Six Flags America to Permanently Close: Thoughts, Reasons, and the Future

It is quite unfortunate to have to write about the closure of a park, but the fate of Six Flags America has been sealed. After the 2025 operating season, the park will be closing permanently, with the land being sold off to a developer for the best cost. While it's been 20 years, this news has the shades of Six Flags Astroworld written all over it, as well as some of the unfortunate problems that came associated with its own demise.

Just 2 days ago, a statement has been released from Six Flags CEO Richard Zimmerman announcing the decision. It was just 6 months ago that Six Flags discussed a "portfolio optimization" process that would comprehensively review the company's assets. Days later, the Corporate Director of Communications, Gary Rhodes, confirmed with news sources that the company "had no plans to close parks." Either plans changed, or it was just a statement aimed at taking bad PR off the corporation.

I'm not saying that Six Flags America was by any means a great park, and it has needed a lot of work for years now. However, it is not ideal to lose a major regional park, as this country really does not see parks get developed as much as they get demolished. With the cost of development this day in age, there are just so many risks associated with trying to acquire funding for something as grand in scale as an amusement park.

So, what exactly are my reasons for closure and talking points for this topic? We'll discuss down below....

1. Safety and Clientele

It's no secret that Six Flags America has always had a sort of stigma to it in regard to public safety. Most of the time during the day, it may seem like a normal park. However, when the nighttime rolls around, things occasionally get rowdy, especially in the parking lot. In 2021, the park made national headlines for a riot breaking out during Fright Fest, which caused the park to close early, and left several cars vandalized.

Six Flags took a few measures to try and mitigate this, including adding more security towers to the parking lot area, and reducing park hours even during the full season to limit the late-night shenanigans. Of course, this type of thing happens at almost every park from time-to-time, however it was more of an often occurrence at America. With events like this making the national news, it gives the company as a whole a bad rap. Many people think "Six Flags" is one park. Whether you're in Maryland, Texas, California, or any other major area, people call their local park "Six Flags." Rarely does the general public say "Six Flags Great America" or "Six Flags Discovery Kingdom." It's just Six Flags. So, when CBS or another major news network puts a headline in bold letters such as "Major Fight at Six Flags," there is often confusion with the average consumer that it may be at their home park. It might sound like a stretch, but I could see many concerned parents preventing their kids from visiting the parks if they feel like they are unsafe.

Astroworld had similar issues with its clientele. Because ticket prices were kept low, season passes were an alternative means of babysitting for families. Simply drop the kids off at the front gate for the day in the summer and leave them at their own free will to act however they would like while unsupervised. This is the whole reasoning for the almost chain-wide chaperone policy that has been introduced in recent years. At the same time, I think that this policy will have to be ironed out and refined over time, as the policy only affects those ages 15 and younger. Plenty of young adults between the ages of 16-18 are also capable of causing trouble unsupervised, especially in today's age.

2. Performance, Competition, and Condition of the Park

Six Flags America has been the so-called "red-headed stepchild" of the legacy Six Flags for many years. We all know the jokes, such as "all of the rides go from Great America to America" and so forth. Part of this is due to the stagnation of park attendance. The last figure that I have is from 2019, which listed the park at an estimated 1.3 million guests. This is a park which has both the Washington D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan regions within an hour's drive from the park. Combined, the D.C. and Baltimore population totals to about 10 million people, meaning that the park is only pulling around 10% of that value. This is actually even less, since the 1.3 million value accounts for repeat visitors with memberships or season passes.

Within a day's drive from Six Flags are Kings Dominion, Hersheypark, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. All three of those parks are held in much higher regards than America. In fact, for some of the clientele willing to drive to those parks and pay a higher premium, they actually would prefer to visit those over the outdated Six Flags. Of course, Kings Dominion is now part of the Six Flags chain, but the company may see more value in putting more eggs into its basket than Six Flags America's. Kings Dominion has seen some major investment in the last few seasons, which the same cannot be said about America. The latter is much further apart in terms of its condition and competitiveness.

Besides the more outdated ride collection and atmosphere, behind the scenes, SFA is not in the greatest of conditions. I know of someone who had visited the park to assist with some maintenance projects around the park, and he was not impressed with the cleanliness and upkeep of facilities. The park had also struggled with several issues that I will not go far into. To summarize it, we'll just say that things that would seem like common sense maintenance practices were not handled properly. This led to damage to equipment, expensive repairs, and issues that could have posed a safety risk to the public if operated. It seemed like I had heard of a non-public incident occurring at the park at least once a year.

Until very recently, Six Flags has not invested consistently into the property. The latest coaster was installed in 2014, and it was a used wild mouse ride, Ragin' Cajun. The last "new" coaster installed at the park was Batwing in 2001, a major gap. This was coming off of 3 previous years of new coasters, from 1998 to 2000. Clearly, the park underperformed, or something turned Six Flags off from wanting to invest majorly ever again. I have seen certain management styles at properties who favor the status quo method, where if attendance is holding steadily over time, they see no need to risk spending on major capital. It is not a good way of running a business, especially in the amusement industry where attractions can become outdated very quickly. However, some companies are simply just happy with a profit at the end of the day.

The Steam World area in 2024 was a big surprise to me, with Six Flags transforming an entire area of the park for the first time in a long while. While it was a much-needed investment and refresh, it is sort of easy to overlook the fact that the area entailed of 2 rebranded rides and 1 inexpensive new flat ride to replace one removed at the end of 2022. In addition, this did not make up for the removal of Zydeco Zinger and Bourbon Street Fireball in 2023, the closure of the entire Whistlestop Park area in 2022, among other losses. There was much work left to do across the rest of the park despite the good start seen with Steam World. America had been plagued with severely subpar reviews in recent years, many of which pointing out the poor operations, appearance, and cleanliness of the property.

3. Ride Relocations

One of the larger questions happens to be what will happen to the park's ride collection after its closure. It would shock me if wheels aren't already turning behind-the-scenes in the Six Flags chain, where other parks are discussing scoping out certain attractions that would be a good fit at their park. If a park is interested in certain parts or attractions, they may choose to send employees to scope out those assets.

The thing about America is that there isn't as many serviceable attractions there as you would expect. I think that it's pretty safe to say that Roar and Wild One will be demolished, with only their trains possibly being saved. The cost and complexity of relocating a wooden roller coaster is not cost effective, when it would be almost as much just to build a newer, and likely better, attraction. Some of the Six Flags properties that are still utilizing PTC wooden coaster trains may be interested in checking those out, whether to use for parts or direct replacements for currently operating trains.

There are other rides, such as Joker's Jinx or Superman: Ride of Steel, which are beloved attractions and around the 25-year-old mark, which would be great additions for other parks, but again may be too complex to relocate for the cost. Superman's structure resembles that of a prototype from Intamin, given that it was only their second Mega Coaster. While the ride received two new trains from Intamin this year, the structure is not in the greatest of condition. My experience with Intamin Mega Coaster track is that there is a lot of stress, fatigue issues, and rail alignment issues, given the primitive track design in certain areas, especially the double helix sections, where a flat track design was used as opposed to a stouter triangular or box track. I could be wrong, but given Superman's size and structural condition, it is likely more effective to relocate the trains to Six Flags Darien Lake for use on their Ride of Steel, although these updated trains do have a few small differences from Darien Lake's 2016 train currently in operation.

Joker's Jinx is another great example of a good coaster that is just simply outdated and has experienced structural issues. LIM launch systems have sort of gone by the wayside with the evolution of the more efficient LSM launches, however it does appear that Premier Rides, the manufacturer of Joker's Jinx, does still offer them. Joker's Jinx has had some support issues in the past, although it seems that most of the issues have been ironed out. Still, the process of moving a coaster and reassembling it on a new site may cause stress risers or issues in new areas of the ride. In addition, I don't know how true it is, but I have heard the idea floated around of Six Flags axing Flight of Fear at both Kings Island and Kings Dominion, both very similar attractions. This would leave Poltergeist at Six Flags Fiesta Texas for a potential parts donor if Joker's Jinx is scrapped.

Batwing is likely as good as gone, as it is the final operating Vekoma Flying Dutchman. Professor Screamore's SkyWinder, formerly Mind Eraser, opened as one of the first ever Vekoma SLCs, and while it just received new trains and an upgrade last season, it is another ride that only the new generation trains may be worth anything to another park. Firebird was B&M's first ever coaster, opening as Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America in 1990. It was relocated to America for the 2012 season and renamed Apocalypse. For 2019, its stand-up style trains were replaced with floorless trains, new from B&M. Since the ride had already lived another full life between 2 parks, it is unknown if the structure had much life left on it.

Of course there are smaller coasters at the park as well, but several of these rides being relocated will depend on the general interest for them. If another Six Flags Park is willing to front the bill for a relocation, then it will likely happen. But if there is no interest, I don't see Six Flags wasting much time trying to offer rides on the used market. They want the park to close and come down in a very timely matter. Maybe an auction will occur, but at the same time it may just be easier for the park to sell off the rides for scrap. I'm sure that a lot of the spare parts in inventory will be transferred to other parks in the system who can use them.

As far as flat rides, some recent additions include SteamWhirler, a 2024 Zamperla Nebulaz, Harley Quinn Spinsanity, a 2021 Soriani Discovery, and Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth, a 2017 Funtime StarFlyer. These attractions will almost definitely be relocated to another park given their age. Several other are candidates as well, including the collection of kiddie rides, Cyclone (a Scrambler) etc. even if it is just for parts.

4. Future of Six Flags

Richard Zimmerman is off to a very controversial start as the CEO of the new Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. It started this past season with the unannounced closure and removal of several beloved rides and attractions. I don't want to say it was an outright blatant lie, but now Gary Rhodes' comment about not closing parks seems to be misunderstood or untrue as well.

Longtime fans of both the legacy Six Flags and Cedar Fair chains are unsettled by these moves, and this is only the first official operating season of the merger. I don't think that the chain is done just yet with major moves, but hopefully this is the last one we see this season. I have yet to see any moves for the betterment of the chain, although there are some confirmed announcements coming for next year and beyond this summer.

I can completely understand the company's renewed focus in cutting costs, optimizing operations, and providing the best product for the consumer. At the same time, upsetting the consumer is not the best way to go about doing it. Especially now that the chain has grown so large, and most people in the country are within a day's drive of a Six Flags property, it would be unwise to anger those who hold the memberships, as they have the largest spending per capita of the customer base.

It wouldn't shock me in the slightest to see more parks closed or sold off next season. We all know that California's Great America seems to be on the chopping block any year now, and there are several other small properties that we do not yet know the intentions of Six Flags. I think that it is pretty fair to say, that if you don't see a park on the list of upcoming investments for the chain, they are sort of on notice that they are not necessarily one of the chain's flagship parks. You have to keep in mind that Six Flags doesn't own all of their properties either, so they cannot just outright close anything that they want. But certain smaller parks that are simply "managed" by the chain may be the next ones to be handed off to another management company.

I feel as though Six Flags America may turn into Astroworld 2.0 in terms of Zimmerman's legacy. Real estate is always a high gamble. Six Flags thought 20 years ago that Astroworld's land was worth so much, which would justify its closure. Here we are today, with the land not selling for nearly as much as expected, and only a sliver of it has been redeveloped. The same can be said for Geauga Lake and Six Flags New Orleans. Granted each piece of land has its own challenges, developers have come and gone, and nobody has successfully been able to redevelop. What good is an unused piece of land doing, when clearly successful and money-making parks (even if that profit was on the smaller end) were closed for no good apparent reason? Land prices are currently still skyrocketing, but there are doubts of how the land can actually be used and redeveloped, as it is zoned for entertainment purposes.