The parent company of Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain is considering the sale or closure of some of its 42 theme parks and water parks following the merger of the two largest regional amusement park chains in North America.
Six Flags floated the possibility of selling some theme parks as part of Project Accelerate during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
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Six Flags and Cedar Fair merged in July following a review by the Department of Justice that allowed the newly combined company to keep Magic Mountain and Knott’s — which compete in the Southern California marketplace.
Six Flags listed “Portfolio Optimization” as a key objective as part of an investor presentation and promised a “comprehensive review of the portfolio to evaluate the potential divestiture of non-core assets to help reduce leverage.”
“In layman’s terms, Six Flags will review its roster of parks and may consider selling some of them,” according to Attractions Magazine.
The potential closure or sale of some Six Flags amusement parks “are now on the table,” according to Theme Park Insider.
The combined portfolio of Cedar Fair and Six Flags includes 27 amusement parks and 15 water parks in the United States, Canada and Mexico that attract 48 million visitors a year.
Six Flags owns seven of the Top 20 North American amusement parks based on annual attendance, according to the TEA/AECOM annual report.
The chain’s largest parks include Buena Park’s Knott’s Berry Farm (4.2 million annual visitors), Ohio’s Cedar Point (4 million), Ohio’s Kings Island (3.5 million), Valencia’s Six Flags Magic Mountain (3.4 million), Canada’s Wonderland (3.2 million), Illinois’ Six Flags Great America (3 million) and New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure (2.5 million), according to the TEA/AECOM report.