Mark Kane Replaced as GM of SFGA

[coastersue]

I don't know how official this is, but it appears that SF has let GM's go from 3 of their parks, including Mark Kane.

http://www.examiner.com/adventure-parks-in-los-angeles/six-flags-magic-mountain-gm-jay-thomas-fired

Jerry's update:

This was confirmed as true this morning by the Asbury Park Press. John Fitzgerald has replaced Mark Kane as the General Manager/Park President of Six Flags Great Adventure. You can read all the information on the new GM at the link.

We are not sure what happened with Mark at this point - there are articles stating that the park president of Magic Mountain left for a job at Six Flags Corporate. It's unclear if Mark did the same or was just let go from the company. If he is still with the company at a corporate level, congrats to him!

If Mark is no longer with Six Flags we here at Great Adventure Outpost want to thank him for all the times he spent talking to us, and to all the park guests. Mark, you were always listening to our comments and concerns and we feel that Great Adventure has improved drastically under your watch. We wish you luck wherever your career leads you.

[Steve]

This is something I never saw coming. I wonder why the corporate offices decided that this was necessary.

[Bubba Z]

Wow!!

[coastermom]

WOW ... What a nice man too . He always had time to stop and talk to my family . Always nice and I thought he ran the park pretty well . This is another suprise I wonder how long Six Flgas is going to continue operating if they get rid of all their people who seem to be making changes for the better ? This is three unsettling things with SF in the last few weeks for me .

[jglonek]

That, wow. I got a Google news alert about it and came over here to see if anyone had posted it yet.

Is it true? I guess so. But why? And is this part of the new CEO's plan?

Again, I'm glad I'm moving to Florida next year. I'm losing faith in Six Flags. Alot of negative or other random changes lately and not a lot of positives (or any).

[B-mac]

Again, I'm glad I'm moving to Florida next year. I'm losing faith in Six Flags. Alot of negative or other random changes lately and not a lot of positives (or any).

I'm moving down to Virginia in the next few weeks if my mom gets her job, if it's not the case I'm not getting a season pass next year because I've lost all faith in their efforts to make the park better.

I know Mr. Kane was a nice guy, everyone who've I've met at six flags are nicer than the local employees (not the people from other countries, they at least smile and try to be nice).

[Coasterdude28]

Wow, really? Mark Kane was a really nice guy and I truly felt that he had the parks and guests best interest at heart. I always enjoyed talking with him when I had the chance. Seems like a strange lay-off in my opinion.

[Blackhand1001]

I really wish Red Zone was still running the show.

[WadeJ]

This makes me sick... With that said, let's not jump to any conclusions just yet until we find out who the replacement is. There are many good people at the park - assuming somebody moves up to the role.

[jimmybjammin]

I have no idea what their customer focused plan is, but it's definitely about $. After they cut to the bone by firing all management, which of course made way more than min wage, what's left for easy cuttings to give the share holders? Maintenance next?

[AV Matt]

Even stranger IMO is Jay Thomas getting fired from the position at Magic Mountain. He's the guy that turned Kentucky Kingdom around then made a HUGE improvement at Magic Mountain. He's the only park boss I've ever met and talked with. He really had a great vision for his parks and valued the opinions of enthusiasts, posting on some forums himself.

What an odd news day.

[Steve]

From Screamscape:

In a very shocking piece of news, Screamscape has learned from a source that the Six Flags corporate office fired three of their top GMs this week. The list is said to include Eric Gibert from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, longtime respected GM Mark Kane at Six Flags Great Adventure and the loved Jay Thomas at Six Flags Magic Mountain who has been praised for really turning that park around in the last few years.
    No reason or even confirmation has come from the Six Flags corporate office yet, so this is quite shocking to a good number of people, as these were some of the top GMs in the entire chain. Valued members of the company, so it’s hard to imagine how or why the new Six Flags board would dismiss them. In the case of SFMM and SFGAdv, I’m told that Thomas and Kane brought up the guest satisfaction scores at both those parks to all time record high levels never seen before. Unlike the dismissal of the former SF New England GM earlier this summer who had close personal ties to Shapiro, these guys were longtime company men, around long before the Shapiro era.
    From what I was told Dale Kaetzel (a former GM of Canada’s Wonderland and also involved with Hard Rock Park) will take over SF Discovery Kingdom, a returning Marketing Director named Bonnie Rabjohn will slide into Thomas’ seat at The Mountain and John Fitzgerald (formerly of Freestyle Music Park) will take the hot seat in the New Jersey park. You can also read a bit more about Kaetzel and Fitzgerald at Catchment, a themed entertainment / attraction management service the two were partners in.

[Blackhand1001]

So they get rid of Mark Kane, and replace him with the GM of a failed amusement park.

[Steve]

So they get rid of Mark Kane, and replace him with the GM of a failed amusement park.

That's the first thing I thought of, but FMP is more of a financial issue vs. the park being ran properly. Six Flags is far more financially stable then FMP ever was.

[overlord]

I don't understand this...I am really starting to turn from a Six Flags guy to a Cedar Fair guy...

[Coasterdude28]

I don't understand this...I am really starting to turn from a Six Flags guy to a Cedar Fair guy...

This. So this. After visiting King's Dominion this weekend I really am starting to like CF more. Their parks are just run so much better imo.

[Coasterdude28]

Someone posted this on TPR:

Jay Thomas exits Magic Mountain for corporate gig in Texas

Jay Thomas is leaving Six Flags Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor as park president for a position at the theme park company's corporate office in Dallas, an official said Tuesday.

A Six Flags Magic Mountain spokeswoman denied that Thomas had been fired from the company, which was part of initial reports.

"Jay never had the kind of airs that corporate people do -- he is a genuine, good human being," said John Mahaffy, former interim director of the SCV Boys & Girls Club Foundation.

See Wednesday's Signal for the complete story.

If this is the case, we can hope that Mark Kane will also be moving up the SF ladder to a corporate position. I'd love to see him still involved in with the company.

[rjholla2003]

If that is the case...then I would be happy for him. It would also make sense since they are both highly regarded Park Presidents.

[coastermom]

So they get rid of Mark Kane, and replace him with the GM of a failed amusement park.

That's the first thing I thought of, but FMP is more of a financial issue vs. the park being ran properly. Six Flags is far more financially stable then FMP ever was.

Yes but we went to FMP before its closing and there is a HUGE difference in running that park and running SFGADV. I mean the park was empty ,I mean like really empty no one on line to ride next ride  empty . I also remember it being very slow like no one in  a rush to move there to get people on or off the rides . After 4PM the place did get crowded and it was just very slow on most rides . That is not going to work here . I am kind of worried as to where SF is going . With our last visit we had a problem and guest services was horriable not even like the least bit concerned.
( for those that dont know ... My daughter was hit in the chest with a flying water bottle on the second hill of EL TORO . Thank God it did not really seriously hurt her as it could have been her face ,  but she was soaked head to toe and a little shaken up . All that was said to us was well she is not really hurt and heres a shirt to dry off. Kind of like a get lost feeling I got  )

Anyway I really do hope Mr. Kane is moving up to a better job and that he was not let go . He was always out walking around . Always talked to us and really listened to what people had to say .

[Steve]

You can find anything on the internet.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-fitzgerald/12/681/196

He has credentials. I think we are all associating him with FMP when he has been on control of several other parks. From what the article states, he is currently the only one gone. I am still sure that Gadv will still go strong in the direction they are.

The park has already set a standard of where they want their guest service to be, as it was stated about that it has been at an all time high. It has worked and built for years and had the time to be where they want, unlike FMP where there were still a lot of issues going on with that park in particular.

I am not saying that this is a good or bad move for the company. We can speculate all we want but we have to sit back and see where this goes.

[jglonek]

http://www.app.com/article/20100825/BUSINESS/100825031/Six-Flags-names-new-CEO-for-Great-Adventure

There is an article from the Asbury Park Press making it all official. Unfortunately it does not mention anything about where Mark Kane is headed.

[AV Matt]

Glad Jay is valued by the company. Hopefully being out of the parks won't diminish his positive effect on them. Maybe he can clean all of them up now!

[jimmybjammin]

The linkedin profile for John Fitzgerald looks great from a money efficiency point of view, and he did start his career at SFGA in 1982 when he was 19 so maybe he will be kind and not fire all the redundant positions like his profile says he did at Terra Mítica to get them out of debt. Only time will tell if it gets better than Mark Kane has led to from a customer stand point. Interesting how SF's new board is slowly grabbing a bunch of former Paramount people to run things.

Coastermom, sorry to hear that happened, your experience was a really bad guest relations response for out of hand guests. When I was at CP in May, pouring of course, I learned from others that CP will wash clothing from rust stains that occurs on their rides (raptor ruster). The staff at GA you delt with should have at least apologized in your situation, offered a change of clothes while having the drenched clothing washed/dryed and have your daughter checked.

[jglonek]

I moved this into the news category so it shows up on the front page, and added my own note to Sue's original post.

[Edwardo]

The new people coming on board, I'm pretty sure, are all former Paramount Parks people, save for the new SFMM GM (And she has history at that park).  This is Al Weber getting his people in at Six Flags.  I'm not unhappy about that, though I don't necessarily see the reason for getting rid of this particular GM.

I think Al getting the former Paramount people in is great though.  They ran the parks well, they were always clean, and Paramount knew the importance of flat, family, and thrill rides at their parks.  Now that they have better IP to work with (DC comics and Warner Bros.), I think we'll see major improvements in rides and in the parks.