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The Saudi PIF will be the owner and (apparently) operator of the property. It will be under a license agreement with the SIX brand, and the park is said to be designed/developed by SIX. So the layout, rides, theme, etc. will be of SIX's design, but the park will be owned and operated by the PIF. As for what would become of the park under the FUN Six Flags, that remains to be seen. https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2018/04-04-2018-220015471

Saying nice (and truthful) things about Six Flags?! Burn the heretic! How dare you interrupt a perfectly good collective meltdown! Listen, are there reasons to be concerned with this merger? Sure. But everyone judging this situation based on Six Flags of 20 years ago ("Everything is going to get a Six Flags name! Parking lot coasters!") hasn't been paying attention to how Six Flags has handled its most recent acquisitions and additions. And much as homestar said, I think the chain is being judged off its worst examples. The Texas parks, for example, are fantastic, as are Great America and Great Adventure (though admittedly I haven't been to the latter in 10+ years.) Not to mention, as much damage as Bassoul has done to Six Flags's branding recently, the president is still Zimmerman and the board is still half Cedar Fair. IF people at the top are thinking about doing y'all's worst nightmares and transforming Kings Island into Six Flags America Part II: Electric Boogaloo, there are people with a lot of say who seem to understand branding better. I'm not saying that's impossible; I AM saying that y'all have a precise count on how many chickens you'll have when the eggs haven't hatched yet. And yeah, Six Flags's FoL system is, as far as I'm concerned, objectively a better system than Fast Lane.

Keep in mind, Six Flags Great America (one of the most "Kings Island-esque" parks in their chain) retained its distinct themed areas long after the merger, having only lost one of them to a licensed IP (Yankee Harbor becoming DC Universe) almost four decades after being acquired. They also added a new themed area, Southwest Territory, which fits perfectly in line with Marriott's original vision for that park's themes. Six Flags doesn't just rip out all the history and replace it with copy/pasted IP-based attractions. I would argue that Six Flags has respected the themes of that park more than KI's recent owners have respected some of our park's themes. I mean, Mini Coopers and a helicopter with machine guns in the "classic American amusement park" section? South-American ruins themed coaster and a Mexican restaurant in Oktoberfest? Banshee and Bat in the "movie studio backlot" section? It's not like Paramount and Cedar Fair were always 100% in line with the "theme" of our park either. DC Comics and Looney Tunes can coexist in the kids' area. Camp Snoopy being a subsection of Planet Snoopy seems like a good groundwork for this. And it's not unprecedented - Hannah-Barbera Land and Nickelodeon Central coexisted for years in what is now Planet Snoopy. We all love Snoopy here, but that's because we're used to it. To our kids, snoopy is just the dog from Kings Island and that Christmas special. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth when Snoopy came to Kings Island and it seems it's the same thing again now that there is the *possibility* (nothing confirmed at all) of it happening again a few years down the road. This could bring Snoopy to Gurnee just as easily as it could bring Bugs Bunny to Mason.

Renaming Banshee to some tacky DC name would make the area worse imo.

I don’t think having DC integrated at Kings Island is a bad thing. The only bad that can come from this, is if they did what Paramount did and plop themed rides down in areas it doesn’t fit. Action Zone is a perfect candidate for a DC re theme. That area has no theming cohesion, and would benefit greatly from such. Like others have said in regards to Action Zone, it really can’t be worse.

It is owned/developed by the Saudi Investment Fund (unlimited government money). Six Flags is licensing their brand to the park.

I'm hoping it gets extended. With the amount of theming going into Camp Snoopy and SSBR next year, it really would be a waste to see all of that go after two years.

I think a lot of the sentiments I've seen here to the effect of "person in my social circle who doesn't even like theme parks has a negative opinion of Six Flags" doesn't realize that these people probably have an even less informed opinion of Six Flags than you do, because their opinion is likely just what they've heard from you. People who never go to parks aside from their local one only know about other parks from the things that their friends who do go to other parks say about them. Enthusiasts broadly seem to dislike Six Flags, so normal people who occasionally talk to enthusiasts end up with a negative opinion of Six Flags. It's really just a feedback loop. Six Flags operates *a lot* of parks and many of those parks feel very different from each other. Some SIX parks are indeed dirty and poorly operated, but not all. Six Flags does many things well. Their Flash Pass system is far more elegant than Fast Lane, and it works well at every park. The same cannot be said of Fast Lane (ever tried using it at Cedar Point? Enjoy somehow still waiting an hour after paying hundreds of dollars). The idea that *every* Cedar Fair park is always clean and always has great operations isn't any more true than the idea that Six Flags are all dirty and mismanaged. Six Flags Great America is one of my absolute favorite amusement parks anywhere, and they've won awards for their cleanliness. I'm also a big fan of Darien Lake. Both are SIX properties. Coincidentally, "dirty and poorly operated" was my experience when I visited Worlds of Fun, which is a Cedar Fair park. Six Flags also has two different parks with animal safari-type exhibits, so they have the experience and expertise to bring that back if they wanted to. Six Flags has IPs that are far more relevant to children than Snoopy (as much as I personally LOVE Snoopy, he's not culturally relevant anymore outside of the Christmas special). Kings Island is going to be just fine, and I don't know that we have any reason to believe that Six Flags will even be added to its name (aside from perhaps "Kings Island - a Six Flags park". Both chains have things that they do well and I really do think their collective expertise can really help both chains. Remember, Six Flags and Cedar Fair didn't compete with each other outside of California. But they *do* compete with the likes of Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, and other destinations, and this merger gives them access to the resources to actually stand a chance at competing with those chains. If anything, this has created more *actual* competition even though there are fewer competitors in the game.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/tt2-construction/top-thrill-2-construction-updates Lots going on in the latest blog update. This is going to be a change of scenery on Iron Dragon for sure. Head chopper effect, or?

I just hope they keep the themes and lands as is and continue to develop them in the parks that already have them instead of just dropping attractions, rides, and names wherever in the park that don’t match with any theme of the area they are in.

If rides are indeed themed to DC, Looney Tunes and other WB properties then I hope they put some thought into the theming and don't simply paint a ride black and green and name it "The Matrix" without atmosphere, immersion or the tiniest bit of decor to show for it.

No way Six Flags Great America gets rebranded. That's been its name for decades, the two Great Americas are on opposite sides of the country, and the one in California will likely be closed for good before or shortly after the branding consolidation happens anyway. There may be some rebrands. I don't think either of those will be among them, and I don't think any current Six Flags parks see changes to branding UNLESS they are sold and leave the Six Flags portfolio.

For Kings Island in regards to investments I see no reason for optimism regarding this deal: Kings Island is "tapped out" relative to the large Six Flags parks. The New Six Flags & Cedar Fair combo will stress revenue growth where there's potential. There's plenty of room to grow Great Adventure, Great America, Magic Mountain, and Fiesta Texas, and Over Texas. Cedar Point and Kings Island have plateued on revenue except for add-on products like Fast Lane and Meal Plans. The Paramount Park purchase was disastrous for the likes of Dorney, Valleyfair, and Michigan's Adventure. Meanwhile "the new kids on the block" Kings Island, Carowinds, and Canda's Wonderland were showered with new coasters. Even Cedar Point slowed down a little on new attractions compared to the pre-Paramount era. I'm less concerned about aspects other than investments: There's no reason Kings Island's high level of operations performance can't be maintained. Having been to two of the top-tier Six Flags parks, I can say that the good ones are a lot better than a lot of enthusiast circles give them credit for and the "bones" of these parks are just as good as the best Cedar Fair parks. Regarding Six Flags reputation, regular (non-enthusiast) people don't think of Six Flags as low quality. They are just a recognizable name in theme parks.

Paramount's Kings Island had that problem too, where they introduced Action Zone to essentially be the "Paramount section of the park", but also went ahead and put Paramount rides in other areas too like Italian Job and Tomb Raider. Hopefully with Cedar Fair's input they won't repeat that same mistake, but we'll have to wait and see.

No impact to the Six Flags license deal. Also, insidethemagic.net is a clickbait site.

I don't want to delve into politics, but you can't shield kids from reality. Looney Tunes are good fun, but people like Elmer Fudd, trying to hunt the rabbit indeed exist. Just as Sylvester wanting to eat Tweety. In reality, hunters do exist, and there are predators and prey. Trying to shield kids from the world is a dumb proposition, and obviously doesn't seem to be working. I mean back when Bugs & Tweety aired, you didn't see kids committing mass shootings did you? As someone else said regarding Peanuts, how often do you really see them other than that Christmas special? Wonderland has a ride themed after the Halloween special because that's kind of the relevance they have, only specials.

It would give Cedar Fair the world’s tallest coaster once again.

Is it SF owned/developed or is it owned by a 3rd party that is licensing the Six Flags name? The new SeaWorld “park” (most of it is indoors) in Abu Dhabi is like that—a third party built, owns and operates it, but SEAS licensed their brand and provided consulting during development. If that’s the same scenario in Qiddiya there’s probably no reason for it not to move forward with the merger

So my biggest question now is… Six Flags Qiddiya? Clearly it’s happening but it wasn’t featured on the released map of properties. The topic of that park creates a lot of questions.

True, but the font and the art of the six flags are from the 90's.

I'll try to be optimistic, but mergers make me nervous. As a movie fan, the mergers of 20th Century Fox with Disney, ATT and later Discovery with Warner Bros. have been painful to watch, particularly with the way David Zaslov is currently running WB. And there are further rumors of Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery being sold to NBCUniversal and Apple. To tell you the truth, it is pretty weird watching these big corporations swallow each other up.

Apparently the merger deal is supposed to close in early 2024 if it goes through, so it seems likely we won't see any notable changes for the 2024 season. I think 2025 will probably be when we start seeing minor changes at the park, like new season pass options with some Six Flags technology introduced and/or Kings Island getting a logo change and being labeled as "Kings Island: A Six Flags park" like what Great Escape does. I think we could also see Looney Tunes and DC merchandise being introduced as well in stores and as game prizes. I think 2026 and later will be when we see significant additions and changes.

I'm still in shock over this, but will be cautiously optimistic. I actually moved from the Cincinnati area to Oregon last year, so KI has become a once, maybe twice a year thing when I visit family, so I certainly will be following the forums for any changes. One of the things that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned yet is that Jeff Siebert (and not entirely sure, but I'm guessing a few other alumni) will now be under the same employment umbrella as those at KI.

Oh okay. Thanks

Here is this also, Universal thinking about buying Warner Bros? I wonder how this will affect the IP’s that SIX/CF can use, and what would happen if they did buy WB. https://insidethemagic.net/2023/10/universal-reportedly-eyes-purchase-of-rival-studio-warner-bros-jnw1mmb/

I agree. DC wouldn't be my first choice but AZ as is can't really get much worse. It's already a concrete pad with rides plopped around. Any themes with add some cohesion. Another addition I wouldn't mind seeing in a DC retheme would be the Battle for Metropolis dark ride. And examples you gave are some of the hope I do have for the merger. Six Flags is kind of known for cheapness but they do have some good theming in areas too, and especially with some newer stuff like Dr. Diabolical's.

I am very worried that Kings Island is headed back to the Paramount days but with even tackier themes. I don’t even know where Kings Island could put a DC Universe in the park without ruining the themes of classic attractions. Action Zone seems expendable, but I just cannot see the Banshee name and theme biting the dust. It is probably one of the best names and logos for any ride in the world. All other areas of the park are classic and their themes should not be touched by DC in any way. Vortex also deserves an originally themed replacement and not some DC comics themed rollercoaster.

1. How dare you

If they rebrand I-305, it would be met with heavy pushback from the local community. Dale Earnhardt means a lot to them.

Aquaman’s Car Rental Adventure Sponsored by Hertz.

Let's hope the meal plans continue to remain valid after labor day in future years.... "The All Season Dining Pass currently available for season pass and annual membership pass holders via sixflags.com/greatadventure for $134.99 offers guests "lunch and dinner every visit today and throughout the 2023 season," according to the park's website. Here's the fine print: The pass, valid through Sept. 4, 2023, gets you two meals per each visit to the park, with a three-hour interval between meals. Drinks are not included and "specific dining locations and meals" are subject to availability, according to the park." https://www.app.com/story/life/food/2022/08/31/six-flags-great-adventure-meal-plan-returns-after-going-viral/65465792007/

I thought this was an interesting Richard Zimmerman quote from the conference call transcript at https://seekingalpha.com/article/4647047-cedar-fair-l-p-fun-six-flags-mergers-of-equals-conference-transcript. "One of the things that excites me is somebody who came into the Cedar Fair organization from the Paramount side understanding the movie studio and the drive for exploiting IP and enhancing that along with Six Flags. Looking at the Warner Brothers, we have – as we have said on prepared remarks, really three powerful IPs that we can think about how best fit within the portfolio Peanuts, DC Comics and of course the Warner Brothers connection. I am so excited to think about how we could potentially roll out and enhance the guest experience in all our regions and rethink how we use IP. IP is incredibly important, differentiator in the minds of our consumers and I think our ability to unlock how we look at that in the future gets me really excited and I know for our internal design staff on both sides. As we think about how to plot and plan the guest experience going forward, I think our challenge is working close – is to work more closely with the holders of the IP and think about how we might both benefit from a closer association." Unfortunately, this seems like we will likely see DC implemented eventually at the legacy Cedar Fair parks.

I truly do not want to see any of our original rides get the DC treatment/overused SIX IP's such as... Banshee=Batman: The Ride The Bat=Ninja Drop Tower=Superman: Ultimate Escape/Tower of Power Invertigo=Two Face: The Flip Side Delirium=Wonder Woman's Lasso/Whatever other SIX IP name unrelated to DC Congo Falls=Aquaman Power Splash Yeah you get my point. I am in the camp of not wanting to see a copy/paste "make-over" While I am all for Action Zone getting a retheme or at the very least a face-lift, I'd rather the area get rethemed to something more original. I once saw someone suggest the idea for "Cryptid Creek" and I thought that was a neat idea for the area seeing as there are already two spooky rides and I think that would be so much cooler/unique than something you can experience in any of SIX's properties.

If they were to go the DC route, (which I am not a fan of) I think it should be one area of the park only. Leave the rest of the park in its current unique theming areas.

The only IP I would want to see is a return of Hanna Barbara to kiddy land. I have a real soft spot for Looney Tunes and Peanuts because I watched VHS tapes of both as a kid but Hanna Barbara would be really cute and would pull in nostalgia like crazy for some older park guests. My grandparents still say they will meet us in Hanna Barbara Land...

The idea that this somehow means The Beast is getting removed or RMCd is just irrational hysterics. Even if Six Flags were taking over the park (they aren't), that would be super unlikely. Anyways, I would prefer Hanna Barbara back in the kids area but I would be okay with Looney Tunes. Is anyone particularly attached to Peanuts? I know kids aren't. I don't want to see DC theming at KI but it might be preferable to Action Zone just staying the generic area it is now (as long as Banshee isn't rethemed).

A lot of possibilities. I wouldn't mind seeing the kids' area being revamped to Looney Tunes and Action Zone rethemed to DC. Opens up a whole new line of merchandise opportunities.

I think it would be awesome to have DC themed rides at the park. The big question though, is what kind of theming do we get? If they paint The Bat black and call it Batman the ride, then it sucks, but how cool would it be to have a Batman ride with the theming of the old Batman coaster at Astroworld when it was around? While more recent rides haven't gotten that kind of love, I remain optimistic now that Cedar Fair would hav input into the theming.

Just my two cents. In terms of the Kids area, I think I would have more interest in Looney Tunes. I think it would be a fun update and change to the area. Much like how many kids know Snoopy, many kids know Bugs Bunny. It would be a change for sure but I don't think it would be bad. As for DC Comics, if we got that in the park, I feel like retheming Action Zone to something around DC Comics would not be horrible. It would be the most fitting of everything else in the park. We shall see how it plays out! I am sure there was very similar talks and concerns like this back when Cedar Fair took over. Do I think we will see some changes? Sure! But probably not for a couple years. The only thing I could maybe see coming the soonest is any sort of name changes like maybe Six Flags Kings Island (or something of the sort) and uniform and nametag updates. That would be my thought on changes we may see for 2024 season. I remain cautiously optimistic. As Barry Williams said "the future of the park could not look brighter!" I'm going to hold him to it! Haha.

I mean Looney tunes has a newish show on HBO max (ended last fall?) and tiny tunes just came back on air plus my kids and their friends watched the heck out of space jam…. My kids are 10, 7, 3…. Are they as famous as they were? No. But outside of the peanuts movie every now and then and the holiday specials my kids don’t seek out Peanuts … also are we kidding on the DC ip? Every kid knows the big 3

Don't give Six Flags the idea...

I will not stand for this. We need an actual retheme that’s not just slapping an ip in an area. If this happens then we are basically back to Paramount.

I really hope that tacky theme doesn’t come to Kings Island.

Here is a good read from a familiar face who we all miss.

As someone who always tries to be optimistic in cloudy situations, this is one I simply CANNOT feel optimistic about. I have never been a fan of SIX and their way of running their parks. Too shady and too greedy. Granted my experience as a guest on their properties is limited, I don't have a lot of great memories as a whole. And from what others have said throughout the various park pages I follow, I haven't heard very many good things from folks when it comes to SIX parks and their experiences with their properties. I get that at the end of the day, business is business and these two companies are always going to be about the bottom line/dollar, but this is a sad sad day for myself and many others. I really do hope that good things will emerge from this, I truly do, But I fear this situation is going to end up in many parks getting dumped off on the side of the road GL, KK and SFNO style. Maybe that is a dramatic reaction, but seeing as how SIX seems to dump properties like kittens at a pound...I cannot help but be scared of what they might have the power to do in this situation. I get it, they don't own the entire merger, but depending on how the lead heads in charge duke it out...well...we will see. I am sad. That is all I can say.

I am referring to what they put at the bottom of the page in the referenced release. Not what they state will happen. Here is screenshot.

Days like today I miss terp and what they would have brought to this discussion. I hope they bring the best from both companies. I can only imagine what a FUN mentality could do with IP from SIX. But if it’s SIX with FUN IP I worry. do we need to get our last rides of Beast and Racer in?

I think HalloWeekends should be how our park is modeled during the fall. At CP, they have the back of the park with Frontier Trail and Frontier Town as a dedicated scare zone while the rest of the park is more family friendly with other haunts being indoors near GateKeeper and the arcade. If KI were to replicate this, a part of the park would be strictly Haunt while others would be most Halloween atmosphere. (This is just an example, don’t tar and feather me): Also, I love the atmosphere at HalloWeekends- everything just screams Halloween. I understand CP can go all out because they don’t have another seasonal event to get ready for like KI does with Winterfest but I wish our park did things a little differently- for example, letting the troll near Diamondback operate during the day as well as night.

I hope the train gets a facelift- I think The Twelve Days of Christmas has overstayed its welcome.

Fireatone and Marathon used to sponsor the park https://www.themeparkbrochures.net/brochures/kings-island/