Can a billion dollars write a new future for Six Flags?

This just seems like pandering from a merged company that is a complete mess right now with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. The lack of coordination, professionalism, and common sense in all of this indicates to me that instead of combining the best of Six Flags and Cedar Fair, we are getting the worst of both companies now.

The total lack of specificity in these announcements shows that Six Flags is playing its customers/guests for fools, who they think will buy up anything so long as it is "world record breaking". The merged company is so full of itself that it honestly thinks that it is (or can be) "an indispensable choice in family entertainment". I mean if that doesn't demonstrate enough hubris for you from a company that was granted a merger despite representing a major reduction in competition in the industry, I don't know what to say. Sure, Six Flags is pumping massive cash to make targeted improvements in its products, but this just seems like a "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" move that was the calling card of Six Flags for so many years of its failed efforts under Daniel Snyder. The suddenness of all this is further evidence that the company is completely lost, and just grabbing for whatever they think they can get installed fastest and what they think their guests will buy.

I really think this announcement was a knee jerk reaction to the closure of Kingda Ka, which from all indications the decision to retire the coaster was made at least a month ago. Just look at the way the announcement reads, and see all the individual park announcements and the lack of details that obviously could not be worked out over the past 3-4 weeks. The lack of honesty and transparency from the new Six Flags is just sad, because for a chain that supposedly cares about their guests, they certainly don't act like it. The knee jerk nature of this announcement on the heels of the Kingda Ka closure demonstrates that there is no plan from the newly merged company and they're just grasping at straws trying to mitigate the fallout from the closure of the tallest roller coaster in the world and the prospects of the complete failure of the TT2 project (granted that decision was made by Cedar Fair long before the merger).

I really think fans would be far more sympathetic to the situation if Six Flags was more open and transparent with Kingda Ka and other situations across the chain. Most coaster fans know the Intamin hydraulic launch is problematic and expansive to maintain, as well as the issues with trying to maintain aging attractions, so they would understand the need to eventually retire or reimagine these types of coasters and other attractions. However, to haphazardly close an iconic ride and then make all of these announcements with little sense of strategy or advanced planning may make some people happy, but ultimately does not fix the fundamental issues with Six Flags which has now bled into the former Cedar Fair properties.

It will be interesting to see what happens and if all of these investments actually come to fruition (and exactly which world records are broken by each of the announced attractions), but randomly throwing a billion dollars around the chain is not going to solve the fundamental issues with this company.

Wow Russell,
That's harsh. I too was surprised at the sudden announcement. My guess leans more toward a perceived need to respond to rumors that circulated about park closures.
Having gone through mergers in the corporate world, my guess is some of those plans were already in the works before the merger and the "new" company simply let them proceed. It will take more time for the "new" company to truly design and implement real corporate-wide plans for the future. I am encouraged by the fact they even mentioned the need to improve the guest experience and upgrade food and restaurants. The lack of staffing and guest experience is horrible at Carowinds (and don't get me started on Carowinds basic food).
I'm not giving them a pass, but I do understand from experience how hard it is to flip culture and implement plans corporate-wide quickly.

@ Russell - I agree with everything you said, but here is the rub, the "$1 billion investment" is disingenuous. It is, in essence, double counting (or at best putting a price tag on) everything that had been previously announced for 2025 re: Siren's Curse, AlpenFury, etc.. to reach the magical $1 billion mark, which sounds so much more impressive that $500 million per year. Websites across the web are reporting the $1 billion figure because it sounds big and bold, but nearly everything except restaurant enhancements had been previously announced for 2025. Look, I am the first to agree the SF parks need to improve their food, particularly SFGA, but opening a new restaurant isn't driving attendance and season pass sales.

The real "announcement" if we aren't buying the puffery is $525 million in 2026 on some stuff that we aren't telling you what it is, but we are going to put record-breaking in front of the noun. Also, not all of the parks are equal, and money invested in new attractions goes a lot further in a waterpark, but the announcement could be further refined to an average spend of $12.5 million across each of the 42 parks. A lot less impressive.

@formeryogi - I guess a lot of my anger is because I was hopeful that this "merger of equals" would bring the best of both companies together, but what has been bubbling to the surface has been the worst of each.

I too would love to see the chain improve their food offerings and general customer service. I also appreciate that it takes time to integrate two companies like this together (the company I work for was involved in a merger about 10 years ago that brought together 2 of the top 5 firms in my industry), but that doesn't mean they should start running around like chickens with their heads cut off and trying to solve the combined company's problems in a single penstroke. Customers understand that it takes time for a merged company to get organized and develop a strategic plan, particularly for a chain the size and diversity of the new Six Flags.

I don't doubt that a lot of these additions were under consideration either before or shortly after the merger was approved. However, the lack of specificity provided in this announcement leads me to believe Six Flags is not very far along in the planning for the 2026 additions and that they're not necessarily part of a long term strategy for the chain as a whole. That's what really worries me here in that Six Flags felt that the sudden closure of Kingda Ka needed to be accompanied by all of these additions that don't appear to be part of any long term planning or vision to actually make the chain better.

Again, this just feels like a return to what Six Flags used to do though with even less foresight because all of this was announced on the heels of the closure of an iconic attraction. Tying these additions to the closure announcement was completely unnecessary, and concerns me that Six Flags' motivations are not in the best interests of guests or the long term future of the chain.

I agree with much of what Russell said, especially the lack of honesty and transparency. And because of the way the Kingda Ka situation was mishandled, I just cancelled my Six Flags membership.