Six Flags Darien Lake Trims Operating Hours

[The Interpreter]

(Darien is one of the six parks that Six Flags is exploring strategic options for, including a possible sale):

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060805/1054675.asp

Six Flags Darien Lake trims operating hours

Theme park is closing an hour earlier five days a week

By MATT GLYNN

News Business Reporter

8/5/2006

The theme park now closes at 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays. The park remains open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Six Flags Darien Lake is closing an hour earlier five days a week, at a time when its owner is trying to improve the financial picture across the theme parks it runs.

The Genesee County theme park now closes at 9 p.m., instead of 10 p.m., Sundays through Thursdays. The reduced schedule began on Monday. The park remains open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

"We're still providing our guests over 10 hours of fun per day, and this has no effect on the times of day when the majority of guests are in our park or on the busiest days of the week," said Mary Christa Sellan, a spokeswoman for Six Flags Darien Lake, in a statement. "We are concentrating our resources toward the lion's share of the day when the family audience is most impacted."

Six Flags Darien Lake is also evaluating the timing of its annual "Fright Fest" event "due to past weather issues," she said.

The Halloween-themed event is usually held on weekends throughout October, after the park's regular season. Sellan said Six Flags Darien Lake will still hold Fright Fest this year, but she noted that the park is finalizing details.

Concerts at the adjacent performing arts center are not affected by the park's reduced hours, Sellan said.

The theme park, which employs 2,500 seasonal employees, is trimming hours while its owner, Six Flags Inc., attempts to reverse the company's fortunes. Six Flags Inc. this week reported a second-quarter net loss of $39.6 million, compared with a $11.1 million profit a year earlier.

The company said attendance across its parks in the three-month period was down 14 percent, due to a drop in season pass attendance and the closing of its New Orleans theme park. It did not provide park-specific attendance figures. Six Flags Inc. announced in June that Darien Lake was one of six theme parks the company was considering selling. Six Flags said it is thinking of selling parks that don't fit with the company's strategic vision and its family-oriented focus on its biggest parks with the highest growth potential. The Denver Post reported that a Six Flags park near Denver also is closing an hour earlier, and had canceled its parades, drum line and theater shows.