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Discounting The Experience, Discounting The Brand, Troublesome Trend


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The Orange County Register has an insightful article discussing the aggressive and unwise discounting Six Flags has undertaken. 

It is worth noting Cedar Fair had years of experience holding pricing power and raising revenues thru careful pricing strategies.  The current fire sale on season passes damages the product, experience, and future expansion and capital investment as well as sets a new low floor price and trains guests to expect extraordinary cheap admissions moving forward.

Additionally, Cedar Fair sets itself up for having to potentially take massive write downs on assets as they may not be able to generate expected economic returns.  An example of which we saw when Cedar Fair recorded the write down and impairment of the Schlitterbahn water parks in Texas. 

Following the $261 million acquisition, Cedar Fair folded the Schlitterbahn Resorts into its annual pass program.  This substantially reducing the average gate and admission revenues.  Resulting, it is believed, in the impairment of value.  Beware such discounting.

Six Flags is slashing season pass prices it is aggressively adding up-charges for park experiences such as Halloween attractions and haunts.  Freddy Krueger sinks yet another knife into the backs and purses of season pass holders. 

Frightening financial developments:

https://www.ocregister.com/2025/08/12/niles-is-six-flags-cutting-ticket-prices-by-too-much/

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This line feels particularly telling: 

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Even though the old Cedar Fair management is now calling the shots, the new Six Flags seems determined to repeat the old Six Flags’ mistake.

It seems that instead of either limiting the MVP Sale's duration or withholding its reach to about 2-5 parks instead of all 40+ for the price of one, enough of the higher-ups at Six Flags chose to implement a slightly easier solution that would only yield them immediate monetary gain. Where a stand-alone Cedar Point or Kings Island pass should have a total price of $150-$175 to keep up with each park, it is currently only a little over half of that value for access to all Six Flags parks. 

A pass that has a theoretical value of $2,160 (an average $50 ticket plus a $30 parking fee, then multiplied by 27 amusement parks) costs as low as $50-ish. With a renewed 2026 Kings Island Gold Pass only costing $99, that is over $2,000 valued product for only 5% the price. While being a great value, it is not at all sustainable in any way. Six Flags can try to help their margins by pricing a 2027 one-park Gold Pass to start at $120 to be closer to its real value, but guests will question the higher price when they feel they are getting much less than they may have in 2026. 

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