Originally Posted By seanyoda Six Flags finally found a buyer for 7 of its parks, but has decided to hold onto Magic Mountain. The parks being sold are Six Flags Darien Lake in Buffalo, New York; Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver; Frontier City and the White Water Bay water park in Oklahoma City; SplashTown in Houston; Waterworld USA in Concord, California; and Wild Waves and Enchanted Village in Seattle. The buyer is PARC 7F-Operations Corp. of Jacksonville, Florida (chaired by former Six Flags VP Michael Jenkins) who will simultaneously sell the parks to CNL Income Properties Inc. (a Florida-based REIT) who in-turn will lease the parks back to PARC. The value of the deal is $312 million ($275 million in cash and a note receivable for $37 million). The full story is at <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a4nqJOb07rtM&refer=news" target="_blank">http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ news?pid=20601103&sid=a4nqJOb07rtM&refer=news</a> If the link gets cut-off, use <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ww3hx" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/ww3hx</a>
Originally Posted By Jonny626 Six Flags just bought land in Phoenix AZ within the last year. I guess they won't be building anytime soon.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA I'm not an expert on Six Flags parks -- with this sale, what does that leave them with theme park wise? And why keep Six Flags Magic Mountain? They're going to own and operate one theme park?
Originally Posted By seanyoda This still leaves them with 21 operating parks, including the original Six Flags over Texas, Six Flags over Georgia, and Magic Mountain.
Originally Posted By alexbook Six Flags is selling the parks to PARC, which is selling them to CNL, which is leasing them back to PARC? Could this be any more confusing?
Originally Posted By brotherdave No, the parks sold will no longer be affiliated with Six Flags. (i.e, "Six Flags Darien Lake" will once again only be known as "Darien Lake", etc.) HOWEVER, those who bought season passes at Six Flags Darien Lake and Six Flags Elitch Gardens for the 2007 season will still be able to use their passes at the remaining Six Flags parks for the 2007 season only, as well as at their respective parks. >>>Six Flags just bought land in Phoenix AZ within the last year. I guess they won't be building anytime soon.<<< Just another urban legend. Six Flags is in a downsizing mode and in a HEAP of debt, $2 BILLION, to be exact. Even if they own land in AZ, there's NO WAY they are able to build on it financially. I wish I had a dollar for every claim that either Six Flags or Disney has just "bought land" in (fill in the state or location) to build a new park. Very few new parks are being built these days in the U.S. with Hard Rock Park at Myrtle Beach and Wild West World in Kansas being the current exceptions. The major population markets are pretty well saturated right now in most of the country. Granted, AZ is a major market without a major theme/amusement park currently, but, the extreme weather there does play a major factor in why park developers have not built there yet and why older operations like Legend City have closed. Not many people want to visit an amusement park in 110 degree weather!
Originally Posted By JeffG Rumors about Six Flags buying land in one place or another for a new park pop up pretty often (Orlando is another common rumor), but it always strikes me as highly unlikely for the simple reason that it has been years since Six Flags has been in the business of building parks. I'm not even sure when they last built a park. The chain has grown a lot in recent years, but it has all been through acquisitions. -Jeff
Originally Posted By brotherdave The last park that Six Flags built in the U.S. (not including water parks) was Six Flags Mid-America (now called Six Flags St. Louis), which opened in 1971!!!! Six Flags has bought (and most recently sold) many parks since, but has not built an actual theme park in the U.S. since 1971!
Originally Posted By bean For those six flags fans. Magic Mountain will finally dismantle "FlashBack" and will also dismantle "Cyclone". The land these coasters occupied will be used to add new family friendly attractions that will fit with its new agenda to turn that parks image around.
Originally Posted By Bucky N Satchel I'm glad they're getting rid of Flashback (Whiplash would have been a better name) that sucker gave me headaches and Psyclone was just boring esp. compared to Colossus.
Originally Posted By fkurucz It will be interesting to see what happens to Elitch Gardens. My guess is that the new owners will let it become more of a dump than it already is.
