't compete with the upper echelon chains like Disney and Universal, and young people have far more competition for their entertainment dollar than previous generations.

NOT being American (at all), is leaving me with serious doubts in this very topic.
Starting with the fake generic denomination "theme park", when in 99% of cases, you mean "amusement park".
Real theme parks, are VERY rare. (Worldwide, less then 1% .. ???)
WALT (lol) Disney, explained what a "Theme Park" is, or should be. But 30 years later, the word was abused all over, with zero accredibility. Idiotic.. lol

It's late near nighttime here now, I could probably write again tomorrow.
I know, this topic (as written), is USA-only in nature.
It's a major problem :-)
............................................

Knott's Berry Farm is in one of the most competitive entertainment markets in the country, if not the world. It's literally down the street from the world's best theme park. They do not make new additions every year, but instead rely on seasonal events and offering a quality product at a much lower price than what you'll pay to go to Disneyland.

Now, I think that park has declined over the past five years ... but that's because they've committed fewer and fewer resources to running the park optimally, not because the additions have been light. I don't think the solutions are homogenous, but I also certainly don't buy that the decline of regional parks near urban centers is inevitable.

I think KBFs decline can be attributed more to the CEO change from Ouimet to Zimmerman, and the reason I think that is because the experience at the CF parks overall went up substantially when Ouimet was CEO and seemed to go down throughout the chain when Zimmerman took over (this was before covid). I went to CP in 2018 and it was terribly ran, and some other CF parks in 2018-2019 that were poor as well. Ouimet just seemed to care a lot more about maintenance and operations than Kinzel and Zimmerman. It was a similar story at Disneyland when he was put in charge of DLR all of a sudden it became way nicer. The current CEO strikes me more of a cut corners to meet quarterly metrics kind of guy, which is one of several reasons I have been against the merger.

Also in regards to what Tim Hillman said i'm going to push back a bit on that, I don't think having 10-20 million people within a short drive of your park (like some of the major SF parks have) is a bad thing. Look at how much more expensive APs for all of the Florida parks have gotten now that 23+ million people live in Florida with Orlando-Tampa being the fastest growth region in the US (and yes that is a major reason why, its just supply and demand).

Also SFGAm is a great park for a wide audience, especially for older people taking their little kids. In addition to coasters they have one of the best family attraction lineups anywhere, there really isn't any reason on paper for families to not be packing the place. But if people take their family and get turned off by the maintenance/upkeep and don't want to go back, that is a problem.

No, the regional theme park is not on the way out. However, I think we're currently in a bit of a transition state in terms of what guests expect from regional theme parks and what role they play in the average person's life.

There was a time when theme parks were one of the few places people could escape the real world and go have fun in a controlled environment. However, these days, video games and virtual reality bring similar escapes into the home, and other small scale attractions such as escape rooms have moved into the themed entertainment sphere. No longer is a theme park the only good option, and no longer is it necessary to commit a full day to such activities.

Hence, a lot of parks are shifting far more toward selling passes, which are guaranteed revenue regardless of how much someone visits. The additional add-ons are even more lucrative, presenting themselves as a bargain but only working out in a guest's favor if they actually visit frequently (the break even point is usually set just beyond the average redemption rate). The new Six Flags has come out and said their goal is for at least 60% of their attendance to come from passholders, and their focus is on markets where this ratio is realistically achievable.

But with a focus on passholders comes different operational and investment priorities. Big new rides that often get a visit from a day guest are less important, with the focus instead being on seasonal events to constantly offer something different combined with quality of life enhancements. Knott's Berry Farm has been cited as one of the model parks for what the company wants to do, and I've already seen some pretty impressive upgrades at SFMM up the road to bring the park up to that standard. I'll also add that SFDK up the state is probably in the best shape I've seen it in at least five years right now, so I believe the new Six Flags is committed to the improvements necessary for the regional theme park model to work. It's going to take a few years, but provided external factors don't completely collapse everything, I do see a bright future for these places on the whole.