Originally Posted By SuperDry <a href="http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/six-flags-files-for-bankruptcy/?hp" target="_blank">http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes....ptcy/?hp</a> I wonder if that went out on their Twitter feed?
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA In short, not surprising. However, as we know, filing for bankruptcy doesn't mean they're going out of business...
Originally Posted By Mr F Not surprising. Teenagers don't have a lot of Money, so advertising a high admission priced theme park to a teenage audience isn't gonna do so well for your profits. Adults with children unusually have a high income, so it's better to advertise your park as a "family" park.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I used to like Six Flags parks. But the past several years the quality of the experience has declined from the cleanliness to the food to the ridiculous lines that are worse with that stupid Fastpass type system to the employees who look like they would rather be anywhere else but there.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << However, as we know, filing for bankruptcy doesn't mean they're going out of business... >> Probably not going out of business, but I'd be surprised if all of their parks stay open. And the ones that do remain probably won't get many new attractions in the coming years. I don't see the credit markets opening up for them to build new things and they don't have enough cash flow to build new things without borrowing.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Actually, that is wrong, Six Flags has been adding things every year for the last few years, and with the elimination of a lot of the money needing to go to debt repavement, there should actually be more money for additional attractions/enhancements. Supposedly the company has a quick turnaround for getting out of BK, but any decent BK Judge will know enough to allow the parks to build a resonable amount of new and improved attractions just for marketing reasons to help drive more customers through the turnstiles. Six Flags has looked to shed a couple of parks, but the vast majority will be staying. How many remain depends a lot of how the BK judge can work with lease holders of land that some of the Six Flags park sit on. Heck, if Six Flags has to close down a couple of these parks, you might just see the relocation of those rides to other parks, giving them "new" attractions to promote in the next couple of years.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Do an actual cash flow analysis for Six Flags and you will see that even without the debt they don't have enough profit to pay for substantial capital investment and their business isn't growing at all. I know you like to cheerlead for all of these development amd theme park companies, but the business models aren't all that sound - particularly in the economy that we'll be living in for the next several years.
