SourcesFilm 09
Playtime’s Over
On YouTube as “How Six Flags Destroyed Itself”
Corrections and updates
None so far.
Cold Open
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Six Flags Over Georgia: What we know about Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem and the fatal roller coaster incident archived
Monday 12 October 2026; Cobb County Police say Kariem, 42, “had been ejected from the ride” on Goliath and was found “unresponsive and not breathing” at around 4 p.m.; a technology teacher and robotics coach at Wesley International Academy, an Atlanta public charter school, for more than 12 years
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Report remembering the teacher killed on Goliath: his family calls him “a father to a bonus daughter” archived
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Six Flags temporarily closes some roller coasters nationwide after man dies falling from ride in Georgia archived
“Nine roller coasters across six other Six Flags have been temporarily closed ‘out of an abundance of caution,’ a Six Flags spokesperson said Monday evening”
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Six Flags financial trouble started well before tragic death archived
Shares “sank sharply Tuesday to their lowest level since 2009”; more than 80% of the stock’s value gone since the merger
The empire, and what’s left
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2001 archived
“The 37 parks we now operate had attendance of approximately 46.6 million in 2001”; “We are the largest regional theme park operator in the world”; 28 domestic parks, one in Mexico, seven in Europe and one in Canada (Note 1(a))
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Opened at Six Flags Great Adventure on 21 May 2005, 456 feet and 128 mph in 3.5 seconds, the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world at the time (citing Six Flags’ 2004 announcement and 2005 press; the ride closed in November 2024)
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Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 28 June 2026
102,316,312 shares outstanding (cover, 31 Jul 2026); the seven parks sold to EPR Properties, the six U.S. parks on 6 April 2026 and La Ronde on 15 May 2026, for $331.4 million; our count of the 37 parks of 2001 that are still Six Flags parks (19) reads the 2001 list against this filing and the fiscal 2025 park table
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Second-quarter 2026 results (Ex. 99.1)
Total debt of $5.0 billion and cash of $135 million at 28 June 2026, net debt $4.9 billion
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FUN daily closing prices archived
$54.89 on 2 Jul 2024, the first close after the Cedar Fair merger; $8.55 on 15 Oct 2026. Our arithmetic: 102,316,312 shares × $8.55 = about $0.87 billion in market value; $54.89 to $8.55 = down about 84%
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 archived
The park tables (owned and leased parks at the end of 2025); Six Flags America “closed following the end of the 2025 operating season”
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Six Flags Announces Plan to Close Six Flags America and Hurricane Harbor After 2025 Season (Ex. 99.1) archived
“Six Flags America employs approximately 70 full-time associates”; “The park’s final operating day will be Sunday, November 2, 2025”
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When is California’s Great America closing? Six Flags confirms 2027 season archived
“Six Flags has confirmed that the park will operate in 2027, but the company has not announced whether it will continue operating beyond that season” (6 Sep 2026, updated 5 Oct 2026)
The suspects
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Second-quarter 2025 results (Ex. 99.1) archived
The first explanatory section is headed “Weather Impact”; 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance cut from $1.08–1.12 billion to $860–910 million
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City of Livonia Employees’ Retirement System v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp., No. 3:25-cv-02394 (N.D. Ohio), class-action complaint archived
Quotes Mizuho analyst Ben Chaiken’s note of 6 August 2025 that the weather explanation “doesn’t make any sense” (¶97); the complaint’s own claims are allegations
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 archived
The second-quarter decline “was impacted by inclement weather at Former Cedar Fair parks, particularly in the Midwest”; “The 5.7 million-visit increase in attendance included 7.8 million-visits at Former Six Flags parks during the six months ended June 29, 2025. The offsetting 2.1 million-visit decline in attendance was largely driven by” the second and fourth quarters (“on the same parks” is our reading)
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Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 27 September 2025: domestic parks attendance down 1% archived
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Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 27 June 2026: domestic parks attendance up 3% archived
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 archived
Theme Parks segment revenue $9,836 million against $8,617 million, up 14.2%, with Epic Universe opened in May 2025
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2022 archived
Attendance 27.7 million in 2021 and 20.4 million in 2022, down 26%; the decline blamed on “an increase in ticket prices, the elimination of free tickets and heavily-discounted pass products, and fewer operating days”
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FUN Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript archived
CEO Richard Zimmerman, opening the call: “our performance in 2025 has fallen short of our expectations”
The first two hands: debt, then the payout
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2009, reasons for the bankruptcy archived
The company “had amassed more than $2.5 billion of debt and preferred income equity redeemable shares (‘PIERS’) obligations by the end of 2005 in order to acquire theme parks and implement various capital expenditure programs”; Chapter 11 filed 13 June 2009
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Emerged from Chapter 11 on 30 April 2010; “all of SFI’s common stock ... were cancelled as of the Effective Date”
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2018, five-year table, 2014–2018 archived
Stock repurchases $195.4m, $245.1m, $211.8m, $499.4m and $111.0m, about $1.26 billion; cash dividends $184.3m, $201.0m, $220.3m, $227.1m and $267.0m, about $1.10 billion; net cash provided by operating activities over the same five years about $2.19 billion. Our arithmetic: about $2.36 billion paid to shareholders, about $175 million more than operations brought in. That the parks went without this money is the film’s suspicion, not a finding of the filing
The man with the plan
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Selim Bassoul named President and CEO; performance stock units “based on Adjusted EBITDA for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 calendar years ranging from $560,000,000 to $710,000,000”
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Report on Selim Bassoul’s new strategy for Six Flags archived
“An entry-level pass, which included parking, was offered as low as $50 in the past. A comparable pass now starts at $115”; “Attendance tumbled 22% in the quarter ending July 3, even as other theme-park operators enjoy a rebound in travel”
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Second-quarter 2022 results (Ex. 99.1): attendance 6.7 million against 8.5 million, down 22% archived
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2021: about 1,970 full-time employees at 2 January 2022 archived
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2023: about 1,350 full-time employees at 31 December 2023 archived
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Fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 results (Ex. 99.1): adjusted EBITDA $465 million for 2022 archived
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Fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 results (Ex. 99.1) archived
Adjusted EBITDA $462 million for 2023; both years below the bottom of his award range, which was set for 2022–2024
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Six Flags Entertainment (SIX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript archived
Bassoul, “we scaled back our season pass price increases” and “we course corrected in the fall”
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Joint merger announcement (Ex. 99.1) archived
“Approximately $200 Million of Annual Synergies, Including $120 Million of Cost Savings Anticipated Within Two Years”, plus $80 million of incremental EBITDA; “a path to reduce the leverage ratio to approximately 3.0x within two years”
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“a cash transaction bonus (the ‘Closing Bonus’) of $3,000,000 to Mr. Selim Bassoul” on completion of the merger
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“Because the performance threshold target was not achieved for 2023, no amounts were paid in respect of 2023 performance”; the target incentive of $2,325,000 was nonetheless paid before the end of 2023; the target payout of his award required adjusted EBITDA “the Company has never achieved”
The merger plan
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Third-quarter 2025 results (Ex. 99.1) archived
The second cut of 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance, to $780–805 million, after the first on 6 August; “a $1.5 billion non-cash impairment charge on goodwill and other intangibles”
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Fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results (Ex. 99.1) archived
Net loss attributable of $1.6 billion for 2025, “which reflects a $1.5 billion non-cash impairment charge”
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2025: interest expense, net, $360.0 million in 2025, against $234.8 million in 2024 archived
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Investor Day 2025 presentation (88 slides) archived
Slide 67, “Focused on Delivering $180M in Cost Savings”, with headcount and labor reductions of ~$75M and ~$30M, about $105 million by our sum; our search of all 88 slides finds neither “safety” nor “maintenance”
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Six Flags to cut 135 jobs at Knott’s, Magic Mountain and other California parks archived
The company “is in the process of reducing its full-time headcount across the company by just over 10%”; “Six Flags also eliminated all 27 theme park president positions nationwide”
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Six Flags flip-flops, will bring back park presidents archived
The company “will bring back the park president position at 10 of its remaining parks”
What they said in the room
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Cedar Fair (FUN) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript archived
CFO Brian Witherow, capital spending for 2025 “including some level of investment on deferred items at the legacy Six Flags parks”
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Six Flags Entertainment (FUN) Q1 2025 Earnings Results & Call Transcript archived
Deutsche Bank’s Chris Woronka on “the little things that had kind of gone undone over the years” at the legacy Six Flags parks; Zimmerman: “So the list is always long ... we’re going to continue to make improvements year by year”, with no date given
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FUN Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript archived
Witherow, “we deliberately increased operating expenses to reflect necessary maintenance investments to ensure ride-up times in these parks are up to our standards”; investments “to address deferred investment needs” at an underperforming park
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2025, the integration-cost footnote archived
“maintenance costs to update Former Six Flags parks to Cedar Fair standards”, inside $48.9 million of costs related to the mergers in 2025 (the same wording in the 10-Q of August 2026); Magic Mountain, Over Texas and Over Georgia in its park tables
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2023, Item 2 archived
Cedar Fair’s own parks (Cedar Point, Knott’s Berry Farm, Canada’s Wonderland, Kings Island, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, California’s Great America, Dorney Park, Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, Michigan’s Adventure and the Schlitterbahn parks), which do not include Magic Mountain, Over Texas or Over Georgia
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Superman: Escape from Krypton ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain closing for good archived
Park president Jeff Harris, “Some of the parts are obsolete. It’s really tough to even get parts to keep it alive”, as reported by the Orange County Register
Where it reaches the riders
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Six Flags rollercoaster lands two women in hospital with alarmingly similar brain injury archived
Pamela Guillen rode X2 in early July 2026 and Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, “six days later”; Six Flags closed the ride “the evening of July 12 ... nearly a full day after the latest injury”; her parents want to know “why X2 was allowed to remain operational”; Six Flags’ lawyers argue the forces “are not strong enough to create a traumatic brain injury for a ‘normal’ rider using it ‘as instructed’”; Christopher Hawley died after riding in June 2022; the park fought in court to keep “the first aid and medical incident reports under seal”
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Six Flags, family to settle X2 lawsuit
The joint statement of the case, “Magic Mountain alleges that Christopher Hawley had pre-existing brain conditions, and that his alleged injuries were not caused by negligence or by defects with the X2 ride”; notice of settlement filed 26 August
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Hearing on Six Flags medical records set for November archived
Six Flags’ June 2025 motion, “Public release of the first aid and medical incident reports will serve only to fuel sensational media coverage portraying the X2 ride as dangerous”
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Retiring X2, by park president Brian Oerding archived
“While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it’s the right thing to do”; the post does not mention the injuries
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§ 25-15-56 (statute text via PolicyRisk) archived
“All amusement rides shall be inspected annually, and may be inspected more frequently, by a licensed inspector at the owner’s or operator’s expense”
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§ 25-15-66 (statute text via PolicyRisk) archived
The Commissioner may levy civil penalties “in an amount not to exceed $5,000.00”
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Commissioner King Provides Update on Extensive Investigation into Six Flags Tragedy archived
“Goliath’s most recent OCI inspection occurred on March 16, 2026. No violations, deficiencies, citations, or red tags were reported during that inspection”; OCI “is conducting its own comprehensive investigation” while Cobb County Police lead the law-enforcement investigation
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Six Flags Over Georgia rides were inspected before season, commissioner says after fatal fall archived
The elected Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King faces Keisha Sean Waites in the 3 November election
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Hundreds of injuries reported at Six Flags theme parks in recent years archived
Safety records from more than a dozen parks in three states; Rosa Esparza died on the Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas on 19 July 2013
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Roller coaster rider’s death puts spotlight on the safety of ever more thrilling rides archived
“Texas, similarly, relies on inspections carried out by private inspectors hired by park operators or their insurance companies”
Who walked away, and what’s next
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Summary Compensation Table totals for Selim Bassoul of $5,400,309 (2023), $20,358,968 (2024) and $9,392,243 (2025, including a $7,750,000 cash severance payment); “terminated without cause ... effective as of December 31, 2025”; a Consultant Agreement for “advisory services in connection with the Company’s project at Qiddiya in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia through December 31, 2026”; Richard Zimmerman’s 2025 total of $17,931,119, including $8,250,000 of cash severance; “the median of the annual total compensation of all employees (except our CEO) was $9,455 for 2025”, with seasonal and part-time employees 86% of the workforce
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Bassoul’s 2022 total compensation of $1,923,775. Our sum of the four printed totals, 2022–2025: $37,075,295, severance included
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Worlds of Fun sold: What Kansas City’s iconic theme park sale means for you archived
EPR Properties’ Brian Moriarty, “There’s going to be opportunity for increased overall focus — everything from fundamental maintenance to areas of enhancement around rides and various attractions”
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Jana Partners presses Six Flags to explore potential sale archived
Jana is “urging the amusement park operator’s board to appoint an investment bank and investigate a potential sale of the business”, citing the Wall Street Journal
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Six Flags Magic Mountain Settles X2 Wrongful Death Lawsuit Before Trial archived
In the Hawley case, ride maker “S&S had asked the court to consider approval of its confidential settlement at an Oct. 22 hearing”
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Six Flags to announce 2026 third-quarter results on November 5, earnings call starts at 8 a.m. EST archived
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Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 archived
“the Company will acquire certain related entity general partnership and managing member interests in January 2027” for Six Flags Over Georgia
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Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 28 June 2026
The Georgia buyout valued, “if determined as of June 28, 2026”, at “$367.2 million”, still to be “further adjusted by CPI until the end of the agreement”
Interviews and clips quoted in the film
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Selim Bassoul, then CEO of Six Flags, in a fan-channel interview at Great Adventure archived
“I’m happy to say that the future looks very bright for us.” (uploaded 16 Oct 2023)
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Tony Dokoupil, anchor: “a deadly fall from a famous roller coaster.” archived
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The report on Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, relaying a relative archived
“he was a dedicated family man, ‘A good man,’ she says.”
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David Muir, anchor: “Tonight, nine other roller coasters have now been shut down.” archived
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Kyung Lah, correspondent archived
Court documents and safety records “from three different states reveal reports of maintenance issues, mechanical problems, and injuries.”
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“Like a lot of people, I thought the deal was gonna be terrific, but that turned out to be a spectacularly bad call.”
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Shannon Pettypiece, correspondent archived
“now going dark. Six Flags America, right outside DC, will close its gates November 2nd”
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TV advertisement (re-upload Cow Missing) archived
“There’s a time for work and there’s a time for play. Six Flags, it’s playtime.” (aired 2004)
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Tracy Humphrey, reporter, at Kingda Ka’s media day archived
“It’s called Kingda Ka, which stands for King of Coasters, and it goes from zero to 128 miles per hour in just 3.5 seconds.”
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Anchor, on Six Flags America’s last day archived
“It is the end of an era for Prince George’s County. Six Flags America has shut down their rides and closed their gates for the final time in Bowie.”
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A parkgoer on Six Flags America’s last night archived
“I’ve been bringing them here for 48 years ... to the great-grandchildren.”
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“Six Flags, known for its cheaper prices, now struggling with declining attendance, aging infrastructure, leadership changes, and sky-high debt. The stock, some might say, in free fall, down nearly 50% this year.”
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Richard Zimmerman, CEO archived
“I want to acknowledge at the outset that our performance in 2025 has fallen short of our expectations.”
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Haven Daly, Associated Press reporter archived
“Six Flags, the world’s largest regional theme park company, just filed for bankruptcy in an effort to shed $1.8 billion in debt.”
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David Katz, Jefferies analyst, just after the merger was announced archived
“a company that has really struggled to define their value proposition, to stabilize their operating model. Over the past five, six years they’ve been through three different management teams.” (November 2023, date approximate)
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“So we only got the discounter, or we became a daycare center for teenagers. It was a cheap daycare center for teenagers during breaks and the summers.”
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Selim Bassoul: “I’m migrating a little bit from what I call the Kmart, Walmart to maybe the Target customer” archived
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“the lost attendance is driven by our decision to basically change our customer base ... We have basically changed our strategy of creating a better guest experience by having fewer people in our parks.”
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“the lesson we’ve learned in 2022 is that we came in and we raised prices aggressively, and we took away perks ... we had to course-correct in September”
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Selim Bassoul, before the merger archived
"‘24 and ‘25 will have the highest spending in capital expenditure in the history of our company.” (uploaded 16 Oct 2023)
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“the current Six Flags now has a sky-high leverage ratio of 6.3. Anything above 3 is considered high.” (the ratio is his figure)
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“this reorg effort that we’re under right now, the goal being by the end of it reducing our full-time staff by 10% or more.”
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“Our philosophy is to invest it back in the business. We invest in the infrastructures and safety of our parks” (the only “safety” we found in the webcast’s auto-captions)
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Kyle Wedlock, union steward at Worlds of Fun archived
“starting pay of brand-new employees could actually drop from what it is now in this latest offer” (the union’s reading of the company’s offer)
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“For calendar year 2025, we expect cash spend on capital expenditures will total 475 to 500 million, including some level of investment on deferred items at the legacy Six Flags parks.”
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Chris Woronka, Deutsche Bank analyst archived
“the little things that had kind of gone undone over the years ... at the legacy Six Flags parks”
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“as a guy who ran a park, I will tell you, I walked the site that I was responsible for the first year, and 10 years later, I still hadn’t gotten to everything. So the list is always long.”
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Richard Zimmerman: “what do the guests give us credit for? Why do they come? Ridership. Are your rides open?” archived
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“we deliberately increased operating expenses to reflect necessary maintenance investments to ensure ride-up times in these parks are up to our standards.”
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Pamela Guillen, X2 rider archived
“It was seconds. You go in as yourself, and then when you come back, you’re a medical emergency.”
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Pamela Guillen: “I was still, I think, in a coma when they reopened the ride, and it happened to her.” archived
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A parent of Naomi Greer-Wilkinson: “When we got there, they told us to prepare for end of life.” archived
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Artemis Greer and Joshua Wilkinson, Naomi’s parents archived
“Why do they leave it open? Revenue. There’s no other explanation.”
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Anne Hawley, mother of Christopher Hawley archived
He “had no preexisting condition. That is something that Magic Mountain and their attorneys kept trying to promote”
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“we did reach out to Six Flags multiple times, and we got a very short answer saying that they simply will not comment about pending litigation.”
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An amusement-ride safety expert archived
“It’s a state by state. Most large park operators are responsible for their own safety and self-regulation.”
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John King, Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, at a debate the day before archived
“our very professional inspectors have inspected every one of those before the park season even started”
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Carmen Brown, eyewitness at Six Flags Over Texas archived
“she asked them to click her more than once, and the guy was like, ‘Oh, as long as you heard it click, you’re okay.’”
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A trial lawyer in amusement-ride cases, on inspections in Texas: “kinda like the fox guarding the henhouse.” archived
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Richard Pretlow II, president of Six Flags Over Georgia archived
“safety is always our number one priority. And you’ll see that we take safety very seriously here.”
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Joshua Nelson, brother-in-law of the man who died on Goliath archived
“this ride should be safe ... I do hope that this is an eye-opener”
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Richard Zimmerman, on his last call as CEO archived
“While we have not yet achieved all we set out to deliver following the merger, the underlying thesis has not changed.”
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“Jana Partners, which is a big activist investor firm, announced that it had partnered with Kelce and a couple of other individuals, taking a 9% stake in Six Flags.”