Will this be he last year of SF?? new update/bad news

[Bob O]

http://www.thestockmasters.com/SIX-FLAGS-062708.html

What do people think of this maybe being the last year of the SF company.

[Coaster Justin]

First: You need to add a t to he

Second: Holy Hillary Clinton

- Ah, Um, I though Shapiro had an Idea and now I'm Kinda Scared about what will happen to the Park(s).
- Huh, You'd Think Shapiro would have purchased some Geauga Lake rides dirt cheap.


I think I know What Might Happen Though:

1: An International Company would buy them.

2: A Private Equity Firm could takeover 1/2 of the company and provide financial support (I think of it as Someone buying 1/2 the company for 1 Billion Dollars. Six Flags continues to improve the parks (MAYBE WITH FLATS!!!) and puts the 1 Billion to reduce the debt, sells more un-needed properties to lighten the load on Debt and Expenses, and just go uphill every year from there)

http://www.thrillnetwork.com/stories_vi ... uyout.html
http://www.thrillnetwork.com/stories_vi ... _deal.html


I failed Economics so I might be wrong about all of this.

[FParker185]

I think it'd be for the best. Maybe someone who actually cares could buy SFGAm. Though I'd say chances are 90% that Cedar Fair would snatch up SFGAm, with a 9% chance of Parques Rundieos (sp?), and 1% other.

Though I give SF 2 more years before they go completely belly up and have to cease operations suddenly and have all the parks shut down mid season while there is a fire sale.

[yamcha]

I would hate for six flags to shut down. I would rather someone buy it and fix it up. New paint, fix some of the rides up. It would be a very dark day for me if Six flags was gone.

[DejaVu2001]

As much as I hate to say it, I think SF going belly-up would be the best thing that could happen for SFGAm. I'm pretty sure even in the event of SF being liquidated, the "big 5" would survive under different ownership. If SFGAm could break free of SF, I think the park would be much better off, just being free of SF's debt load would do so much for our park.

[saylorman47]

^
Agreed

[blastedmonkey]

While this article is interesting, in that it shows that there is indeed a problem in regards to Six Flags Inc's finances, that is all it is useful for, seeing that most of the article is indeed one person's opinion. It's like all of us and this dive machine speculation. We can give our opinions on it until the cows come home, but is it really gonna matter in the end? Not particularly. I'm not saying don't give your opinions, but it should also be pointed out that Shapiro has never stated that he has any interest of selling the company off completely, let alone declare bankruptcy. Even if they did declare bankruptcy, that's not to say the whole chain would close down. Even if he did decide to liquidate, I feel that he would keep the so-called "big five" of his top parks, including Great America, under the Six Flags name. I don't think there's any way he's gonna give it up. And this is just my opinion as well. I doubt it's gonna be the end of Six Flags. They have some new ideas coming out in the next few years and some new parks overseas that might help increase their revenue. Who knows what's gonna happen? If it keeps getting bad though, I can see them selling off the other parks aside from the big five, declaring bankruptcy, and starting fresh. I don't expect to see Shapiro or the Six Flags name go away any time in the near, or for that matter even the far future.

[yankee Clipper91]

Not the last year in my opinion but maybe the last couple of years. I would like someone else to buy out the park because Six Flags doesn't do a lot of up keep on the rides.

[Coaster Justin]

You still need to add the T so its "The Last Year"

Also, Do you think Gurnee Would buy Great America from Six Flags and Bring in a 3rd Party to manage the park if Six Flags goes under (Or Lower)?

Before anyone gets angry about the above statement There have been several times when a City buys A Park and hires a 3rd party to manage it like:

1: Great America in Santa Clara in 1985
2: Gilroy Gardens in Gilroy in 2007

[SFaddiction84]

Well ill tell you what. Six Flags IS going down the tubes, 1 in part because i have stopped going. I mean it really irritates me, that gas prices have risen so much and yet Mr Shapiro has decided "This means raise admission, parking, and so forth"!

What attracts people in our generation? Lower Prices! I might, just might, buy a $6 corn dog from a theme park, if there lucky, but maybe make then $4? I might just buy 2, hmm that looks like a $2 extra i spent!

Get it?

[rb1]

SF has been going under and having problems year after year season after season and what has happen GA is still open and got expanded with a new waterpark and rides. I dont think it will happen anytime soon with the economy being down all companies other than SF are having problems some go under but some recover and make more profits in the future just like the economy it goes down and up again. So no one really knows whats going to happen to SF and GA in the future.

[diggerg56]

I seriously doubt that Cedar Fair would buy the whole chain. Maybe a couple parks but with their aquisition of Paramount a couple years ago they're leveraged to the hilt also.

[Jerrykoala2112]

What ever happens, i will go to six flags until they shut down the park for good!

[cowboy1192]

I would be so happy if Cedar Fair bought SFGAM. More COASTERS!I think...


But wont they have to change the names of BTR, TDK, and SUF? Doesnt SF have rights to DC comics?

[Bob O]

http://www.star-telegram.com/business/c ... 36195.html

More bad economic news

Six Flags stock almost becomes a penny stock and major investor unloads 2 million shares.

[Jackluver18]

So what's going to happen to our park?

[Bob O]

If SF went into bankruptcy I dont think are park would suffer much. I think you would have a good amount of suitors who would want to buy our park. In fact we might benefit if our park wasnt part of as company that was over 2 billion on debt with no way out of this dilema any time soon.

[Jackluver18]

one question, if someone bought our park would it still be called six flags great america? Now i'm starting to get worried.

[FParker185]

unless someone bought the entire SF chain, SFGAm would loose the SF moniker

[Chitown]

But it will always be called Great America.

Regardless of what's going on with the stock market, it doesn't signal doom for the chain. They just re-negotiated their debt.

Some of you are reading into this to much.

[BP317]

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[BP317]

If SF does have to liquidate, this is not a good time for it, other theme park chains financially or other circumstances are not in a position to buy more parks. Busch could be in the process of a takeover and wont be buying any parks, Cedar Fair is in quite a bit of debt and not in a position to buy more parks, and if they did buy Great America that definitley wouldnt improve the park (unless you want to see a lot of the theming stripped out and rides renamed), PARC management I dont know if they have the resources to be able to buy GAm, and Disney wont be going into SF type parks and probably has no interest in places arent year round destinations.

I read on Screamscape "apparently business is firing on all cylinders for Six Flags now," but keep in mind they are literally giving away the gate. Up until yesterday they offered buy one get one free for every ticket purchased online which were already pretty well discounted. Its very concerning that while yes, the park may be pulling 15-20,000 a day now with 30 on the weekends, this was normal attendance a few years ago without the excessive amount of free tickets out in the market. The strategy is get people in and get them to spend while their in as SF doesnt make much off admission anyway, but 20,000 people in the park on a normal summer weekday may seem like a normal/good summer, when half the people get in free how can you possibly justify to investors "our attendance is up!" that kind of babble is meaningless...

[Luxornv]

I don't think SF will go under. They may perhaps file for bankruptcy protection if their debt doesn't start significantly decreasing soon.

Like other people have said, they need to reduce prices all around. They may get more people if admission was about $40- $45 instead of $55. For us season pass holders, admission isn't a big deal, but if we want to bring some friends with each time we go, it's a very big deal to them. On top of that, food and drinks in the park are really expensive. I have not eaten in the park for a few years. I buy drinks occasionally, but rarely food. I'll sometimes buy a funnel cake, but that's it. If prices are lower, more people will be willing to pay for food and stuff within the park. The profit margins on the food are huge, but you aren't making a lot of money off of it if few people are buying it.

[Bob O]

Your business isnt firing on all cylinders if you have to reduce prices to get people to come into the park. When a company is running properly it gives them the ability to increase prices because there is great demand for the product they offer, and that isnt the case with SF. If it was they would have the ability to reduce there debt and actually make some money.