Six Flags plans corporate HQ move back to original home
Six Flags is moving, again.
The company announced today that it will relocated its official corporate headquarters from Charlotte, N.C., to Arlington, Texas next year. Charlotte was the official HQ for the former Cedar Fair company, which merged with Six Flags to form today's Six Flags Entertainment Corporation.
Six Flags has maintained a corporate office in Arlington's Choctaw Stadium, which was known as Globe Life Park and originally the Ballpark in Arlington when it was home to Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers. Starting next year, that office will become the official corporate headquarters.
The office is located across the street from Six Flags Over Texas, which was the original Six Flags theme park and the park that gave the company its name.
"Arlington is an outstanding location for our headquarters and supports our long-term vision for growth," President and CEO John Reilly said. "Its central location and business-friendly environment make it a strong base for our company. Bringing our corporate teams together in the office will improve collaboration, strengthen our culture, enhance support for our parks and resorts, and help us continue delivering exceptional experiences for guests across North America. We are grateful to the City of Arlington and local leaders for their partnership and support, and we are committed to contributing to the community’s growth and success."
"We are deeply grateful to our Charlotte-based and shared services team members whose dedication, passion and expertise have helped shape our company," Reilly said. "Their contributions have been invaluable, and we are committed to supporting them throughout this transition with respect, transparency and care. Many team members will have the opportunity to relocate to Arlington and continue helping drive our success into the future."
Six Flags will maintain another corporate office in Sandusky, Ohio - the home of Cedar Point, which was the flagship park for the former Cedar Fair.
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Replies (7)
This is probablt good news for SFoT, which very quickly seems to be being positioned toward the top of the chain.
A few thoughts
1. I agree with this move, a company called "Six Flags" should obviously have its HQ in Texas. Any other ideas are basically heresy IMO.
2. The fact that HQ keeps moving offers a great snapshot into the never-ending ownership/management changes that have plagued this company's history.
Texas
Time Warner moved it to New Jersey
Kieran Burke moved it to Oklahoma, where his company was
Mark Shapiro moved it to NYC
Al Weber moved it to Texas
Richard Zimmerman moved it to Charlotte
John Reilly is now moving it back to Texas
3. Cedar Fair moved their HQ to Charlotte because the Charlotte area was the story at the time, a lot of migration was going from the north to the southeast, especially in that area. For this reason they felt they could get talented corporate workers that wouldn't be willing to live in Sandusky, and Carowinds was getting a lot of money pumped into it. This was the timeframe they were doing major renovations to the park and added Fury 325, I even heard from some people they were going to turn it into the CP of the south. Carowinds didn't perform as expected and CF/SF abandoned the CP of the south idea pretty quick, and even considered Carowinds for sale when they were doing the firesale last year.
I think this is the first step in splitting the company up back to Cedar Fair and Six Flags. We all know deep down it's just a matter of time.
This merger isn't working out financially.
They should move the HQ back to Oklahoma City where it belongs!! ;)
What makes you say that nachos? After divesting under-performing parks to Enchanted, it seems that the chain has been performing better. They appear to be more targeted in their major capital investment (though I'm not a big fan of the concept of Bakunawa), and people are actually complaining about increasing prices and reduced benefits for next year's season passes (most notably Fastlane at Cedar Point and the revamped season-long dining plan).
Frankly I would be shocked if the company were to break up, though I think it's possible they shed a few more underperforming parks.
This has nothing to do with tax incentives and nothing to do with being "central." The company is counting pennies right now and currently they have office space in three different locations. This cuts it down to two.
Make no mistake about it, the big loser is not Charlotte (nobody knew Six Flags existed-- it was not involved in the chamber or corporate structure of the city). The biggest loser is Carowinds. Having the HQ in Charlotte left one with the "hope" someone at corporate was/would be watching. Sadly, I don't think that ever happened. If corporate people had been paying attention to Carowinds, it would not have fallen off the cliff over the past year and a half with poor guest relations, lousy food options, broken rides, horrible load times and lack of beautification. Carowinds itself is a rollercoaster-- with ups and downs every two months in operation. With corporate gone, it really will be just another cog in the wheel. So all of you saying having corporate watching the original Six Flags-- good luck.
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I had originally assumed that the merged company would be HQ-ed in Arlington until they announced the initial combined company would be housed in Charlotte. This is almost always about tax incentives and benefits for employees, so I would guess that either NC has stepped back on what SF expected when they merged with CF, or Texas stepped up to lure the company back to Texas.
It did always seem odd to me for Six Flags to HQ in NC, where the closest park in the chain is a very good one (Carowinds), but not any of the parks that would be considered the chain's top park (SFMM/Knott's, Cedar Point, or SFGAdv) or an icon of the company, which SFoT represents as the original SF park. A return to Arlington (within shouting distance of SFoT) and maintaining an office in Sandusky, which I believe they already did after moving to Charlotte, makes more sense for the combined company.