Six Flags (1961–2024)
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, formerly Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc., was an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. At its height, Six Flags owned more theme parks and waterparks than any other company: 42 properties in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including theme parks, amusement parks, water parks, and a family entertainment center. In 2019, Six Flags properties hosted 32.8 million customers, the seventh-highest attendance in the world.
Founded in the 1960s and named for its first theme park, Six Flags Over Texas, the company was known first as Six Flags, Corp., and later Six Flags, Inc. The company maintained a corporate office in Midtown Manhattan, and headquarters in Arlington, Texas. On June 13, 2009, the corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which it exited after corporate restructuring on May 3, 2010.
On July 1, 2024, Six Flags merged with competitor Cedar Fair in an $8 billion deal into a merged company also named Six Flags. Based in Charlotte, the company operates 42 locations, including 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks, and nine resorts. As a result, the former Six Flags company ceased to exist.
History
Origin
In 1957, real estate businessman Angus G. Wynne and other investors created The Great Southwest Corporation, which in 1960 began building its first theme park in Arlington, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth. They named it Six Flags Over Texas, a reference to the six nations that have governed Texas: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America. The park opened the following year for a short, 45-day season.Six Flags Over Texas initially featured a Native American village, a gondola ride, a railroad, some Wild West shows, a stagecoach ride and "Skull Island", a pirate-themed adventure attraction. There was also "LaSalle's River Adventure", inspired by the late-1600s La Salle Expeditions, that carried customers on French riverboats through a wilderness of animated puppets. Over the years, all of those attractions, except the railroad, were replaced by others, such as roller coasters, swing rides, log flumes and shoot-the-chute rides, as well as an observation tower.
Growth and acquisitions
In 1964, Angus Wynne's uncle Toddie Lee Wynne announced he would sell his stake in the Great Southwest Corporation, a sale valued around $6 million. The Pennsylvania Railroad purchased 500,000 shares of the company, a controlling interest, as part of its effort to diversify its revenue sources.The railroad merged with the New York Central Railroad to form Penn Central in 1968 and went bankrupt two years later; still it bankrolled geographic expansion and additions for its Six Flags parks. The company opened Six Flags Over Georgia in 1967 and Six Flags Over Mid-America in 1971. Those were the last two parks built by Six Flags, which continued to grow by acquiring independent parks. Six Flags purchased AstroWorld in Houston, Texas, in 1975; Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, in 1977; and Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, in 1979.
In 1982, Penn Central—which had sold its railroad assets to Conrail and now consisted largely of its diversified sub-firms—sold the company to Bally Manufacturing.
In 1984, Six Flags bought the Great America theme park in Gurnee, Illinois, from the Marriott hotel chain. That deal also included the rights to use Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes animated characters in Six Flags properties.
In 1987, Bally surrendered control of the chain to Wesray Capital Corporation in a 1987 leveraged buyout. Time Warner quickly began to gain more company stock, gaining a 19.5% stake in Six Flags in 1990 and then 50% in 1991, with the remaining shares of the company being split by Blackstone Group and Wertheim Schroder & Company. Time Warner purchased the remaining stake in Six Flags in 1993, changing the company's name from Six Flags Corp. to Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. In 1995, to reduce its debt, Time Warner sold 51% of Six Flags for $200 million in cash to an investment group led by Boston Ventures, shifting $800 million in debt to Six Flags.
In 1996, Six Flags began to manage Fiesta Texas theme park in San Antonio, Texas, with a ten-year option to buy.
Premier Parks
Premier Parks, Inc. was an amusement park operator based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They were founded in 1971 as Tierco Group, Inc., and initially operated as a real estate company. They entered the amusement park market in 1982, acquiring Frontier City for $1.2 million although the company was not interested in entering that route. Company officials described Frontier City as "beat up" and "run down" and had plans to demolish the park and build a shopping center in its place, but the oil bust in Oklahoma scuttled those plans. Instead, Tierco decided to touch up the park grounds, and in 1984 they hired Gary Story as general manager of Frontier City and spent about $13 million to improve the park. As the new head of Frontier City, he quadrupled the park's attendance and revenues. Under his leadership, two rides, a ticket booth, a sales office, and a petting zoo were added to the park. Food service improved. By 1988, Tierco had fully shifted its strategic direction to the amusement parks market and eventually exited the real estate market, and in 1991 they had acquired the White Water water park from Silver Dollar City, Inc. and renamed it as White Water Bay. Tierco realized the key to boosting a park's attendance was to add new and exciting rides and make it family-friendly.In 1992, Tierco added its second amusement park to its portfolio by acquiring the financially troubled Wild World in Largo, Maryland and spent $500,000 to remodel the park. Tierco treated the park's renovation similarly to Frontier City, where the park's buildings were remodeled and the park's children's ride selection was expanded. The park also saw a name change to Adventure World, having a tropical look and feel. Afterward, Gary Story was promoted to executive vice president of the two parks, and by 1994 he had become president and chief operating officer. Within that year, Adventure World saw two additional roller coasters and more flat rides. Tierco then changed its name to Premier Parks, Inc. afterwards, under Kieran E. Burke, chairman and chief executive officer.
During the second half of the 1990s, Premier Parks underwent a massive "Growth through Acquisition" phase. On August 16, 1995, they acquired Geauga Lake near Cleveland, Ohio, Wyandot Lake in Powell, Ohio and Darien Lake near Buffalo, New York from Funtime, Inc. for $60 million. While Lake Compounce was also included in the purchase, Premier Parks eventually sold it to Kennywood Entertainment Company. Aside from theme park acquisitions, Premier also saw plans to expand their water park offerings by opening water parks for the parks that didn't have one.
In June 1996, Premier Parks went public and raised nearly $70 million through an initial offering at $18 per share. The company planned to use the money to expand its parks and acquire others. They began their acquisitions for the year by announcing the purchase of The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom in Queensbury, New York for an undisclosed amount on August 27, to close the deal by December. This was followed up with the acquisition of Elitch Gardens in Denver, Colorado on September 25, the Waterworld USA waterparks in Sacramento and Concord, California, as well as Paradise Island Family Fun Park from FRE Inc. on October 25 and Riverside Park in Agawam, Massachusetts in December.
Premier began operating the Marine World theme park near San Francisco during the Mid-1997 season. On September 26, Kentucky Kingdom owner Paul Hart announced that he would sell the park's operation lease to Premier Parks for $64 million, of which the deal would close on November 7. On October 11, Premier became the managing partner for Texas Flags, Ltd., the owners of the Six Flags Over Texas park, and took over its operations. In December, Premier announced that they would enter the European market by purchasing a controlling 94 percent interest in the Walibi Group in Wavre, Belgium. The company owned six park operations - Walibi Wavre/Aqualibi and Bellewaerde Park in Belgium, Walibi Flevo in Holland, and Walibi Aquitaine, Walibi Schtroumpf, and Walibi Rhône-Alpes in France. The purchase was made for Premier to compete with Disneyland Paris and would close in March 1998. Within the 1997 year alone, almost 11 million people visited parks owned by Premier.
Sale of Six Flags to Premier Parks
On February 10, 1998, Time Warner Entertainment and the investment group announced the sale of their stakes in Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. to Premier Parks, Inc. for $1.86 billion, forming Premier's largest purchase. The deal closed on April 1. Shortly afterwards in June, Kentucky Kingdom became the first of Premier's owned parks to rebrand under the Six Flags moniker, effectively renamed as Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. In October, Premier announced that an additional four parks would rebrand under the Six Flags moniker; Elitch Gardens, Darien Lake, The New Marine World and Adventure World. The former three would keep their names alongside the Six Flags suffix, while Adventure World would be completely reinvented and refurbished as Six Flags America. These additions also saw the addition of the Warner Bros. IPs to the respective parks and brought the number of Six Flags branded parks to seventeen. On November 18, 1998, Premier announced that they had fully purchased Six Flags Fiesta Texas from USAA, putting the park under their full control.Aside from that, Premier Parks added additional parks to their portfolio. They purchased Reino Aventura in Mexico City, Mexico for an estimated $59 million in March, White Water Atlanta and its sister park American Adventures in Marietta, Georgia from Silver Dollar City, Inc. on May 5 for an undisclosed amount and SplashTown USA in Spring, Texas on May 17. On October 6, Premier announced the expansion of its North American licensing agreement with Warner Bros. to include rights to the Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, and DC Comics characters and franchises in Europe, Latin and South America as well. The deal also allowed Premier to open more theme parks under the Warner Bros. Movie World brand theme parks in these territories. The deal also included the purchase of Warner Bros. Movie World Germany from the company and an agreement to hold a minority stake and manage the upcoming Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid theme park, which was scheduled to open in 2002. The deal did not include the original Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast, Australia, as that was under completely different ownership.