Herschend To Acquire Palace Entertainment

[Orion-XL200]

https://www.hfecorp.com/whats-new/herschend-to-acquire-palace-entertainments-us-attractions-from-parques-reunidos/

[BeeastFarmer]

Wow that's some news.  Hopefully it's not biting off more than they can chew. 

[ReedObsessor]

Kennywood and Dollywood under the same ownership... something about that feels a bit odd to me.

Kenny Rogers often did duets with Dolly Parton, and people often mistakenly associate Kennywood with him.

Kennywood (and their Jack Rabbit coaster) have been around well before Kenny Rogers was even born.

Also, I dug up an article about Kenny Rogers suiting up with the Steelers in 1980 for the "Kenny Rogers' America" special on CBS.  So putting something Kenny Rogers related in Kennywood isn't completely out of the question (though it would add to the confusion).

[Orion-XL200]

Couldn't be worse than Palace for those newly acquired parks, lol.

[Oldiesmann]

I think this will be a good move. Several Kennywood locals who I'm friends with on FB are happy about this.

[jzarley]

This is a good thing for those parks—Herschend is a quality operator (their quality and approach reminds me of the old Busch Entertainment Corp back in the day )

I thought maybe SeaWorld (aka United Parks) would pick up those parks considering John Reilly is at Parques Reunidos and his history with SeaWorld. (Although, that history may have made it *less* likely that he wanted to strike a deal with them )

[Orion-XL200]

The only thing I'm worried about is the loss of operational things that give parks like Kennywood their flavor (no airgates, rerides, etc.)

[brenthodge]

On 3/18/2025 at 7:00 PM, BeeastFarmer said:

Wow that's some news.  Hopefully it's not biting off more than they can chew. 

thats my concern a little bit, but TODAYS Herschend is way different than the HFE of only 10 years ago. 

[BeeastFarmer]

3 hours ago, brenthodge said:

thats my concern a little bit, but TODAYS Herschend is way different than the HFE of only 10 years ago. 

Can you expound on this a bit?  

HFE would be the perfect operator of the aquarium, water park etc. But I don't know about the roller rinks or whatever else it is that palace owns.

[jzarley]

^ yeah, I was wondering about the non-park holdings as well. I wonder if Herschend will hold on to the park side of the business but sell-off the FECs and other non-park assets?

[brenthodge]

2 hours ago, jzarley said:

^ yeah, I was wondering about the non-park holdings as well. I wonder if Herschend will hold on to the park side of the business but sell-off the FECs and other non-park assets?

I could see that to service some of the debt that I’m sure they are taking on. 

[SmartCat7162]

4 hours ago, jzarley said:

^ yeah, I was wondering about the non-park holdings as well. I wonder if Herschend will hold on to the park side of the business but sell-off the FECs and other non-park assets?

What is an FEC never heard that term before.

[Rivertown Rider]

^ A Family Entertainment Center.  Scene 75 and Malibu Jack's are some local examples.

[jzarley]

^^ yeah, sorry—I shouldn’t have used an acronym without defining it

[WoodVengeance]

I'm guessing this means we'll get more park ticket discounts in 2026? For when I go back to Kennywood at some point in the future, it'd be nice to get a park discount for having a Kentucky Kingdom season pass.

[disco2000]

Pulling a play out of the Six Flags playbook

https://local12.com/news/entertainment/theme-parks-shut-down-purchased-buyout-amusement-park-beloved-decades-20-years-operating-mini-miniature-golf-family-children-kids-kid-child-dollywood-dolly-parton-entertainment#

[SmartCat7162]

On 10/4/2025 at 8:23 PM, disco2000 said:

Pulling a play out of the Six Flags playbook

https://local12.com/news/entertainment/theme-parks-shut-down-purchased-buyout-amusement-park-beloved-decades-20-years-operating-mini-miniature-golf-family-children-kids-kid-child-dollywood-dolly-parton-entertainment#

This may go even lower than a Six Flags play. These are two parks that were shut down without a goodbye not just rides. For me it is way worse to shut down a park without final goodbyes then rides. This is actually crazy to me and I feel for the people who just got places that they loved shut down without any prior notice. If Six Flags did this I think people would go berserk.

I get that they may be smaller parks without rides or anything and just like an arcade and some mini golf, but someone grew up there and loved to go there so it stinks to see.

[johnjniehaus]

1 hour ago, SmartCat7162 said:

This may go even lower than a Six Flags play. These are two parks that were shut down without a goodbye not just rides. For me it is way worse to shut down a park without final goodbyes then rides. This is actually crazy to me and I feel for the people who just got places that they loved shut down without any prior notice. If Six Flags did this I think people would go berserk.

I get that they may be smaller parks without rides or anything and just like an arcade and some mini golf, but someone grew up there and loved to go there so it stinks to see.

So maybe we actually don't want hershlend purchasing additional parks? Just think it's ironic that the company everyone praised to the sky is doing the same thing six flags is. What it comes down to is that any of these big corporation chains are not afraid to close parks they don't feel represents their goals. It always comes down to money. I'm not saying that independent ownership is always 100% fail proof as we've seen plenty of small independent parks close over the years but at least most family owners do care about their parks and fight for them till the very end. I love Herschend and think they have done a lot of good for some of their parks but it always makes me worried when we start to see closures like this. Maybe it is also a testament to the economy and that some people just don't go to smaller parks anymore 

[TombRaiderFTW]

It's almost like, and hear me out, casting some chains as "the impossibly good ones" and others as "the irredeemably foolish ones" was never the appropriate lens for enthusiasts to view the industry through. Not least because the largest "irredeemably foolish one" is, at the moment, operated by a large majority of people from a former "impossibly good one." Theme park chains don't operate how y'all play RollerCoaster Tycoon.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled "[park with slow ROIs] deserves a new coaster."

[DiamondbackFan]

On 10/4/2025 at 7:23 PM, disco2000 said:

Pulling a play out of the Six Flags playbook

https://local12.com/news/entertainment/theme-parks-shut-down-purchased-buyout-amusement-park-beloved-decades-20-years-operating-mini-miniature-golf-family-children-kids-kid-child-dollywood-dolly-parton-entertainment#

They probably couldn't find a buyer for these parks that wanted to operate them and will sell them for the land value.  Herschend had to buy all of the Palace parks as a package,  now they are unloading the parks they don't want.

The Boomers parks in California, Castle Park, Raging Waters Los Angeles, and Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe were sold to Lucky Strike Entertainment.

 The Cartoon Network Hotel is dropping the license and being remodeled and rebranded to Dutch Wonderland Inn.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

7 hours ago, TombRaiderFTW said:

It's almost like, and hear me out, casting some chains as "the impossibly good ones" and others as "the irredeemably foolish ones" was never the appropriate lens for enthusiasts to view the industry through. Not least because the largest "irredeemably foolish one" is, at the moment, operated by a large majority of people from a former "impossibly good one." Theme park chains don't operate how y'all play RollerCoaster Tycoon.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled "[park with slow ROIs] deserves a new coaster."

The irredeemably foolish ones and the impossibly good ones are all mixing and matching and redistributing right now, and it's not turning out very well. Here's to hoping that somehow we'll see a new big player come on the scene sooner rather than later.

(I'm firmly in the camp that Kings Island needs a new thrill coaster soon before it falls out of favor  )

[johnjniehaus]

Such it goes with mergers and combinations of chains. The lack of competition usually results in parks closing because the same management company has other properties in the area or just doesn't want to invest in an older run down property to get it up to par. I'm not blaming Herschend or Six Flags for making decisions I'm just saying that there is no "good chain bad chain" anymore. Everyone is guilty of poorly managing or closing properties at some point. As much as we all loved legacy Cedar Fair, we shouldn't forget that they closed geauga lake and basically sealed the deal for CGA. Six Flags has a bad track record of closing or mis managing parks but they aren't the only ones guilty of some of this stuff. Kings Island is thankfully never going anywhere but anyone who has a small to mid size park as their home park please enjoy it while it lasts. The current climate isn't great for some of those parks either because of cooperate decisions from the big chains or sometimes family owned parks close too for other factors - look at ZDTs

[SmartCat7162]

1 hour ago, johnjniehaus said:

The current climate isn't great for some of those parks either because of cooperate decisions from the big chains or sometimes family owned parks close too for other factors - look at ZDTs

I thought ZDT's closed because they could not find a buyer and the owners were looking to retire. If this was not the case please let me know. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

3 hours ago, johnjniehaus said:

there is no "good chain bad chain" anymore

I will say this: HFE abruptly closing these entertainment centers is absolutely awful, but they are still one of the best non-Disney/non-Universal chains overall. There are other reasons why I think they're "bad", but right now if the options for Kings Island were Six Flags or Herschend, I might still choose Herschend. If Six Flags can get their stuff together then I might feel better about KI remaining a Six Flags park.

There is also something to be said about the rising price of family entertainment options across the US. Cedar Fair and Six Flags were pretty firm on keeping their prices down, and now those low prices are hurting the parks and their image. Unfortunately, I think there will soon come a time where families who normally get season passes will have to start buying tickets instead. The landscape is definitely changing.

[johnjniehaus]

4 hours ago, SmartCat7162 said:

I thought ZDT's closed because they could not find a buyer and the owners were looking to retire. If this was not the case please let me know. 

You are correct sorry if I worded that poorly - I meant that family owned parks close for reasons other than corporate greed or profit driven decisions. ZDTs wasn't a victim of a large cooperation it was simply another factor such as the family wanting to retire and not finding a buyer. Some family parks can't survive hard financial times or other things happen like big competition moves in etc. My comment was only to encourage folks to value and visit their mid size and family owned parks because they might not be there 10-25 years down the road