According to TEA/AECOM Six Flags is suffering when it comes to attendance and was the only major chain to have less attendance in 2022 than 2021.
Meanwhile, Universal was 1% under 2019 levels.
Selim made a wrong turn and he keeps trying to cover it. You can’t just charge a ton more than you were and not invest in new coasters in your parks. They are just now getting aggressive on promotions but I’m not sure that even that is helpful.
Honestly I think they need a break from new coasters and rides and to spend money in infrastructure improvements and general cleanup. The parks all look dated, even the new restrooms at magic mountain feel old, their new app while visually nice is full of bugs…
Point is they can’t even properly manage what they have now. I’ve been a huge proponent that the parks are too cheap and lead to an even cheaper vibe with ads being thrown at you everywhere.
That is what Selim has been claiming he would focus on since the start but so far it’s been all talk. I’m lucky to live somewhat near Fiesta Texas which has the benefit of being run by an incredible park president, but outside of that park everything feels as cheap as ever.
I’m not completely with you on the parks being too cheap. Six Flags was always the bargain theme park and, as a result, it never bugged me when there were ads in the parks because I felt like it was true subsidation. OTOH I never felt Six Flags as a whole was cheap because you always paid a stupid amount of money for food that was absolutely terrible… And let’s not even talk about the terrible merch.
I do agree with you about coasters – to a point. They really need to work on infrastructure but you can’t raise prices to do that… If you jack up your prices as extreme as they did you ready do need to have something to bring people back in (advertising a new bathroom isn’t likely to do it).
Bottom line is Selim is failing under both arguments. He thinks that just raising the price makes it a premium experience and it certainly does not… His entire basis is blatant classism and that’s reprehensible.
The ad thing really stood out, I was at Great America a few weeks ago and there are ads EVERYWHERE. Portable signs placed all over, posters on nearly every surface. They could halve it and I think it would give the parks a better feel, some of the architecture and areas are quite nice.