Trademark applications may point to sale of Six Flags parks
Is Six Flags preparing to offload more of its theme parks?
A series of trademark applications filed yesterday seems to be raising that question. An applicant named "Enchanted Parks Holdings, LLC," which lists a downtown Orlando office tower as its address, has filed applications for several trademarks that include the names of current Six Flags properties.
Enchanted Parks has filed for:
- Enchanted Parks Camping Resort
- Enchanted Parks Galveston
- Enchanted Parks Great Escape Lodge
- Enchanted Parks Michigan Adventure
- Enchanted Parks Oceans of Fun
- Enchanted Parks St. Louis
- Enchanted Parks Water Safari
- Enchanted Parks Water's Edge Inn
Great Escape, Michigan Adventure and Oceans of Fun are current Six Flags properties. Six Flags also has a theme park in St. Louis and a Schlitterbahn water park in Galveston.
It's hard to imagine that an unrelated entity would attempt to trademark established brands and marks held by another company. Why waste the time and money? That raises the suspicion that Six Flags may be involved with Enchanted Parks in some way, with either the new entity being an intended spinoff or an acquirer of several current Six Flags properties.
Six Flags clearly is looking for cash at the moment, having passed on the opportunity to spend millions to buy out partners in Six Flags Over Texas and having announced that it will issue $1 billion in senior notes in an effort to raise needed cash to pay off debt.
The company last year closed its Six Flags America theme park in Maryland and the clock is ticking on its California's Great America park in the Bay Area, whose land was sold by former Cedar Fair management.
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Replies (7)
What was the point of the merger then?
The point of the merger was not to manage a massive portfolio of 42 entertainment venues consisting of major thrill parks, stand alone water parks and smallish regional family parks. The goal was to combine the super regional parks in the Cedar Fair portfolio with the most well attended parks and sleeping giants in the Six Flags chain.
This feels very similar to what Six Flags did back in 2007 in an (unsuccessful) attempt to stave off bankruptcy. Based on comments they've made, that collection of parks does make sense to sell off wholesale as they're smaller parks with decent income but limited growth potential and probably aren't in areas where land values are particularly high.
Isn't oceans of fun connected to worlds of fun? They're offloading the water park but not the park?
This definitely looks like an asset dump to me. I'm not sure if SF necessarily wanted to shed these properties, but it seems that someone has given them a decent offer for these parks - doesn't look to be a shell company since it's based in Orlando where SF has absolutely no presence.
I don't think SF will miss these properties from an operational standpoint, but I do think they may regret divesting parks that were not going to be a financial drag on the company. These might not be the most profitable parks in the chain, nor the ones with massive potential for growth, but they are all steady earners that would have been a decent hedge against the risks they may need to take to develop some of their higher ceiling properties or against the losses that some of their loser properties that no one wants to buy.
This may be just a typo — but the park here in Michigan has always been "Michigan's Adventure" (with the apostrophe) since it was renamed from Deer Park Funland in the 80's.
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Someone on reddit figured out that if you go to www.enchantedparks.com it redirects to a company headquarted in Orlando called IAM that recently bought a small waterpark in NY State called Water Safari. On the front page of their website it says they are former WDW Cast Members and:
"We are actively seeking to acquire high-performing water and amusement parks to expand its portfolio and enhance its market presence. With a focus on operational excellence and guest experience, the company aims to partner with top-tier attractions for long-term growth and success."
So...sounds like is a new company that is probably going to be taking out a lot of debt to try and purchase some of the smaller SF parks/waterparks.