Six Flags / Cedar Fair Merger Announced

[Boodangy]

So, is this going to worsen the quality of Cedar Fair parks or increase the quality of Six Flags parks? Because from what I’ve heard, Six Flags parks aren’t exactly the greatest…

For the time being I've seen reports of Six Flags parks significantly reducing operations this season so far to make big number look good right before the merger so let's hope it's more Cedar Fair oriented than SF.

From my (limited) anecdotal experiences, I think there is likely some truth to that.

But that's not evidence or anything, just a general and subjective impression.

And at the risk of driving the car right over the edge of off-topic cliff, here's my favorite personal story of a Brit not comprehending the physical size of the US and its features.

Yeah depends heavily where in Europe they're from but especially for Brits, the Dutch etc the concept of a "long" drive (or walk for that matter) seems to be very different. But driving for hours between major settlements or driving for hours and still being on the same lake would be pretty normal for Germans, Finns or Swedes. Sweden has a lake wider than the entire UK is at a couple points (Vänern) and whenever I go to my family's cabin (Finland) I drive for like 4-5 hours (depending on route) along the same lake and once I get to my cabin you can hardly see the opposite shore and I drove a moving van for my friend 7h away like it was nothing.

 

[dkspencer]

Well... it's official.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...ed-Creating-a-Leading-Amusement-Park-Operator

https://investors.sixflags.com/overview/default.aspx

New company logo:

 

[Hyde]

 

[Nitefly]

I await the inevitable 2025 rebranding…

Six Flags Cedar Point

 

[InvertsAreMyJam]

I remember when I went to King’s Island they had cups with all the Cedar Fair parks on them. What I want to know, is what’s going to happen to those cups?!

 

[Hyde]

I remember when I went to King’s Island they had cups with all the Cedar Fair parks on them. What I want to know, is what’s going to happen to those cups?!

They sell them for twice the price as "memorabilia".

I await the inevitable 2025 rebranding…

Six Flags Cedar Point

Each park in the combined company’s portfolio will retain their legacy branding with no changes to park names currently being planned or contemplated.

To game it out for a few more clicks, it makes zero sense to do any dramatic rebranding/renaming - the "Six Flags" brand brings zero benefit to Cedar Fair parks, and vice versa. Let's also not forget it is Cedar Fair management who are taking over all senior post at Six Flags, so don't be surprised if there's more of a Cedar Fairesque flair of management going forward... as first demonstrated by a horribly corporate logo unveil.

 

[Sticky_T_Wicky]

I await the inevitable 2025 rebranding…

Six Flags Cedar Point

I think this is tongue in cheek but Cedar Fair parks aren't going to add the Six Flags "courtesy title" to existing parks name.

The main question I have is what parks, if any, are going to be sold. I know the company wants to further delever its balance sheet and I could see some less profitable parks (or land) being put up for sale. It would be unfortunate for NorCal enthusiast but with the value of the land that Discovery Kingdom sits on, it would be my top pick for the chain to divest from in a similar manner to California's Great America where it's sold to a developer. There just aren't enough amusement park operator buyers whereas there is a gaggle of real estate developers with deep pocketed investors. The land isn't going to get $310 million like CGA did but an enticing offer would certainly be attractive to the chain.

 

[Sticky_T_Wicky]

For the time being I've seen reports of Six Flags parks significantly reducing operations this season so far to make big number look good right before the merger so let's hope it's more Cedar Fair oriented than SF.

Six Flags has reduced some operations but by the start of Q2 of this year, the transaction had been fully underwritten so there would be no need for Six Flags to improve its bottomline for purposes of the merger. As long as its Q1 & early Q2 earnings weren't a disaster case scenario, the transaction was going through.

I think that was more just Six Flags being Six Flags.

Sorry for the double post

 

[Superbatboy]

Still doesn't feel real lol