Six
Flags/Premier Parks Corporate
By Chris Cowan
themeparks@insightbb.com
Six Flags Theme Parks
information is in purple.
Premier Parks, Inc.
information is in green.
The new Six Flags, Inc.
info is in black.
1961
– Angus Wynne’s company, Great Southwest
Corporation, opens Six Flags Over Texas. The name represents the
six countries whose flags flew over Texas during that state’s history
(Spain, France, Mexico, Texas as a Republic, Texas in the Confederacy, and
the USA).
1965 – Angus
Wynne sells Great Southwest Corp., including Six Flags, to Penn Central
Railroad Corporation.
1967 – Six
Flags Over Georgia opens on June 7.
1969: Ownership of the land for Six Flags Over Texas is passed to Six Flags
Over Texas, LP (a limited investor partnership). Land ownership of the
Georgia park is similarly passed to Six Flags Over Georgia, LP.
A
new company, Six Flags Theme Parks, is formed to handle daily
operations of the two parks.
1971 – Six
Flags Over Mid-America opens near St. Louis, Missouri.
1975 – Six
Flags purchases Astroworld.
1977 – Six
Flags buys Great Adventure (New Jersey).
1979 – Six
Flags purchases Magic Mountain (California).
1982 – Penn
Central Railroad sells Six Flags to Bally Manufacturing for $140
million.
1983 –
Gary Story arrives from Sydney, Australia to become General Manager of
Frontier City theme park (Oklahoma City).
1984:
Six Flags purchases Great America (Gurnee, IL)
from Marriott.
Six Flags buys Atlantis, The Water Kingdom, a
water park in Hollywood, Florida, and opens the park as Six Flags
Atlantis.
Six Flags Autoworld opens in Flint, Michigan. Six Flags signs a licensing deal with
Warner Communications to use Looney Tunes characters in their theme
parks.
1985:
Six Flags Power Plant opens in Baltimore,
Maryland.
Six Flags Autoworld closes.
1987 –
Wesray Capitol, along with Six Flags managers, purchases Six Flags from
Bally for $610 million (Wesray 80%, Six Flags managers 20%).
1989:
Kieran Burke becomes President and Chief Executive Officer of The
Tierco Group, Inc., a real estate group located in Oklahoma City.
Six Flags Atlantis is sold and reverts back to
the name Atlantis, The Water Kingdom (until it was destroyed by
Hurricane Andrew in 1992). Six Flags Power
Plant closes.
1990:
Time Warner, Inc. buys 19.5% of Six Flags for
$19.5 million. Tierco purchases Frontier
City.
1991:
Six Flags is close to filing for bankruptcy due to
Wesray’s debt. Time Warner steps in and purchases another 30.5% of Six
Flags (for a total of 50%) at a cost of $30.5 million. The Blackstone Group and Wertheim
Schroder buy the other 50% for $125 million. Time Warner retires the debt of Six Flags
and gives the company $150 million in capital. In
February, Tierco buys White Water Bay water park (Oklahoma City) from
Silver Dollar City, Inc.
1992 – Tierco
purchases Wild World Amusement Park (Maryland). Gary Story
becomes Executive Vice President of Tierco.
1993 – Time
Warner purchases the remaining 50% of Six Flags for $70 million.
1994 – Tierco
Group, Inc. changes its name to Premier Parks, Inc. Kieran Burke
becomes Chairman of the Board and remains Chief Executive Officer. Gary
Story is promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer.
1995:
Now
having debt problems of their own, Time Warner agrees to sell 51% of Six
Flags to Boston Ventures in exchange for $200 million and the
assumption of $800 million of Time Warner’s debt.
Six Flags purchases Wet 'N Wild water park in
Arlington, Texas (Six Flags Hurricane Harbor).
Premier Parks buys Funtime Parks, Inc., which
includes three parks:
o Geauga Lake
o Wyandot Lake
o Darien Lake
1996:
Six Flags purchases Fiesta Texas. The
Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Premier Parks stock raises nearly
$70 million at $18 per share.
In September, Premier purchases Elitch
Gardens Amusement Park (Denver) for $62.5 million.
In October, Premier
buys Waterworld USA water parks (Concord and Sacramento,
California).
In December, Premier purchases Great Escape & Splashwater
Kingdom (New York).
After the acquisitions, Premier Parks is the 4th
largest amusement park owner in the United States and ends the year with a
219% increase in net income over 1995.
1997: Premier Parks completes the purchase of Riverside Amusement Park
(Springfield, MA).
A second public stock offering raises an additional $200
million.
Premier assumes management of Marine World Africa USA
(California) in a 10-year deal.
In September, Premier buys Kentucky Kingdom
(Louisville) for $64 million.
In October, Premier acquires the land and
what remains of Old Indiana Fun Park (Indianapolis).
In November,
Premier purchases 13 rides from Gaylord Entertainment Company, the
owner of the soon to be closed Opryland USA theme park.
1998:
Premier joins the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PKS.
Premier buys Walibi Family Parks (Europe),
which are: Walibi Aquitaine (Toulouse-Bordeaux, France), Walibi
Rhone-Alpes (Lyon, France), Walibi Lorraine (Metz, France), Walibi Wavre
(Brussels, Belgium),
Walibi
Flevo (Amsterdam, Holland) and
Bellewaerde Park
(Ieper, Belgium). On April 1, Premier Parks purchases 100% of
Six Flags for
approximately $1.9 billion.
On June 21,
Premier renames Kentucky Kingdom as Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom,
making it the 9th “Six Flags” park.
In October, Premier renames four
more parks:
o Darien Lake as Six Flags Darien
Lake,
o Elitch Gardens as Six Flags Elitch
Gardens,
o Marine
World Africa USA as Six Flags Marine World and
o
Adventure World as Six Flags America.
1999:
Premier acquires White Water park (Atlanta), Splashtown water
park (Houston), Reino Aventura (Mexico City) and Warner Bros.
Movie World (Dusseldorf, Germany).
Geauga Lake Amusement Park is renamed
Six Flags Ohio.
Riverside Amusement Park is renamed Six Flags New
England.
Reino Aventura is renamed Six Flags Mexico.
Walibi
Flevo is renamed Six Flags Holland.
2000:
Premier signs major sponsorship deals with AOL,
Kodak and Univision. In February, PKS stock falls 13% after 3
top executives sell about $26 million worth of shares.
In July, Premier Parks, Inc. changes its name to
Six Flags, Inc.
In December, Six Flags purchases Enchanted Parks
(Wild Waves and Enchanted Village in Seattle, WA).
2001:
Six
Flags purchases SeaWorld Cleveland.
Six
Flags Ohio and SeaWorld Cleveland are combined into one park and renamed
Six Flags Worlds of Adventure.
Six Flags acquires La Ronde theme
park in Montreal, Canada.
Walibi Wavre is renamed Six Flags Belgium.
A major sponsorship deal is signed with
Perrier. Attendance at all parks is
46.576 million this year.
2002:
Six
Flags opens Warner Bros. Movie World in Madrid, Spain.
Six Flags
buys Jazzland (Louisiana).
A 10-year worldwide marketing partnership is signed with Coca-Cola.
Attendance at all parks is 42.495 million this year
(8.8% decrease).
2003:
Jazzland is renamed Six Flags New Orleans.
On November 26, Gary Story resigns from Six Flags
effective January 1, 2004, due to health concerns associated with his
diabetes.
Although Gary Story's Chief Operating Officer position
is eliminated, a third Executive Vice President for North American
operations spot is created. John Odum, general manager for Six Flags
over Georgia, is promoted to this new position.
Attendance at all parks is 41.728 million this year
(1.8% decrease).
2004:
On March 10, Six Flags announces it is selling Six
Flags Worlds of Adventure plus an adjacent hotel and campgrounds to
Cedar Fair for $145 million. The park name is changed back to
Geauga Lake.
Also on March 10, Six Flags announces a deal to sell
all of its European parks (except for Warner Bros. Movie World in
Madrid, Spain, which Six Flags doesn't own) to Palamon Capital Partners, a private investment firm, for $183 million. The
parks sold are: Six Flags Belgium (and it's Aqualibi
water park), Six Flags Holland, Warner Bros. Movie World
(Germany), Walibi Aquitaine, Walibi Rhone-Alpes, Walibi
Lorraine and Bellewaerde Park (Ieper, Belgium).
In July, Six Flags calls off a deal to purchase Six
Flags Marine World from the city of Vallejo, which was set to take place
in September. The company states it still plans to exercise its right
to buy the park before the management contract ends in February 2007.
In November, Six Flags management contract with
Warner Bros. Movie World in Madrid, Spain is ended by the park after
attendance falls to 1.1 million -- less than half of what was expected.
2005:
SplashTown water park in Spring, Texas becomes Six
Flags SplashTown.
Waterworld USA water parks in Concord and Sacramento,
California become Six Flags Waterworld – Concord and Six Flags
Waterworld – Sacramento.
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