In the second quarter conference call, COO Al Weber stressed the importance of Six Flags going back to its roots of becoming the premier Regional Theme Park Operator.
New President and CEO James Reid-Anderson also spoke to the fact that Six Flags is an excellent company with a poor balance sheet, and pledged transparency to shareholders.
Weber continued the 40 minute call today laying out a yet to be disclosed plan to fix the discounting at the parks, and stated that A new more structured discounting and pricing plan needs to be in place, adding that SF is 20% lower for ticket prices then other regional theme park operators.
Weber also stated that Six Flags has a broken advertising strategy and that people know Mr. Six, but he does not portray the message of Six Flags and does not speak to the attractions with-in the parks. Weber envisions advertising as focusing on Six Flags being the place for families and thrill seekers alike.
But probably the best thing to come out of the call was the fact that when it relates to capital investments:
Weber said that He wants "Better customer awareness, better product selection and wants to listen to guests to understand what they want"
Here are some notes:
Glow in the Dark Parade: while a great concept, cost 8 million dollars, and that could have been better spent elsewhere since it available only at night.
Focus on Six Flags being a theme park operator, and get out of the external businesses that are not theme park related.
An unscheduled $25M loan payment was made on 8/5.
The Bankruptcy filing cleared 1.75B in debt and approximately $833M remains today.
Anderson plans to visit all SF parks this season
Guest spending is approximately $37 per person so far in 2010.
Focus on basics: Anderson wants to drive attendance the “right way” too much focus on discounts on going basis, wants improve cash flow and reduce debt, wants a strong customer focus. Deploy capital more effectively, pricing needs to be more strategic. Be a theme park company.
My Take: DO NOT take the part about listening to customers and what they want to mean OMG!!!!!!!! COASTER COASTER COASTER!!! Thats not the point. What Six Flags is trying to do, is to become the #1 Regional Theme Park company and use its existing capital to speak for itself. A continued focus on the customer is also key to this as well.
You can listen to the whole call here:
http://investors.sixflags.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=61629&p=irol-irhome
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Al Weber: "We need to focus on being a Theme Park Operator"
84 posts
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Thank God! Someone finally sees that Mr. Six NEEDS to go.
I completely disagree that Mr. Six needs to go, but He was not used to the potential he has. He resonates with Six Flags, much like Mickey Mouse does with Disney. The difference is that Disney knew how to use Mickey alot more effectively then Six Flags with Mr. Six.
Al says that "We need to listen to our guests to know what they want."
On Facebook, GAm guests are crying out for a coaster, and yesterday someone wrote, "Great job on losing Chang." GADv guests asked for flats, and they got another coaster. Hmm... LIES.
^David, really, shut up. You know NOTHING. Wait and see what happens before you go out and make a ridiculous comment like that. Please.
I agree with the Mr. Six comment. Shapiro relied on him way to much in the commercials. The way that Weber is using him now is good, with him just appearing at the end of the commercial dancing. Mr Six is an iconic character. To get rid of him would be a mistake. However the way Shapiro was using him was also a mistake. The funometer commercials would not bring guests to the park. Little Six needs to go. Thats for sure. Shapiro brought him in to attract older people to the park, yeah weird right? I agree with everything Weber and Reid-Anderson plan on doing with the chain. Reid-Anderson and Speed will handle the financials and guest experience while Weber handels the amusement park experience. Thats a perfect balance.
^
I couldn't agree more with you Zach. The tandem of Anderson and Weber are perfect for Six Flags, and is what this company needs to be successful and more importantly profitable. Shapiro had good ideas that where good on paper, but when they transitioned into the real world they didnt really work out. Weber on the other hand ran Paramount Parks very very well until Paramount decided to get out of the theme park business. (I wish they hadn't) Like I said about Mr. Six, he was not used to his full potential and thus was a wasted opportunity. On the subject of the facebook comments...... 
I am going to risk being yelled at, but on some level I do agree with David. What I agree with is the roller coaster enthusiast side, however, we all have to realize that a lot of the park dynamic is families, children, and people who are there for the experience, not necessarily all the rides. I agree with David that six flags has been pretty stupid with the placement of roller coasters. I wish that six flags would take the Cedar Fair route and let the individual parks decide what expansions they want and spend their own money to give the more profitable parks more money to work with and more room to make the park better. On the topic of Mr. Six I think they should drop him. I mean in all truth he is just scary, I mean he is an old wrinkly man who drives a van and goes around getting kids in his van so he can take them to his "park". I know that he is meant to show the youth in anyone, but he is just creepy for me and probably a lot of other people. I think six flags should just adopt the Marvel characters as their mascots like have superman and batman tell you to go to the park instead.
"Park staff later claimed that they were offered a hundred bucks a pop to try to the slide, but refused after seeing that test dummies often emerged on the other end dismembered. The looping slide was actually closed down for most of the park’s life due to these injury concerns."
Six Flags does listen to what people post on Facebook. Which is why I called David stupid. Anyone here seen those new souvenir bottle holders being tested at SFStL? Yeah, that was a guest idea and they are trying it out. While they probably won't be making they're way to the bigger parks for obvious reasons, its a good start. Obvious reasons being that people would still the bottles.
David, what do you call the fan call? Someone I know got heard. GAdv's rapids is getting a rehab for 2011. As far as I know thats still on track. Everything mentioned will most likely happen if its possible. If you have a good enough suggestion you will be heard. David, what do you call the "Save Houdini at Six Flags" Facebook page? There was absolutely no plans to bring that back except for possibly a Fright Fest attraction. Well its open now. They read all the discussion board topics, I know that for a fact. If you want to really get you're point across, don't post it to you're parks page, post it to the main Six Flags page. Now turning to marketing: deja blues - When was the last time you saw a commercial where Mr. Six came out of his bus, yes a bus that traveled the country, not a van, and invited the town, yes it was a town, not little kids, to an amusement park. This was in 2004. I think you're confusing the commercials with the Robot Chicken parody. 2006 would be the year they stopped. In 2005 they changed it to other places where he would invite people that are having a boring time at places like a golf course to Six Flags. In 2006, the last year they used the first Mr. Six and the bus was for the 45th anniversary where Mr. Six woke up from a sleep at a retirement home and drove the bus to SFMM. It showed him cleaning the park. A voice over said that it was going to be Six Flags biggest year ever and a whole new excitement will fill the air. [I saw this commercial on YouTube recently this is how I remember it word for word] Then Mr. Six pushed a button and the song came on he danced and all the lights in the park turned on and people rushed into the park. That was the last successful ad in my opinion. In 2007 it was the weird coasters coming out of the ground commercial. Then in 2008 they turned to the controversial Asian Fun-O-Meter. Somehow this was still the most successful year in recent history. They dropped him in 2009 to bring back the now even creepier Mr. Six. Yes, if you are wondering he is different. 15 seconds of random crap, 10 seconds of park footage, and 5 seconds of info is not going to bring people into the park. I think Al Weber will still keep Mr. Six around but expand on the More....More.... campaign. I really do like his recent commercials that are now airing. Plus they're actually in HD. Lol. For 2011 I think he is going to do what Shapiro did for part of 2006 and do the "biggest year ever" thing. I don't know. Sorry for the lengthy post. I know I'm just rambling on.
You know something. Al Weber is an idiot. If he is seriously going to give Great Adventure a $15 million coaster, a package of flat rides, AND a rehab of the rapids. He seriously must have something wrong with him, because he claims that some parks were being 'spoiled', yet he is spoiling Gadv.
If all of this proves to be true, I have lost all hope in him.  
^ The guy is on the job 3 Months and your already calling him an idiot? Way to keep up the "enthusi-ass" stereotype.
As for Six Flags being like Cedar Fair? NO THANK YOU! If I wanted to go to a place that didnt give a damn about me and made me stand in line all day, Id go to the DMV.
^^No, you sir are the idiot Chang won't cost $15 million to install. Stop being a little fan-boy-know-it-all. You can look at this at several ways. Have you ever thought that maybe just maybe GAdv isn't getting it all in 2011? Or you can think of it this way. They are the flag ship park. Thats obvious. The park needs a lot of improvements. More than any other park in the chain.
You can't loose hope in someone if they haven't done anything official yet. Like Galvan mentioned, he's been on the job for 3 months. Stop complaining before anything has even happened. Who's to say that Great America isn't getting a giga, a water park expansion, and a flat package. Now I'm not saying that it's happening but hell, it could surely be possible, but I doubt that would happen. Also, Great America has been spoiled for years too. Just not with thrills.
Okay,
You both need to stop bickering back and forth, its making you BOTH sound like tools, take it to the PM's if you want to continue your pissing contest.
Please, for once, look at things outside of the "I'm a teen who only cares about coasters" point of view.
So he's adding a sure hit, a much needed improvement in rides, and a rehabbing of a family/guest favorite, and he's stupid about it? Have you seen the dismay in the park the past few years? Removal of over 30 rides since 1999, TDK(which by all means got our GP pissed off more than ever), The fact that our first HH addition since 2001 came this year, Fly Me To The Moon(GP got pissed off), and the closing of an entire section of the park. How do you know that we didn't have to give up a flat or 2 with chang coming? Whos to say Al didn't send you a MAJOR flat while we got Chang? Maybe you guys are getting our (rumored) 5d ride? You guys would have been fine if it was a small coaster, flats, and a rapids rehab. You guys would obviously would have been fine with it. But the second Chang looked like it was coming our way, you started biting the hand who will be feeding you for (atleast) the next couple of years. Stop being a spoiled fanboy David, it doesn't make you look cool. It makes you look like an idiot. Al has been using his 40 years of experience to aid a company that just got out of bankruptcy for the past few months. I'm with acquaz10, I think Al might have a trick or 2 up his sleeve
Mike? Comeon. You damn well know Shapiro had good ideas and they were executed well (most of them at least). Of course no-one really likes outside activity not related to parks being implemented, but when you are dealing with a falling company back in 2006 being in ridiculous debt, you do what you have to do.
And acquaz? Shapiro initially dropped Mr. Six the first season he was CEO. You don't remember that? He ended up bringing it back because the response from people was that they liked him, and recognized him as part of Six Flags. One other thing, keep calling people names and you won't be around here much longer. I do like the new corporate team, and am willing to give them a chance just like we did with Shapiro. Leave the individual B.S. out of this like Chang going to SFGAdv. They have bigger fish to fry. Shapiro was able to lower the debt (mostly through bankruptcy) but he still pulled it off. If Burke and Co. were still running the show, Six Flags wouldn't exist right now. I finally retired the Sarah Palin signature because she is now 100% irrelevant.
Im not inditing Shapiro as not knowing what he was doing or even saying he was/is and idiot.
But what I am saying, is and you can just look at Buccaneer Battle as evidence to this, that some of his ideas did not transition well at all. They also mentioned specifically Glow in the Dark, again an awesome idea (on paper) but when you find out how much it cost, the money might have been better spent elsewhere.
Agreed, but the Buccaneer Battle addition I don't agree with. He followed Dollywood's Splash Battle addition and saw that it was a success. Don't understand why SFGAm isn't getting the people for BB, because that is a mystery to me on hot days.
The Glow in the Park Parade, while I didn't know it was that expensive until now, was something that people could enjoy at night kind of like what they do at Disney. Oh well. His biggest flop was SpyGirl, but I guess if you trust the same man who created the show "24", you might take a chance. I finally retired the Sarah Palin signature because she is now 100% irrelevant.
Shapiro revamped Six Flags, and is largely responsible for A LOT of the changes that brought people back into the park, the improvements to customer service being his biggest legacy in my opinion.
And I have said this before, and I will say it again. Had I went into guest relations and reported to SFGAm Guest Relations what I did at Cedar Point, I would have walked out of SFGAm like I owned the place.
No, I remember that. I was under the impression that commercial with Mr. Six coming out of the retirement home was used for part of 2006 and then they dropped him. Here's the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGfCiEbb ... r_embedded I guess it was used for 2005 then? I swore I remember it was '06, I guess I just remember wrong. Shapiro did have his success's and his flops, but he was just experimenting since it was his first time. I didn't realize that the Glow in the Park parade's cost so much. That must be why Weber shortened them down. TDK looked awesome on paper and I was excited for it but the cut backs ruined it. Plus, they marketed it wrong Thats where Redzone failed, which is what were taking about anyways. They said it was like the next Ka or El Toro for the GAdv people and thats what the GP was expecting, and it left everyone pissed. He also marketed both Bizarro's as all knew which made the GP pissed again because they just realized that they were conned knowing that it was nothing new and exciting. I also don't understand why BB isn't success. Could it be the already amazing water park and the couple of water attractions that are close to it already? Or could it be that they know its a lot of work with having to crank the handel to spray the water? I look forward to seeing what new management has in store.
^Honestly, I think its both... A) We've got this massive amazing waterpark right there, and B) You've got to crank the water cannons to make them spray the water. Now granted other parks have these splash battle rides and they are huge successes. But BB is a failure.
I hope that SF realizes (which im sure they do) That adding more water attractions (even a water coaster) is a stupid idea at SFGAm. What SFGAm "NEEDS" is a Ferris Wheel, one like at SFSTL or SFKK. As for a coaster?..... Well I am going to have a special "Galvan Investigates" thread on that subject soon.
While I think a giant ferris wheel would be a nice addition, if you look at other parks that have those huge wheels, they usually don't have an observation tower. I said usually as I know CP has both.
This new team isn't going to start plopping down 20 million dollar steel coasters (in my opinion). This new CEO is known for getting a company completely out of debt. Personally, I would like a Sally Dark Ride or a GCI coaster which Shapiro did add a couple of them and they have been a success. I have no problem with SFGAm having 4 wooden coasters. I finally retired the Sarah Palin signature because she is now 100% irrelevant.
For the parade, I look at it this way. If I felt that it was a great parade, I think I would say to spend that money on it because it's going to last many years at the park. It's not just going to go away at the park! To me, it's okay though, and not great. If it was like Disney's, that would be so worth it in my opinion.
Can the park get rid of the stupid neon yellow uniforms, and make your workers look so much better like they used to look? And the security hats, I just feel so sorry for them! I think Al Weber sounds like a smart guy. Hopefully, he will do the right thing. And I do hope Al Weber would visit his parks multiple days, and ride the rides, and not just be chauffered around to experience the real Six Flags. For Buccaneer Battle, I think it is the hand crank, it just looks way to slow, and I personally think I'm going to get an eye injury with those boats squirting me when they go bye. "I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
The thing with the parade is keeping people in park to spend money. They do the same thing with the insane no re-entry at 7 rule (yet SP holders can come in then.) At least the parade is spending money in trying to do it, but for the price tag it is a waste.
This is the truth. It makes the parks look bad at best.
Those neon yellow uniforms have been on my mind for a while now but I always forget mentioning it. I'm glad you brought it up. I agree 100% with you ilovethevu'. Each ride should have have a special uniform. Bring back the butler uniforms for Batman. Things like that, that add to the theme. I know scipiomask and divemachine would agree with me there.
For general, just around the park employee's, get them a uniform that stands out but not a puke green stand out. While I understand why Shapiro picked it...its the most obvious color and its easy to notice an employee, it just looks horrible. I just hope Weber and Reid-Anderson will change it. If not its fine, but they should have ride ops have their own special uniforms.
^The individual uniform thing was something Marriott did when they ran Great America. Themed outfits for the sections of the park they were in. I can see why corporate today doesn't do this as it is extremely expensive.
I do miss it though. I finally retired the Sarah Palin signature because she is now 100% irrelevant.
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