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From Amusement Today: Kings Island’s Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare scored with fans and snagged the prize for the first time in the category of BEST NEW FAMILY ATTRACTION. Kings Island Central wants to congratulate Kings Island on its well-deserved latest Golden Ticket Award. Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare has revived a beloved dark ride, which includes new technology and a storyline that features a fresh way to interact with the characters The original Phantom Theater opened in April 1992 as the third incarnation of Kings Island's dark ride in that building, which included Enchanted Voyage and Smurf’s Enchanted Voyage. Learn more about the original Phantom Theater on our past attractions page here: https://kicentral.com/parkhistory/past-attractions/phantom-theater/

Well deserved.

A Tilt Coaster would make for a great replacement for Inveritgo. A big ominous tilt drop that can been seen from patrons walking into the main gate. Without the tacky flyover that ruins the ambience.

Remember, however, that Taft lost interest in the parks and they started to stagnate until they were sold to keco. I think KI, as the flagship, was sold to a local business man with keco as the operator. Then Paramount happened and we lost Australia's Wonderland. I digress. The future Six Flags will probably look a lot different than the present six flags. 2028 is supposed to be the year of "the great reset.". So maybe that means they will be pared down to just the major profit centers. Hopefully Kings Dominion survives Six Flags or the entity it is spun into.

The fact that these corporate morons thought this merger was a good idea, coupled with the fact they thought the Six Flags name had any brand equity/positive reputation, is proof (in my opinion) that this was never going to work. And I’ll say it…. The hype around AF1 is stupid. It’s a hand-me-down coaster from a failed park that may not even come to fruition. And if it does, it’ll most likely be altered in some capacity to be forced into a park it’s ill fit for. I remember a time when Six Flags was mocked for ride relocations, parking lot coasters, and terrible customer service. Well… here we are. And unfortunately there are quite a few stellar parks, KI specifically, who are going to suffer because of idiotic, greed fueled decision making processes of a bunch of out of touch boomers. Not to mention the talented folks who got fired a few years back because of this merger.

There is a valley right here they could gain some additional drop height. Also there being woods it would enhance the nighttime ride experience.

And remember, perception is reality. X2 has nothing to do with KI, but now that it's problems are being aired out, everything is "six flags is unsafe, did you hear about the people who died on that roller coaster?". We all know the safety record criteria, but the "gp" doesn't. So the company has to carry THAT stain around. When the accident at TTD happened, not many would associate that with knotts or over Georgia. I know it has a huge brand recognition, but if I were in a decision making position, i'd want to walk away from the name quickly.

What I find sad in all of this is we lost Cedar Fair as a company. Before purchasing SIX, they had a good reputation. Sure the purchase of the Paramount Parks in hindsight wasn’t the best decision for them at that time, yet they made it out in the late 2010’s looking good. Matt Ouimet as CEO got Cedar Fair back on its feet enough to the point Zimmerman could take over in 2018. Maybe that optimism the takeover team was feeling led to the SIX purchase. A lot influenced that choice. In the end Zimmerman is the one that made the handshake with Selim. I’m not going to bother having to explain what has happened since, the sentiment is very loud among the enthusiasts, general public, and stockholders.

I created this concept of how ArieForce One could fit into Area 72. Not exactly how feasible this would be, especially with the relocation of maintenance buildings. I think if this coaster does get relocated to Kings Island, I feel Area 72 would be the best fit thematically for this type of attraction. Action Zone would also work, but I think that area needs a new haunted theme to coincide with rides like Banshee and Bat. I don't think Arieforce One would fit with that if Six Flags plan on preserving the ride name.

Everything comes down to scale. My rough estimate is that Kings Island sells somewhere around 200,000–300,000 season passes. So even a 5% decline would mean roughly 10,000–15,000 people choosing not to renew. That's a lot of people, but in a publicly traded company, it's still a relatively small number compared with the interests of shareholders. I can understand why people aren't renewing, but unfortunately, consumer dissatisfaction alone probably isn't enough to force meaningful change. If shareholders really wanted to push for change, they would have to use their voting power—and the shareholders with enough ownership to really matter are the major ones. At around 1% ownership, you're talking about roughly 1 million shares. That's an enormous position for an individual investor. That's one of the fundamental problems with publicly traded companies: the interests of employees and consumers can sometimes take a back seat to the interests of shareholders. The larger companies become and the more they consolidate, the greater that tension becomes. That's where I think government has a legitimate role in preventing excessive consolidation and monopolistic behavior. I actually agree that a private owner could potentially be better for the park. The catch is that a private owner wouldn't have the same purchasing power as a company the size of Six Flags. Food, drinks, supplies, insurance, equipment, etc. could all cost more. Pass prices might have to increase to make up the difference. And eventually, that private owner could face the same temptation to sell to a larger company. So I'm not convinced that public ownership is inherently bad or that private ownership is inherently good. Both have their problems. For all the complaints, though, I'm still grateful that these parks exist. People travel thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to visit American theme parks. Getting into Kings Island for around $120 is still an incredible value. As for whether Six Flags makes it through all of this? I think they will. And if they do, it probably won't be because of our measly offerings to the gods of capitalism. It'll be because the major shareholders decided it was in their interest. Rich protects rich. It's the good ol' boys' system—and the number of good ol' boys keeps getting smaller. Eventually, the proletariat will overthrow the bourgeoisie. May we all be around to see it.