Leaderboard

An article by the legendary Dennis Speigel. Six Flags’ Future After a Disastrous Q2 2025: Why Reimagining, Not Just Rebuilding, Is the Only Path Forward https://interthemepark.com/sixflags2025.html?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMJshNjbGNrAwmNk2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEecB_hjFfNhyqLIVzPImvHc04AMwq6pUvq2AI3bvzfcKqJW21qx8ZVGOQWsx8_aem_GKv5IWGWPSd9cH8XH7JIhw

(Sorry, the last shirts don’t have the snickers logo in it, I photoshopped them in for a bit, but honestly looking back I could see the park doing that lmao) This was at the KI trading company. I think they might’ve been put out today. They had the 25 merch on magnets, a button, shirts, and a hoodie. They also had some new pins and shirts with a pumpkin design.

Not sure if anyone’s posted on another page about this yet, so sorry if this is a repeat, but I saw this merch in the park today, and it is interesting to me that they acknowledged the 25th anniversary on the merch but not in any advertising around the park.

I’ve been banging that drum from day 1. They kept the 6 name for brand recognition, oblivious to the fact that it was NOT a good impression.

The Cedar Fair logo on the bottom right shirt...

Seeing tacky advertising on what should be a themed experience doesn’t exactly make me want to buy that product. They serve to give the consumer a negative feeling about the product IMO

Former CF CEO posted earlier last week on his LinkedIn page...

Considering that Demon at SFGA was closed for almost the entirety of the 2023 season due to the crumbling rocks and they reopened it for the final two weekends of fright fest, anything is possible at this point!

Sounds like spending time in Guest Services on the first Haunt weekend will be better than any of the mazes.

Six Flags is no longer an entertainment company. They are not about improving the customer experience and providing the highest quality of entertainment. They are an asset management company. They are trying to squeeze as much out of the assets as possible. When the assets fail, they will be sold Unfortunately the whole company is headed in the direction of failure.

This. And you CAN have it both ways. All the scary, gory stuff can be tucked away inside buildings and mazes while you can make the overall park atmosphere more Halloween friendly and appeal to families. During the day when I see all of the scary stuff just sitting out like in Coney Mall, it just doesn’t seem appealing. There’s a clear difference between making things spooky and making things scary: Outside the mazes/houses = spooky. Inside the mazes/houses = scary.

This thread is bumping. Dang. Anyway, I don’t have much to add to what everyone has been saying. I don’t trust corporations one millimeter and the current Six Flags’s actions are really bad optics in many ways. Makes me wonder how the executives on the board of directors would do if each of them was challenged individually to play the scenarios in the original Roller Coaster Tycoon trilogy. (RCT World is a terrible game..) Sure, they can run parks in these games like money pits but the park rating mechanic and overall park management mechanic means they can’t just sit around, doing not much but adding flat rides, pre designed coasters, restaurants, stores, etc. When a corporation chases profit no matter what, something that happens extremely often, things get nasty for customers. Real nasty. You know, if the new CEO ends up being a totally unexpected pick somehow in the form of Ed Hart, who was behind the revitalization of Kentucky Kingdom in the late 80s/early 90s and then its reopening in 2014 and further growth up till 2021, that might actually do a lot of good. Zimmerman made almost $30 million last year, including bonuses. Realistically, a person doesn’t make to be a millionaire to live well and happily. Things would be very different if the board of directors weren’t being paid millions of dollars. Very different. One more thing: someone brought up the use of AI generated images by Six Flags for online designs and such. That doesn’t even surprise me given the strange surreal feel of the animations that play during Nytewalkers. Something is very off about those animations, as if Cedar Fair pre merge just let AI generate them all which is an extremely sleazy move. Things like Midjourney and ChatGPT shouldn’t exist. I won’t go all into it because this is a thread about KI’s Haunt but all I will say is that both rely on the blatant theft of media created by illustrators, writers, animators, and more in order to be able to generate anything. And that’s bad.

It would be really cool if the Roller Coaster Museum were able to take Invertigo in its entirety and reassemble it on-site as a big standout exhibit. They wouldn't need to have it operable, but the coaster is small enough and [the boomerang model is] common enough that this would be one of the easiest projects to fully relocate. I hope it gets back up and running at Kings Island though. If Invertigo gets taken out and the land is set to sit vacant for a while, I'd like to see Kings Island install a new semi-temporary picnic area over there like the Shady Maple Picnic Grove that existed in that location.

Nice photoshop skills! Pretty convincing. It’s funny how I fell for it when I literally got a certification in Photoshop in October 2021. It expired last year and it’s been a while since I’ve dusted off the photoshop skills I have myself but still. I also could see the park putting sponsor logos on shirts. These 25th anniversary shirts scream: “merchandising. Where the real money from the movie is made.” to me. But hey, at least they aren’t actually shameless plugs like the Spaceballs themed merchandise shown in the Spaceballs movie itself are. Instead, they’re actually a good move.

I commend your photo editing skills, they had me convinced! The new merch will be fun to see either way. I think I might pick up the magnet with my extra 20% off Pass Perk.

The giant Snickers logo is a bit too on the nose for me. What makes it weirder is that I don't think any of the Six Flags Fright Fest merch has the Snickers logo on them, and it is definitely not that large. Talk about being the equivalent of a full-page magazine advertisement. I'm very glad they're at least acknowledging the 25th anniversary though. Maybe we'll see some more stuff during the event, even if it's minimal or just less than how SCarowinds is celebrating their 25th anniversary. This makes me hopeful. It would be really cool if they had a big celebration spot / photo op for it with any of the props and stuff from years past! Are those drink coasters or magnets in the first photo? Maybe I'll head over tomorrow and take a look at them. Also, is this in the KI Trading Company? I'd love to see both the north end of the Emporium and the KI Trading Co. be the two designated Haunt merch stores this year since they also had two last year.

The Orange County Register has an insightful article discussing the aggressive and unwise discounting Six Flags has undertaken. It is worth noting Cedar Fair had years of experience holding pricing power and raising revenues thru careful pricing strategies. The current fire sale on season passes damages the product, experience, and future expansion and capital investment as well as sets a new low floor price and trains guests to expect extraordinary cheap admissions moving forward. Additionally, Cedar Fair sets itself up for having to potentially take massive write downs on assets as they may not be able to generate expected economic returns. An example of which we saw when Cedar Fair recorded the write down and impairment of the Schlitterbahn water parks in Texas. Following the $261 million acquisition, Cedar Fair folded the Schlitterbahn Resorts into its annual pass program. This substantially reducing the average gate and admission revenues. Resulting, it is believed, in the impairment of value. Beware such discounting. Six Flags is slashing season pass prices it is aggressively adding up-charges for park experiences such as Halloween attractions and haunts. Freddy Krueger sinks yet another knife into the backs and purses of season pass holders. Frightening financial developments: https://www.ocregister.com/2025/08/12/niles-is-six-flags-cutting-ticket-prices-by-too-much/

It sounds like that is part of the plan. Non core parks they own: Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Six Flags Great Escape, Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, Michigan's Adventure, Schlitterbahn New Braunfels. La Ronde is a ground lease and Six Flags could sell all of the rides and operating rights there.

The new Six Flags not only needs to reimagine their strategies, they need to complete a comprehensive refresh of what they are as a company and who it is that makes their decisions. I cannot imagine a scenario in which they survive well by continuing to entirely be the "budget amusement park chain". In my opinion there at least needs to be a visual redesign and a renaming of the company along with its assets. They cannot hope to improve their reputation while clinging onto the recognition and images of the Six Flags name that has repeatedly brought negativity and turmoil to that chain over the past 20+ years. Reimagine yourself, rename the company, drop the Six Flags branding from parks like Great Adventure and Magic Mountain, and get rid of those industry professionals that have continually contributed to the doom and destruction of the brand.

I saw someone say that The Gauntlet was planned, but will not make it to the event as a named scare zone. It sounds like it may be a similar situation to last year's un-named scare zone between Jukebox Diner and the Rivertown LaRosa's. "Presented by" will be on each mention of a sponsored attraction at Halloween Haunt at Kings Island (presented by Snickers), since that is how sponsors work. You will definitely see the Skittles, M&Ms, and Snickers logos wherever you see the sign/name of those mazes. I can't guarantee that they will be big and tacky, but they'll be seen well enough. I'm still curious as to why the fences went up around The Crypt's building, unless it is to hide any props being staged outside for The Conjuring: Beyond Fear. I'd love to see how it is being set up and whether it will be more of a maze or an escape room-type layout. The interactive maze concept would be cool, but the escape room would probably allow for multiple rooms to be constructed. Maybe the queue line will also be decorated to somewhat resemble the Warren's haunted museum or maybe it will look the exact same.

I would much rather see the scare actors and fog machines restricted to the back areas of the park than have Haunt neutered entirely just to better cater to families. That being said, that method works a lot better at Cedar Point because of the park's layout with only two real entrances to their dedicated Haunt zone. My idea for a revitalized Halloween Haunt had this same idea with International Street, part of Planet Snoopy, Action Zone, and Oktoberfest being the tamer zones while Adventure Port, Coney Mall, Rivertown, and Area 72 were the real scare zones where all of the mazes were. It may be a good idea to redirect some of the roamers into the mazes, but removing the fog and catering more to families means no more shows like Dead Awakening or Hot Blooded. Once you make the event any more family-friendly you lose the ability to make it scary again without a lot of work. There are a good number of people who buy their passes just for Halloween Haunt, so any families that come in for a neutered Haunt event may just replace the guests who like the event as it has been — meaning little-to-no bumps in attendance. I'm very passionate about this subject and I hope Halloween Haunt becomes more adult-oriented than it has been in recent years.

I agree, sometimes Haunt is so packed that the roamers don’t have the same affect as they would if they were relocated to mazes. You could have dedicated scare zones that feature roamers where no-boo could be used- kinda like what CP does for Halloweenends at the back of the park. The other solution would be family friendly roamers like Phantom Theater characters, a Mystic Timbers mascot, Banshee, etc.

They are absolutely going to have ugly presented by signs on each of those, no question.

"Mod" was a hold-over term from the late 1960's that carried through the 1970s. It means "hip", "current", bold" etc. So it was an eclectic mix of pop-culture/boutique type novelty items geared to kids/young adults.

The KI haunt site now shows sponsors for Slaugtherhouse (Skittles), Alien Abyss (Snickers), and KillMart (M&Ms). Please don't tell me they're about to put a ton of ugly "presented by ______" signs on each of those.

I've always felt like the scare actors are wasted as "roamers." They could staff more mazes if they just ditched the roamers and have a more family friendly atmosphere to boot. Then again, they wouldn't be selling as many of those glowing necklaces. Honestly, they really should add more weeknights to Haunt as well, at least as we get closer to Halloween. The park has so many passholders and other people nearby who would be willing to show up on a weeknight and it would help distribute the crowds to different days. Of course, we all can imagine why they don't do this.

I agree. I really wish they would keep the “Haunt” aspect in the mazes and decorate the park much like what Dollywood does for its Harvest festival. Think Winterfest level of decor and atmosphere, but themed for the fall season. Keep a couple fog machines out for some of the coasters, but remove them from the pathways. Keep the roaming scare actors and gore in the mazes. Haunt is the only time of year Kings Island contradicts itself with being a “Family Park.” And I’m routinely told, “Families spend the most money.”

A while ago, I shared my opinion that Kings Island should focus on improving the quality of their haunted houses and mazes, even if that means rethinking how they encourage families to stay later in the evening. In its pre-2025 form, Haunt was always extremely crowded, which hurt the overall experience. While Haunt is intense and not necessarily designed for families, many still came anyway. I think there’s a way to make both groups happy: keep families in the park later for other activities, while upcharging for the more intense haunted experiences. If families feel welcome to stay, other parents who were previously hesitant might bring their kids-and those families could end up spending more on food, merchandise, etc. Meanwhile, charging for the haunted attractions would help manage crowds and create an expectation of higher quality. For example, securing an IP like The Conjuring could justify the upcharge and deliver a premium experience for those who want to go for the haunts. At the end of the day, the park is going to aim for maximum revenue- and I’m honestly surprised this approach wasn’t implemented during the pre-merger Cedar Fair days who had only been accustomed to Skeleton keys, higher daily pass rates, and no-boo necklaces.

Have you seen the Warren County Master Plan and land-use report showing the best and highest use of the property or are you just speculating? Keep in mind just across the street, golf courses that operated year round were removed because it can make more money for 2 weeks as a non-paved parking lot for a tennis tournament...There was a time they would just fence off the greens and tee boxes and have cars park in the fairway for those 2 weeks. Your speculation may be correct or it may always remain KI, but land development can be weird, and if a developer offered Six Flags the right number, any park could be gone...just like many of the golf courses surrounding KI that have been turned into high end subdivisions, Kroger, other retail, etc.

When the day does come for Invertigo, I hope the Roller Coaster Museum picks it up. Ours is the only one that has not been uprooted from its original home and I think it would be great if it could be kept at the museum for the purpose of preserving the history of this particular model of coaster. I might also add that it would be neat if they also picked up Batwing from SFA seeing as it will also be on the chopping block. The last of its kind deserves a special place to be remembered.

And yet look how many complaining on FB that they bought a 2025 pass a week before the sale...

It's starting to remind me of MoviePass toward the end. Charge too little for your product, then come up with desperate money grabs and change the rules on your customers when your poor business decisions come back to haunt you.

A little off topic, but the Enchanted Voyage ride at KI is the thing that I credit most with launching my life-long love of theme parks and attractions. I rode it for the first time at age 6 and still remember the feeling of it being the most incredible, beautiful thing I had ever seen (I was from Zanesville, so that was probably accurate ). I know there’s some old Super-8 ride footage of it on YouTube, but I’ve avoided ever watching it because I’m pretty sure the reality wouldn’t hold up to my memories. And, I want to remember it as the most incredible, beautiful thing ever

Tricks and Treats is cool and all, but I really wish KI would do an Oktoberfest event in the Festhaus area. Other parks in the chain do it and Cincy area has a lot of German roots so it would fit so well here. Also Carowinds does a Tricks and Treats parade. I think it would be cool if KI does that too,

Families have comprised the majority of the park’s annual attendance since 1972.

Yeah overall, another rough quarterly report. What stuck out to me was that their debt interest payment for just Q2 was more than what they brought in for income (profit) the same quarter, which isn't something great as a business. My hope is someone like Jeffrey Siebert or another Matt Ouimet with Universal or Disney experience can come in and improve the overall sentiment of the community about the company. Ultimately, if it were me at the top, I think this highlights that debt is SF's biggest issue currently. If it were up to me, I think the company needs to limit additions, focus on marketing the ride lineups and experiences already found at the parks. Many of these parks have awesome slides, water rapids rides, carousels, antique cars, log flumes, thrilling coasters, KI's nighttime show, Cedar Point's beach, etc. I think at this point, money spent on staffing and keeping parks presentable is more important than any addition for long term growth and improving the reputation of the company. I think some park improvements, bathrooms, painting, small restaurant upgrades will have a more lasting impact on the guest experience that can prevent some negative experiences, improving word of mouth and returning visitors. If the company said they were going to invest a billion over these two or three years. I think you slim down some of those ride additions, put that 200-300 million towards debt repayments, paying down the principal of the loan, not just making minimum interest payments. Some of the park improvements like seen at SFMM's waterpark have been noticed and reviews have highlighted how much it improved the experience, and I think they should keep some of those. Bathrooms aren't the most exciting, but it is something mentioned negatively in almost any review. I get the chain is spending a lot to get people in the door and excited, but if it's hurting your operations and cleanliness just to be able to afford a new ride, I don't know if it's worth it. I'd love to hear any thoughts anyone else has on this matter, I love hearing other ideas

The sign and advertising does not really upset me. Would I prefer not to have it, sure. If this helps the company to staff the park, open food stands, and continue to invest in the park, that is fine with me. My only ask is to not plaster trains, cars, and gondolas with advertising stickers. Please leave that to theming.