It's Been A Rollercoaster Few Years For Six Flags. Can Travis Kelce Help? - Beritaja

Kansas City Chiefs tight extremity Travis Kelce says he grew up going to Six Flags parks and wants to thief make them typical for the adjacent procreation of families. Reed Hoffmann/AP

Reed Hoffmann/AP

Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight extremity and fiance of Taylor Swift, sparked jokes and hopes this week erstwhile he announced his finance successful the embattled amusement parkland institution Six Flags Entertainment.

The shot star, alongside 2 firm executives, teamed up pinch JANA Partners to acquisition a mixed liking of about 9% of Six Flags' shares, making them 1 of its largest shareholders, according to Tuesday's news release.

JANA Partners is an activist investment firm, meaning it buys a important liking successful a company's equity successful bid to push for changes — some operational and managerial — it believes will use that company.

"Couldn't walk up the opportunity to proceed the contented and make Cedar Point and Six Flags moreover much typical for the adjacent procreation of families!" Kelce wrote connected Instagram. "So crazy to moreover ideate this is real, but you gotta emotion it erstwhile life comes afloat circle."

Kelce besides shared location video clips of himself arsenic a kid enjoying the rides astatine Cedar Point, the 364-acre amusement parkland successful Sandusky, Ohio, that he and his relative (and retired pro footballer) Jason grew up going to each year, arsenic the 2 enthusiastically reminisced successful an section of their New Heights podcast. Kelce, who grew up successful a suburb of Cleveland, calls himself a "lifelong Six Flags fan."

Cedar Point's erstwhile operator, Cedar Fair, merged pinch Six Flags successful 2024 to go the largest amusement parkland usability successful North America, touting 42 parks crossed the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

At the time, galore amusement parks — and Six Flags particularly — were struggling to summation attendance successful the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Park analysts and enthusiasts hoped the merger would little summons costs, raise gross and make it much competitory against manufacture heavyweights for illustration Disney and Universal.

But that hasn't been the case, says Dennis Speigel, CEO of the consulting firm International Theme Park Services.

"As this merger occurred, I deliberation the owed diligence was about apt done a small excessively quickly and it had a batch of flaws successful it," he told BERITAJA. "And past it was besides impacted by what I telephone the outer factors: weather, economy, uncertainty of what's happening successful geopolitical areas."

Six Flags now has $5.3 cardinal successful debt. Its CEO, Richard Zimmerman, is set to measurement down by the extremity of the year, aft it reported a nett loss of $100 cardinal for the 2nd 4th of 2025 and mixed attendance down 9% year-over-year. It is shuttering 1 of its parks — Six Flags America successful Bowie, Md. — successful early November and is expected to adjacent different successful Santa Clara, Calif., successful 2027.

Speigel is hopeful the caller shareholders will get Six Flags backmost connected track. And while he was initially amazed to study of Kelce's involvement, he says it makes consciousness because "he's astatine the zenith of his profession successful shot … and successful love."

"Having a sanction for illustration that beryllium associated pinch Six Flags astatine this constituent successful time, erstwhile they've gone done rather a fewer years precocious of negativity, speaks good to their early and what they're looking to do," he says. "Obviously, he's a younger person. He speaks to the teens, the young adults and the young adults pinch families. And that's the Six Flags audience."

Kelce's fame — and high-profile emotion communicative — person boosted businesses before. Swift is credited pinch increasing female NFL viewership and summons income arsenic their narration unfolded. And, successful caller days, his societal media announcement has been flooded pinch fans' pleas for a Swift-themed park, aliases astatine slightest a rollercoaster.

Six Flags' rocky ride 

Six Flags opened pinch the "Six Flags Over Texas" parkland successful 1961, and for years was 1 of America's about iconic taxable parkland companies (along pinch Disney). But for the past decade, Speigel says, it has been "a vessel astatine oversea without a captain."

"I would person to opportunity [out of] the apical 5 aliases six operators during the past mates of years, Six Flags has suffered the most," he says.

Six Flags has had 4 CEOs since 2015.

It shifted its pricing strategy successful 2022 to target a much able demographic, confusing and alienating halfway customers successful the process. And successful caller years, a number of high-profile thrust malfunctions person stranded and even injured visitors. This year, utmost temperatures and economical uncertainty drove attendance down moreover further.

"To spot Six Flags person fallen disconnected the precipice and down to wherever it is now, it's sad," Speigel says. "And everybody successful the industry, competitors and alike, are each rooting for their return and their comeback."

Visitors arrived to a "Welcome Back" motion astatine Six Flags Magic Mountain successful Valencia, Calif., erstwhile it reopened aft the COVID-19 pandemic successful April 2021. Jae C. Hong/AP

Jae C. Hong/AP

What mightiness change? 

JANA Partners said successful its announcement that it plans to prosecute pinch Six Flags' guidance and committee of board "regarding opportunities to heighten shareholder worth and amended the impermanent experience."

BERITAJA has reached retired to Jana Partners for much accusation about its goals but did not perceive backmost by publication time.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the finance patient wants to "modernize technology, refresh activity and measure a imaginable waste arsenic ways to boost the company's stock price."

In a connection shared pinch BERITAJA, a Six Flags spokesperson said it appreciates the perspectives of shareholders and takes their feedback seriously.

Speigel says Six Flags' indebtedness could unit the caller investors to return "some drastic measures," for illustration trading immoderate of its parks, either to commercialized existent property aliases moreover backstage equity groups. And he stresses that ft postulation is cardinal successful the industry.

"We unrecorded connected repetition visitation, and repetition visitation is driven by superior improvements, caller rides and attractions, dark rides, the caller technologies," he says. "So we person to hopefully spot the maturation from that."

Speigel says moreover though U.S. amusement parks whitethorn not beryllium experiencing the aforesaid complaint of maturation that they did respective decades ago, they still pull immoderate 400 million visitors each twelvemonth — about of whom don't attraction who owns a parkland arsenic agelong arsenic their acquisition is clean, nosy and safe.

He hopes JANA recognizes Six Flags, and the manufacture successful general, arsenic "the past existent bastion of family nosy successful the United States, successful truth globally, wherever a family could spell arsenic a full unit. And I dream they put their superior down that and assistance it retired of the ashes wherever it is now."