If Herschend Family Entertainment or United Parks & Resorts (or another chain) were to purchase or somehow otherwise acquire Kings Island, what do you think could change? This is a purchase people have been suggesting online since they've seen Six Flags as a degrading force to the parks, so I thought I'd ask.
Outside of the obvious things such as the removal of Peanuts and Six Flags trademarks in addition to changing/removing the meal plan and things like that, I think we would see the following:
A return of the original logo, or just a new logo altogether to better fit with the HFE or UPR branding.
A more "independent" operation for the park. It seems that, to an extent, some of the larger HFE parks operate more like their own individual companies under a larger parent corporation.
Less "highly intimidating" roller coaster or ride names (with HFE) like Copperhead Strike or Dominator. Kings Island doesn't have many names I could see changing since KI generally uses "creature" names for big coasters. See the renaming of Storm Chaser and Thunder Run at Kentucky Kingdom for why I'd be worried about that.
I could be completely wrong with my wording for this, but it feels like rides at some HFE parks have "tamer" names. Wind Chaser and Wilderness Run could just be casualties of the area being rethemed.
Maybe we could see an attempt to make Kings Island into more of a regional destination theme park, like Busch Gardens or Dollywood. Extending the park's reach further into more markets could be a goal of a non-Six Flags company.
A shift in focus:
Even more focus on families with HFE. Innovative rides and attractions could still be installed (like Dollywood is getting), but I don't expect more record-breakers.
A higher focus on thrill-seekers with UPR. Maybe some record-breakers and thrilling coasters (like Pantheon) could be installed.
Maybe a change in how high the park sits on its operator's tier list. If enough parks in another chain sit higher, it's possible that KI could see more or less (or better/poorer) investment than it currently sees.
My personal wish would be for a new Kings Entertainment Company to form and take on some of the parks, but I can understand how hard it might be to do that. I imagine it could be a good combination between HFE/United/Cedar Fair if done right. Another upside would be the addition of another big-ish operator to offset from the Cedar Fair/Six Flags merger.
Go wild with this theoretical thought experiment. I'm curious to see what everyone thinks could change!