Can Cedar Fair Buy Six Flags?

As much as I want cedar fair to buy it im guessing that a private company will buy it. And maybe sell each park off one by one and keep a few parks like G ADV , MM, SFOG hope fully CF can get there hands on on or two of those.

I just don't see this move happening. Everyone on this site talk about how attendance is down at a few of Cedar Fairs parks including Geauga Lake. I don't know why people aren't attending that park, they don't know what they are missing. I think Cedar Fair would say no to buying Six Flags. Reason is because Six Flags is in a huge hole Finacially. If Cedar Fair bought Six Flags, then Cedar Fair would be in debt. Why would you want to do that? I'd rather see someone else buy Six Flags because I think Cedar Fair has their own worries to worry about.

cedar fair can buy the company, then sell all the parks that will not reach cedar fair standards for more money than they bought the company. only keep a few parks. oh, and use the money on CEDAR POINT... just kidding, the entire chain.

lol well this is frustrating... tried several times to post, but by the time I type in the post, re-read it and correct spelling errors or change the text a little... it times out and I have to start all over again. So thought I would compose the post in Word and just cut and paste it over to the board... and it comes up blank. *sigh* might be too long or something... will try it in 2 parts tomorrow. Too tired to mess with it anymore tonight. Nuts.

CPL
*** Edited 8/27/2005 5:12:29 AM UTC by CPLurker***

Premier Parks buying of Six Flags was one of the worst things to happen to the amusement industry.

When you think about it until then Six Flags had a fairly good reputation and only had about eight parks nationwide and they are had similar rides and attractions. But suddenly there's are ton of new parks, new coasters and while good at the time for enthusiasts things didn't turn out so well.

Most of the "new" SF parks really really looked like what I expect a Six Flags park.

For example Darien Lake was a nice atmosphere with a few coasters and the country atmosphere. But in no way should it ever been made into a Six Flags.

What I think the new owners should do is keep the these parks and concentrate on them.

Great America

Great Adventure

The original three Texas, St.Louis, and Georgia

Fiesta Texas

Magic Mountain

New England

Astroworld

On the fence: new Orleans, Kentucky Kingdom.

Marine World.

Sell the rest.

Amusement parks don't work the same way many other businesses do on the basis of NEED. People need groceries and gas, therefore businesses like that can limit their investments especially if they're the only place in town. People don't need to go to amusement parks. Parks need to reinvest in their products frequently to get people to come out to the park. Therefore CF would still need to reinvest in the park at the same rates as they previously had.

As far as Six Flags goes, I think that if Cedar Fair bought out the entire thing they would severely suffer at first, but if they made em better it would be great over time.

However, if someone else buys them, a private company like someone said above, someone who doesn't have to worry about already maintaining the world's best amusement park and then some, they might actually make SF parks into nice places to go, thus creating some REAL competition for CP </runon sentence>

Anyone else get what I'm saying?

I don't think Cedar Point is competing with any Six Flags, Just Paramount. Other CF parks, yes, definately. With CP, though, the only Six Flags contender has been taken out (Great Adventure is barely competition, but it may measure in. Nobody I know knows about it). Buying Six Flags wouldn't affect Cedar Point's competition, so it wouldn't affect the incoming rides for that reason. However, Cedar Fair would be in the hole, so less rides would be put in. We probably wouldn't see a new coaster at the point for a WHILE.

Cedar Fair owns 7 parks now. For them to buy 30 more is just plain silly. They don't need the debt and they don't need the hassle. They have enough on their plate already. Just how do you suppose they would raise attendance at Six Flag parks when they can't even do it at CP?

MrScott

Like MrScott said, they have 7 and are doing well. Six Flags owns 30 and looks what is happening to them.

According to an article on www.thepointol.com Cedar Fair is planning on possibly buying Six Flags Magic Mountain.

You mean the article from the LA Times that we linked to last week? ;)

I'm not sure how many of you just jump right to the forums, but we have a pretty extensive (and frequently updated) collection of news items. They're linked from the front page and here. There are 41 news items just from the last month.

*** Edited 9/3/2005 4:42:54 PM UTC by Walt***

"Cedar Fair now owns the worlds first 4th demension coaster and cleans up park making it like new!"

I like the sound of that.;)

*** Edited 9/3/2005 5:51:16 PM UTC by TTD 120mph***

Where do you see that?

In my mind......I made it up.:)

I wouldn't like CF buying one of the "Big" SF parks. What would be nice is to for CF to buy some of the smaller and more neglected SF parks. Like my home park SF:DL. SF has deserted SFDL, we haven't had a new coaster since 1999 and its starting to show. Attendance is falling every year at a steady amount.

It seems like when Six Flags was buying parks such as Darien Lake, and then Ohio and other parks, thats how they put themselves in debt.

You would be correct, but don't expect some of the kiddies here to understand that. Why think of economics when they can have their $100 season pass get them in EVERYWHERE!

Why would Cedar Fair want to buy Six Flags and assume all of that debt? That's not a good move for unit holders. Think about it... Six Flags is currently valued at about $630 million with around 30 parks. Cedar Fair is valued around $1.6 billion with seven parks and a handful of water parks. I would sell my units immediately. They've already got a turn-around project they're working on.

I also doubt Six Flags will sell off any of their bigger parks. You can't pay on your debt if you don't have some mechanism to generate revenue.

I have found out that one, and I'm not a business. Can I pay my Visa with my Mastercard? You bet I can.

I would be less than completely against it if the Gueaga lake experiment had met expectations.