To the relief of many theme-park fans, however, the company was able to restructure by Spring Ginger Yapp has been writing professionally since , specializing in travel and film topics. Yapp also has experience writing and editing for a small California newspaper.
She earned her B. Facts About Six Flags. A List of Six Flags Parks. Takes Stand After visiting the newly-opened Disneyland in California, Wynne decided his home state needed a similar attraction with a healthy dose of Texas history mixed in.
Construction began in August, with plans of opening the park a year later in Opening day attendance was 8, Interestingly enough, Six Flags over Texas was never intended to last beyond a few years. Everyone, including Wynne, was surprised when attendance shattered expectations during the first day season, making it obvious that the park would have to remain a permanent fixture of Arlington, Texas.
The six flags comes from the six nations that have governed Texas during its history. When the park opened in , it had themed areas for each flag. All flags were changed to the USA flag at the park entrance and throughout the park. Six Flags over Texas has undergone a number of ownership changes throughout its years. The following is a brief, incomplete history of the significant ownership changes. An early aerial view of Six Flags over Texas showing the barren adjacent land. Angus G. The Penn Central Corporation began managing the park in the season.
Following further park acquisitions, Time Warner eventually gained control of the company through stock buyouts in , bringing with it a new era and the licensing of Warner Brothers and DC Comics characters throughout the park. Their only escape can be found in the batcave, where they are whisked away, with their feet dangling, on a car suspended below the tracks on a ride described as a high-speed chair lift that completes a series of loops.
According to some industry experts, the looping, suspended coaster represented the biggest technological breakthrough in more than 15 years. The media blitz centered around what Pittman, the then year-old founder of MTV, called a "classic second-place strategy. With six of the seven parks larger than the acre home of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, 84 percent of the country within miles of a Six Flags park, and an average roller coaster speed of 65 miles per hour, Pittman's claim was not without strong evidence.
As Six Flags Theme Parks entered the mids, it looked to boost its appeal as a regional destination resort by broadening its entertainment package.
Although it continued to develop innovative roller coasters and theme rides for the thrill seekers among its potential customers, it also tried to complement its traditional business with new attractions and services. There were now three company parks that had a separate-gate, company-owned waterpark attraction as a neighbor. Such deals gave the company added marketing power and strengthened the appeal of a multiple-day ticket.
The deal, as Six Flags spokesperson Eileen Harrell told O'Brien, was heralded as a "best of both worlds" decision, enabling the company to "become a self-financing entity" while maintaining its "access to the large inventory of Time Warner properties. Larry D. In early the company entered into an agreement to manage Fiesta Texas, a San Antonio amusement park majority owned by USAA, an insurance and financial services firm based in that city.
One year later, the Wet 'n Wild waterpark in Arlington was rebranded Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, making it the second waterpark bearing that name. There were also important developments with the two company parks that were owned by limited partnerships and only managed by Six Flags Theme Parks. Six Flags Theme Parks did, however, gain the right to offer to buy out additional partners on an annual basis and to buy out any remaining partners in In December the company reached a similar agreement with the partnership that owned Six Flags Over Texas.
The series of negotiations that led to the Texas agreement was a drawn-out affair and eventually involved Premier Parks, which made a bold bid to take over management of Six Flags Over Texas. Although the bid did not succeed, during the negotiations the management of Premier became enamored of the Six Flags chain, leading directly to Premier's acquisition of Six Flags Theme Parks. Some observers worried that Premier had grown too large too fast and wondered whether the company could generate enough profits to cover its debt.
With the Six Flags parks in its possession, Premier was the largest regional theme park chain in the world and the second largest amusement park operator in the United States. The acquisition was considered second in industry importance only to the opening of Disneyland in , an event that redefined the future of the amusement park industry. The combined attendance base for Premier and Six Flags in was nearly 40 million--Disney's was 86 million.
In a key part of the Six Flags transaction, Premier inherited Six Flags' long-term licensing agreement conveying exclusive theme park rights in most of the United States and Canada for all Warner Bros. The company also gained the worldwide rights to the Six Flags moniker--the most recognized theme park brand name in the world next to Disney.
Premier officials felt the Six Flags name was the common thread that would unite all of its parks. Although Premier did not immediately change its corporate name, the company's domestic operations began operating as Six Flags Theme Parks late in Although Premier's value was rocketing skyward, its journey was not without a few twists and turns.
A few months after the purchase of Six Flags, rumors spread that the company's cash flow for the parks was below expectations, and Premier's stock tumbled 35 percent. Premier executives referred to the stock drop as a "huge overreaction" and pointed out that the original 13 Premier Parks were exceeding expectations. They claimed that the problems with the Six Flags parks were a result of missteps made by previous management. Prior to its acquisition by Premier, Six Flags had started to languish as part of the Time Warner conglomerate.
According to the year-end issue of Amusement Business, only two of the nine Six Flags amusement parks had an attendance increase from Premier believed that a lack of capital growth had stagnated Six Flags and the company had mistakenly targeted most of its advertising toward teens when it should have focused on families.
In response, Premier redesigned the Six Flags marketing strategy so that its ads also targeted women aged 18 to To remedy the troubles at Six Flags, Premier planned to cut costs and expand and improve its new parks.
The company shut down Six Flags' Parsippany, New Jersey, headquarters, eliminating full-time positions. Premier had only 35 employees at the corporate level, most of them at its headquarters in Oklahoma City, although there was a small staff at a New York office handling financial operations. Known as a lean corporation with a risk-taking mentality, Premier's small but efficient corporate staff believed that the company's trim managerial structure, with only a few levels of management, helped streamline communication between upper management and consumers.
Premier also cut staff at the park level. Since amusement parks are seasonal, management did not see the need for a large, year-round staff. The largest expansions took place at Six Flags Great Adventure. The addition of 25 new rides increased the number of rides at the park by 50 percent. Premier unveiled "Medusa," the world's first "floorless" roller coaster, at Six Flags Great Adventure in The high-intensity thrill attraction was a giant "supercoaster" that plunged through twists, turns, and sudden drops at more than 60 mph.
Unlike traditional roller coasters in which passengers ride above or below the track, riders on Medusa were suspended between tracks with nothing above or below them. Even as it digested its acquisition of Six Flags Theme Parks and worked to overhaul these latest additions, Premier did not shy away from adding still more properties to its growing portfolio.
Late in , Premier exercised the purchase option on Six Flags Fiesta Texas, acquiring the San Antonio park, which it would now both own and manage. During four more parks were acquired. Three of the acquisitions occurred in May. As had been the case in other markets, having both a theme park and a water park in Atlanta would provide Premier with opportunities for synergies in such areas as season passes, sponsorships, and advertising. In the third May purchase, Premier expanded south of the border for the first time by acquiring Mexico City-based Reino Aventura, which opened in and was considered to be Latin America's largest paid-admission theme park.
For the season, Reino Aventura was renamed Six Flags Mexico, a substantial amount of capital was expended to update the park, and the Looney Tunes and other Warner Bros.
The final acquisition came in November when Premier bought the European division of Warner Bros. Movie World. Movie World in and was developing a second such park in Madrid, Spain. As part of the deal, Premier gained exclusive theme park usage rights in both Europe and Latin America to the Warner Bros.
For the season, Premier changed four more of its properties into Six Flags sites. All of the parks would now feature Warner Bros. In mid, Premier Parks took the rebranding to another level by changing the corporate name to Six Flags, Inc. Acquisition activity continued in
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