Six Flags

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Six Flags (NYSE: SIX) is the world's largest chain of amusement parks and theme parks and is headquartered in New York City. There are 30 amusement & water parks run by Six Flags, 24 of which carry the Six Flags name. The first Six Flags amusement park, Six Flags Over Texas, was built halfway between the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas in Arlington (Tarrant County), Texas, United States. The park took its name from the six flags that have flown over the state of Texas during its history (Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America). In 2006, the company celebrated the 45th anniversary since the opening of Six Flags over Texas.

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[edit] History

The Six Flags chain began in 1961 with the creation of Six Flags Over Texas by Angus G. Wynne at Arlington in Tarrant County, which featured (in the beginning) a Native American village, a gondola ride, a railroad, some Wild West shows, a stagecoach ride, and "Skull Island", a pirate-themed adventure attraction. There was also an excursion aboard "French" boats through a wilderness full of moving puppets. Over time, all of those attractions, except for the railroad, would be replaced by other attractions, such as roller coasters, swing rides, log flumes, and shoot-the-chute rides, as well as an observation tower.

The chain grew with the acquisition of other parks, such as the Great Adventure Park and Safari in Jackson, New Jersey, and Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, which had been founded by the Marriott hotel chain. The chain of parks changed hands several times, being sold to the Penn Central railroad, then to Bally Construction Corporation, and later on to the Time Warner company, among other owners. The chain is well-known in recent times for large and fast roller coasters, although the queue areas are often in the open air without much shading and without as many props as are typical for some queue areas in Walt Disney World.

Six Flags 45th Anniversary logo- used for 2006 season
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Six Flags 45th Anniversary logo- used for 2006 season

Six Flags Theme Parks Inc. was purchased in whole on April 1, 1998 from Time Warner by Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks. Premier then began to apply the Six Flags name to a number of smaller parks that had been expanded, including Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, and Adventure World. In 2000, Premier Parks changed its name to Six Flags, Inc. Headquartered in New York City, Six Flags is now the largest amusement park operator in the U.S. Six Flags owes about $2.1 Billion in debt, and they have lost money every year since 2001. Bill Gates owns about 11% of Six Flags and rumors were flying around that Bill Gates' Cascade Investments and Daniel Snyder's Red Zone LLC (which owns 12% of Six Flags) may take it over. Indeed, on August 17, 2005, Red Zone began a proxy battle to gain control of Six Flags' board of directors. On November 22, 2005, Red Zone announced victory in this attempt. After gaining control of the board, CEO Kieran Burke was ousted on December 14, 2005 and replaced by Mark Shapiro, former EVP of Programming at ESPN. Additionally, Six Flags named former Representative Jack Kemp, entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein, and the former president, Michael Kassan, of the Interpublic Group of Companies Incorporated, a global marketing and advertising agency, to their newly revamped board of directors.

During the time Premier Parks owned the company, they attempted to branch out internationally and purchased the "Walibi" branded parks in Europe. Only two in the chain became Six Flags parks; Six Flags Holland and Six Flags Belgium. These parks only lasted three years with the Six Flags name. Six Flags sold the chain to a company called Star Parks in 2004. The parks have since been renamed "Walibi World" and "Walibi Belgium."

Until 2004, Six Flags parks would do separate commercials for each park, sometimes with special themes (like Great America's 25th anniversary in 2001). In 2004, Six Flags began a series of commercials linking all parks. The commercials were notable for a new mascot, "Mr. Six." Each would start off with an old man in a tuxedo and red bow tie slowly getting off a bus only to start wildly dancing. The commercials were an immediate hit and Mr. Six almost instantly became an official mascot for the parks, although he was retired after the 2005 season.

On September 12, 2005, Six Flags announced that it was closing its legendary Six Flags Astroworld theme park in Houston, Texas, at the end of the 2005 season, citing issues such as the park's performance, and parking issues involving the Houston Texans football team, Reliant Stadium, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo leveraged with the value of the property the park sits on.

On January 27, 2006, Six Flags announced it would be selling its Frontier City theme park and White Water Bay water park, both located in Oklahoma City, at the conclusion of the 2006 operating season. At the same time, Six Flags also announced its plan to close corporate offices in Oklahoma City. Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro said he expects the parks to continue operation after the sale, unlike Six Flags Astroworld. Six Flags also announced that it would be moving all of its corporate operations to New York City.

On March 30, 2006, Six Flags announced that it will sell only pizza from Papa John's International at its parks. In turn, Six Flags will receive an annual sponsorship and promotional opportunities from Papa John's, though financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

In June of 2006, Six Flags announced it was considering closing or selling up to six of its parks, including Elitch Gardens (Denver, CO), Darien Lake (Darien, NY), WaterWorld (Concord, CA), Wild Waves and Enchanted Village (Federal Way, WA), Splashtown (Spring, TX), and Magic Mountain (Los Angeles)/Hurricane Harbor (Various). [1] In addition, Six Flags also announced the sale of Wyandot Lake in Powell, Ohio to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, which is located next to the park. [2]

[edit] Current Properties

California

Colorado

Georgia

Illinois

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maryland

Massachusetts

Missouri

New Jersey

New York

Oklahoma

Texas

Washington

Quebec

Mexico

[edit] Former Properties

Former Six Flags AutoWorld logo
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Former Six Flags AutoWorld logo

[edit] Trivia

  • Six Flags' current CEO is Mark Shapiro (former head of programming for ESPN).
  • Six Flags' entire European division, excluding Movie Park, was sold March 10, 2004.
  • The first Six Flags property was Six Flags over Texas, which was also the first park to offer entrance fees of only $2.95 [1]
  • Very few Six Flags properties were built from the ground up; Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags St. Louis are the three that were.
  • 95% of the population of the U.S. (excluding Hawaii and Alaska) live within an 8 hour drive to a Six Flags park. [2]
  • Six Flags has more coasters than all other theme park companies in the world combined. Six Flags operates 160 world-class coasters at its 30 parks, and those coasters travel almost 2.5 million miles each year. That's equivalent to 100 orbits around the earth or a trip to the moon. [3]
  • The name "Six Flags" refers to the six countries or nations whose flags flew over Texas during the state's colorful history, which also provided the six themed sections of Six Flags Over Texas: the United States, the Confederate States, Mexico, Spain, France and the Republic of Texas. [4]
  • The 2004 sale of the entire European division, as well as, Six Flags Worlds of Adventure raised $345 million dollars in an effort to relieve Six Flags' massive debt. [5]
  • Six Flags debt (as of June 2005): $2.3 billion [6]
  • In fall 2006, most Six Flags parks offered passes for front-of-line passes or other privileges during Fright Fest if an individual ate a live cockroach, drawing criticism from PETA [7] [8]

[edit] News

  • Six Flags puts 6 properties up for sale: Magic Mountain, Darien Lake, Splashtown, Wild Waves and Enchanted Village, Waterworld (Concord, California), and Elitch Gardens. [9]
    • Elitch Gardens now officially for sale with a price of $170 million [10]
  • Six Flags second quarter earnings: $356.1 million (down 1% from 2005) [11]
  • Six Flags second quarter attendance: 9.6 million (down 14% from 2005)[12]

[edit] External links

[edit] Six Flags Park Sites

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