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🟡 FORMERLY PE OWNED
Six Flags
theme parks · Arlington, TX
PE Firm
Various PE (historic)
Year Acquired
1998
“Dan Snyder ran it like the Washington Commanders — into $2.7 billion of debt and bankruptcy.”
What Happened
- •Daniel Snyder's Red Zone LLC took board control in 2005; cash flow dropped $120 million annually under his leadership
- •Sold off seven theme parks in 2006-2007 in a fire sale for $312 million trying to service the debt
- •Filed Chapter 11 in June 2009 with $2.7 billion in debt; stock was delisted from the NYSE
- •Emerged in 2010 with lenders controlling 92% of the company; Snyder and his hand-picked CEO were removed
The Damage Done
- ▸CEO publicly called the parks 'a cheap daycare center for teenagers' and announced plans to migrate to 'the Target customer' through price hikes
- ▸Admission prices jumped 25% in 2022, causing a 26% attendance collapse — from 27.7 million to 20.4 million visitors
- ▸Permanently closed Six Flags America and Hurricane Harbor in Maryland; California's Great America also slated for closure
- ▸Management admitted they 'implemented price increases too aggressively' — but millions of visitors had already been driven away