A few months ago, we looked at and discussed the rocky future Six Flags had with new leadership coming in and stirring up turmoil company-wide. Since then, there have been massive rumors circulating regarding the future of Six Flags. There was, at one point, talk about Six Flags selling off all their real estate to a real estate trust company while they kept operating the parks. Ultimately, this was pure speculation and rumors that never occurred.

However, massive news just dropped in the theme park community regarding Six Flags and its competitor Cedar Fair. Under a new massive $8B deal, the two companies will merge to become one massive joint company. The combined company, which will operate under the name Six Flags, will boast 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

As the deal was announced early morning on Thursday, November 2nd, Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman gave the following remarks:  

“Our merger with Six Flags will bring together two of North America’s iconic amusement park companies to establish a highly diversified footprint and a more robust operating model to enhance park offerings and performance”. 

Under the new leadership structure, Zimmerman will be president and CEO of the combined company. Meanwhile, Selim Bassoul, President and CEO of Six Flags, will become executive chairman.

While I am personally very skeptical about Selim Bassoul and the Six Flags leadership, I am very glad that Cedar Fair is taking control of the leadership while Six Flags is the brand and providing support to Cedar Fair. 

When you compare the two companies, Cedar Fair is the better and stronger company out of the two. Cedar Fair focuses a lot more on quality compared to Six Flags where the emphasis is on quantity. I think Cedar Fair could definitely improve the Six Flags parks by a lot, with their higher standards, attention to detail, heavy theming and minimalist in park advertising approach.

One major benefit that would come with this merger, is both operators will have access to each other’s intellectual property brands such as DC Comics, Looney Tunes and Peanuts. One thing Cedar Fair lacks is themed attractions centered around a character or movie. By having access to the DC brand, it would allow Cedar Fair to step up and compete on a themed attraction level with the Marvel superhero rides at Disneyland and Universal Studios Orlando.

On the flip side, Six Flags struggles (in my opinion at least) with theming and creating attractions for children and a younger audience. Cedar Fair has the Peanuts brand and with it, they do a very good job creating some unique and well organized kids areas. I feel like Six Flags often overlooks or forgets about these kinds of areas/lands so with Cedar Fair bringing this to the table, it would be a huge win for Six Flags. 

There is a huge push and hope from the theme park fan community that the newly formed company will create a new season pass program that would allow pass holders to access all 27 parks across the portfolio. I think this would be a smart idea since it would allow guests to experience the best that both operators have to offer. For example one could enjoy Cedar Fair’s top parks in Southern California (Knott’s), Ohio (Cedar Point and Kings Island) and also enjoy Six Flags’ top parks in Los Angeles (Magic Mountain), Chicago (Great America) and New Jersey (Great Adventure). 

As it stands now, Cedar Fair-Six Flags will only have two overlapping areas in both combined portfolios in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area. This overlap will not remain for long however, as Cedar Fair has sold California’s Great America and the park will cease operating within a few years. After this, it would only have Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in the Bay Area market.

When asked about if there would be any potential closures or sales to any of the joint parks, Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman said on a call with investors that there are no plans to close any of the parks following the merger.

“These are irreplaceable assets. How do you grow if you shrink your portfolio?”

There are still so many questions and details to work out with this merger. I think only time will tell how well this merger goes for both operators and what will become of it. Keep in mind this was only announced on Thursday, November 2nd so there is not much additional information available. It is definitely going to be interesting to watch this merger further progress and unfold. 

So, what do you think of this insane merger? Let us know in the comments below and be on the lookout for more YouTube videos and blog content coming your way soon!