Six Flags History

Six Flags History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Six Flags, Inc (commonly Six Flags) is one of the world's largest chain of amusement parks and theme parks based on quantity of properties. The company maintains 21 properties located throughout North America, including theme parks, water parks and family entertainment centers. In 2007, Six Flags properties hosted approximately 24.9 million guests, making it the fourth-most popular theme park company in the world.

The company's headquarters are located in Texas and took its name from its first property, Six Flags Over Texas, and the six flags that have flown over the state of Texas during its history, namely those of Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of America, and the United States of America.

Beginnings

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

Acquisition by Premier Parks

Six Flags Theme Parks Inc. was purchased in whole on April 1, 1998 from Time Warner by Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks for $1.86 billion. Premier then began to apply the Six Flags name to a number of smaller parks that the company had already owned, including Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, Kentucky Kingdom and Adventure World.

In 2000, Premier Parks assumed the Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. name and continued re-branding its parks, most notably the former Geauga Lake into Six Flags Ohio. Six Flags began vigorously expanding, attempting to branch out internationally, acquiring numerous properties across the country and overseas including the Walibi and Warner Bros. Movie World chains and historic Belgian park Bellewaerde in Europe, La Ronde in Canada, and Reino Aventura in Mexico. Three of those parks were re-branded as Six Flags parks--Walibi Flevo became Six Flags Holland, Walibi Wavre became Six Flags Belgium and Reino Aventura became Six Flags Mexico.

In 2001, Six Flags acquired the former SeaWorld Ohio from Busch Entertainment Corporation, merged it with the adjacent Six Flags Ohio and re-branded the park again, this time into Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. The park was positioned to compete against northern Ohio's more famous amusement park, Cedar Point.

Sell-off of assets and shareholder revolt

The company lost money every year since 1998, amassing more than $2 billion in debt, which some analysts say is due to over-expansion and mismanagement. In 2004, Six Flags began to close and sell properties in an effort to help alleviate the company's growing debt. On March 10, Six Flags sold its European parks, with the exception of the Movie World park in Madrid, Spain, to Star Parks Group. The Madrid park was sold back to Time Warner and renamed "Parque Warner Madrid." In April of that year, Six Flags determined that the investment required to keep Worlds of Adventure competitive with Cedar Point would be too great, and thus the company sold the park to Cedar Fair, the owner of Cedar Point. These sales raised $345 million dollars in an effort to relieve Six Flags' massive debt.

In 2005, Six Flags endured even more turmoil. Some of the company's largest investors, notably Bill Gates' Cascade Investments (which owns about 11% of Six Flags) and Daniel Snyder's Red Zone, LLC (which owns 12%), demanded change. Indeed, on August 17, 2005, Red Zone began a proxy battle to gain control of Six Flags' board of directors. Later that month, Six Flags New Orleans would be severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

On September 12, 2005, Six Flags Chief Executive Officer Kieran Burke announced that Six Flags Astroworld would be closed and demolished at the end of the 2005 season. The company cited 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 estimated value of the property upon which the park was located. Company executives were expecting to receive upwards of $150 million for the real estate, but ended up receiving $77 million when the bare property (which cost $20 million to clear) was sold to a development corporation in 2006. On November 22, 2005, Red Zone announced it had gained control of the board. Kieran Burke was removed on December 14, 2005 and replaced by Mark Shapiro, former Executive Vice President of Programming at ESPN. Six Flags then 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.

Even with the new management team, the sell-off would continue into 2006. On January 27, Six Flags announced the sale of the Frontier City theme park and White Water Bay water park, both located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 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, moving its headquarters to New York City. Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro said he expects the parks to continue operation after the sale, a lesson the company learned after its public relations debacle with the closure of Astroworld.

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 in Concord, California, Wild Waves and Enchanted Village in Federal Way, Washington, Splashtown in Houston, Texas and, most notably, Six Flags Magic Mountain. 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. Ultimately, Six Flags Magic Mountain was spared, with the remaining six parks sold on January 11, 2007 to PARC Management for $312 million, $275 million cash and a note for $37 million. PARC 7F, of Jacksonville, Florida, is expected to sell the parks to CNL Income Properties Inc., a real-estate trust based in Florida, and then lease them back.

Six Flags Dubailand

In March 2008, Six Flags announced that the new "Six Flags Dubailand" will be developed at the 3-billion-square-foot Dubailand complex. The park will be one of several theme parks planned for the large development, the park is planned to open in 2011 as the first Six Flags park developed in the Middle East, and the first international expansion under new Six Flags corporate management.

source ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sixflags45.jpg