Six Flags this week completed an $8 billion merger with rival Cedar Fair to create the largest amusement park operator in the United States. Together, they operate 42 amusement and water parks in 17 states.
The success of the deal will determine the future of these theme parks, and die-hard roller coaster fans are watching closely. Some are optimistic that Six Flags will improve. Others worry that admission to their favorite parks will become more expensive.
Many amusement park fans are passionate about the design and history of the parks and notice even the slightest changes. For now, each park under the new company will retain its old branding and name. But fans worry that the parks will lose their nostalgic elements and become a sea of corporate uniformity.
“There’s apprehension,” said Bill Kneass, who has been a Six Flags season passholder for 30 years, on and off (but mostly active), and who rides the Nitro and Wonder Woman rides at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
Kneass goes to the park with his sons and friends. He also sometimes goes alone to enjoy the sound of the roller coasters or to find quieter spots in the park grounds. He marks each visit with a visit to the engraved brick he bought on a park trail to commemorate Six Flags’ 50th anniversary.
“If the new Six Flags can find a way to honor the history of their parks and bring new attractions for all types of fans, they are on the verge of success,” he said.
Chris Miller, who runs a YouTube channel about theme parks called Coaster Conquest and co-hosts the podcast Theme Park Stan, is “cautiously optimistic” about the merger.
“I hope that joining forces will bring a variety of new attractions to parks that don’t typically get updates,” he said. But he worries that the price of a season pass for all the parks will be extremely high because of the reduced competition.
He also fears that Cedar Fair’s “beautiful” parks will lose their own identity and become more and more like Six Flags.
“I hope they keep the parks the way they are,” he said.
The new company, Six Flags Entertainment Corp., doesn’t plan major changes to the park, spokesman Gary Rhodes said. Fans also shouldn’t expect “immediate changes” to prices, ticket options or season passes.
“We hope this combination will enable us to deliver even more engaging and entertaining experiences to customers,” he said.
Six Flags in Trouble
The two companies are teaming up to compete with destination parks such as Disney and Universal and to use their new size to cut costs with suppliers. Visitors come from around the world to Disney parks, while Six Flags and Cedar Fair are regional attractions.
Cedar Fair controls 51 percent of the new company, and Six Flags owns 49 percent. The company, whose stock symbol is FUN, will be led by Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman.
Six Flags has struggled in recent years, with several management and strategy changes. Its stock has fallen 40% over the past five years.
Six Flags increased ticket prices in 2022, raising the average admission price from $28.73 to $35.99. The move resulted in a 26% drop in annual attendance.
It was part of Six Flags’ “premiumization” plan to attract fewer people to the parks but get them to spend more. CEO Selim Bassoul complained in 2022 that Six Flags had become a “cheap daycare” for teenagers and said the company wanted to “migrate… a little bit from what I call the Kmart, Walmart to maybe the Target customer.”
The strategy changes have impacted the park experience, Kneass said.
Six Flags, he noted, focused on adding thrill rides and neglected smaller attractions for children and families as well as other park activities, such as entertainment and nightly shows. Park staffing and customer service also became inconsistent.
“Six Flags can seem a little disorganized,” he said. “Finances were more important than the customer experience.”
Attendance at Cedar Fair, which operates its flagship Cedar Point park in Sandusky, Ohio, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, and other parks, surpassed Six Flags last year. Analysts and fans consider Cedar Fair to be a better manager of the park’s day-to-day operations than Six Flags.
That gives optimism to fans like Matt Kaiser, who runs the Great Adventure Connoisseurs Facebook group, which has 23,000 members.
“A lot of people who are used to Six Flags are happy about the merger and are looking forward to the drive-through experience at Cedar,” he said. “People tend to think Cedar has better service.”
Potential changes
The amusement park industry is facing significant volatility, including the growing threat of extreme weather brought on by climate change. Six Flags said it will add more shade structures, water misters, splash zones and climate-controlled areas to cope with extreme heat.
The merger makes both companies less dependent on a particular park or region if weather conditions force them to close.
“They’re strategically spread out across the U.S. There’s not a lot of overlap,” said Dennis Speigel, managing director of consulting firm International Theme Park Services. “If you take those parks and merge them, you have a huge marketing opportunity.”
Parkgoers could see other changes, including new season pass options and loyalty programs that give passholders access to more parks, said Chris Woronka, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. Retaining and growing the number of season passholders is critical because they account for more than half of annual park attendance at Cedar Fair and Six Flags.
The new company could also combine its intellectual property licenses across the parks to design new rides and themed attractions. Six Flags has a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery for rights to DC Comics and Looney Tunes characters, and Cedar Fair has rights to Peanuts and Snoopy characters. (CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)
This could mean, for example, that Looney Tunes attractions are present in both park brands.
Halloween has become a popular time for theme park fans to visit, and those events may be changing. Cedar Fair is hosting Halloween Haunt and Six Flags is hosting Fright Fest.
But Michael Musil, who lives in Bay Village, Ohio, and has been a long-time visitor to Cedar Point, fears that Cedar Point will suffer.
“Six Flags is going to turn it into a business, budget everything and end up with a very stripped-down, fixed version of the theme park,” he said. “That might be good for the bottom line, but it would be boring.”
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com