New Six Flags Park

[Obi_Wan_Cannoli]

well, now with cedar fair buying paramount parks, and six flags selling magic mountain, my guess is they might think about building another six flags park. This is just my hunch though, nothin to really back it up. I was thinking, they might want to build in southern florida, due to compition in orlando, and floridians would love that, as well as the people in the bahamas and south america. who else agrees??

[Harpo]

I wouldn't hold my breath. Six Flags is currently very concerned that they might not be able to meet their debt covenants. If they can't work something out with their creditors, the creditors could insist upon immediate payment, which could force Six Flags into bankruptcy. The plan to sell off 6 parks is to help generate funds to be able to satisfy the creditors, at least for a while.

[live_the_thrill]

Six Flags wont be selling Magic Mountain, heard it was just a rumour. For now, SFMM is still SFMM.

[Harpo]

I think it's a little bit more than a rumor. An article at bizjourals.com (http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060623/1306548.html?.v=3) says:

"Six Flags Inc. is seeking buyers for six of its 30 properties, including Los Angeles' Magic Mountain and a park in Concord, the company said Friday.

"Profits are down for Six Flags, along with attendance numbers, and the parks it is looking to sell are the less-profitable parks. Those include parks in Los Angeles; Concord; Seattle; Denver; Houston; and Buffalo, N.Y., the company said."

The story is available in many business journals, such as the Sacramento Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2006/06/19/daily46.html?from_rss=1

Orlando Sentinal (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/la-fi-sixflags23jun23,0,2111015.story?track=rss) said:

"Six Flags Inc. said Thursday that it might sell its Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor amusement parks in Valencia and raised the possibility that they could be dismantled for real estate development."

Some of the things the CEO said make it look like he's expecting the park to be sold for development, rather than remaining as an amusement park.

It'll certainly be an interesting item to watch.

[Alpengeist]

Six Flags wont be selling Magic Mountain, heard it was just a rumour. For now, SFMM is still SFMM.

The land that SFMM stands on is too valuable to be just a rumor.

[skippytim]

Yahoo doesnt lie!

[Obi_Wan_Cannoli]

which is why, if they dismantle it, they won't just throw away coasters like tatsu, and they can't spread all the things throughout parks, so between the selling of a ew parks, they may be able to build a meshed park of other coasters and rides so to speak. that is just my take on it.

[Zonga]

There would be no way Six Flags would put the time and effort reconfiguring Tatsu for another park. Plus it would cost an huge amount of money. Some of the rides at Magic Mountain could be relocated like Scream, De Ja Vue, Riddler's, and Batman, but everything else would end up in the trash or laying in some parking lot. Let's see, the rides that would be scraped would be Pysclone, Flashback, Ninja, Gold Rusher, Revolution, X, Superman, Colosus, and probably Viper(Who would want it?) What I'm saying is that Magic Mountain has to many assets to rip it down. Magic Mountain will either besold to another park or kept under Six Flags ownership. In my opinion, Six Flags has too much at that property to just throw it away. But then again who knows what Shapiro is capable of, I mean he is charging $15 to park out in the middle of nowhere.

[TopxXThrill]

well.. one things for sure. Theyve screwed up BIG time. another thing though, i dont think they would scrap X. its pretty rare. not sure about superman, either

[Zonga]

With all the problems X has, I just don't see Six Flags trying to relocate it. Just to get those supports somewhere would be incredible, they're huge! As for Superman, I don't see antother park wanted to get the 3rd tallest and fastest rollercoaster! Awsome! Not to mention it never works. I don't want it to sound like I want SFMM to be chopped up, I just don't think it would be in their best intrest. I think it would be better for everyone if it went to someone like Cedar Fair or Busch.

[hotroddude]

X doesnt have problems every time i go it didnt close down once yeah the lines are slow moving but ive never heard of X having problems. lol yeah superman is only open for about ten minutes every day :haha: i dont want to see magic mountain being destroyed or sold off :cry: so if they do, it better be to a company that will reopen/get rid of and put new rides where the current rides are dead, and doesnt change anything to the currently running rides. but id rather it stay SFmm instead of it being sold.

[sixflagsfanatic]

I totally agree with you guys, SF really messed up for one thing, plus it would suck if they just sold the land to development, really it's true. Most theme parks are better off being sold and staying theme parks then tearing it all down, that would take a ton of time and money to do. The way I see it SF sells parks to other theme park companies or SF could possibly just die and there would be 30 parks sitting around dead. Personally, I believe SFMM over lots of parks is one not to be given up, I'd rather have it stay and my home park Six Flags Elitch Gardens close/be sold. (In a town like Denver there's sure to be someone who would keep it a theme park) But, who knows? Why can't Bill Gates share some money with SF? lol, that would be nice. :D

[FlyingPenguins]

Demolition = a waste of money.

Lots of sponsors = kaching! Something like renaming the rides to include brand names, like.... the always-broken Flashback could be called Atari Flashback? :p

[Harpo]

The fact, however, is that Six Flags desperately needs large amounts of cash, and quickly. Filling this need means selling off a major property or two. Selling off something like Enchanted Village isn't going to get them the money they need, but selling Magic Mountain could significantly help their financial woes.

Cedar Fair's not in a good position to buy another park right now, with the pending acquisition of the Paramount parks. Plus, they got burned by how much repair work was needed to the rides at Geauga Lake in order to get the park up to Cedar Fair's safety standards, so they'd rightfully be reluctant to buy any more Six Flags properties. Busch hasn't shown any real interest in acquiring parks, but it is always possible that could change. There aren't many players that could afford to buy the park as-is.

If another operator can't afford to take on Magic Mountain, since the cash is needed quickly, Six Flags may be forced to sell to developers -- there are some that have already indicated they'd bid on the property, but are not interested in the rides.

[soundgodz]

The land that SFMM stands on is too valuable to be just a rumor.
During our trip to LA last year, all anyone seemed to be talking about was real estate prices. As I'd just bought my house, I was always in those conversations as well. The Valecnica Town Center area features a bunch of condos. I was shocked to learn that 3 bedroom condos without any land were going for $100,000 more than my larger house in South Florida on a decent sized lot. I know how much my value has increased in the last year, and I see the market cooling slightly, but No developer would cry at the prospect of aquiring Magic Mountain and building housing on all that land. At $600,000 per unit? This slightly mirrors what happened post WW2 to all the older amusement parks.
Can you say Freedomland USA (Co-op city) or Palisades Amusement Park (Winston Towers)?

[Zonga]

Welcome to the California real estate market. Only $600,000 for one of those monster houses? Not bad. Like others have mentioned before, once they lose Magic Mountain, they also lose the revenue. SFMM isn't a drain on Six Flags funds, they really need to sell the parks that never make money, like Six Flags Mexico.

[-NGS-]

X doesnt have problems every time i go it didnt close down once yeah the lines are slow moving but ive never heard of X having problems.

Wow. You've lucked out. X is plagued with break-downs because of its sophisticated technology on the 3rd axis.

[TopxXThrill]

not to mention Deja Vu

[hotroddude]

Wow. You've lucked out. X is plagued with break-downs because of its sophisticated technology on the 3rd axis.


strange. i didnt think X had any problems lol, after about maybe 5 years living with a deja vu at my home six flags park ive never ridden it. i got close a few times in great america but i havent even seen it run at magic mountain. i dont know why they have so many they dont even work.



sorta off topic but.... ive never seen Xcellerator at knotts having any problems so why is top thrill dragster so much different they're the same type of coaster am i right? is it just cause its so much faster or something? or does Xcellerator also have issues ive never heard of before? just wondering....

[FlyingPenguins]

sorta off topic but.... ive never seen Xcellerator at knotts having any problems so why is top thrill dragster so much different they're the same type of coaster am i right? is it just cause its so much faster or something? or does Xcellerator also have issues ive never heard of before? just wondering....
Xcelerator is nowhere as tall, so its hydraulic launch track is shorter than TTD, and it has less sophisticated parts. That's what I think.

[TopxXThrill]

^exactly.

[Harpo]

sorta off topic but.... ive never seen Xcellerator at knotts having any problems so why is top thrill dragster so much different they're the same type of coaster am i right? is it just cause its so much faster or something? or does Xcellerator also have issues ive never heard of before? just wondering....

Cedar Fair was wondering that, too. Xcelerator was built as a prototype for Dragster, so Cedar Fair expected Intamin to work out all the bugs on that one. From the sounds of it, however, there were still some major flaws in the hydraulic system design that Intamin put in Dragster, which required a significant amount of reworking. Also, I think the added speed created more issues than Intamin expected.

[okinawaboy11]

Hahahahaha, Six Flags can barely keep up with their current parks, you think they will build another one? Right, you make me laugh.