3/15/07 Conference Call

[BP317]

RBF is slacking, so ill do the update highlights:

More money invested in TV/Radio advertising this year ($25 million more). New ad campaign this year is "You are here," commercials are avalible for download here:
http://www.sixflags.com/whats_new.asp
You can see SF made seperate commercials for "Parents" (see GAdv) and "Tweens" (see SFFT).

New updated website should be up within the next few weeks. Better layout, easier to navigate. Easier to purchase tickets and setup VIP experiences.

Shapiro quoted the main hurdle is staffing (not new news) but they are 20% ahead in staffing compared to this time last year due to proactive staffing programs and less reliance on international team members.

By March 30, all of SFMMs coasters will be up (DejaVu being rehabbed right now, all 3 DJV's getting new cables and the rehabs are on time and on budget). Spending more at MM than any other park, including new trains for X which are on the way from S&S in hope for better ride uptime. Also the kids play pass is very successful in attracting more families to that park.

All new areas scheduled to be on time except SFNE's Thomas Town is going to be a little late due to late planning cause of Wiggles World, this may explain why GAm didnt get it this year. All new attractions include new retail store to sell that attractions merchandise (this includes Spygirl I believe).

Deluge will be open in the spring and fall.

New VIP program go to the press release for more info, but it was very successful at GAm and GAdv last year and is being done chain wide. This was designed to be much better than the Disney or Universal VIP programs.

Discovery Kingdom on schedule, total re-design of the park targeted toward families, main focus on wild and marine life. Variety of new baby animals added to their selection that hasnt been announced yet. See press release for more info dont feel like typing it out.

Shapiro has visited all of the parks again this offseason to review with park management the goals, focuses, and targets for that park. He said this has gone over very well compared to the previous year among other things (basically everything they wanted to do last year but either didnt have time or know how, they are putting in this year).

Arcades at a few parks being re-done (only menchined New Jersey for sure). Updated arcades, and new program where they get a card when they enter instead of using cash and they pay when they leave, this includes 2 or 3 free games to start out.

More emphasis on keeping parks clean, each park now has a fulltime "Clean Team" that is completely seperate from the park services department (the dept that cleans the park) to keep the park extra clean and be very proactive with that.

More empahsis on policy enforcement. Team members being trained a lot on how to enforce the parks policies. He mentioned the new team member shirts that are intended to make sure every guest in the park knows that the park is now more family friendly and commited to staying clean than ever.

Corporate alliances with Chase, Sara Lee, and Nintendo Wii are the biggest.

Season pass sales up between 30-40% from this time last year. Group sales doing well online, especially the catering front. Groups now allowed to visit Six Flags Mexico as a field trip again (it was made illegal by the government last year to take non educational shool trips).

Additional $100mil in upkeep up of the parks. Repainting, landscaping, rebuilding roofs, etc.

SF is spending A LOT more money and time in training team members and making sure they are on top of maintenence and other projects in the parks. Shapiro said the only way to clean up to spend, so they are spending, and spending. This is the reason why more and more sponsorship deals are being setup to have a source of revenue on days that are not crowded.

[Director_Guy]

That's great news about X.


And I really liked SFFT's commercial. It was pretty intense and clever. Needed more Mr. Six, though.

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

well i'll probably be trying to run to Vu on opening day..... i won't be first, but i can try to run there.

i'm happy to hear about the marketing. I really didn't like the commericals last year. I didn't think they did a great job. Half the time, I didn't even realize it was a SFGAm commercial due to the Justice League.

[batcave]

Arcades at a few parks being re-done (only menchined New Jersey for sure). Updated arcades, and new program where they get a card when they enter instead of using cash and they pay when they leave, this includes 2 or 3 free games to start out.

I've always said they should do that, bring in way more revenue. Just kickout the leasee and do it here.

Also when I spent time chatting with Stan from S&S, he said that it will be an improved design of Eejanaika's trains.

[rct2wizard360]

Friggen sweet deal for the arcades.

No more having three change machines that DON'T WORK!

[zjohn1988]

I hope Discovery Kingdom turns out for the best!

[RBull4life]

That's great news about X.


And I really liked SFFT's commercial. It was pretty intense and clever. Needed more Mr. Six, though.

Yeah, that SFFT commercial was pretty sweet. Probably the best Six Flags commercial I have ever seen.

[LaTiNoObSeSeDSFGAm]

Deluge will be open without water in spring and fall .

stupid question but whats deluge?

[CoasterDave316]

I believe that's the name of SFKK's new watercoaster.

[Sedir]

^It's a master blaster type ride but four people in a raft instead of two. Why is it running without water though? That's just weird seeing a it's a water slide-type ride.

[zjohn1988]

Im wondering that too...........doesn't really make sense..

[rct2wizard360]

I'd lol if they tracked it.

Though they wouldn't.

[CoasterDave316]

I think he might have said that it would be running when the waterpark wasn't. Not without water. Too lazy to listen to the conference call again though.

[BP317]

He said "without water" but meant "without the waterpark."

[Trailblazer Tony]

Friggen sweet deal for the arcades.

No more having three change machines that DON'T WORK!

See, now I disagree. I think this card idea, although sounding cool, might not be a good one. The ESPN Zone downtown has this kind of system for their games and it's a great way to sucker more money out of you than necessary. I'm not saying this will be the way the system at six flags works, but at least with the one downtown, they require the following....

-The card itself costs a dollar
-They will create a point system and you add money to your card allowing a certain number of points (ie. 10 bucks can get you twenty points or somethin like that). This is not too good cause they make the points more than what the initial cost of using coins on the machine was and then always make it so you have an odd number of points left
-And the extra points/extra money on the card will not be refundable

I'm hoping this isn't how this new card system is going to work. It's great for the company (greater profit and all) but an inconvenience on the consumer.

As for Deluge, what a waste of a great new ride if it's only open for the dull half of the year. Not smart thinking, I don't understand this decision at all!

The rest of what was mentioned in the call, however, seemed quite brilliant and all good ideas for bettering our parks this year!

[BP317]

As for Deluge, what a waste of a great new ride if it's only open for the dull half of the year. Not smart thinking, I don't understand this decision at all!

It says its going to be open ALL year and doesnt need the waterpark to be open for the ride to be open.

[FParker185]

was at SFKK today in the driving snow, and Deluge is currently scheduled to open with the waterpark the week after HWN, after that it will be open whenever the park is open reguardless of the status of the waterpark and it appears it will have a regular midway enterance for those times