Bankrupt - Six Flags

Since the early 1960's, Six Flags has grown to become the world's largest theme park company, at one point, operating over 37 parks around the world. Their parks were beloved from their original property, Six Flags Over Texas, to others like Magic Mountain and Great Adventure. But after a series of terrible decisions, the company failed to make even the slightest profit and ultimately declared bankruptcy. In doing so, they left parks demolished or abandoned in their wake. Join me today as I find out why.

Travel Channel - @BrightSunTravels

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Bright Sun Films 2023

Presented in 4K

[jlee]

The main draw to Six Flags was instead of dedicating 4 days, airfare, and a lot of money for admissions and lodging, you could take your family or a group of friends to the local amusement park with none of that hassle. A day trip to Six Flags was wonderful and much lower cost and headache. But once they started raising their prices without any added benefit....well, it all went downhill

[roelbrook]

The fact that they can save 120 million / year just by merging corporate oversight" says enough; the people at the top of these companies get paid WAY too much, regardless of how they "manage" their company.

[Caretaker_of_the_Flame]

I love how a CEO can lose a company 400 million dollars and still keep his position; yet if I show up to work late, I’ll get fired immediately.

[tayzonday]

I won an essay contest for Six Flags Great America’s “Space Shuttle America” ride launch in 1994 (at age twelve), and got a full-ride scholarship to Space Camp Florida.

[alypialpha]

I laughed when the CEO of Six Flags called itself a premium park and upped its prices without changing anything. My home park is the St. Louis one, and I have been increasingly disappointed with it each year. We cancelled our membership this year once they started cutting perks while raising prices on everything. I really hope Cedar Fair will manage the parks better.

[this_is_nick]

I had diamond elite passes to Magic Mountain. I was paying $40 a month for them. They closed the park in March 2020 and continued to charge me for months even though they weren't open. I cancelled my passes. They told me I'd get those months back when they reopened. I showed up when they reopened and they told me that because I stopped paying I wouldn't get those months back until I renewed my passes. So I had to renew my pass in order to get those four months back that they owed me. Such a grimey ass company.

[horsepowermultimedia]

Six Flags: *advertises itself as a cheap alternative to Disneyland*
Attendance: *rises*
Six Flags: *raises prices for profit to the point of making it harder for low-income families to attend*
Attendance: *drops to zero*
Six Flags: HoW dId It Go WrOnG!!??

[TheKusa]

Current employee over at Magic mountain, the price hike was a huge mistake, our attendance has gone down massively, so we closed up in the middle of the week to help save money, which pissed off alot of pass owners and alot of employees as well since now we're getting paid peanuts, I'm really hoping the merger helps us out, maybe we can lower prices again and open up all week again, and we could use help with renovations as well.

[wesleykim]

It honestly somewhat hurts seeing Six Flags on the Bankrupt series, I still remember the “More Flags, More Fun” commercials back around the late 2000s. Even as someone who never actually went to a Six Flags park, still seeing it here is just a big reminder of how fast time will pass you by whether you’re ready or not.

[killervirgo]

As a coaster enthusiast, I really enjoyed this video. The Six Flags and Cedar Fair merger will be interesting and I am hopeful that the Six Flags parks will improves as a result.

[hypersonic]

I never thought that I would even think that Six Flags would ever get into bankruptcy, but here we are now. At least Cedar Fair has bought them. Also what a wonderful way to end the year with this video. Great job BSF!
Edit: I started a war in the comments section. Also I’m a complete dummy. I made this comment before finishing the video so yeah.

[ToniWolfe-rg]

I remember when I was a kid that the only way we could afford to go was to collect Coca-Cola cans with discounts for six flags on it. But when my husband and I got our first jobs, we got season passes. It socks to know there just isn't that excitement anymore

[MattyChap]

My grandfather was a chief engineer, and ride designer, of Six Flags parks for over 35 years. In the 90s, when I would go to work with him, the parks were always an absolute delight. It's a shame to see how modern management have handled the parks.

[CNW]

As a theme park and railroad enthusiast, the fact that the Pennsylvania RR owned Six Flags for a bit is wild.

[SomeoneElsesStory]

I’m a 25 year pass holder at the original Over Texas park. While the theming and rides are still pretty solid, the constant mix of new ownership has steadily driven the park, and the brand, into the ground. Hopefully Cedar Fair is the magic that turns things around.

[Jws]

I'll never get over the closing of Astroworld. The land it sat on is still just an empty lot used as parking for Texans games.

[josephromano]

As a midwesterner I was worried when I heard about the merger. Cedar Fair has some amazing parks that are constantly innovating and are always clean. I'm sure its exactly what Six Flags needs, but im worried that the massive debt that SF has will drag the whole company down. Lets hope its not like the Sears/Kmart merger 👀

[James-mwzv]

Execs take their huge cut and declare bankruptcy. Taxpayers pick up the pieces. Disgusting.

[mariebelladonna]

Louisville, Kentucky native here. Wanted to offer a little more insight into what happened with (Sucks Flags) Kentucky Kingdom. This is long, sorry, lol.

I pretty much grew up at Kentucky Kingdom, having a season pass from the time I was about 13 (back then the passes were laminated paper, with your picture glued into them, and got you into KK and the zoo, lol), until I was in my early 20s. I spent most of every summer there. Our park was a beloved local icon. I remember how it started out so small, and grew and expanded over the years. It was beautiful, and safe, and clean. I remember there was always someone walking around the concourses with a broom and dustpan.

When Sucks Flags took over, almost everyone who went to the park noticed a decline, and that started almost immediately. As soon as Bugs and Tweety went up all over everything, the prices were jacked way up (this was all the way back in the late 90s/very early 00s). They didn't clean the park, they didn't repair anything. Half the park's fun little themed eateries closed, and never opened back up. there was always a ride or two that weren't operational, on any given day. Then they started trying to draw the teens in.

They had this thing called "Day 5 Alive", every Friday night. It was like a dance party, for teenagers, and it was very popular. Unfortunately, it was also pretty unregulated. I think you had to be a certain age to go, maybe 14 or 16? Not sure. But parents would drop their kids off, or teens that could drive brought others who couldn't. There were huge crowds. And with that many teenagers, and that little staff, it was impossible to supervise them all. Not that the staff really cared anyway. There were always reports of fights, injuries, vandalism. It was so rough, my mother never actually allowed me to go. The rough crowds and the reputation they brought, drove a lot of families away from wanting to even go to the park at all. And it just kept going downhill.

When Sucks Flags left in 2009, they didn't just drop their lease. They picked a fight with the Fair Board (who owns/manages the land the Park and our Fairgrounds share) over some amendment they wanted, to their lease. When the board (rightfully) wouldn't budge, they *broke* their lease, and abandoned the park. But before they left, they took several favorite rides that they were NOT supposed to take (they took some before it even closed, under the deceitful guise of expanding the water park). IIRC there was legal action over that, and a settlement was reached. But that didn't give us back our only standing roller coaster, or any of the other stuff they pinched.

And our community was heartbroken. Generations had grown up there, and many, like myself, had hoped to continue the park's legacy, by sharing it with our own children one day. And Sucks Flags just threw the park away like trash. It was left dilapidated, rotting and molding, for years. Several companies expressed interest in reopening it, but none were successful. Hope began to slip away, and it looked more and more like our beloved little park was going to go the way of Geauga Lake Park (who, btw, I firmly believe was killed by Sucks Flags; I think it was simply too late, by the time Cedar Fair took over).

But in a wonderful turn of events, our park survived, and still thrives today. A group of Louisvillians spearheaded a grassroots effort, that grew into a local movement. And, through donations from the community (myself included), and a large investment from a local hero, Ed Hart-the man who really started Kentucky Kingdom himself, way back in 1990-an agreement was reached with the city and the Fair Board. Lots of work was done, some of it also donated, and many hours of loving labor were put in. And in May of 2014, five years after Sucks Flags screwed Louisville over and left it for dead, our park repoened to much fanfare, under the original Kentucky Kingdom nameplate. It's still thriving today, though the operating rights have since been sold, they were sold to Herschend Family Entertainment, the awesome company that also owns Dollywood, and the Harlem Globetrotters. It's as clean, friendly, and beautiful as ever, and now offers things like free drink refills, free sunscreen, and free innertube rentals (may sound like little things, but Suck Flags never did *anything* like that.) We're all so happy to have our wonderful park back.

All in all, I'd say we were very lucky. But maybe it's less luck, than an example of how tight-knit and supportive out awesome community can be. And we're all glad Sucks Flags is gone. I, for one, will never spend a penny at another Sucks Flags park. My pennies may not matter to them. But I have my morals and my principals, and they have nothing to do with anyone but myself.

I can only hope Cedar Fair, which now has controlling interest, really takes these parks up to the level at which they should be. Because I've been to some Cedar Fair parks, too, and they know how to run the hell out of an amusement park. But Sucks Flags...well, SUCKS.

If you read to the end, thank you. Again, I'm sorry it was so long. I get excited, sharing things about my hometown. I enjoyed writing this. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

[jricedrums]

I'm a roller coaster enthusiast. I have a pass that gets me into all the Six Flags parks. In 2023 I visited four of the Six Flags parks, but over the years I've visited nine of them. For me, Six Flags has the thrills and that'll keep me coming back to them. Taking the whole experience into account though I've always considered Six Flags the "Walmart" of theme parks. The parks aren't very clean, you can tell certain areas/rides haven't been upkept/painted in years and stuff like that. Hopefully this merger will see these parks cleaned up to the standard of the Cedar Fair parks.