Aug. 9, 2026

Six Flags Q2: Parks Made Money, the Reported Loss Doubled

Six Flags Q2: Parks Made Money, the Reported Loss Doubled
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Six Flags’ new leadership is successfully reorienting the company toward repeat visitation, yet this quarter its debt cost more than its parks earned.

The strategy of getting more passholders to attend more often and spend more, thereby increasing lifetime spend, is working. Revenue and attendance were up, adjusted for the divested parks, and the upcoming Halloween season, with 448 Halloween-themed experiences from coast to coast, should supercharge that strategy. Yet, while the parks made money, the company still posted a loss due to its debt.

Running the parks produced $88.6 million of operating income, up from $74.5 million a year ago. Interest on the company's debt cost $102 million, and the quarter landed at a $20.1 million loss before taxes. The $203 million headline loss is mostly a $157.4 million tax charge, an accounting catch-up tied to the park sales, not a bill: Six Flags paid $4.5 million in cash taxes in the entire first half. Same-park revenue, attendance, and EBITDA all grew, pass sales are up 7%, and the stock still fell 16%.

Meanwhile, Six Flags Great America announced Camp Timber Trail, a nine-attraction family land opening in 2027, led by Sky Hawk, a suspended family coaster billed as the Midwest's longest, tallest, and fastest, another build aimed at the family-together demographic that keeps spending.

Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

WEBVTT

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From our studios this week in Los Angeles and Tampa.

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This is Green Tag to THEE Parker and thirty. I'm

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Philip from Ganta Mighty and Controls, and I'm joined as

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always by my delightful co host, Scott Swinson of Scott

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Swinson Creativelopment. Who's not sipping the spinish expresso today?

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No, this is it's funny. This is actually waterloo melon Medley.

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Oh. I don't know what the hell that means.

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I think what they did was they just got carbonated

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water and put a watermelon over the top of it

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and then send it out.

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I don't know anyway.

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On Green Tag, we look at the top news each

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week and we try and pick the stories we think

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matter most to industry professionals, and this week was Earning's week.

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I did spend the entire week waking up and listening

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to Earning's calls and making notes and then reading through

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financial documents, which was I don't want to call it fun.

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We actually it was pretty fun. I'm not gonna lie.

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It's here for you. It's fun for you. The rest

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of the world. I was like, that's nice, but it's

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fun for you, so that's good.

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It was a fun week. I will say to get

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to hear where everyone is. We're going to try and

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get through as much as we can on these earnings.

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But I will tell you that the Disney stuff is

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a lot, and that I put that at the end

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so it might spill over into our Patreon episode for

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that one. But since most of our listeners are obsessed

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with six Flags, we're going to start with six Flags.

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Hopefully we'll get to United Parks.

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And then we'll go into Disney, because there's a lot

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with Disney. As all of these parks do, they try

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to announce stuff around the earnings call because they kind

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of want to maybe distract from some stuff. And the

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thing that Six Flags announced at the same time, which

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we'll try and get to, of course's expansion at one

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of their parks. So they announced earnings and expansion, and

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of course the United Parks announced the IP partnership and

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their stuff, and then Disney announced a TikTok partnership along

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with their earnings, so they kind of have these double

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announcements for each one. But let's just go one a time.

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We'll start with six Flags. So here's the thing about

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six Flags. I'm going to try and summarize it and

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then we could maybe talk more about it. But looking

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at everything, this is a story of the new leadership

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successfully reorienting the company towards the idea of repeat visitation,

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which we have talked about Agnasium. That is Riley's goal,

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which is repea visitation. Yet they're still struggling because they

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have so much debt.

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That's it, That's what's goat.

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It's these two forces. It's like the leadership and they're

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moving the Titanic basically because the amount of parks and

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chains is a massive chain. They're reorienting it towards bringing

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guests back, so improving the park experiences, bringing accountability, doing events,

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or they're all the initiat all these initiatives that they

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are successfully implementing, and it is working. It is working

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because pass is up, you know, revenue is up, attendance

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is up. All these things are up. People are coming

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to the parks more often, people are going the events.

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Everything is working, but are they going to be able

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to go fast enough because they have so much debt?

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And the number I think that puts it all into

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perspective is they're planning four hundred and forty eight Halloween

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experiences this year from coast to coast, one hundred and

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seven of which are haunted houses, which is just I

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think that puts them squarely as the winner in the

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in the amount of haunted houses that any changes operating simultaneously.

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So maybe thirteenth floor.

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Maybe maybe maybe could be maybe half that, but I

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don't know's that's a lot, but the numbers is what

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really puts it here. So basically, running the parks as

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a whole, they produced about eighty eight point six million

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in revenue, okay, So in the quarter justice one quarter okay,

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so eighty eight point six million in revenue.

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Okay.

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That was actually up from seventy four point five million

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a year ago. So they had revenue, so eighty eight million,

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hold that number, okay, and interest on the debt and

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all that stuff. So basically the problem is they brought

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in eighty eight, but then interest in the company's debt

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cost one hundred and two million, So you bring in

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eighty eight, but your interest is one hundred and so

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you're negative twenty. That's that's the problem right in one quarter, right,

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because they have what almost five billion in debt, right,

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So this is the problem. So the real thing here

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is can they with Riley's leadership changes and all of

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the stuff that they're doing, are they going to be

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able to raise per caps which raises revenue and all

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that enough to at least get equal And then the

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plan is, which you talked about on the call. The

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plan is to sell the assets to help pay down

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the debt and delever them. And he's talked about some

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sales letter they have in Maryland and some other interest

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but he said that probably wouldn't close until late twenty

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twenty seven or twenty twenty eight. So I think that's

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the problem is they have so much debt. They do

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have assets that they're trying to sell, or they might

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strip more parks, who knows, but basically they need to

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They need to sell assets to de lever at the

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same time that they are maneuvering to get overall visitation

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and spending up so they can on a quarter by

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quarter basis basically make more money than they have to

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pay to service. So that this is my take on it.

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We could go into all the individual things. We could

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look at the numbers, if you want, Scott, We could

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look at the strategy what he talked about with pass

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holders we could look about the events and the capital

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plan and the rollout and what they've talked about. They

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talked about a lot about uptime. He was pushed about

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July and gave a very interesting answer about whether or

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not stuff is attendance is softening.

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What do you think? What would you like to talk about, Scott?

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No, I think that you know, I think you encapsulated

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that very well. In essence, they had a loss of

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twenty point one million before.

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Practices, right, and then there's all this that's.

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That's the real bottom line that we have. That well,

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certainly investors are going to look at that is the

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real bottom line. So I am thrilled to see that

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they are chipping away at that that disparity of numbers

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of how much they owe versus how much they're But

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but again, I ask any of you if if you

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if you make a certain amount of money and you

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owe significantly more. I mean, this is exactly what happened

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to so many people on an individual level in the eighties.

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They charged everything. They were like, oh yeah, I'll just

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kick that kick that can down the street a little bit,

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and ended up, you know, in bankruptcy because they were

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in trouble I am glad to see. On the one hand,

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I am very glad to see that that the efforts

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are slowly scratching.

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Away right at yes, at the at.

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The at the problem. And it sounds as though with

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the combination of increasing repeat visitation, which I think should

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be number one. I think that should be their number

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one priority. And and the only reason I say that

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is I have seen that save parks significantly more than

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constantly raising your prices. Right, it is better. It is

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better to make your money on clicks of a turnstyle

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than on fewer clicks of the turnstile at a higher price.

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That's right, especially when your problem is dead.

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He said that.

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Well, and again, John and I come from the same world.

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So you know, we've we've seen it happen, we've seen

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it successfully work, and so it's that's a that's a

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good thing. That's a very good thing.

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I think that I think that you know, John has

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been saying everything right, take to your point, you know,

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everything that he said on the call, his strategy at

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this point.

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This is maybe like a but I can't.

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I think he's doing an excellent job actually with with

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with the hand that with the situation that he's in

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and to exactly yourfort He basically said that because some

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of the not you know, not all of the investors

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in the Q and a kind of understand. And so

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they were they were bringing up a lot of stuff

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that I think is not the point that they were

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talking about.

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They were like, which numbers should we be looking at?

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And his point is you should be looking at the

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same park numbers because they sold a bunch of parks.

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So you know, if you look at your if you

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look at their aggregate revenue, they lost the revenue from

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all those other parks, right, and their per cap numbers

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are kind of changed because per cap is, you know,

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generally aggregate, but you lost a bunch of parks, but

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those parks were underperforming, so you've got a lot of

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numbers that are skewed here. So he was saying, you've

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got to look at the same park numbers because that's

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what we're trying to measure against, and those are all up.

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And they did ask about how come your They pushed

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him like, how come that your per cap spending is

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down one percent? Shouldn't it be up because you lost

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a bunch of low performing parks. And he's like, no,

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because we're trying to increase visitation because we want them

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to come more frequently, and he talks about the lifetime

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value of a guest improving, so he wants them to

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come more than four times a year and to come

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to more events, and that way they'll spend more. But

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that makes the per cap number go down because they

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have one pass sale and that person then visits more

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than four times, so it lowers the overall per cap.

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So the people were kind of I think he was

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saying exactly what you're saying, and he was just trying

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to clarify to a lot of the investors that don't

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really understand the theme park numbers and they're just concerned.

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And I will also add just so that we don't

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get yelled at in the comments.

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So there was.

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The headline numbers that you're going to see out there

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are like they lose two hundred million or something. That

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is not the whole story, because what I'm concerned with

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is looking at how much the parks you're making and

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how much that they're paying.

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So it's twenty million dollars loss.

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There was a tax charge that they got on here

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because basically normally when you lose twenty million, you know,

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you would produce a tax benefit, but instead they reported

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one hundred and fifty seven million tax charge, and that

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charges what doubled the loss. But that is an accounting

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catchup because companies book quarterly taxes against their estimated full

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year rate, and when the estimate changes, the correction comes in.

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So I looked at the tank QK table to verify that.

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But that's why I just I just because most of

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the news stations just set two hundred million OAR the loss,

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which is not like quite right right because part of

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its attax recalculation. The real number we're looking at is

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how much they're losing and operating. But Scott, you're right,

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he's doing exactly. I think what you're saying.

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Yeah, I think, but I think you know, and I'm

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usually the positive one, but I will say I think

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they are doing I think they're doing what they're saying.

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I think this is part of a much longer term plan.

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But I also think it's fair to say they are

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racing to equilibrium there. They're they're racing desperately to get

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to a point where they are uh not losing money.

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They're not losing money before the company has to fold,

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and it is a it is a multi tiered strategy.

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And I think that all the tears are right. It's

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good to see that they are working. But as we

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say so often on this show, we this is we

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have to see how it pans out, you know, we

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have to see how it's fully executed. Because this can

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be in theory all the wonderful things, and it's working.

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It's certainly working in the short term. If it continues

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to work in the long term, that will be wonderful,

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and it will it will help. It's like it's like

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it's like they're underwater and they got to get They

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got to get to the surface before they can't hold

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their breath any longer.

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That's right.

233
00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:58.200
That That's how I felt. I will say I agree

234
00:11:58.200 --> 00:11:59.720
with you one hundred percent on that. That's that was

235
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my big takeaway from this. I will say, though, to

236
00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:06.039
give rightly credit, I didn't sense anything on the calls.

237
00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:07.039
He was not.

238
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:12.320
You would not know that. You know from from his

239
00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:17.879
He's doing what a great leader does, which is calm, planning,

240
00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.840
reorienting leadership. He brought in all new leadership. The whole

241
00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:24.600
c suite almost has been redone. I mean he's doing

242
00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:27.679
exactly what he should be doing. And if you know,

243
00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:30.639
you wouldn't sense that they're panicked from from how he's

244
00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:33.600
presenting it, and he's kind of yeah, And.

245
00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:36.200
My guess is he's not panicked. My guess is he's

246
00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:38.600
not panicked because I mean, going back to my analogy

247
00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:41.679
of being underwater free divers, the first thing that's going

248
00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:44.960
to kill them is to panic. So he and he

249
00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:48.480
knows that. And he is also now although I did

250
00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:51.720
not hear this particular call, he is also very good

251
00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:58.799
about being both transparent and non alarmist. So he can

252
00:12:58.840 --> 00:13:01.519
be transparent and he can say we've got these problems.

253
00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.879
But every time he says that, it's usually followed up

254
00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:06.159
with and like I said, I did not hear this

255
00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:09.200
particular call, but it's usually followed up with and here's

256
00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.279
here's the steps we're taking to correct it, and here's

257
00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:15.840
the challenge that we're here, here's the challenge, here's how

258
00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:18.120
we're meeting that challenge, and how we're going to continue

259
00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:21.320
to move forward. So you know, everybody, you're right, there's

260
00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:25.320
always going to be those clickbait headlines that are you know,

261
00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:29.480
six Flags loses two hundred million dollars. There's always going

262
00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:31.840
to be that. It's never things are never as good

263
00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:33.440
or as bad as people want to make them out

264
00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:35.919
to be, because it's only when things are stellar or

265
00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:38.279
when things are absolute crap that people really want to

266
00:13:38.279 --> 00:13:41.840
read about them. So journalism, the journalists are going to

267
00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:43.759
find ways to get you to click, and some journalists

268
00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:48.320
more than others. But it's it's it's important to recognize that, no,

269
00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:50.759
the story. I'm not saying for a moment that the

270
00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:54.320
six Flags story is great. You know, the birds are singing,

271
00:13:54.360 --> 00:13:56.919
the sun has come up, but I think it is

272
00:13:56.960 --> 00:13:59.639
fair to say that they are, like I said, struggling

273
00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:01.960
to get to the surface before they run out of breath,

274
00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:04.799
and they're swimming in the right direction. Let's see how it.

275
00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:07.679
Turns out of speaking of swimming in the right direction.

276
00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:10.039
He did say something that was very interesting that sounded

277
00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:13.320
almost exactly like Scott, which something you say all the

278
00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:16.360
time he was pushed on the call. It was a

279
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:20.279
very interesting question that was like posed by in the

280
00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:23.159
Q and a section from one of the I think

281
00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:28.320
one of the banks, but they asked essentially, is he

282
00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:30.919
going to be putting his capex into hard capex, which

283
00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:34.399
would be coasters or soft capex, which would be events.

284
00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:40.759
And he basically said events because they make they have

285
00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:43.399
they right drive a better ROI.

286
00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:44.720
Basically, it's basically what he said.

287
00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:47.519
He says events are a very efficient way to deploy

288
00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:51.639
capital as we go forward, which is exactly when Scott says,

289
00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:54.080
when Scott how many times that Scott said it, how

290
00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:57.039
many holla screams could you run instead of one coaster?

291
00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:01.480
That's effectively I think what really said, yeah, and.

292
00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:06.639
Again we were literally in the same park at the

293
00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:10.519
same time when the when that kind of discussion was

294
00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:17.039
being being had, And you know, I think I don't

295
00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:19.960
know whether people necessarily because what will happen is there

296
00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:22.399
are people who just simply don't like Halloween, so therefore

297
00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:24.960
they see no value in doing a Halloween event, or

298
00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:27.159
they don't they won't be they don't want to worry

299
00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:29.480
about staffing it, or they don't want to have the XT,

300
00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:31.399
they don't want to work the extra hours or whatever.

301
00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:37.120
But when you break it down to dollars to profit

302
00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:42.519
and loss, he's absolutely right. You know, you can excuse me,

303
00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:46.159
you can continue to invest in big pieces of twisted

304
00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:51.840
steel which only draw attendance for somewhere around two years,

305
00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:57.279
or you can invest that money, you can invest less

306
00:15:57.320 --> 00:16:01.120
money and and get bigger clicks, get more clicks on

307
00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:06.720
the turnstile, and and quite honestly, per caps generally speaking,

308
00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:12.240
per caps for day product and per caps for event

309
00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:15.440
or festival product, whether it's Halloween or Christmas or whatever.

310
00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:19.360
The per caps for the events actually are higher because

311
00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:22.200
there's a fews on it. It's limited, so people have

312
00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:25.080
to buy it. Then day product with your season pass holders,

313
00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.480
season pass holders by merch the first time they come

314
00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:32.080
and never again. That's an exaggeration, but that's the basics.

315
00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.200
So again, we were John and John was. I don't

316
00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:38.519
want to I don't want to people to think that, yeah,

317
00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:40.639
he was in the office next to my No, not,

318
00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:42.759
we weren't. He was like still way up higher on

319
00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:46.000
the food chain than I was. But but we were

320
00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.879
living the same microcosm in the same park at the

321
00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:52.440
same time when this was proven. So I'm glad to

322
00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:55.039
see that he can take it and make it a

323
00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:59.039
bit more macro and fingers crossed, hopefully we'll get there

324
00:16:59.679 --> 00:16:59.960
in time.

325
00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:05.160
Right to your point about Halloween not being appealing to everybody,

326
00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:07.519
I think he did address that also because while he

327
00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:10.880
did talk about how they're going to have, he's calling

328
00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:14.640
it America's biggest Halloween party, which I think is also

329
00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:17.960
a pretty good strategy to remind people that six Flags

330
00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:20.079
has the biggest footprint of.

331
00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:21.279
All of the chains.

332
00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:24.359
You know, they have parks all over and a lot

333
00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:26.400
of people have access to six Lex parks. And when

334
00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:30.119
you combine that with a regional pass and then you

335
00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:32.799
say every six Flags is doing a Halloween event, then

336
00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:35.319
you get this four hundred and forty eight experiences, one

337
00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:37.839
hundred and seven mazes, eleven of them are new for

338
00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:40.400
twenty twenty six, with four new ips he has announced yet.

339
00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:43.559
So he did talk a lot about Halloween, but he

340
00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:46.960
also mentioned that the Bois Andberry Festival he called out

341
00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:49.680
by name at Knotsberry Farm and said that it's a

342
00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:52.599
fantastic event that drives very high percast. You just said that,

343
00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.880
very high visitation and very high pass renewal, and they're

344
00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.839
looking to launch more food and beverage festivals with that

345
00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:02.000
same template at other big markets. So I think he

346
00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:05.480
is also saying it's not just about Halloween, it's also

347
00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:08.759
about how do we bring back the seasons of fun. Basically,

348
00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:12.079
and you know, expand it and to more places.

349
00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:13.119
He did.

350
00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:16.799
Also, another thing he mentioned that was interesting was about

351
00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:19.839
the data. Not many people talk about this, but he

352
00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:24.599
did talk about how they are working on again unifying

353
00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:30.160
their data so they can provide more targeted offers to people.

354
00:18:30.839 --> 00:18:33.440
So we saw that Christmas in July offer that they

355
00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:35.240
that they put out there for some of their parks.

356
00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:37.279
But I think that what he's talking about is a

357
00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:40.880
more unified data system that could serve up stuff to people.

358
00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:44.559
So anyway, I think he's saying all the right things,

359
00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:48.680
and if you buy into this vision, you could foresee

360
00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:51.400
sometime in the future where all the parks do different

361
00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:54.559
festivals that are localized, because he talked about the park

362
00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:57.079
presidents and why they're important because each park has its

363
00:18:57.079 --> 00:18:58.720
own entertainment.

364
00:18:58.319 --> 00:18:59.160
Needs and whatnot.

365
00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:01.119
So you know, you do all that, and then you

366
00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:05.599
can imagine where they would know who who's attending the

367
00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:07.960
individual park and be able to market the food festival

368
00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:11.240
directly to them and incentivize them to come back. So

369
00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:13.799
it just is a is a nice flywheel. So I

370
00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:14.720
think it all makes sense.

371
00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:17.680
And just to quickly just to quickly circle back on

372
00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:20.519
your on your him gathering data and utilizing that to

373
00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:25.599
help make good decisions moving forward, and just even it's

374
00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:27.680
so funny when these kind of things come up because

375
00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:30.000
again we never really know exactly what we're going to

376
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:31.720
talk about. Philip does all the work, but we don't

377
00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:33.160
know where the conversation is going to go until we

378
00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:37.279
actually start talking. But two nights ago I did a

379
00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:43.039
session at Iappa HQ and we were talking. It was

380
00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.720
co presented with Matt Heller and and yes there were

381
00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:48.519
some listeners in the session. So hi, guys, I told

382
00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:51.480
you I'd mentioned on the show. Anyway, one of the

383
00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:54.599
things that we mentioned even in just creating excellent guest

384
00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:59.599
service is have you have to understand your audience, You

385
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.119
have to stand you have to have the data in

386
00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:04.160
order to react to it. You can't just say, well,

387
00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:05.640
I think it's going to be this, or oh, don't

388
00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:09.680
be stupid, it's always this, it's not. And to make

389
00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:15.680
things databased, to make things to continue to expand that

390
00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:22.359
that information gathering side is again another really smart, another

391
00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:25.920
really smart move. So if I were if all my money,

392
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:29.559
all of my investments were all in six Flags stock,

393
00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:31.519
and if and their success was going to make or

394
00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:34.759
break me, as an individual, I still would not be released,

395
00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:37.480
releasing a sigh of relief, but I would still be

396
00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:41.119
watching carefully and cheering on from the sidelines, right right.

397
00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:47.240
A few last notes to button up here. I'm sure,

398
00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:49.920
I'm sure commenters will ask about that. So he did

399
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.799
bring up the up time, and he physifically said, our

400
00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:57.759
continuing work on up time and throughput delivers more attraction

401
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.599
experiences per guest, rebuilds a guest trust, supports repeat visitation,

402
00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:05.920
and strengthens long term pricing power. And they are they've

403
00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:09.839
improved in the quarter, although performance remains uneven. A lot

404
00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:12.599
of our commenters have have have said that, and I

405
00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:15.599
think he's aware. He said that the companies said that

406
00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.200
their deferred maintenance would reverse in the second quarter to

407
00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.920
support uptime, So they are like actively trying to improve

408
00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:24.240
the park experience, which he's been working on, but it's

409
00:21:24.359 --> 00:21:27.960
a slow process. He was asked about July. If you

410
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:34.960
remember we talked about Comcast saying that July was starting

411
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:37.759
to soften, you know, July, like the June July, the

412
00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:40.680
summer basically was softening, which is which is what Universal

413
00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:43.480
talked about on their last earnings call. He was asked

414
00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:49.160
about that twice and he sort of didn't really answer basically,

415
00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:53.960
so he kind of gave exactly what you said, Scott exactly.

416
00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:58.599
He kind of was like, well, there were wildfires that

417
00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:01.160
impacted a lot of their parks, had clothes for air quality.

418
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:03.279
And then the July four so he kind of talked

419
00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:06.119
about counter and then he said, but we had our

420
00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:10.599
most attended day ever on record in the chains in July,

421
00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:12.640
and so we kind of tried to push back. But

422
00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:15.720
when asked about actual numbers, like can you give us

423
00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:19.400
a like like number, he did not so well.

424
00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.319
And even that question, even that question probably asked by

425
00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:24.759
someone who listens to our show, because didn't we just

426
00:22:24.839 --> 00:22:27.880
talk about is summer the new souldier seats?

427
00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:28.680
You know? Right?

428
00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:30.000
Yeah?

429
00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:33.759
So yeah, so we're the industry is all is all there.

430
00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:35.640
We know what's going on. He knows what's going on.

431
00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:41.759
It is a it is a compelling question. But again,

432
00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:43.799
as you've said, he's doing all the right things and

433
00:22:43.839 --> 00:22:45.799
let's just hope he can get them done quickly enough.

434
00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:47.319
And Halloween's going to do well for them.

435
00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:49.920
You just know it is, because with their with their

436
00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:53.319
past base growing by six percent already, and then there

437
00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:55.519
they're annual pass sales up seven percent. Like those people

438
00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:57.160
are going to come back for Halloween and for Christmas.

439
00:22:57.240 --> 00:22:58.720
They does this is how it works. That's why they

440
00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:01.920
bought the pass. Like that's me saying it and Scott saying,

441
00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:04.599
you know. But so I think it's it's gonna it's

442
00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:06.759
they're gonna They're gonna do fine the next few quarters.

443
00:23:06.759 --> 00:23:10.279
But then we'll see what happens. So speaking of the

444
00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:14.799
next thing that was announced on the same morning is

445
00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:19.839
well back up a slipe it. We're recording this on Friday,

446
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.599
a little bit early. They supposedly today they have announced

447
00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:26.200
a new annual past program, which we we'll talk about

448
00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:28.400
next week because I didn't have time to look at it.

449
00:23:28.440 --> 00:23:32.880
But yesterday, at the same time as earnings, they also

450
00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:36.960
announced that Great America is going to get Camp Timber Trail,

451
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:39.640
which is a nine attraction family land for twenty twenty seven.

452
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:44.359
It's a very large build here and it's all family based.

453
00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:46.759
So of course this is going to what Scott and

454
00:23:46.759 --> 00:23:49.640
I've been talking about, where it's the same thing as

455
00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:56.000
in Looting Tune's area at Magic Mountain, where the family market,

456
00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:58.039
especially the young family market, is one of the only

457
00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:02.200
markets that's continuing to spend still right now as one

458
00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.880
of the strongest spinning markets, and so this seems like

459
00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:07.960
it's geared directly to them. It's also he was also

460
00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:10.319
asked on the call about the K shaped economy and

461
00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:13.480
where he thinks their customers land on it, which which is?

462
00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:17.640
Which was a hilarious question, which he also dodged. He

463
00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:21.160
dodged pretty expertly because you don't want to say on

464
00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:23.599
Urn's call that all of our you know, all of

465
00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:27.599
our customers are poor. But basically he dodged it, and

466
00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:29.640
he kind of talked about how they have premium Halloween

467
00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:33.400
upsell experiences. They're building more upsell experiences there, but they're

468
00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:36.319
trying to keep the parks affordable, right, So he dodged

469
00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:38.640
it in a good way. But he also talked about

470
00:24:38.680 --> 00:24:41.799
these family offerings that they're building to kind of build

471
00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:45.079
out so that they can more target to demographics.

472
00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:45.880
And that's what this is.

473
00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:48.559
So I'm sure all of you have already heard already,

474
00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:52.400
but it's three all new attractions for rethmed and two

475
00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:54.480
are classics that are just staying there and getting a

476
00:24:54.519 --> 00:24:57.720
little bit of reskin. The main one is the Skyhawk

477
00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:02.000
glides through the tree tops, and and it's so it's Skyhawk,

478
00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:06.680
which is going to be billed as Michigan's longest, tallest,

479
00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:08.440
and fastest a spended family coaster.

480
00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:11.839
It looks really cool. That's what everybody is talking about.

481
00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:16.519
Did you just say Michigan's longest, fastest.

482
00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:20.440
Sorry mid the Midwest, the mid thank you, thank you,

483
00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:22.559
because I'm like, A, the park is not in Michigan,

484
00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:25.880
and b the Midwest.

485
00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:26.839
There we go.

486
00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:28.799
I did the vocal warm so I'm still having I'm

487
00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:30.119
still getting I.

488
00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:32.160
Don't know, I just every now and then we get

489
00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:34.160
a little tech glitch and I was just making sure

490
00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:35.680
that you know, I didn't hear that incorrectly.

491
00:25:36.279 --> 00:25:39.279
So I'm sure everyone's right about this. What do you think, Scott?

492
00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:42.640
So, No, this is just so on par It's so

493
00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:44.480
on par with what we've seen in all the other parks,

494
00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:49.920
you know. In fact, Skyhawk looks suspiciously like the new

495
00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:54.000
family coaster at Bush Tampa. So it is. And the

496
00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:57.279
thing I love about it is we are finally getting

497
00:25:57.319 --> 00:26:01.599
into that realm of the park being comfortable calling it

498
00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:05.480
a family coaster because for so many years, so much

499
00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:08.400
of my career in the attractions industry. It has either

500
00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:11.880
been more thrilling, more dangerous, more terrifying than anything ever before,

501
00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:16.559
or it's a kiddy coaster. And so this is something

502
00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:19.599
that families can do together. You know, you've heard me

503
00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:22.880
say it before. The days of at least for the moment,

504
00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:26.079
and this may completely change, but for the moment, the

505
00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:29.119
days of the family coming to the park and setting

506
00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:31.119
up a meeting place and meeting time and everybody going

507
00:26:31.160 --> 00:26:34.559
off to do their own thing, those days, based on

508
00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:41.119
the current demographic, are pretty much gone. The current family

509
00:26:41.160 --> 00:26:44.480
demo wants to do things together, you know. They they

510
00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:48.079
and I hate sound like a broken record, but these

511
00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:53.000
are also the families that were established during Covide, so

512
00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:57.039
they're trying. They have this. They have a different sense

513
00:26:57.079 --> 00:27:01.599
of togetherness. They're not a separatist, so they want to

514
00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:06.960
go out and have their experiences together. Not mommy and

515
00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:10.039
Daddy'll watch you ride the stupid thing and then you

516
00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:12.720
can go sit with Anti June while we go on

517
00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:14.960
the coasters, because that would be really fun. This is

518
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.319
a coaster everybody can do together, or a larger demographic

519
00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:20.839
can do together. And I think that is something that

520
00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:23.759
we've seen tracking with other parks I think it is

521
00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:27.759
exactly and the fact that it is a full realm

522
00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:31.880
that is dedicated to this speaks volumes. I mean when

523
00:27:32.319 --> 00:27:36.200
six Flags, when Great America put in rakshasa that was

524
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:38.599
sort of a let's PLoP this down in the middle

525
00:27:38.599 --> 00:27:40.799
of nowhere. It's not themed to go with any of

526
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:43.359
their areas. It makes zero sense, but it's a kick

527
00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:52.160
ass coaster. This is This just comes across as more organized,

528
00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:53.880
more planned, more focused.

529
00:27:54.440 --> 00:27:55.119
There's intent.

530
00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:57.839
There's intent here, and I like seeing that.

531
00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:00.440
It is interesting.

532
00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:02.920
You A lot of what you're saying sounds very similar

533
00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:05.799
to the president of a Coma who I watched during

534
00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:08.599
Ayappa Honors to gave a presentation as part of the

535
00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:12.640
manufacturer's panel, and she said basically exactly what you're saying,

536
00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:15.519
that the biggest trend they see is that families want

537
00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:18.039
to be able to do rides together, which actually is

538
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:22.640
more of a need or a call for innovation from

539
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:25.640
the manufacturer because you have to make the ride be

540
00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:29.279
more interesting, like it can't be what used to be

541
00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:32.640
like just a kid's ride, which is like pretty dull,

542
00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:35.880
Like it has to be interesting enough for the whole

543
00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.759
family to be engaged. But it also has to be

544
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:43.680
safe or accessible to the child, and these two things

545
00:28:43.799 --> 00:28:48.000
previously before technology were difficult to achieve together, and so

546
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:51.000
it was fascinating to hear that perspective, which is actually,

547
00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:54.319
I think the inverse of what a lot of people think.

548
00:28:54.359 --> 00:28:56.359
You know, they think that because it's a family coaster,

549
00:28:56.440 --> 00:28:59.160
it's going to be lame, or it's going to be

550
00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:01.599
you know, not as fun or whatever. But her point is, no,

551
00:29:01.799 --> 00:29:04.480
we've been improving our technology so that you can make

552
00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:07.920
it interesting for everybody but also still allow the kids

553
00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:08.319
to write it.

554
00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:09.359
That's that's what they're trying to do.

555
00:29:09.640 --> 00:29:14.160
And also recognizing what what terrifies adults and what terrifies

556
00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:17.279
children is not necessarily the same thing, right, and you

557
00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:20.359
have to identify both of those so that you can

558
00:29:20.359 --> 00:29:22.400
find that happy middle ground. And if you think this

559
00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:24.960
coaster sounds like it's not going to be that much fun,

560
00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:29.720
look up the video, the promotional video of what it's

561
00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:31.559
going to how it's going to look, you know, look

562
00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:35.519
find the AI video of it, because it looks like, no,

563
00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:40.079
it is not. It's not Falcon's Flight in Kadea, but

564
00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:46.480
it's also not the Caterpillar coaster at your local fair.

565
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:49.880
It looks like it is fun. It looks like it

566
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:53.599
is it is zippy, it's got some speed to it,

567
00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:57.519
but there's nothing that's going to make kids absolutely wet

568
00:29:57.559 --> 00:30:03.359
themselves and be terrify. So it's an interesting it is.

569
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:05.279
It is unique to me because it's the first time

570
00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:09.440
in my career in theme park where the family together

571
00:30:09.559 --> 00:30:12.319
market has been really focused on, and I love that.

572
00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:22.079
Well cool. We didn't get to United Parks, but we

573
00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:22.559
didn't get.

574
00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:25.279
To anything except for six Flags, so there you go.

575
00:30:27.319 --> 00:30:31.680
All right, Well, on behalf of six Flags our show.

576
00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:35.759
Our show is over, and on behalf of Philip and myself.

577
00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:37.599
This is green Tag theme Park in thirty Thank you

578
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:39.920
so much for listening, and we will see you all

579
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:40.680
next week