Bronze Tier Parks
Ultimately, Six Flags doesn’t have a whole lot to gain from unilaterally closing or selling off its parks. Especially given that smaller parks often go years or even decades without any sizable, expensive additions, it seems far more likely that Six Flags would simply continue to operate even small parks as opposed to letting a potential competitor get their hands on it. However, if a park consistently underperforms or serves as a “brand withdrawal” for the company, part of Six Flags’ evaluation would almost certainly see which of that park’s rides are salvageable for relocation, and if they might be better used at other parks in the chain… So here are a few parks we’d keep an eye on…
- SIX FLAGS AMERICA (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) – Not to be confused with Six Flags New England (which is also in New England) or Six Flags Great America, Six Flags America (so-named for its proximity to Washington, D.C.) is definitely a lower-tier Six Flags parks and has an unfortunate reputation for horrible operations and several high profile safety incidents among guests. Its two newest coasters opened in 2012 and 2014, and both are relocated rides from other parks. If you were the leader of the new Six Flags, you’d likely look at this park and see just one ride worth salvaging (Superman: Ride of Steel – a mirror-imaged sister of Darien Lake’s Ride of Steel), which is a sad state.
- SIX FLAGS ST. LOUIS (St. Louis, Missouri) – People often associate Six Flags with parks that are packed with record-breaking rides. But actually, the median Six Flags is probably a whole lot more like Six Flags St. Louis – a park with ten coasters, but… not really any stand-outs. Aside from a new kiddie coaster in 2023, the park’s most recent addition was a Vekoma Boomerang that’s actually a 1989 build relocated from Over Texas. You could maybe say that the American Thunder GCI woodie or the Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast launch coaster from 1998 are at least interesting, but this is clearly not a park at the top of Six Flags’ to-do list. Now that Six Flags controls both of the state’s major parks (this one and Worlds of Fun, just over three hours away), will they have a desire to invest in both? We’ll see…
- MICHIGAN’S ADVENTURE (Muskegon, Michigan) – Michigan’s Adventure was certainly the “red-headed stepchild” of the Cedar Fair chain, and now finds itself toward the low end of Six Flags’ even bigger portfolio. Really putting the “local” in “local’s park,” Michigan’s Adventure isn’t fed by the 630,000 population of Detroit, but by the 35,000 person town of Muskegon. Like many of the smaller, local parks in this tier, it’s really the attached waterpark that drives season pass sales and entices locals out throughout the summer season.
Aside from a new kiddie coasters in 2023, its last addition was 2008’s Thunderhawk – a low-rent Vekoma SLC relocated from Geauga Lake. Before that, it was a 1999 Mad Mouse, and 1998’s Shivering Timbers woodie – still probably the park’s signature ride. If ever Six Flags directs that they need to slim down their park count, Michigan’s Adventure would likely top the list of parks to go… But since it really offers no competition and has little worth relocating, we’d like to think the company would sell the park, not close it. After all, Michigan’s Adventure feels like the kind of park that the city or county could own and lease back to an operator.
- SIX FLAGS GREAT ESCAPE (Queensbury, New York) – Located in upstate New York, Great Escape has long held an unusual relationship with Six Flags. Opened as a “storybook forest” style park in 1954 (before Disneyland!), the park was one of many bought by Premier Parks in the ’90s – just before Premier itself bought Six Flags and retroactively added the Six Flags name to all of its parks… well, except Great Escape. Probably sensing that this small, woodsy, family park in remote forested New York was something different, the park was uniquely branded as “The Great Escape: A Six Flags Park” and largely left alone. In 2023, the park was officially redubbed “Six Flags Great Escape,” but even that left the “Six Flags” as a tiny modifier in the logo. More of a beloved family treasure than a thrill park, the Great Escape welcomed its sixth coaster in 2024: Bobcat. It’s a sweet enough park, but one that – like Michigan’s Adventure – Six Flags could easily sweep off of its plate by selling it to a family or municipality.
- CALIFORNIA’S GREAT AMERICA (San Jose, California) – If the image above looks familiar, it’s because the entrance to this park looks a whole lot like another – just with fountains and palm trees. Yep, the “other” Great America was split off from its Chicago sister in the ’80s, sending it on a very different trajectory. The result is that it features the same entry, park icon, and general layout as the Six Flags-branded park, but spent forty years as a sister to Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, and Canada’s Wonderland instead – including more than a decade as Paramount’s Great America. Located in Silicon Valley – one of the most expensive real estate markets on Earth – the park’s future has long been in flux as it shares a parking lot with the San Francisco Giants stadium (and thus, is closed on home game days) and even though Cedar Fair owned the park, they didn’t own the land.
That changed in 2019 when Cedar Fair bought the real estate, seemingly assuring the park would survive. But in 2022, they turned around the sold the land to a developer. Currently, the clock is ticking down on a six year lease that ends in 2028 (with one optional five year extension that could see the park survive as long as 2033). Unless a deus ex machina occurs, this park will close forever. That’ll leave its top rides – like the RailBlazer single-rail RMC, Flight Deck B&M invert, classic looping Demon (with a copy in Chicago) and Gold Striker GCI woodie – to be redistributed among the Six Flags chain… and for that, fans have some ideas for where they’ll go.
What do you think about Six Flags’ now-supercharged park portfolio? Will the company really continue to operate 27 amusement parks across the continent? What factors do you think they’re considering in their internal audit of the gargantuan collection of coasters they now hold? And with Cedar Fair’s leadership technically in charge of the new chain, what changes do you hope we’ll see across the Six Flags parks? Let us know in the comments below!