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overview
This
page considers the Six Flags themepark group.
It covers -
introduction
Six Flags, Inc. claims to be "the largest regional
theme park company in the world", with 30 theme,
water and zoological parks in North America as of 2005.
As of 2004 its facilities featured over 1,150 rides (including
some 150 roller coasters), reflected in its claim to be
the leading US provider of 'thrill rides'.
It
was founded in 1961 by Texas property and oil entrepreneur
Angus Wynne II (1914-1979) before being acquired and subsequently
disgorged by Time Warner. In recent
years it has experienced financial difficulties, reflected
in the closure of some parks and the sale of assets.
As of late 1995 Six Flags owned and operated six parks,
with revenue of around US$41.5 million and some 200 full-time
employees. Through aggressive expansion during that decade
it grew to 38 parks (with 3,000 full-time employees) by
the end of 2000. Revenue at that time was US$1 billion
but the cost of servicing debt had soared to US$224 million
from US$5.6 million in 1995, severely crimping the group's
capacity to weather downturns in visitor numbers and to
fund necessary investment in maintenance, marketing and
development. That was reflected in investor disquiet and
board disagreements, with critics arguing that much of
the group's value lay in its land holdings rather than
in ticket sales and merchandising.
history
The history of Six Flags has traced a similar trajectory
to that of the Great America group profiled elsewhere
on this site.
Six Flags Inc is a rebadging of Premier Parks, which originated
as Oklahoma City-based real estate developer the Tierco
Group. Tierco acquired Frontier City (on the outskirts
of Oklahoma City) in the early 1980s. That park had been
launched in 1958. By 1989 Tierco had divested its real
estate holdings to focus on the amusement park industry
and in 1994 changed its name to Premier Parks. In 1995
it acquired three properties from Funtime, going public
during the following year. It acquired four parks in 1996
(taking its holdings to seven parks) and bought three
more (including Kentucky Kingdom near Louisville and Marine
World near San Francisco) in 1997.
Acquisition of Six Flags in 1998 gave Premier Parks eight
theme parks and three 'water attractions'. Six Flags had
expanded from Wybnne's initial park in Dallas to Six Flags
Over Georgia (1967), Six Flags Over Mid-America (later
Six Flags St Louis) (1971) before acquiring competitors
such as the Great Adventure Park & Safari in New Jersey
and Great America in Illinois. The corporate structure
featured a separation of park ownership (centred on land)
and park operation, similar to that used by many hotel
chains.
During the 1960s diversification giddiness the operating
company (which encompassed six parks, two wax museums
and electronic game amusement centers) was acquired by
Penn Central, which in 1968 claimed to be the largest
US transportation company, largest commercial real estate
company and sixth largest US industrial corporation.
In 1982 the operating company was acquired by slot machine
group Bally Manufacturing (later Bally Entertainment).
It was later sold to William Simon's Wesray Capital, famous
for leveraged acquisition and sale of Gibson Greetings.
Time Warner acquired a stake in 1991, buying the remainder
of the company in 1993 but offloading a 51% stake to Boston
Ventures for US$1bn (debt and equity) in 1995 and exiting
in 1998. Premier branded 24 of its facilities as 'Six
Flags' parks and expanded offshore during 1998, acquiring
94% of Walibi Parks (six parks in Europe). In 1999 it
acquired Splashtown Water Park in Houston and Reino Aventura,
Mexico's largest theme park (later Six Flags Mexico) along
with the White Water Atlanta park and Warner Bros. Movie
World in Germany.
In 2000 Premier changed its name to Six Flags. It acquired
Montreal's La Ronde amusement park in 2001, opening Warner
Bros. Movie World in Spain in 2002. In 2004 however it
sold Six Flags Worlds of Adventure to competitor Cedar
Fair and unloaded its European operations for US$200 million.
During 2006 it sold land underlying its Houston AstroWorld
theme park for US$77 million in an effort to reduce debt
In 2007 Six Flags announced that it would sell seven of
its 30 North American parks for US$312 million in a further
effort to reduce total long-term debt of US$2.1 billion
and avert the stockholder and management wars that disfigured
2006. The expectation was that Six Flags Darien Lake (Buffalo),
Six Flags Elitch Gardens (Denver) Frontier City and White
Water Bay (Oklahoma City), SplashTown (Houston), Waterworld
USA (Concord) and Wild Waves and Enchanted Village (Seattle)
would be sold to park operator PARC 7F-Operations Corp.
PARC would immediately sell those assets to Orlando-based
real-estate investment trust CNL Income Properties Inc
and then lease back the parks from CNL.
Later in 2007 RedZone Capital, the investment company
owned by the Daniel Snyder (largest individual shareholder
of Six Flags and owner of the Washington Redskins) bought
60% of TV production company Dick Clark Productions for
US$135 million, with Six Flags — paying US$40 million
for the remaining stake. Dick Clark Productions had been
a publicly traded company (with Clark controlling 70%
of the shares) until 2002, when a group of investors took
it private for US$140 million.
holdings
As
of 2005 the group encompassed -
California
-
Six Flags Magic Mountain, Los Angeles
-
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Los Angeles
- Six
Flags Marine World, San Francisco
-
Six Flags Waterworld, Concord
-
Six Flags Waterworld, Sacramento
Colorado
-
Six Flags Elitch Gardens, Denver
Georgia
-
Six Flags Over Georgia, Atlanta
-
Six Flags White Water, Atlanta
-
American Adventures, Atlanta
Illinois
- Six
Flags Great America. Chicago
-
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Chicago
Kentucky
-
Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville
Louisiana
Maryland
-
Six Flags America, Baltimore/Washington, DC
Massachusetts
-
Six Flags New England, Springfield
Missouri
New
Jersey
-
Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson
-
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Jackson
-
Six Flags Wild Safari, Jackson
New
York
-
Six Flags Darien Lake, Buffalo
- The
Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom, Lake George
Ohio
Oklahoma
-
Frontier City, Oklahoma City
-
White Water Bay, Oklahoma City
Texas
- Six
Flags Over Texas, Arlington
-
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Arlington
-
Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio
-
Six Flags SplashTown, Houston
Washington
-
Wild Waves & Enchanted Village, Seattle
Canada
Mexico
-
Six Flags Mexico, Mexico City
Studies
There are no major studies of Six Flags. Perspectives
are offered in the studies of Disney
and KECO highlighted elsewhere on this site, including
Judith Adams' The American Amusement Park Industry:
A History of Technology and Thrills (Boston: Twayne
1991), Harold Vogel's Entertainment Industry Economics
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1998) and Harrison Price's
Walt's Revolution! By the Numbers (Orlando: Ripley
Publishing 2004). For Penn Central see Stephen Salsbury's
lucid No way to run a railroad: the untold story of
the Penn Central Crisis (New York: McGraw-Hill 1982)
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