Six Flags to sell Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, and five other parks
Six Flags announced today it has entered into definitive agreements to sell seven of its parks to EPR Properties:
- Valleyfair
- Worlds of Fun
- Michigan's Adventure
- Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston
- Six Flags St. Louis
- Six Flags Great Escape
- Six Flags La Ronde
The thing that really caught my eye is the price tag. $331M for seven theme parks seems like a terribly low price, especially when considering some of the larger properties. I'm hopeful that EPR will keep up these parks, but I am far from optimistic. But if this indeed does give Six Flags the bandwidth to sharpen its focus on its remaining properties and get them running better, then maybe some good will come out of it.
384 MF laps
Smoking Area Drone Pilot
A search online says that it is a real estate investment trust that invests in amusement parks, movie theaters, ski resorts and other entertainment properties. So I'm guessing that they purchase properties from owners desperate for cash and then try to turn a profit either by improving the properties to make them more attractive to potential guests or by selling them. So maybe this will be a positive for Michigan's Adventure, which seems to have received little in improvements over the past several years. I'm guessing my prestige pass won't work there anymore. Or maybe they're planning a housing development. I don't think there's that much land for that. I guess I could do research on what they have done with other amusment park properties they have bought in the past.
EPR already owns Darien Lake and Frontier City, with Six Flags leasing them.
Also, I looked up the history of the parks being sold (not including water parks), and all of them have a history of underinvestment. While a couple of them got new coasters recently, it was too little too late to justify keeping them with Six Flags. And yes, the "Fair" in Cedar Fair also got the red-headed stepchild treatment.
It isn't just them being smaller parks.
There's not enough in these parks to justify a higher price tag for the sale.
Unofficial Rule of Ride Removals
You must announce removals in advance so people can get their last rides in, unless a major incident or malfunction prevents the ride from doing so.
This applies to roller coasters, flat rides, water rides, and so on.
Exceptions to this rule include upcharge attractions, waterpark rides, and rides that are effectively redundant within a park.
DA20Pilot:
Didn't Cedar Fair pay around $200M for Geauga Lake alone IIRC?
I believe they paid $145 million for Geauga Lake in 2004, 28 million for Michigan's Adventure in 2001, and $1.2 billion for the Paramount Parks in 2006.
I agree $331 million seems a low for 7 parks and not really enough to materially change their situation in terms of leverage ratios since they will also be losing $45 million per year in EBITDA.
-Matt
We regret to inform you that that position has been eliminated as part of a restructuring initiative. But yeah let's break that park cost down a little further. Average cost per park is $47M, and with 67 attractions at Cedar Point, that equates to ~$706,000 per attraction. I'm calling dibs on Millennium Force.
384 MF laps
Smoking Area Drone Pilot
^ Darn it, all the good positions always get eliminated.
jimmyburke:
Does this position involve "lagoon maintenance" project development? Asking for a friend.
Only time the SIJVPASLPEABDP would be involved in lagoon maintenance would be for the installation of floating alcohol sales stands, after all you never know when a worker or guest could accidentally fall in and want to enjoy a cold drink. I think it is definitely an untapped market that could boost the bottom line and in park per capita spending.
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