Can anything save Six Flags?

I actually find all of this deeply sad. For the past six months, the company has been doing everything in its power to drive away customers and seems totally oblivious to exactly what Robert has pointed out here. I remember Robert writing recently that “no company (regardless of the industry) can cut its way to profitability.” Those words are so true. The basics are gone. Despite being a shareholder, I did NOT renew my season pass—and that hurt. I don’t want to sound like one of those old geezers who “remembers back in the day,” but back in the day when I was an employee, we were told over and over again that the secret formula was the mixture of rides, shows and attractions for various ages in a clean, well-manicured environment with friendly employees who smiled and cared. Gone are the days when employees smiled and waved as the train or monorail passed by (we were expected to do that then and guess what, Dollywood still does that now!).
But I do take issue with one point Robert makes about the headquarters being in Charlotte. Moving the hq to any other location would not change things one bit. There is no evidence anyone from corporate took the six minute drive to Carowinds this year. If anyone did, then their tacit approval means there is absolutely no hope. How could anyone from corporate notice and approve of the closed rides and restaurants, the lightning speed disappearance of quality menu items that were replaced with chicken tenders, the sad and pitiful live show offerings (that is putting it nicely), the embarrassing water feature installed in the middle of visible abandoned rollercoaster support pilons and the shell of what used to be a beautiful and festive Winterfest. Carowinds did not decline by degrees (term coined by Robert) this year, it dropped faster than Fury325 down the first hill. If corporate ordered, approved, witnessed Carowinds this year, then Robert will be writing about higher prices have not kept the crowds away from Universal and Disney. Those two will be the only ones left.

Dollywood is a perfect example of Robert’s point. It has become a Southeastern destination park, and most likely a park on most theme park enthusiasts radar, not just because of the rides but the ambiance, food, shows, and hospitality the Six Flags parks lack.

I feel like the merger brought so much promise for the future of Six Flags and they squandered it right out of the gate by making a number of poor decisions without respecting the feelings of guests. Unannounced ride closures across the board, removal of perks that passholders had come to expect, cuts to operational standards, and postponement of new attractions beyond the seasons they were announced for are not a way to win over guests. And yet of the four Six Flags parks I visited this year, two have noticeably improved in many ways (KBF and SFDK), one has been pretty consistent compared to past years (CGA), and one was in poor enough shape that if it got worse it wasn't really noticeable (SFMM). I think that says that while they aren't making big, flashy moves or going at the pace everyone expects, they know things aren't working and are trying to enact small, incremental changes where they can.

What Six Flags really needs to do is give people a reason to visit by dumping capital into new attractions and experiences, then give them a reason to return by ensuring appearance, operations, food, and friendliness are at least at a level where a casual visitor is not going to think negatively regarding them. This year's slate of new attractions, of which about 30% was deferred from 2025, features about 40% of what they offered last year, about 20% of which was deferred from 2024, and is still only about 70% of what that year offered even after the deferrals. This trend needs to end or Six Flags is going to have a very difficult time selling passes year after year. When their model is built on ~60% of their business coming from passholders, losing that audience is enough to potentially plunge the company into insolvency.

Despite Cedar Fair seeming bullish about the park in recent years, it's possible that Carowinds hasn't quite been living up to whatever growth potential they had originally anticipated.

I'm sure Carowinds still is a steady player but the new Six Flags focus seems to be on the "over-performing" parks like Cedar Point, Canada's Wonderland, Kings Island, and Knott's while putting resources into parks they feel have better chances at growth like Six Flags Over Texas.

I think the canary in the coal mine here was in 2022 when Six Flags raised their annual pass prices and their business tanked.

People have made their mind up about Six Flags. Its a place where you buy an annual pass for cheap and then try to make the most of it, or maybe you go once every few years and tolerate for the sake of trying to be a good parent. Like Robert said this has been going on for 25 years, the only way to change perception is to be better, consistently, for a long period of time. Like how Kia/Hyundai have done (and now they are dominating...funny how actually being good changes business results).

This is like the 6th "new" Six Flags we've had in my adult life. The Burke/Story fail, the Snyder/Shapiro fail, the Anderson fail, the Bassoul fail, the Zimmerman/Bassoul merger fail...now we have another new era again. I think they did some things over the last couple years that were common sense but not enough to move the needle. Matt Ouimet was able to turn around Cedar Fair, so maybe this guy can do it too, only time will tell but there's no question the company has shot itself in the foot over and over and caused its own headwinds over the years.

The park that is missing from your list, which should actually be the highest drawing park is the reason for Six Flags losing in the marketplace. Great Adventure is in both the New York and Philadelphia markets. They should easily draw 4 to 5 million a year if run properly.

What is missing? Shows, a sit down water front restaurant and more rides that families and older customers would like. Great Adventure is surrounded by one of the richest groups of senior citizens in the country. They should market to over 55 communities for weekday visits emphasizing entertainment and food. Unfortunately, Great Adventure is going after 18 to 30 year old with roller-coaster and completely ignoring a huge potential market. The safari should be bundled with a restaurant that is open to them during the day. The existing restaurant at Savannah Sunset has few lunch or evening visitors after breakfast since guests staying there also go to the parks during the day and evening. Think of the possibilities of moving the restaurant to a Safari view and the potential revenue and having safari meals.

Six Flags doesn't survey the right people, those who aren't visiting rather than those who do. They need to understand their potential market and stop concentrating on those who only want to ride roller-coaster and not spend money.

I’m confused by why the corporate HQ location has any correlation to the state of the current company. Charlotte is the fastest-growing metro area out of the entire park portfolio. Carowinds is not a small park, it averages 2.5 million visitors a year. Its guests offer the same perspective to walk around execs as the guests at Cedar Point, Magic Mountain, or Knott’s Berry Farm. And said execs WERE seen walking around Carowinds this season.

I visited more SF parks in 2025 than I think I've visited in any single year in my life (SFA, SFGAdv, SFoG, SFDL, CW, SFGAm, and CP), and I generally felt that all of the parks we visited met or exceeded expectations in terms of operations and staffing. I was actually quite surprised with the operations at SFA throughout the year considering the announced closure near the beginning of the year. I felt that all of the staff were in great spirits even knowing that they were approaching the end of the line, and aside from a bunch of coasters single training, which was the norm for much of the past 5+ years (and Batwing closing forever in late summer with no notice), the park felt better maintained and adequately staffed than it ever has.

I was also pretty impressed with SFGAdv in terms of staffing and operations, but I think a lot of that was due to them closing so many attractions so the existing staff was not stretched too thin. I also think it had a lot to do with guests not showing up, because from guest reports and my own personal experiences, attendance has declined at the park. It certainly didn't help that the park's New for 2025 coaster, which was originally slated for a 2024 debut, was a shuttle coaster with a limited capacity and slow moving lines.

From our visits to CP and CW this summer, both of those parks were extremely crowded and opened new notable coasters this year. However, our visit to SFGAm felt only moderately crowded despite also opening a new for 2025 coaster.

I tend to agree with AJ here, and that SF needs to recognize that it's not just about spending oodles of money that will turn their fortunes. They need to refocus on improving customer service and slowly build value through minor tweaks to their existing lineup (new shows, rethemes to existing attractions, or just highlighting renovations like they're currently doing to Beast). They need to get out of the cycle of relying on discounts to generate revenue, because if they have to cut their margins just to get people through the door, the ship will continue to sink.

I also tend to agree about the Corporate HQ location. I highly doubt SF would move their HQ simply to encourage execs to walk around more visited parks. Honestly, it shouldn't be the execs walking around the parks, because most of the SF higherup have no clue how a theme park should be operated. It should be the park managers and other management staff that should be visible in the parks, and if execs want to take a "field trip" to see how things are going, it shouldn't be at the same park anyway, they should be touring all of their parks around the country, so where HQ is based would have little bearing on the costs to perform those visit. Also, I do think Carowinds is a "large" park within the chain, and stands as an ideal location for the rest of the parks in the chain to be modeled after. It might not be the biggest or busiest, but it has all of the characteristics of what SF wants its parks to be and can serve as a testing ground for minor changes and tweaks the company might implement chain-wide.

I mean, if we get Herschend purchasing Knott's because of all this mismanagement, I'm totally fine with it.

Can someone tell me again what they were hoping to achieve when they merged Cedar Fair with Six Flags?