Which Six Flags parks are up for sale?

[Orion-XL200]

While we don't have the answer as of this moment, we can start taking a comprehensive look at the portfolio and draw conclusions on what parks may be sold.

 

Check out this great article looking at the possibilities: 

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2025/03/04/which-six-flags-parks-are-up-for-sale

What are your thoughts?

[jzarley]

I think another interesting question might be who the potential buyers would be. SeaWorld (aka United Parks) made a play for Cedar Fair ahead of the SF merger, so that’s a possibility for some of the parks if any come on the market that would be complimentary. At their latest earnings call they noted that they were once again putting the resorts development activity on hold again (I’m convinced they’re never actually going to build a hotel at this point) so maybe that pause is to free up some capital. Although, it’s been rumored since late last year that Parques Reunidos was putting Palace Entertainment on the market and I thought that would be more of a big bang of an acquisition for them.

A few years ago I would have thought Merlin would be a definite possibility and maybe still are, but they’ve been doing a lot of cost cutting and RIFs lately. Still cutting costs in one area doesn’t mean you aren’t going to spend for an acquisition. They just hired a new CEO (internal promotion who previously ran the international Midway attractions business) so that’s may be a way for her to make an immediate impact.

[SmartCat7162]

I feel like they may divest from some of the parks and quiet literally strip it down to bear bones (relocating rides, moving out excess inventory, selling park vehicles) and sell the land. However for parks in the middle of nowhere I think it is more likely the whole park is sold because the land won't be that valuable. If a park is not profitable I do not see why anyone would want to purchase it unless they think it is possible to turn it around. However, I don't think any company has the free capital right now to make that major investment and make a park profitable while at the same time building new rides.

[DiamondbackFan]

Here is a breakdown of the owned and leased parks from the new annual report.  Six Flags plans to purchase the remaining shares of the Georgia and Texas partnership parks in 2027 and 2028.

[SonofBaconator]

I see parks in this merged chain as territories- if one wants to see which parks are gone, they should look at what territories they can afford to lose to a competitor like Sea World, Herschend, Merlin, etc. You also have to look at saturation- for example the east coast is saturated with Six Flags parks now so it might not be a complete loss to sell off one in a market they’re already dominating.

After reading the article, here are my picks off the top of my head:

SFA- neighboring KD, GA, and DP this park sits in a saturated region and doesn’t have a lot of modern attractions to keep people coming in like the neighboring parks do.

Valleyfair!- it’s not in a really competitive market for Six Flags to really want to hold onto. Plus considering that it’s no longer Cedar Fair, I don’t feel like there’s much of a need to keep a former namesake park.

La Ronde- On one hand it would be losing a Canadian park but on the other hand I feel like priorities would be shifted to Canada’s Wonderland. Plus from what I heard, the park isn’t of much quality to keep investing in if money could be allocated into more profitable properties.

I’m sure there are others on there but those 3 came to mind first

[SmartCat7162]

 Do people think they will sell some of the land that is undeveloped at the park?

[PKIDelirium]

At KI? There's not any undeveloped land that's either accessible or suitable for other uses.

[SmartCat7162]

The top right of this picture could probably be sold and then also some of the forest as well. Picture from the giga speculation thread I don't know to to quote from one thread to another.

[Diamondback_Is_King]

34 minutes ago, SmartCat7162 said:

The top right of this picture could probably be sold and then also some of the forest as well. Picture from the giga speculation thread I don't know to to quote from one thread to another.

What's that little square there in the middle? Does KI not own that little space?

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

59 minutes ago, SmartCat7162 said:

The top right of this picture could probably be sold and then also some of the forest as well. Picture from the giga speculation thread I don't know to to quote from one thread to another.

Some of that land in the top right was actually recently sold to the Kings Local School District. It is intended to be used for a new athletics complex for the new Kings High School that will soon be built on the current softball/baseball fields. 

https://kingsfacilities.org/portfolio-item/kings-hs-2/

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

On 3/6/2025 at 5:31 PM, Diamondback_Is_King said:

What's that little square there in the middle? Does KI not own that little space?

I think that little square is just listed as a separate parcel/plat (a piece of developable land)/area. The park does/did also own the land where the employee dorms sit, the areas of Soak City not in the outline, and the land between Western Row and Kings Island Drive. You can see the little box in the top left that encompasses the Dog Street Cemetery which is owned by a local historical society. 

These property line maps are consistently full of weird little odds and ends like that. Every municipality is different with how they divide their land, and nearly 55 years of development makes all the lines super wonky. I'm sure Carowinds has to deal with a lot worse by existing in two states simultaneously.

[DiamondbackFan]

Some new trademark applications by Enchanted Parks. (see attached image)

 

EDIT:  Found a trademark for Enchanted Parks Great Escape Lodge.

This appears to be a park sale to Innovative Attraction Management and they are rebranding these parks and the parks in Old Forge, NY that they purchased in 2024 to the Enchanted Parks brand.  

[WoodVengeance]

The properties listed in the trademarks are as follows:

• Enchanted Parks St. Louis (Six Flags St. Louis)
• Enchanted Parks Michigan Adventure (Michigan's Adventure)
• Enchanted Parks Water Safari (Enchanted Forest Water Safari) *Already owned by IAM
• Enchanted Parks Oceans of Fun (Oceans of Fun)
• Enchanted Parks Galveston (Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston)
• Enchanted Parks Water's Edge Inn (Water's Edge Inn) *Already owned by IAM
• Enchanted Parks Great Escape Lodge (Six Flags Great Escape Lodge)
• Enchanted Parks Camping Resort (Old Forge Camping Resort) *Already owned by IAM

Interesting that it lists Oceans of Fun and the Great Escape Lodge without Worlds of Fun and Great Escape, so I imagine those trademarks haven't been finalized yet.

[TombRaiderFTW]

As far as a potential sale goes: Interesting, and not unexpected. If true (and if WoF and Great Escape are being sold with their respective water parks), I didn't expect Six Flags to pull out of Missouri entirely. Then again, none of the major Missouri parks except maybe Silver Dollar City have been meaningfully growing over the last 20 years, so I do kinda get it. One could extrapolate from the lower-cost investments at SFSL and WoF over the years that there isn't a strong ROI there, for any number of reasons.

As far as that name goes: Oof. "Enchanted Parks" is the least compelling name I've ever heard, lol. United Parks used to take the cake, but it at least falls in that realm of Tacky Corporate Names where you could conceivably imagine, if incorrectly, "Yeah, okay, maybe the first owner decades ago wasn't super imaginative and they've just stuck with the name." "Enchanted Parks St. Louis" sounds like the first-draft name of a long-closed amusement park from a Scooby-Doo episode where the gang gets chased out by Old Man Peabody in a ghost costume.

It should be noted, IAM seems to make their money by "flipping" parks that aren't doing great, then selling them. They seem to have largely owned small water parks and FECs. WoF, SFSL, MA, and Great Escape would likely be some of the largest properties they've ever owned. I'd be extremely curious to see what about them gets "flipped" if the plan is to resell them. One could assume that Herschend has already had their opportunity to make an offer on any properties they want, so the questions that immediately come to mind are:

1. Who would be the remaining prospective buyers once these parks are flipped?

2. What kind of operating budget would prospective buyers be able to commit to these parks? (I assume it would be less than what is currently needed, or else those buyers would presumably have already offered to purchase them directly from Six Flags.)

3. What additions/removals will be needed to make those parks and their operating budgets more appealing for prospective buyers?

Not to beat a dead horse, but as someone who thinks that Michigan's Adventure overexpanded years ago and that's why it doesn't get significant additions, I will be extremely curious to see if some rides disappear there or have further measures taken to reduce operating costs. RMC is comparatively cheap and they've already started replacing track on Shivering Timbers, so I look for the rest of the ride to get I-Box track but keep the same profile. Presumably something similar will happen with Wolverine Wildcat. I wonder what the future holds for Corkscrew, Thunderhawk, or Mad Mouse.

Camille Jourden-Mark, whose father bought MA in the 1960's and who had been VP and GM of MA from 1988 till 2024's Six Flags corporate restructuring, has been replaced by Carson Weingart, who had previously been director of food and beverage at Cedar Point. Camille has been quoted as saying that Dick Kinzel told her after the purchase to "run the park as her own," so one could assume that the corporate team has largely been hands-off with MA for a significant amount of time. That being said, the Jourden family is, as I understand it, no longer involved in major decisions at MA for the first time in decades, so I wonder what happens now that people with presumably less of an emotional attachment to the park are calling the shots, especially if those people are incentivized to make the park seem more appealing to a new buyer.

[Rivertown Rider]

It does make me wonder if they are just selling off the water parks instead of the dry parks in the case of Six Flags St. Louis and Worlds of Fun.  Oceans of Fun has its own separate dedicated parking lot and you could pretty easily close off the path to Oceans from inside WOF. 

Hurricane Harbor in the case of St. Louis also has a separate entrance and you could probably reroute the parking lot to give them their own dedicated parking lot.

As mentioned by @TombRaiderFTWthis operator looks to have mostly done water parks and FECs.  I think a Michigan's Adventure or even a Great Escape which are smaller parks could feasibly be run by IAM as Michigan's Adventure.  It is also possible that in the case of Great Escape it really is just the Lodge which has water rides and not the park itself.

If that is the case I can't see them making a ton of money off this sale but it will help them pay down some debt at least.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

If I recall correctly the name comes from Enchanted Forest Water Safari. The park names themselves may be something else (these trademarks feel like a way to get their foot in the door) and could each end up being a secondary name (aside from St. Louis). I would imagine any new names might follow the existing scheme and come out to Enchanted Michigan's Adventure and Enchanted Worlds of Fun (assuming they also purchase WoF). It is interesting that these trademark applications were filed for the IC 025 class for clothing and merchandise instead of the IC 041 class for Amusement Park Services like park names are. This could be to get a little bit of a head start on making merch. I think the IC 041 trademark application will come closer to when any actual sale is announced.

There's been a little speculation online about this potentially being an owner-manager situation where Enchanted Parks simply takes over the management of these parks — especially since most of them are water parks — however I don't see that happening.

5 hours ago, TombRaiderFTW said:

1. Who would be the remaining prospective buyers once these parks are flipped?

2. What kind of operating budget would prospective buyers be able to commit to these parks? (I assume it would be less than what is currently needed, or else those buyers would presumably have already offered to purchase them directly from Six Flags.)

3. What additions/removals will be needed to make those parks and their operating budgets more appealing for prospective buyers?

1. I think it's possible that these parks could be spun off into their own company if they get flipped. There could be enough traction for them to operated independently.
2. The operating budgets of larger prospective buyers would be about where they are now under Six Flags IMO. Most of the larger operators (Herschend, Merlin Entertainment, Six Flags, and United Parks) either just bought up a bunch of properties or are not doing too well financially. This is another reason why I feel like they could be spun off into their own company.
3. This one is hard for me to find a good answer for. These parks are good enough as small to mid-size regional parks and any downsizing could work against them. 

2 hours ago, Rivertown Rider said:

As mentioned by @TombRaiderFTWthis operator looks to have mostly done water parks and FECs.  I think a Michigan's Adventure or even a Great Escape which are smaller parks could feasibly be run by IAM as Michigan's Adventure.  It is also possible that in the case of Great Escape it really is just the Lodge which has water rides and not the park itself.

If that is the case I can't see them making a ton of money off this sale but it will help them pay down some debt at least.

I don't think it would be a good idea to make the water parks be owned independently from the dry parks in these particular situations, but it's clear that this area of guest experience is not particularly Six Flags' forte.