Kings Island names new Park Manager

[BoddaH1994]

Welcome VP of Ops/Park Manager Tony Carovillano!

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kings-island-shakeup-gm-retires-new-park-manager-employee-layoffs

[CoasterJack]

Blog Post from his Role at Valleyfair:

From 16 Year Old Ride Operator to GM: Meet Tony Carovillano

Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't he our assistant GM and current VP of Ops already? I know he was GM of Worlds of Fun for a bit as shown in the blog post.

[IndyGuy4KI]

Congratulations Tony!

Photo credit: https://www.worldsoffun.com/blog/2020/from-16-year-old-ride-operator-to-gm-tony-carovillano

[beastfan11]

Ah, train guy. Think we’re in good hands. Congrats! 

[CedarPointer]

He's a good guy. Glad to see this, although I'd rather see him be the General Manager, but y'know...

[Orion-XL200]

Worth noting that Mike didn’t retire. He was laid off. 

[jzarley]

“Retiring” and “leaving to pursue other opportunities” take on a different meaning when talking about corporate restructuring like this 

[super7]

The company railroaded all of their park VPs.  This is NOT a good sign of things to come.   These parks are going to the Six Flags level. 

[TheRickster]

7 hours ago, super7 said:

The company railroaded all of their park VPs.  This is NOT a good sign of things to come.   These parks are going to the Six Flags level. 

Same stuff happened when CF bought Paramount, then they had to go through years of trying to get back what those people brought to the table. Many of whom were around since early KI days. 

[Jamesv7]

I hope they don't cut the fireworks and live shows. 

[johnjniehaus]

Can someone explain to me exactly what has been restructured with the retirement of Koontz? What job positions have been eliminated/combined by having Tony as the new manager of the park? I'm assuming there has been some restructuring and that Koontz wasn't simply replaced. Any explanation is appreciated. I do like the idea of our new manager having ties to the park from back in his early career so hopefully we are in good hands 

[BoddaH1994]

1 hour ago, johnjniehaus said:

Can someone explain to me exactly what has been restructured with the retirement of Koontz? What job positions have been eliminated/combined by having Tony as the new manager of the park? I'm assuming there has been some restructuring and that Koontz wasn't simply replaced. Any explanation is appreciated. I do like the idea of our new manager having ties to the park from back in his early career so hopefully we are in good hands 

Jason McClure is the General Manager of about five parks. Tony will be park manager. Think of him as the manager on duty, while all decisions run through Jason. The park manager is well-below the rank and pay grade of what the General Manager/VP was. The park manager will be a point man, while still maintaining their duties - in this case, Tony will also be VP of Operations along with Park Manager. 

[disco2000]

7 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Jason McClure is the General Manager of about five parks. Tony will be park manager. Think of him as the manager on duty, while all decisions run through Jason. The park manager is well-below the rank and pay grade of what the General Manager/VP was. The park manager will be a point man, while still maintaining their duties - in this case, Tony will also be VP of Operations along with Park Manager. 

 

Commonly known as the yes-man 

[BeeastFarmer]

If I had any position in this company, I would be making a back up plan.

How stable are these park level social media positions?

How stable are the executive chef positions?  Logic would dictate very stable as food is seen as a key metric for future growth.  Will they say " hey Chef Major can handle everything east of the Mississippi River, and Chef X can handle anything west if it. 

On the park manager position...if that person knows the market very well, but the regional person doesn't, would they be  targeted for advocating  for their park vs a copy/ paste from another?

Have you noticed how much the stock price is down?  Are investors unhappy with the direction? I watched about half of the investment day video, and besides horrible audio, it looked like a dumpster fire to me.

[BeeastFarmer]

If I had any position in this company, I would be making a back up plan.

How stable are these park level social media positions?

How stable are the executive chef positions?  Logic would dictate very stable as food is seen as a key metric for future growth.  Will they say " hey Chef Major can handle everything east of the Mississippi River, and Chef X can handle anything west if it. 

On the park manager position...if that person knows the market very well, but the regional person doesn't, would they be  targeted for advocating  for their park vs a copy/ paste from another?

Have you noticed how much the stock price is down?  Are investors unhappy with the direction? I watched about half of the investment day video, and besides horrible audio, it looked like a dumpster fire to me.

[disco2000]

1 hour ago, BeeastFarmer said:

If I had any position in this company, I would be making a back up plan.

How stable are these park level social media positions?

How stable are the executive chef positions?  Logic would dictate very stable as food is seen as a key metric for future growth.  Will they say " hey Chef Major can handle everything east of the Mississippi River, and Chef X can handle anything west if it. 

On the park manager position...if that person knows the market very well, but the regional person doesn't, would they be  targeted for advocating  for their park vs a copy/ paste from another?

Have you noticed how much the stock price is down?  Are investors unhappy with the direction? I watched about half of the investment day video, and besides horrible audio, it looked like a dumpster fire to me.

All valid points.

My quick take:

They held a dog and pony Investor day to try to oversell their efforts and generate positive buzz and the investors saw right thru and asked the pointed questions.

They are falling well short of the pre-merger synergy savings they touted as a reason for the merger.

Eliminating a bunch of rides and counting the reduced O&M savings as a synergy of the merger was called out.

Once you take the shine off the sell, they only have about $60M on hand, upcoming $350M in notes due, and carrying almost $6B in debt.

They need money and they need it fast.  Stock price down over 30% this year.

With the dumpster fire of an Investor day, they feel a sense of urgency to act quick to try to gain investor confidence.

We are now seeing the knee-jerk reactions and direction changes based on whatever direction the wind is blowing the Six Flags over the HQ at Charlotte.

The media has latched on to the park head honcho terminations (or um retirements), but there are lots of other positions let go and at several levels below head honcho level that folks thought wouldn't get that deep.  That is their story to tell, so I won't share how deep, but expect to see more cuts....just because you never heard about it or didn't know them doesn't mean they didn't provide tremendous value in your day at the park.

Buy your silver pass....

 

  

 

[Coastercrush]

Jason McClure has no business being over several parks.  Got promoted from dorney to cp.  Ran cp into the ground while there and gets promoted again.  Zimmerman and company run a good ol boy network 

[IndyGuy4KI]

27 minutes ago, Coastercrush said:

Zimmerman and company run a good ol boy network 

It is starting to look that way for sure. As much as I want to see Six flags flourish and be successful, I think they are in way over their heads right now. You can't get rid of the most experienced and dedicated people and expect it to keep running good or better than it was before.

[super7]

12 hours ago, Jamesv7 said:

I hope they don't cut the fireworks and live shows. 

Tower Topics on YouTube has a video on this.   They talk about some of the things that. Koontz fought for to keep at the park or bring to the park. Without someone like him there look forward to things like the fireworks going away.    
 

Kings Island is one of the few parks and the chain that opens anr 10 an d stays open until 10 o’clock on weekdays.   So we will probably get reduced operating hours

[Tr0y]

On 5/30/2025 at 1:33 PM, BoddaH1994 said:

Welcome VP of Ops/Park Manager Tony Carovillano!

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kings-island-shakeup-gm-retires-new-park-manager-employee-layoffs

That explains why he was walking funny the other day: 

All kidding aside, congratulations Tony! 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

10 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

I think they are in way over their heads right now.

Very much agreed. Can anyone explain to me how the company could reasonably fix their situation without drastically reducing every single operation they run down to a skeleton crew? It feels like something went wrong when the finances started to be pulled into the same booklets, and now we're all seeing the fire it has caused. Is there an issue with the executives? Were the Legacy Six Flags parks in worse shape than originally thought? My doomer-ist tendencies are coming up with a ton of theories so I would like some reasoning if anyone can provide.

Personally, I think I could hold out for a couple more years of no major $30m additions across the board if it means the chain gets to right itself. I don't know what I would do after that. 

[brenthodge]

5 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

Very much agreed. Can anyone explain to me how the company could reasonably fix their situation without drastically reducing every single operation they run down to a skeleton crew? It feels like something went wrong when the finances started to be pulled into the same booklets, and now we're all seeing the fire it has caused. Is there an issue with the executives? Were the Legacy Six Flags parks in worse shape than originally thought? My doomer-ist tendencies are coming up with a ton of theories so I would like some reasoning if anyone can provide.

Personally, I think I could hold out for a couple more years of no major $30m additions across the board if it means the chain gets to right itself. I don't know what I would do after that. 

I think they should be MARKETING THE HELL out of some real, meaningful events with quality entertainment and real food offerings. They’ve got to drive attendance and in-park spending with the existing resources they have. This “cut to the bone” mentality isn’t going to work. Just seeing the lame 50th offerings at KD is an example. I’m seriously considering cutting the trip because it seems so lackluster. 

[BeeastFarmer]

2 hours ago, brenthodge said:

I think they should be MARKETING THE HELL out of some real, meaningful events with quality entertainment and real food offerings. They’ve got to drive attendance and in-park spending with the existing resources they have. This “cut to the bone” mentality isn’t going to work. Just seeing the lame 50th offerings at KD is an example. I’m seriously considering cutting the trip because it seems so lackluster. 

They are counting on KI to produce attendance and revenue with minimal spend.  Currently, people will buy and renew without regard to the experience.  When the numbers fall, they will invest.  Or we will be in the hands of a private equity firm ...or in my dreams, HFE.  

[rlentless]

I know this is hindsight buy why merge with Six Flags to begin with . . CF should have just let them go bankrupt and then buy whichever parks they could get for pennies on the dollar.

[Orion-XL200]

6 hours ago, brenthodge said:

I think they should be MARKETING THE HELL out of some real, meaningful events with quality entertainment and real food offerings. They’ve got to drive attendance and in-park spending with the existing resources they have. This “cut to the bone” mentality isn’t going to work. Just seeing the lame 50th offerings at KD is an example. I’m seriously considering cutting the trip because it seems so lackluster. 

On top of that, make the merch affordable to increase in park spending. Why would I spend almost $50 on a shirt. But if I could buy 2 for that price, I’d be more likely to buy (not really some people would). 

[brenthodge]

5 minutes ago, Orion-XL200 said:

On top of that, make the merch affordable to increase in park spending. Why would I spend almost $50 on a shirt. But if I could buy 2 for that price, I’d be more likely to buy (not really some people would). 

Agree to that as well. If they are giving away the gate to cheap pass holders, might as well move through the merch as well. They need $$$. 

[brenthodge]

4 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

They are counting on KI to produce attendance and revenue with minimal spend.  Currently, people will buy and renew without regard to the experience.  When the numbers fall, they will invest.  Or we will be in the hands of a private equity firm ...or in my dreams, HFE.  

I don’t think HFE would be interested for a while at least. They bitten off a big bite this week and I don’t want them to loose sight of what got them where they they are. Thankfully Dolly still owns half of her park and if they ever got in over their heads and the product suffers, I could seriously see her buying their half out and hiring most of the team to keep running DW. 

 

3 hours ago, rlentless said:

I know this is hindsight buy why merge with Six Flags to begin with . . CF should have just let them go bankrupt and then buy whichever parks they could get for pennies on the dollar.

Because FUN wasn’t in much better shape fiscally. The hope is that combined revenue and reduced spend through eliminating redundancy (and piling more on fewer people) they could EEEK out enough additional revenue, eliminate competition and cover most all markets with the new portfolio. I feel like SIX financials were worse than expected and they are having to react quickly to satisfy shareholders who were overpromised results. 

[BeeastFarmer]

1 hour ago, brenthodge said:

I don’t think HFE would be interested for a while at least. They bitten off a big bite this week and I don’t want them to loose sight of what got them where they they are. Thankfully Dolly still owns half of her park and if they ever got in over their heads and the product suffers, I could seriously see her buying their half out and hiring most of the team to keep running DW. 

 

Because FUN wasn’t in much better shape fiscally. The hope is that combined revenue and reduced spend through eliminating redundancy (and piling more on fewer people) they could EEEK out enough additional revenue, eliminate competition and cover most all markets with the new portfolio. I feel like SIX financials were worse than expected and they are having to react quickly to satisfy shareholders who were overpromised results. 

Exactly!  But I think investors are seeing a sinking ship.  Stock price is in the tank and the dumpster fire of an investors meeting at CP probably did more harm than good. 

Regarding HFE, I just mentioned them as a dream. They are in no position in the foreseeable future as they just took out a little over a billion dollar loan and will have spend to bring parks up to their standards. But I think, wisely, they will carefully get to know the markets before steamrolling ahead.  

[BeeastFarmer]

1 hour ago, Orion-XL200 said:

On top of that, make the merch affordable to increase in park spending. Why would I spend almost $50 on a shirt. But if I could buy 2 for that price, I’d be more likely to buy (not really some people would). 

 

I would feel better about spending that $50 if the shirts weren't mass produced in overcrowded factories paying very small wages.  But, that is a much bigger problem than KI.  Hypocritically, i am typing this on a phone where many components were made in such a fashion...and I fall victim to the trap of thinking I need to upgrade every year or two which perpetuates the problem .

[MysticTimberwolf]

We really need to quit all the cynicism and start appreciating that Six Flags has finally revealed the true purpose of a theme park: quarterly returns.

Sure, a ride might be closed four days a week in peak season, but have you seen the electric bill? And don’t even get me started on paying employees. Why bother hiring ride ops when you can run one side of Racer and rebrand the 95-minute wait as “demand.”?

Who needs in-park marketing when you can schedule 47 identical “Join us for thrills!” posts with a stock photos of coasters at other parks?

Kings Island has evolved from a beloved regional park into a case study in corporate austerity cosplay. Every corner of the park is now a reminder that enjoyment is a variable cost, and your nostalgia a line item to be optimized.

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Edit: Just got an email. They're replacing Haunt with a corporate seminar called "Spreadsheets of Terror." Attendance is mandatory for Gold Pass holders. BYO calculator.