Six Flags

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"Mr. Six" was Six Flags' official mascot from 2004-2005.

Six Flags (NYSE: [SIX]) is the world's largest chain of amusement parks and theme parks and is headquartered in New York City. There are 30 amusement & water parks run by Six Flags, 24 of which carry the Six Flags name. The first Six Flags amusement park, Six Flags Over Texas, was built halfway between the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas in Arlington (Tarrant County), Texas, United States. The park took its name from the six flags that have flown over the state of Texas during its history (Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America). In 2006, the company celebrated the 45th anniversary since the opening of Six Flags over Texas.

History

The Six Flags chain began in 1961 with the creation of Six Flags Over Texas by Angus G. Wynne at Arlington in Tarrant County, which featured (in the beginning) 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 an excursion aboard "French" boats through a wilderness full of moving puppets. Over time, all of those attractions, except for the railroad, would be replaced by other attractions, such as roller coasters, swing rides, log flumes, and shoot-the-chute rides, as well as an observation tower.

The chain grew with the acquisition of other parks, such as the Great Adventure Park and Safari in Jackson, New Jersey, and Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, which had been founded by the Marriott hotel chain. The chain of parks changed hands several times, being sold to the Penn Central railroad, then to Bally Construction Corporation, and later on to the Time Warner company, among other owners. The chain is well-known in recent times for large and fast roller coasters, although the queue areas are often in the open air without much shading and without as many props as are typical for some queue areas in Walt Disney World.

Six Flags Theme Parks Inc. was purchased in whole on April 1, 1998 from Time Warner by Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks. Premier then began to apply the Six Flags name to a number of smaller parks that had been expanded, including Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, and Adventure World. In 2000, Premier Parks changed its name to Six Flags, Inc. Headquartered in New York City, Six Flags is now the largest amusement park operator in the U.S. Six Flags owes about $2.1 Billion in debt, and they have lost money every year since 2001. Bill Gates owns about 11% of Six Flags and rumors were flying around that Bill Gates' Cascade Investments and Daniel Snyder's Red Zone LLC (which owns 12% of Six Flags) may take it over. Indeed, on August 17, 2005, Red Zone began a proxy battle to gain control of Six Flags' board of directors. On November 22, 2005, Red Zone announced victory in this attempt. After gaining control of the board, CEO Kieran Burke was ousted on December 14, 2005 and replaced by Mark Shapiro, former EVP of Programming at ESPN. Additionally, Six Flags named former Representative Jack Kemp, entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein, and the former president, Michael Kassan, of the Interpublic Group of Companies Incorporated, a global marketing and advertising agency, to their newly revamped board of directors.

During the time Premiere Parks owned the company, they attempted to branch out internationally and purchased the "Walibi" branded parks in Europe. Only two in the chain became Six Flags parks; Six Flags Holland and Six Flags Belgium. These parks only lasted three years with the Six Flags name. Six Flags sold the chain to a company called Star Parks in 2004. They parks have since been renamed "Walibi World" and "Walibi Belgium."

Until 2004, Six Flags parks would do separate commercials for each park, sometimes with special themes (like Great America's 25th anniversery in 2001). In 2004, Six Flags began a series of commercials linking all parks. The commercials were notable for a new mascot, "Mr. Six." Each would start off with an old man in a tuxedo and red bow tie slowly getting off a bus only to start wildly dancing. The commercials were an immediate hit and Mr. Six almost instantly became an official mascot for the parks, although he was retired after the 2005 season.

On September 12, 2005, Six Flags announced that it was closing its legendary Six Flags Astroworld theme park in Houston, Texas, at the end of the 2005 season, citing issues such as the park's performance, and parking issues involving the Houston Texans football team, Reliant Stadium, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo leveraged with the value of the property the park sits on.

On January 27, 2006, Six Flags announced it would be selling its Frontier City theme park and White Water Bay water park, both located in Oklahoma City, at the conclusion of the 2006 operating season. At the same time, Six Flags also announced its plan to close corporate offices in Oklahoma City. Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro said he expects the parks to continue operation after the sale, unlike Six Flags Astroworld. Six Flags also announced that it would be moving all of its corporate operations to New York City.

On March 30, 2006, Six Flags announced that it will sell only pizza from Papa John's International at its parks. In turn, Six Flags will receive an annual sponsorship and promotional opportunities from Papa John's, though financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

In June of 2006, Six Flags announced it was considering closing or selling up to six of its parks, including Elitch Gardens, Darien Lake, WaterWorld, Wild Waves and Enchanted Village, Splashtown, and Magic Mountain/Hurricane Harbor. [link] In addition, Six Flags also announced the sale of Wyandot Lake in Powell, Ohio to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, which is located next to the park. [Zoo to keep Wyandot Lake afloat], Marla Matzer Rose. Columbus Dispatch'', June 13, 2006.

List of current parks

• Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, near Los Angeles
• Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Valencia, adjacent to Six Flags Magic Mountain
• Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, near San Francisco
• Six Flags Waterworld in Sacramento (lease fom Cal Expo will not be renewed at the end of 2006 season)
• Six Flags Waterworld in Concord

• Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver

• Six Flags Over Georgia (the second park) in Austell, near Atlanta
• Six Flags White Water in Marietta, near Atlanta
• American Adventures in Marietta, near Atlanta

• Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• *Six Flags Hurricane Harbor operated within Six Flags Great America

• Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay Water Park in Louisville

• Six Flags America in Largo, near Washington, D.C. and Baltimore
• Six Flags Hurricane Harbor operated within Six Flags America

• Six Flags New England in Agawam, near Springfield and Hartford, Connecticut

• Six Flags St. Louis in Eureka (formerly Six Flags Over Mid-America)

• Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey, between New York City, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Six Flags Hurricane Harbor operated within Six Flags Great Adventure
• Six Flags Wild Safari in Jackson Township, New Jersey

• Six Flags Darien Lake in Darien, near Buffalo
• The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom in Lake George (independently owned from 1954 to 1995)

• Wyandot Lake near Columbus, Ohio (Sold at the end of the 2006 season to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.)

• Frontier City in Oklahoma City (being sold at the end of the 2006 season)
• White Water Bay in Oklahoma City (being sold at the end of the 2006 season)

• Six Flags Over Texas (the first Six Flags park) in Arlington near Dallas and Fort Worth
• Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Arlington
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio
• Six Flags Splashtown in unincorporated Harris County (Spring), near Houston.

• Wild Waves and Enchanted Village in Federal Way

• Six Flags México in Mexico City, Distrito Federal

• La Ronde in Montreal

List of former parks

Six Flags New Orleans sign still has message from pre-storm closing and post-hurricane floodwater lines on the pillars

• Six Flags Atlantis in Hollywood (sold in 1989; destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992)

• Six Flags New Orleans in New Orleans (Damaged in Hurricane Katrina in 2005; Six Flags Inc. announced it does not wish to reopen the park; however, its fate is not sealed. If the city of New Orleans refuses to allow the company out of their 75 year lease, Six Flags will have to rebuild)

• Six Flags Power Plant in Baltimore (closed in 1989)

• Six Flags AutoWorld in Flint (closed in 1985)

• Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Aurora (Sold to Cedar Fair, L.P. in 2004)

• Six Flags Astroworld in Houston (closed in 2005)

(Six Flags' European division, excluding Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid, was sold to a group of private investors on March 10th, 2004)

• Six Flags Belgium in Brussels
• Bellewaerde park in Ieper

• Walibi Aquitaine in Bordeaux
• Walibi Lorraine in Metz
• Walibi Rhône-Alpes in Lyon

• Warner Bros. Movie World Germany in Bottrop, Germany

• Six Flags Holland in Dronten, near Amsterdam

References