What is the next step for six flags? Cedar Point Parent faces the sale of the park, possible bankruptcy

Sandusky, Ohio – A new Russian mountain will not repair what is in the process of six flags. A last minute plan will not be planned to charge haunted houses in Halloweekends either.

“The entire company must be redesigned,” said Dennis Speigel, a consultant who studied the amusement park industry for decades.

Speigel, president of International Theme Theme Park Services in Cincinnati, said that he was alarmed by what he had seen earlier this month from six flags, in the report on the second quarter of the company: a 9%drop in presence, seasonal sales of 8%, revenues of $ 100 million and $ 500 million in debt.

“We did not feel the replicas of this,” said Speigel, who predicts more difficult decisions to come for the company, which is the parent of Cedar Point, Kings Island and dozens of other fun and water parks throughout North America.

Speigel expects that up to half or more of the company’s parks will be sold. And bankruptcy is not out of the question, he said.

He is not alone in his concern.

James Hheliman, analyst at Citi Research, said he also thought that the company will have to eliminate parks to increase income and reduce debt.

“Everything should be on the table while we are thinking of asset sales,” said Hheliman, of Shaker Heights, who has followed the industry for decades.

He then added a warning: Cedar Point and a handful of the other best parks in the company would probably be excluded from any future liquidation.

Already, the sale of assets has started.

Earlier this year, even before the lugubrious global report of the company, Six Flags announced that it would sell six flags America, a park in the suburbs of Maryland which would close next month. The company also seeks to sell land around its Kings Dominion Park near Richmond, Virginia, and will close the Great America from California near San Francisco in 2027.

“If I directed the company, there are 10 to 12 parks that I would keep, repay the debt and start again,” said Speigel, who added: “I would not be surprised if you see the company on the precipice of bankruptcy to remove this debt from the books.”

The spokesperson for six flags, Gary Rhodes, said that the company remains convinced that it can reduce debt “thanks to the combination of organic growth in the company and the selective divestment of non-colorful assets”.

The company assesses the rest of its portfolio for possible additional sales, he said.

It was not supposed to be so.

Hheliman and Speigel support the merger, which met the two largest companies of regional attractions in a union of equals completed in July 2024.

In May, less than a year later, the company officials painted a pink table of the future during a presentation of the day of investors at Hotel Breakers in Sandusky.

“They thought it was going to be a truly solid quarter, with an attendance of 5 or 6%,” said Hardiman. Instead, attendance has dropped by 9%.

“This is the greatest failure that I have ever seen in the theme park industry against expectations,” said Hhediman.

In response, two national law firms in recent weeks have announced that they are seeking customers for a collective appeal for securities titles.

Rhodes refused to comment on any potential dispute.

Change of leadership

The same day as the report on the second quarter results, the president and chief executive officer of six flags, Richard Zimmerman, announced that he would leave his post at the end of the year.

Speigel and Hheliman said Zimmerman was probably forced to go out by the six-sided board of directors, although a company spokesman refused to say it.

Zimmerman was the longtime CEO of Cedar Fair when the Sandusky -based company merged with six flags last year.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Board of Directors – Selim Bassoul, who is a former CEO of Six Flags – has retained his job, despite this month, holding an additional position as chairman of the Board of Directors of Goodfood, a meal delivery company in Canada.

Healiman said that Zimmerman’s announced departure time was strange, given that this happened in the middle of the amusement park season.

In addition, he noted that attendance trends had improved in the weeks following the end of the second quarter in June.

According to the company, attendance has increased by 4% in the last four weeks of July.

“It will not be a happy new year, whatever happens,” said Hardiman. “But we could finally arrive at the end of 2025 and think that it was not really a disaster. I think it is quite possible.”

Carissa Baker, who heads the themed park and the management of attractions at the University of Florida Centrale, also said that the departure of Zimmerman was a surprise.

“The mergers have growing pains, there are no doubts. They were two different companies, management styles, priorities,” said Baker. “I am not surprised that there are difficulties.”

However, she said, the exit of Zimmerman seems premature. “It’s disappointing. Who will take his place? “

What’s wrong?

Zimmerman, in the call of the results, blamed the weather for a large part of the company’s problems.

Brian Witherow, financial director of Six Flags, noted that 20% of the second quarter operating days were affected by bad weather. The parks were forced to close for 49 days due to extreme conditions.

“In comparison, we were only forced to close the parks 12 days due to bad weather during the 2024,” said Witherow.

Speigel said time has been used for a long time as an excuse for the managers of the amusement park to explain bad performances. But in the case of 2025, the weather was particularly bad almost everywhere in the United States – especially at the beginning of the summer, which is an important period for sales of seasonal passes.

Speigel said Six Flags had overestimated the number of people who would be encouraged to buy seasonal leaves that allowed them to visit several parks, an advantage of the newly enlarged company.

Healiman also believes that the leaders perhaps of Cedar Fair have underestimated how much the six flags inherited are deeply troubled.

“On paper, I thought the agreement made sense,” said Hardiman.

The philosophy of Cedar Fair, as Healiman describes, is that slow and regular investment causes growth. “These are assets that you have to maintain and take care,” he said.

Six flags, on the other hand, has always worked more tumultuously – with four CEOs during the eight years preceding the merger, and a bankruptcy file in 2009.

“The active ingredients of the Cedar fair cannot have changed much in last year,” said Hardiman. “And there have now been three or four management teams to try to overthrow the six flags. Everyone has had trouble. Fear is that there is something irremediable there or that it will require much more investment and / or time than anyone expected.”

A cup has already occurred. Earlier this year, six flags restructured the leadership of the park, abandoning 27 presidents of individual park in favor of a more regional management system.

In addition, the parks were forced to reduce 10% of their workforce all year round, which at Cedar Point is equivalent to around 40 people.

In an effort to increase income, the company this fall will charge an additional attractions of Cedar Point and other Cedar Cedar parks for the first time – a decision that has angry many longtime season holders, who declared that they had bought the pass with the hypothesis that autumn activities would be included.

Speigel called the short -viewed cash Grab.

“They hope to capture some of the income they have lost,” he said. “They are not going to get closer.”

Speigel said he thought that the merger was too quickly designed, announced in November 2023 and finalized in July 2024.

“I think their reasonable diligence on this merger was too fast,” he said. “It was a good idea, but an imperfect business plan. They overpromised and underdivised. “

Healiman noted that the company’s share price – at $ 23.84 Wednesday – was registered less than half of its value before the merger.

However, he thinks he is undervalued and had him evaluated as a purchase. “If they can do a few things, the stock will increase,” he said.

For the moment, however, priority must be to find a new leader, he said.

“Who will find who is better equipped to sail in this environment?” Heartiman asked. “This industry has many examples of management teams and leaders who have not been built for work, which came from other industries. To find someone who has the experience of directing this business – I don’t know where this person will come from. ”

Healiman also noted that there was no guarantee that the next leader will improve things, especially from the point of view of consumers.

“To be very clear, it could be worse,” said Hardiman. “This is a management team that was trying to balance investments, growth and financial responsibility. The alternative point of view is that you have to get rid of this problem. ”

Healiman said he hoped that was not what is happening.

“As a person who grew up in the northeast region of Ohio, who has gone to Cedar Point, I don’t know how many dozens of times, I don’t want to see it happening to Cedar parks, which, I think, are really precious assets,” he said. “You would hate seeing this defeated.”

The largest parks of six flags by attendance

Knott’s Berry Farm, California, 4.2 million

Cedar Point, Ohio, 4.1 million

Kings Island, Ohio, 3.5 million

Six Flags Magic Mountain, California, 3.4 million

Wonderland in Canada, Ontario, 3.2 million

Six flags Great America, Illinois, 3 million

Six flags Great Adventure, New Jersey, 2.5 million

Note: 2023 Attendance figures are estimates of the thematic entertainment association. Six flags does not publish presence information for individual parks.

In relation:

Aadwell, Cedar Fair: Cedar Point, Kings Island Parent Company is now six flags

The shareholders of Cedar Fair want to derail the fusion with six flags – but can they?