- August 30th, 2013, 7:32 am
#51937
I wouldn't call it insight as much as it's just talking with the park folks off and on during events about things... Which I guess you could call insight, lol.
Here is what I know, call it insight or not. Ever since Goliath was put in the attendance numbers have been on a steady decline. Not a huge drop, but a noticable one. They got a slight bump with Dare Devil Dive but not what they were hoping for and we all know that flat rides they added didn't do much of anything.
Due to the lawsuit the shareholders have against Six Flags, the park is REQUIRED to invest at least a certain amount of money every 5 years, more if the park chooses too. I want to say the amount is somewhere in the $25M range. The park has several options they can choose from including spending it all in one year and doing nothing for the next four years, spreading it out over five years with a little here and a little there, etc. It can be spent on anything to improve the park's value whether that be adding $5M worth of garbage cans for 5 years, major infastructure improvements, or $20M on a coaster one year and a few little things for the next four years. Which you will notice this pattern by looking at their investments:
2006 - Goliath ($20M) Starts the 5 year plan
2007 - Nothing
2008 - Thomas Town ($2.5M)
2009 - Monster Mansion ($3M)
2010 - Nothing (finishes the 5 year plan)
2011 - Dare Devil Dive ($9M) Starts the 5 year plan
2012 - Nothing
2013 - SkyScreamer (Unknown cost)
2014 - Hurricane Harbor (Unknown cost, but the size of it explains to me that they are running out of the remaining $25M for this 5 year plan)
2015 - Unknown, but prolly a flat ride and some water park stuff (finishes the 5 year plan)
2016 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff (starts the 5 year plan)
2017 - New coaster (big investment!)
2018 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff
2019 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff
2020 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff (finishes the 5 year plan)
Due to the popularity of Skull Island (which was built as a test for a full fledged water park back in 2005) the park decided to go ahead with the water park expansion as a way to increase attendance to what they are hoping will be the numbers of way back in the early 90's. So you see this waterpark isn't a new thought, but rather something that's been on again off again for at least 8 years. Plus, looking at their 5 year plans, this gives them an easy way to invest a few million dollars on a new slide every year (to keep their end of the lawsuit) and get a HUGE attendance boost with a little investment. This is why the waterpark is probably a better investment for the park than Goliath was in all honesty.
As far as White Water is concerned, the park intends to keep it and continue to invest in it as needed. They don't believe (and neither do I) that this will cannabalize their business over there because White Water is, for the most part, a local's only water park and Six Flags is where all the tourists go. Hurricane Harbor is being viewed as an enhancement to Six Flags that will please tourists who either don't want to or can't make the 13 mile trip through crappy traffic just to go to a water park.
They've fixed their properties now so that the tourists will make Six Flags a weekend destination without doing much driving. I mean, it worked for me. Since I live West of town I will now consider staying an extra day and going back to the park for the waterpark where as before I was always down on Saturday and left Sunday morning since I didn't want to drive to White Water. Hell, the first (and last time) I visited White Water was for Tornado media day.
Hope this back story helps explain the thought process behind some things the park does and why they can't and won't build a huge, new coaster every year.
Personally, now that Hurricane Harbor is opening, I would look for smaller investments in the park (until 2017) so that they can use the funds to build up Hurricane Harbor. Maybe the park will use a few million on new slides in Hurricane Harbor and a few million on a new flats package in the park which it desperately needs.
JamminJ wrote:Over Georgia has Six Flags White Water nearby (which is a full separate gate waterpark only 13 miles away) which is somewhat confusing to me for the push to a full waterpark inside SFoG. Seems like it would be cannibalizing itself. Maybe Jarsh has some insight?
I wouldn't call it insight as much as it's just talking with the park folks off and on during events about things... Which I guess you could call insight, lol.
Here is what I know, call it insight or not. Ever since Goliath was put in the attendance numbers have been on a steady decline. Not a huge drop, but a noticable one. They got a slight bump with Dare Devil Dive but not what they were hoping for and we all know that flat rides they added didn't do much of anything.
Due to the lawsuit the shareholders have against Six Flags, the park is REQUIRED to invest at least a certain amount of money every 5 years, more if the park chooses too. I want to say the amount is somewhere in the $25M range. The park has several options they can choose from including spending it all in one year and doing nothing for the next four years, spreading it out over five years with a little here and a little there, etc. It can be spent on anything to improve the park's value whether that be adding $5M worth of garbage cans for 5 years, major infastructure improvements, or $20M on a coaster one year and a few little things for the next four years. Which you will notice this pattern by looking at their investments:
2006 - Goliath ($20M) Starts the 5 year plan
2007 - Nothing
2008 - Thomas Town ($2.5M)
2009 - Monster Mansion ($3M)
2010 - Nothing (finishes the 5 year plan)
2011 - Dare Devil Dive ($9M) Starts the 5 year plan
2012 - Nothing
2013 - SkyScreamer (Unknown cost)
2014 - Hurricane Harbor (Unknown cost, but the size of it explains to me that they are running out of the remaining $25M for this 5 year plan)
2015 - Unknown, but prolly a flat ride and some water park stuff (finishes the 5 year plan)
2016 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff (starts the 5 year plan)
2017 - New coaster (big investment!)
2018 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff
2019 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff
2020 - Unknown, but prolly more waterpark stuff (finishes the 5 year plan)
Due to the popularity of Skull Island (which was built as a test for a full fledged water park back in 2005) the park decided to go ahead with the water park expansion as a way to increase attendance to what they are hoping will be the numbers of way back in the early 90's. So you see this waterpark isn't a new thought, but rather something that's been on again off again for at least 8 years. Plus, looking at their 5 year plans, this gives them an easy way to invest a few million dollars on a new slide every year (to keep their end of the lawsuit) and get a HUGE attendance boost with a little investment. This is why the waterpark is probably a better investment for the park than Goliath was in all honesty.
As far as White Water is concerned, the park intends to keep it and continue to invest in it as needed. They don't believe (and neither do I) that this will cannabalize their business over there because White Water is, for the most part, a local's only water park and Six Flags is where all the tourists go. Hurricane Harbor is being viewed as an enhancement to Six Flags that will please tourists who either don't want to or can't make the 13 mile trip through crappy traffic just to go to a water park.
They've fixed their properties now so that the tourists will make Six Flags a weekend destination without doing much driving. I mean, it worked for me. Since I live West of town I will now consider staying an extra day and going back to the park for the waterpark where as before I was always down on Saturday and left Sunday morning since I didn't want to drive to White Water. Hell, the first (and last time) I visited White Water was for Tornado media day.
Hope this back story helps explain the thought process behind some things the park does and why they can't and won't build a huge, new coaster every year.
Personally, now that Hurricane Harbor is opening, I would look for smaller investments in the park (until 2017) so that they can use the funds to build up Hurricane Harbor. Maybe the park will use a few million on new slides in Hurricane Harbor and a few million on a new flats package in the park which it desperately needs.
~jarsh
***Happiness is like peeing your pants. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.***
***Happiness is like peeing your pants. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.***
