Six Flags Management Change

[GuyWithAStick]

http://www.screamscape.com/html/industry_news.htm#SixFlags

Screamscape reported that there was a big management change for Six Flags. Of these changes, Jim Reid-Anderson was "demoted" to be just the Executive Chairman. John Duffey will take his place as President and CEO of Six Flags. Marshall Barber will become the park's CFO. SVP of In-Park Services will be replaced by David McKillips. Brett Petit will take leadership for the Corporate Alliance Sales Team, which means he has leadership over all marketing and sales teams.

Yeah, large changes. Hopefully this will bring more, larger investments(not too large. We don't want bankruptcy again) in the chain.

Thoughts? Will this be a change for good or for worse?

 

[Shirofukurou]

I think Jim did a good job helping the parks recover from the Shapiro dark ages. Especially since in the last few years my home SF park (New England) saw more major additions in the last 5 years than the preceding 10 (Shapiro and Premier years).

It might be good to have a change of pace though, they really need to focus on making every park as clean, friendly, and efficient as Great America, and I feel SFNE could have used that kind of attention instead of a new major ride each year

Bottom line: SF is much better than it was before Jim but it still has a lot of problems. Hopefully the new CEO will try and prioritize those ones.

 

[Hyde]

Duffey has been with the park since 2010, correct? That was the same year Reid-Anderson also came on board as CEO.

In general, internal promotions such as these can represent a continuation of leadership style, especially as Duffey and Reid-Anderson are of the same regime at Six Flags. This year should be a great year for amusement parks with the low price of gasoline and travel, so hopefully Duffey's first year in the big chair is a good one.