Author Topic: 48 CENTS (Read 7398 times)

Dubya91 · « **Reply #25 on:** July 16, 2008, 05:18:46 PM »

Its sad to see but shapiro won't get the time he needs to fix things at .49 cents.

Clint. The overnight monster was born because of the consistant past mistakes the frustrated investors

GADVwow · « **Reply #26 on:** July 16, 2008, 05:20:41 PM »

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/07/16/update-six-flagging-28/

GADVwow · « **Reply #27 on:** July 16, 2008, 05:59:32 PM »

Six Flags Shares Plunge 44 Percent:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/2d81eac78231d1e50a1fb1d01239b566.htm

darkridedan · « **Reply #28 on:** July 16, 2008, 06:26:57 PM »

It's not difficult to figure out the reason why most other parks (and chains) don't use the 54'' coaster as their star attraction, but use it as an "also run." Appealing only to the 12 to 24 demographic for 20 years is hitting the fan now. When I'm going to Hershey, I'm not only thinking about riding Storm Runner or Voodoo at Dorney, but I'm thinking about the whole experience like I get at Disney and Busch.

Time Warner and Premer did allot of damage. At this park alone, swings, a shoot-the-chutes, a scrambler, monster spin and a dark ride would have done better with the general public and for the revenue than Viper, Chiller, Medusa, S.U.F and Ka and it would have cost much less money. The park already had these things rides too. I don't know why Six Flags preferred to have a coaster that they have no need to open before noon, a coaster that is constantly panned by the park's biggest fans, a break down nightmare and two coasters that wouldn't even reach their 10th anniversary (how many coasters can't even reach this meer milestone) over safe, reliable, family-friendly rides that EVERYBODY likes.

Most of us knew that the coaster-building craze was a mistake. Then again, most of us aren't 12-24. If Six Flags survives, I hope they listen to their consumers this time and keep their eyes off the 15 yr olds. I always thought Mr. Six was a bit of a perv.

GADVwow · « **Reply #29 on:** July 16, 2008, 06:41:06 PM »

So did the people that ran Six Flags back then all move to today's Cedar Fair? How long will it be before the chickens come home to roost there?

darkridedan · « **Reply #30 on:** July 16, 2008, 08:43:15 PM »

Well Cedar Fair has done it too, but to a lesser extreme. That dog is going to have its day, but thankfully for them, they only pampered Cedar Point. They took care of their family rides, which is more important.

The Point has a huge spin ride collection that equals their coaster count and a flat ride collection that appeals to EVERYBODY. Cedar Fair has made one, maybe two bad decisions when it comes to choosing thrill rides over family rides (Hydra and Mantis are the only two that come to mind for me,) but our park alone had 8. That's too many screw ups.

GADVwow · « **Reply #31 on:** July 16, 2008, 08:54:34 PM »

Really? Look at more recent years decisions...they greatly resemble those of Gary Story's Six Flags, except Maverick, perhaps. Top Thrill Dragster, Mean Streak, Wicked Twister (which was a near rip off of Superman: Ultimate Escape over in Aurora)...buying too many parks too fast, laying off middle management to beat the band, and most of all, thinking installations of thrill rides will keep the public coming more than anything else will....and, perhaps biggest of all, greatly increasing in park pricing while comparatively giving away the gate and season passes...

darkridedan · « **Reply #32 on:** July 16, 2008, 09:32:23 PM »

Cedar Point does have too many coasters, but if anybody was going to build TTD, it would have been CP. Somebody had to learn the lesson with it...or should have. But they didn't rip out their spin ride collection and they have many other family rides that SFGAdv, SFMM, SFStL, SFOG, SFA and SFKK do not have. CP's non-coaster collection over powers in numbers its coaster collection. The same can not be said for the aforementined Six Flags parks. Plus I gotta say that WT and TTD are far more impressive than Medusa and SUF, IMO. The most well-balanced Six Flags parks are SFGAm, SFOT, SFFT, SFDK and SFNE and they all just received new family coasters-- or were supposed to. That alone makes not surprised that investors are tired and impatient. I hope all goes well with the Quaterly, but I have little confidence that Snyder and Shapiro have the right answers.

GADVwow · « **Reply #33 on:** July 16, 2008, 09:46:42 PM »

I have little confidence that the company as currently constituted will still be solvent by August 4, when the quarterly results are supposed to be announced....this was a day when the market in general rallied...and in the last half hour the company's stock lost more than 40 percent of its value. Something caused this...and I doubt it is good.

Dubya91 · « **Reply #34 on:** July 16, 2008, 11:19:05 PM »

CF is following the footprints...i mean do you go to CP to ride the flats? Also doesn't buying paramount sound similar to europe?? CF may very well be this deep soon

Dubya91 · « **Reply #35 on:** July 16, 2008, 11:23:58 PM »

Didn't see these posts sorry

Buti hate to say this but will SIX survive til Aug 2nd?
There are mistakes but in defense the industry as a whole is on life support.

One more key point...did the parks SIX sold chop away at the debt or slow it down?

rjholla2003 · « **Reply #36 on:** July 17, 2008, 02:22:30 AM »

This is absurd. It doesn't even seem fair anymore to be honest. It's a cartoon...

GADVwow · « **Reply #37 on:** July 17, 2008, 06:57:04 AM »

The parks Six Flags sold went for comparatively very little, and didn't even put a sizable dent in the debt. And don't forget, supposedly there were more real estate sales coming, about which nothing has been heard since.

WadeJ · « **Reply #38 on:** July 17, 2008, 09:49:34 AM »

Rock and a hard place...

The only parks that could actually put a sizable dent in the debt load are the big guns like Great Adventure, Magic Mountain, Georgia, St. Louis, Texas, etc. But if they sold these off they wouldn't have the crutch any longer to sustain the other properties. Parks like Great Adventure most likely carry a HUGE load for the underperforming properties.

Meanwhile, they talked and talked about selling off property for land and now they missed the boat due to the economic situation. It wouldn't even be worth selling now. Thankfully, I'm selfishly happy about that since the land in Jackson NJ was certainly being considered lol

darkridedan · « **Reply #39 on:** July 17, 2008, 11:07:03 AM »

Amusement parks are an American tradition. People are going to go for the experience. Only money or maturity can change that.

I'm guessing Six Flags problem is a money issue. There is always a youth market. Whether it was the price of admission going too high over the past couple of years that has turned people away or the lack of focus by management that made guests feel that the admission price was not worth the experience, something has been turning people off. El Toro, Kingda Ka, Nitro, Batwing, Jokers Jinx, Raging Bull, V2, X2, the Goliaths, the S.U.F.s, the S.R.O.Ss, the Medusas, the Mr. Freezes and the Batmans are still around, so it can't be the youth dollar. Weather has been great this year, save for some flooding around Chicago. Weather was great last year, save for some flooding in Texas.

Is it a money issue? The economy was going like gangbusters a couple of years ago and the stock has been going down for quite a few years, so it can't be the economy. The last few owners have screwed with the amusement park formula. Kids and teens and thrill riders like the spin rides, adults alike enjoy the flats and everybody takes in a show. It seems like the problem was brought on moreso by decissions by the management for which they had control over, and not the economy of which they have no control.

Now the question is, why did they do it? It seems like Wade is onto something...

PcMan · « **Reply #40 on:** July 17, 2008, 11:54:24 AM »

European investors can pick this up very cheap even if they offer it at triple the currant stock price.
Since the dollar is worth 61 cents to the Euro they would get it very cheap just like the Inbev deal.

Looks like our country is being bought out by foreign countries and I expect to see more of this .
IBM sold PC division a few years ago to Lenovo a Chinese company etc. etc. etc.

While George Bush is sitting on his ass spending $5000 a second on the Iraq war

that's like spending $151,000 per person per year.

Like I said a few months ago you will remember this time of your life where costs of everything skyrocketed
everything is based on Oil at least Wholesale gas prices are down this week about 25 cents a gallon which in my area will show about $3.61 at the pump in a week.
thanks George Bush you will go down in history as the biggest jackass president in history

WadeJ · « **Reply #41 on:** July 17, 2008, 11:57:33 AM »

(ugghh, this host is killing me....67 seconds to load this freaking page)

Anyway, in an interesting twist, the stock is climbing fast today and it is presumably because of the item mentioned in the news side-bar on the right...

Quote

10:46AM Six Flags says performance to-date has positioned it to be free cash flow positive for the first time in the history of the company

So why on earth did they just NOW decide to react? Did they not know this last week? I'm glad to see them finally doing something to counter the sliding stock but its really going to take a miracle in the Q2 results to pull this out of the toilet.

On the flip side, at this price one does have to wonder if it would be worth gobbling up a ton of shares on just the chance that the results are outstanding? It would have so little risk that it might even be fun just to see what happens

PcMan · « **Reply #42 on:** July 17, 2008, 12:01:01 PM »

I bought more shares around $1 last week
if I knew it would drop to $.50 I could be up pretty good
I just don't have anymore to throw at it
but this is the time to do it to average down and I also think with the Nice weather this Year so far they should have good numbers.

darkridedan · « **Reply #43 on:** July 17, 2008, 12:36:13 PM »

Amen Wade.

WadeJ · « **Reply #44 on:** July 17, 2008, 03:11:18 PM »

Please, PLEASE don't quote me on this but I have this feeling that they have outstanding results for Q2. Perhaps they are playing a sneaky game of cards here but I can see the logic. For senior staff to be sitting back and watching the ship sink with little to no comment two weeks before tells me something is up.

WadeJ · « **Reply #45 on:** July 17, 2008, 06:34:25 PM »

Just noticed the article on the right - Today was Six Flags largest one day gain since 1996 and are cash flow positive for the first time in its history. Will the shareholders hold out one more year?

overlord · « **Reply #46 on:** July 17, 2008, 08:36:57 PM »

I knew I should have bought 100 shares yesterday! Damn...

Dubya91 · « **Reply #47 on:** July 17, 2008, 10:57:10 PM »

I am still a firm believer that building 3 coasters at once spoiled MM so rotten that you will only go down across the board

Anybody know the quote that's some like "You can take the boy out of New York but you can't take the New York out of the boy"

I am positive that quote hits it on the head. Replace boy with fan base and NY with coaster hunger

darkridedan · « **Reply #48 on:** July 19, 2008, 06:27:12 AM »

They are going to have to get used to it for a while RBW. A good coaster is a good coaster. I never understood why a coaster has to be brand new to be good. Most of my favorite flat rides are old. I go to parks for flat rides. They are the lure to places like that Mariner's Landing, Playlands Castaway Cove, Rye Playland Knoebels and Canobie Lake and many other amusement parks across the country. It would be the smarter direction for SF to cure itself from its "coaster addiction."

WadeJ · « **Reply #49 on:** July 19, 2008, 09:39:34 AM »

The big theme parks do rely more on coasters than those parks mentioned IMO. Where they went wrong was adding TOO many big coasters while removed flats. There is nothing wrong with having some of these big rides if you balance it out right. Somehow, IOA and the Busch parks do it just fine. Even Disney to a certain degree.

I know a few folks on here will disagree with me but to me, the only "real" mistakes in the building boom at GAdv were Superman and ka (and chiller before they finally gave up). Otherwise, the remaining rides do a good job at what they do, are relatively effecient and feel as though they belong there. They went wrong when they started removing the balance. And I don't blame the current regime for that. Shapiro had to restore cash flow and operating a 25 year flat that hasn't been maintained or can't get parts for is just silly. He had to be the evil hatchet man but its working if the recent report was any indication. Dan, I think that balance is going to start coming back now to if they pull through this horrible slide.

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Author Topic: 48 CENTS (Read 7398 times)