Thoughts on the Anderson era

[SFGAMNUT9302]

How do you guys feel the Six Flags chain is being run under Jim Reid Anderson? Personally, I believe this is one of the greatest eras that Six Flags is currently in. Smart marketable additions to the parks, Not spending Unheard of amounts of money, and a very friendly personable guy running the chain (not many CEO's get on video every year and announce all their new attractions and do it in such a cool way) Unless the economy tanks again, I think Six Flags has a pretty bright future if it stays on it's current path.

[Superman]

It's a whole lot better than the Shapiro era. Everyone complains about all the ads in the park, but people forget that under Shapiro, ads were put anywhere possible. The worst one that comes to mind is the Demon train with a Stride wrap on it. Probably the best thing about the new management is Anderson's new policy of putting something new in every park every year. Even if it's something small, like igNight, it makes me excited for the new season.

[SFGAMNUT9302]

I completely agree Superman. It does give you something to look forward to every year at the end of August, I like they way he does those video presentations too! Like Chitown said in another post, the attractions are being added according to park performance, which is a great thing too! During the Premier era they would just add rides for the hell of it to parks that offered little to no return on their investments (One of the key reasons Six Flags went into bankruptcy)

[Coaster Justin]

I'm OK overall, But I'm not a fan of them installing rides with low capacity and not on opening day. Full Throttle and Superman @ SFDK have terrible capacity and Alot of their recent attractions (Apocalypse, Superman, Full Throttle, Green Lantern) have opened in June/July.


Edit: Also a Waterslide King Cobra at Six Flags Great Adventure Opened July 24th.

[Ilovthevu']

I'm iffy on the whole thing. The one thing that seems to be great right now is that they seem to really be listening to people's opinions about things at the park, and I really like that. On the flip side, I think the rotation thing is dumb. Iron Wolf should not have went to another park. If a lot of the Great America people couldn't take it, than it should be in the junkyard. Sending a boomerang from Texas to St. Louis is another dumb idea. Keep it at Texas, and when you had enough, just junk it. Back to your ^ statement about rides opening late, that ride opened late, and than it opened, & it was still having troubles.

It's not like they are sending rides they deem great / don't break down a lot / great capacity to other parks, but it's the opposite. There is a main reason why those rides are leaving the park, and them sending them to another park makes no sense at all. Construction / deconstruction & shipping the track pieces still costs millions of dollars, so it's not like the rotation program is free.

Out of the all the parks announcements for next year, I like Goliath & the Great Escape ride. The other things don't excite me at all. The waterpark they are adding in Six Flags Over Georgia itself is puzzling because of the other waterpark down the road.

Just on a side note, I don't know what they are doing with the Georgia waterpark. If you buy a combo pass for the Georgia separate waterpark (20 miles away I think), it's only $5 more. That is really stuipid. Why isn't it a bunch of money more than that - like at least $50 more. Magic Mountain is $37 more from regular season pass to theme park + separate waterpark season pass. Over Texas is $20 more from just theme park to theme park + waterpark

[Coaster Justin]

Theme Parks have done "Ride rotations" for years. And while Musical Attractions are not free, They cost far less than a new coaster. If I were to guess, Probably a quarter of the original cost and all they have to do is pay for disassemble, relocation, rebuild, and advertisement.

Also, Just because a ride is being relocated does not mean it should've been scrapped. Like SFGAm's Deja Vu. It just outlived its usefulness and is now given new life.

[DeathbyDinn]

Full Throttle and Superman @ SFDK have terrible capacity and Alot of their recent attractions (Apocalypse, Superman, Full Throttle, Green Lantern) have opened in June/July.

Three of those are at year round parks, so I don't see why it matters they open late. And while I know the corporate offices have been delaying new rides on purpose, I think the parks themselves play a role in it to. SFMM and SFA take forever to build anything, yet we were able to get X Flight open for the second weekend of the 2012 season.

Overall, I'm a fan of the new management and how they invest money in things like new rides for every park and Fright Fest, rather than things like IPs or facebook games. The additions are smart as well, with a good mix of thrill rides, waterslides, family rides and kids rides. There's still a lot they could do to make the parks the best they could be, but I do think they're going down the right path. And hopefully because the parks are doing well now we won't see another big management shake up in a few years that take the parks in a totally different direction, which SF has been prone to.

[Superman]

I'm iffy on the whole thing. The one thing that seems to be great right now is that they seem to really be listening to people's opinions about things at the park, and I really like that. On the flip side, I think the rotation thing is dumb. Iron Wolf should not have went to another park. If a lot of the Great America people couldn't take it, than it should be in the junkyard. Sending a boomerang from Texas to St. Louis is another dumb idea. Keep it at Texas, and when you had enough, just junk it. Back to your ^ statement about rides opening late, that ride opened late, and than it opened, & it was still having troubles.

It's not like they are sending rides they deem great / don't break down a lot / great capacity to other parks, but it's the opposite. There is a main reason why those rides are leaving the park, and them sending them to another park makes no sense at all. Construction / deconstruction & shipping the track pieces still costs millions of dollars, so it's not like the rotation program is free.

Out of the all the parks announcements for next year, I like Goliath & the Great Escape ride. The other things don't excite me at all. The waterpark they are adding in Six Flags Over Georgia itself is puzzling because of the other waterpark down the road.

Just on a side note, I don't know what they are doing with the Georgia waterpark. If you buy a combo pass for the Georgia separate waterpark (20 miles away I think), it's only $5 more. That is really stuipid. Why isn't it a bunch of money more than that - like at least $50 more. Magic Mountain is $37 more from regular season pass to theme park + separate waterpark season pass. Over Texas is $20 more from just theme park to theme park + waterpark

I don't understand why you hate moving rides to other parks. It wouldn't make very much sense to scrap a ride, when it has so much life left in it. It also doesn't make sense to keep a ride in a place where it is no longer a very exciting attraction. What is the solution to this? Moving rides to other parks! It saves money on building a new ride, gives another park something to be excited about, and makes room for expansion in the park it left. Just my opinion

[SFGAMNUT9302]

The ride rotation is actually a pretty good idea if you ask me. It removes unpopular rides from bigger parks like Magic Mountain, Great Adventure, Over Texas and Great America and moves them to smaller parks in the chain (most of which rarely get new roller coasters) at a cheap price. We get rid of something we don't want making way for a much better ride (Ex: Iron Wolf for Goliath) and a smaller park get's a new attraction for the season, so we're all better off. From a business stand point it makes perfect sense. Six Flags America didn't get ANY roller Coaster in almost 11 years and in fact removed their 2 Face Coaster in that same time frame. Now they are getting Rajun Cajun and already got Iron Wolf, 2 of our less popular/duplicate rides, bringing a buzz back to Six Flags America and freeing up space for us. It made no sense for Great America to have 2 Wild Mice or keep Iron Wolf when it had a horrible reputation and low ridership. I suspect they will continue doing this for the next few years until all the expendable rides from the bigger parks in the chain are used up. Heck, come to think of it. Six Flags New England got Goliath (Deja vu from Six Flags Magic Mountain) Which means they have 2 Boomerangs now, a standard and a Giant inverted. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Six Flags New England's Standard Boomerang makes it's way to Six Flags America in the near future.

[BBH]

There's a trend of sending the less popular rides from the larger parks to the smaller parks that don't receive as much attention from the chain and marketing them as new coasters. Which, in a sense, they are. It makes great sense from a business point of view, as you don't need to spend the money on an entirely new attraction, meanwhile you don't totally waste a ride, at the same time freeing up space for future expansion in the vacated area. This idea of upcycling the rides works exceptionally well, especially with a general public that'll eat coasters up like meatloaf.

Meanwhile, the parks with a larger following, such as Great America, Magic Mountain, and to an extent New England (the area that people can call SFNE their "local park" is huge) all are able to receive new coasters in their place. And the philosophy of adding something new every year is absolutely genius from a marketing standpoint, and in this capitalistic world where a little bit of hype can go a long way, it makes perfect sense.

My only beef about that though (no pun intended after my meatloaf comment) is that it doesn't very well leave room for things like an aesthetic overhaul of the park, such as repainting the rides, paving the roads with bricklayers, and improving things like in-park seating. (Think a Rollercoaster Tycoonesque interval of bench-lamp-bin-bench-lamp-bin )

[Iron Wolf 90-11]

The ride rotation is actually a pretty good idea if you ask me. It removes unpopular rides from bigger parks like Magic Mountain, Great Adventure, Over Texas and Great America and moves them to smaller parks in the chain (most of which rarely get new roller coasters) at a cheap price. We get rid of something we don't want making way for a much better ride (Ex: Iron Wolf for Goliath) and a smaller park get's a new attraction for the season, so we're all better off. From a business stand point it makes perfect sense. Six Flags America didn't get ANY roller Coaster in almost 11 years and in fact removed their 2 Face Coaster in that same time frame. Now they are getting Rajun Cajun and already got Iron Wolf, 2 of our less popular/duplicate rides, bringing a buzz back to Six Flags America and freeing up space for us. It made no sense for Great America to have 2 Wild Mice or keep Iron Wolf when it had a horrible reputation and low ridership. I suspect they will continue doing this for the next few years until all the expendable rides from the bigger parks in the chain are used up. Heck, come to think of it. Six Flags New England got Goliath (Deja vu from Six Flags Magic Mountain) Which means they have 2 Boomerangs now, a standard and a Giant inverted. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Six Flags New England's Standard Boomerang makes it's way to Six Flags America in the near future.

They had Two Face: The Flip Side, an inverted boomerang, and that ride had quite a few incidents that ultimately led to it's removal so I don't see a boomerang coming to Six Flags America.

[Ilovthevu']

And than you have parks like Astroworld that have to close down because of poor attendance because people don't like all these relocated rides. The reason why Six Flags America is getting rides that are perceived as junk whether it be banging people's heads, or maintenance / poor capacity is because that park is terrible. And that park is still going to be terrible to a lot of people because of the perceived junk they are getting.

I'm not against relocated rides if a park closes down, and than you have a good / great ride going to another park (For instance, Batman the Ride from closed SFNO to Fiesta Texas, the V2 ride that came from Gaugea Lake to Dorney Park (Cedar Fair), or Dominator from Gaugea Lake to Kings Dominion (Cedar Fair)), but Iron Wolf to SFA makes no sense at all.

[DeathbyDinn]

What?? Astroworld's closure had many more factors to it do it getting relocated rides. And SFA gets relocated rides because they provide a better return on investment for the park. We don't get relocated rides because we bring in a ton of money for the chain. SFA on the other hand, will be dead on a Saturday in July. They aren't going to spend a lot on new rides for a park that won't bring in a lot of money in return. And if the park is still terrible to people, it's because of other reasons, not because of rides being relocated there which the majority of the public won't even know.

[w00dland]

Thus far, better than Shapiro or Burke as he has essentially combined the two's "grand plans" for the chain and created a sensible, long term approach that will be effective for a healthy brand.

He's catering to both thrill seekers, and families in all of the parks, which may sound hard to believe but that's a pretty big step.

He's also leading a company that won't randomly give out large sums of money to parks because it's "their turn" or "their due", instead capital expenditure is developed through sound business plans and return on investment over the long term, which is how a company like this should be run. All in all, this guy might actually last more than 5 years if he wants to stick around, which is more than Six Flags management has been able to say for the last decade.

[SFGAMNUT9302]

You summed it up perfectly w00dland. As far as the ride rotation goes, from a pure business stand point, not a fan boy stand point, it is one of the wisest things Six Flags could do in it's current situation. Think about all those Coasters that have been relocated in the past few years which have boosted attendance at the parks (Joker at Six Flags Mexico, Apocalypse at Six Flags America, Rajun Cajun at Six Flags America, Green Lantern at Six Flags Great Adventure, Boomerang at Six Flags St. Louis, Goliath at Six Flags New England) Had Six Flags Purchased new coasters for all those parks, it would have added tremendously to the debt. Hypothetical situation, let's say Six Flags Decides to remove Superman Ultimate Flight from Six Flags Great America and Send it to a smaller park like Six Flags St. Louis where it will greatly boost attendance, and in return we get Scream from Six Flags Magic Mountain. Everyone is a winner, Six Flags St. Louis get's a new coaster which will boost attendance, great America looses a low capacity coaster and get's a much needed people eater, and Six Flags Magic Mountain looses a less popular coaster and opens room for a major new ride! Yes, the die hard coaster enthusiasts and some of the General public might not like it, but from a business stand point, it isn't such a bad idea. It was just like when Deja Vu was removed. Yes, I HATED to see Deja Vu go, it was one of my favorite rides as well as a very popular ride among the General public, BUT it had a history of mechanical problems and very low capacity. It may have run well in 2007, but keeping it and risking spending all that money on repairs at a time when Six Flags was on the brink of collapse wasn't worth it.

[rb1]

I think hes doing a good job so far. The only complain though are some of the parks are understaff especially on busy days but thats been happenning way before he took over. He managed to add variety and new attractions to every single park in the chain not just one which is a good thing. As long as he keeps adding something new every season to each park not just one or two like other ceos which make us look forward to go to SF every new season starts.It wont be a 20million dollar B&M or Intamin not yet anyways even a show is just OK who knows maybe hell even build a new SF park in the future Six FLAGS Kissimmee FL lol but yeah hes doing a good job managing the company. Keep up the good work Mr Anderson