Right? It’s hard to ever come back from this and start confidently selling your product for what it’s worth ever again. Companies that go down this route usually wind up downgrading their product to align with their new pricing (look at all the premium brands that started popping up at TARGET with cheaper versions of themselves). People keep saying “this is cut just until they get settled”, no. I fear what’s gone is gone and there’s more to be cut. 

Another step toward the end: Six Flags America now only offers a link to purchase a 2026 Kings Dominion Gold Pass. 2025 season passes are allegedly still available through the purchasing website, but I'm not about to go through that just to find out.  Maybe the federal government / current administration will buy the park and operate it since it's called "America"   I'd love to see if anything is planned as a small celebration before the park closes. At least a closing ceremony or fireworks would be better than quietly shutting the gates and leaving. 

While that makes sense and is likely something a privately held company will do as they can think more long term, we have seen for as long as KI's owner has been publicly traded that giving away the gate is the go to whenever they need cash. They have to look at quarterly results.  Planning and putting together an event likely has expenditures in the prior quarter(s) to said event.  Let's say that is $100,000 they spend for an event that happens the following quarter.  A private company looks at that as an investment that they hope brings in $100,000+X during the run of the event. The publicly traded company, on the other hand, needs to show results right now, and unfortunately, historically lowering the gate price brings in bodies and revenue for that quarterly results. It is a vicious cycle and takes leadership willing to take the short-term hits and in many publicly traded companies that just doesn't exist and certainly doesn't exist with this current c-suite.  The former Disney guy is probably the last time we had someone willing to stick their neck out for the long term.

To your point, in my experience this year, I bought a gold pass for the first time since like 2018, and I’ve been to the park three times. Since we can go whenever we want there isn’t as much pressure to get as many rides in as we can and it’s really nice to go through and enjoy the “park” aspect of things. Between the events they have at the tower, the shows on the theater and the arcade, it makes the experience feel more “complete” than just trying to ride the coasters as many times as possible. That being said, I do hope that we get a new coaster within the next few years. I know things are different and I haven’t paid all that much attention to the cooperate aspects of the merger, but I am hopeful that KI is still seen as one of the most valuable parks in the chain. Probably a discussion for another thread though.

This is why I advocate for adding more shows and entertainment rather than buying a ton of rides right now. Most people will still buy/renew a pass if its price were raised a little. Those same people probably would not buy/renew a pass if the experience is janky and rough. That's one of the main reasons why the perception of Six Flags has been so bad: it is seen as the budget option where the quality isn't very good.  The little vignette shows Kings Island had in 2021 added to the experience a ton. A few of those with an added festival would encourage more visits to the parks overall.  I wonder how well an event like a new early-season Food Truck Festival or an artisan festival would do. The artisan booths they have for Winterfest surely generate some money for the park via the vendor fees. A new Value Days event wouldn't be so bad of an idea either for parks who need to increase passholder attendance. I can think of a few items that would sell awesomely if they were 50% off for a day. If those don't end up working, then the lesson will have been learned. Six Flags can use some of the lessons from the past to guide them, but it might be time to try again now that it is a new company and a new decade.