Bronze Tier
The following parks are smaller, more locally-oriented parks in the new Six Flags chain. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re expendable. Just the opposite, smaller parks that maintain steady local attendance without major capital investment can be an important part of the ecosystem. But with a now-massive chain to maintain, it’s also possible Six Flags would look at these parks, determine if they pose any competition to others in the chain, and decide to either sell them off for others to operate, or to close them and relocate their rides to higher-performing parks.
- SIX FLAGS DISCOVERY KINGDOM (Vallejo, California) – Located in the northern Bay Area (sharing the San Francisco and Sacramento metropolitan areas), Discovery Kingdom is an unusual Six Flags park in that half of its appeal is its animal collection. The park includes dolphins, sharks, seals, cheetahs, giraffes, aviaries, otters, lions, penguins, and more, sequestering its ride collection into a fairly condensed corner of the space-limited park. It’s a very nice park, but even before the merger it was already an outlier to have one park with animals, and Cedar Fair (new majority owners of the combined Six Flags venture) historically has a particular distaste for animal experiences. Plus, they may find itself interested in selling the land the park resides on if push comes to shove… Of course, the merger also makes Discovery Kingdom Six Flags’ second park in the Bay Area, and considering the other is slated for closure already, it might make sense to hold onto Discovery Kingdom, even if it’s a different kind of park than the company is used to.
- VALLEYFAIR (Shakopee, Minnesota) – The “Fair” half of Cedar Fair’s name, Valleyfair is of a tier of legacy Cedar Fair parks we’ll see quite a lot on this list – sort of small-to-mid-sized family amusement parks anchored by one or two “big” coasters from the ’90s or 2000s (in this case, Wild Thing, Renegade, and Steel Venom), that doesn’t really get any big capital investment aside from hand-me-downs or ride re-locations. In some ways, that makes this level of park attractive in that they become self-sustaining without much spending, and cater almost entirely to locals who show up for the water park all summer long.
- WORLDS OF FUN (Kansas City, Missouri) – An “A.D.” (After Disney) park opened in 1973, Worlds of Fun was initially themed to “Around the World in 80 Days” (with lands stylized as America, Africa, Scandinavia, Europe, and the Orient). It’s another Cedar Fair park in the mid-sized tier of Valleyfair. A surprising amount of its “globe-trotting” decor is still present, but as you can imagine, it’s coasters that fill the park’s ranks. It’s anchored by Mamba, Patriot, and Zambezi Zinger – a perfectly-sized family park that the new Six Flags really has no incentive to invest majorly in, but also wouldn’t bother to sell or close.
- SIX FLAGS DARIEN LAKE (Buffalo, New York) – Darien Lake opened in 1981. It was purchased in 1995 by a chain called Premier Parks, which then turned around and bought Six Flags three years later, retroactively applying the Six Flags Darien Lake name to the park. In the midst of financial turmoil, Six Flags then sold the park in 2007. A decade later, the company signed on to operate the property (not own it), re-adding the Six Flags prefix in 2019. Darien Lake is a fairly small family park, but it does have two outsized rides including Ride of Steel (a 208 foot tall Intamin, formerly Superman-themed) and Tantrum (a Gerstlauer).
- DORNEY PARK (Allentown, Pennsylvania) – Located in eastern Pennsylvania, Dorney Park really slots nicely alongside other Cedar Fair mid-level parks like Valleyfair and Worlds of Fun. This park will probably never be a destination (except for those passing through the region and wanting to collect its coaster credits, like Hydra: The Revenge (a B&M floorless coaster), Steel Force (an old school Morgan hyper), and Possessed (an Intamin Impulse coaster salvaged from Geauga Lake). For 2024, the park received its first new coaster since 2008 – the B&M dive coaster Iron Menace, which is a really nice show of faith in this regional park.
Endangered Parks
Ultimately, Six Flags doesn’t have a whole lot to gain from unilaterally closing or selling off its parks. Especially given that smaller parks often go years or even decades without any sizable, expensive additions, it seems far more likely that Six Flags would simply continue to operate even small parks as opposed to letting a potential competitor get their hands on it. However, if a park consistently underperforms or serves as a “brand withdrawal” for the company, part of Six Flags’ evaluation would almost certainly see which of that park’s rides are salvageable for relocation, and if they might be better used at other parks in the chain… So here are a few parks we’d keep an eye on…
- SIX FLAGS AMERICA (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) – Not to be confused with Six Flags New England (which is also in New England) or Six Flags Great America, Six Flags America (so-named for its proximity to Washington, D.C.) is definitely a lower-tier Six Flags parks and has an unfortunate reputation for horrible operations and several high profile safety incidents among guests. Its two newest coasters opened in 2012 and 2014, and both are relocated rides from other parks. If you were the leader of the new Six Flags, you’d likely look at this park and see just one ride worth salvaging (Superman: Ride of Steel – a mirror-imaged sister of Darien Lake’s Ride of Steel), which is a sad state.
- SIX FLAGS ST. LOUIS (St. Louis, Missouri) – People often associate Six Flags with parks that are packed with record-breaking rides. But actually, the median Six Flags is probably a whole lot more like Six Flags St. Louis – a park with ten coasters, but… not really any stand-outs. Aside from a new kiddie coaster in 2023, the park’s most recent addition was a Vekoma Boomerang that’s actually a 1989 build relocated from Over Texas. You could maybe say that the American Thunder GCI woodie or the Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast launch coaster from 1998 are at least interesting, but this is clearly not a park at the top of Six Flags’ to-do list. Now that Six Flags controls both of the state’s major parks (this one and Worlds of Fun, just over three hours away), will they continue to invest in both? We’ll see…
- MICHIGAN’S ADVENTURE (Muskegon, Michigan) – Michigan’s Adventure was certainly the “red-headed stepchild” of the Cedar Fair chain, and now finds itself toward the low end of Six Flags’ huge portfolio. Really putting the “local” in “local’s park,” Michigan’s Adventure isn’t fed by the 630,000 population of Detroit, but by the 35,000 person town of Muskegon. Like many of the smaller, local parks in this tier, it’s really the attached waterpark that drives season pass sales and entices locals out throughout the summer season.
Aside from a new kiddie coasters in 2023, its last addition was 2008’s Thunderhawk – a low-rent Vekoma SLC relocated from Geauga Lake. Before that, it was a 1999 Mad Mouse, and 1998’s Shivering Timbers woodie – still probably the park’s signature ride. If ever Six Flags directs that they need to slim down their park count, Michigan’s Adventure would likely top the list of parks to go… But since it really offers no competition and has little worth relocating, we’d like to think the company would sell the park, not close it. After all, Michigan’s Adventure feels like the kind of park that the city or county could own and lease back to an operator.
- SIX FLAGS GREAT ESCAPE (Queensbury, New York) – Located in upstate New York, Great Escape has long held an unusual relationship with Six Flags. Opened as a “storybook forest” style park in 1954 (before Disneyland!), the park was one of many bought by Premier Parks in the ’90s – just before Premier itself bought Six Flags and retroactively added the Six Flags name to all of its parks… well, except Great Escape. Probably sensing that this small, woodsy, family park in remote forested New York was something different, the park was uniquely branded as “The Great Escape: A Six Flags Park” and largely left alone. In 2023, the park was officially redubbed “Six Flags Great Escape,” but even that left the “Six Flags” as a tiny modifier in the logo. More of a beloved family treasure than a thrill park, the Great Escape welcomed its sixth coaster in 2024: Bobcat. It’s a sweet enough park, but one that – like Michigan’s Adventure – Six Flags could easily sweep off of its plate by selling it to a family or municipality.
- CALIFORNIA’S GREAT AMERICA (San Jose, California) – The “other” Great America was split off from its Chicago sister in the ’80s, sending it on a very different trajectory. The result is that it features the same entry, park icon, and general layout as the Six Flags park, but spent forty years as a sister to Kings Island instead. Located in Silicon Valley – one of the most expensive real estate markets on Earth – the park’s future has long been in flux as it shares a parking lot with the San Francisco Giants stadium (and thus, is closed on home game days) and even though Cedar Fair owned the park, they didn’t own the land.
- That changed in 2019 when Cedar Fair bought the real estate, seemingly assuring the park would survive. But in 2022, they turned around the sold the land to a developer. Currently, the clock is ticking down on a six year lease that ends in 2028 (with one optional five year extension that could see the park survive as long as 2033). Unless a deus ex machina occurs, this park will close forever, leaving its rides to be redistributed among the Six Flags chain… and for that, we have some ideas for where they’ll go.
What do you think about Six Flags’ now-supercharged park portfolio? Will the company really continue to operate 27 amusement parks across the continent? What factors do you think they’re considering in their internal audit of the gargantuan collection of coasters they now hold? And with Cedar Fair’s leadership technically in charge of the new chain, what changes do you hope we’ll see across the Six Flags parks? Let us know in the comments below!
