Six Flags opens to season of uncertainty

With jobs disappearing and homes foreclosing, Georgians might need a day at Six Flags Over Georgia with its escapist fare of roller coasters, Bugs Bunny and Dick Clark’s Bloopers.

But the recession’s troubles don’t stop at the amusement park’s main gate in Austell.

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BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com

Therman Ivie installs new carpet on the carousel ride at Six Flags. The popular park opens Saturday amid a rough economic patch.

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Six Flags Inc., the theme park’s parent company, is nearly bankrupt. Its stock closed at 24 cents Friday. A year ago, it was $2.17.

Six Flags carries an unsupportable $2.1 billion debt. Dividends aren’t paid. Expenses have been slashed. And revenues are squeezed from virtually every fence post and TV monitor in each of the company’s 20 North American theme parks.

Even the weather is bringing adversity. Six Flags Over Georgia was scheduled to open Saturday — its earliest opening ever — as the summer of 2009 shapes up as a make-or-break year for the company. But a forecast of rain forced the park to cancel that plan, and now it says it will decide Saturday whether to open on Sunday.

Indications are that the recession, and families’ newfound penchant for saving money, could sunder the company.

“Trends show there will be less visitors in 2009 and they will spend less than they did in 2008,” said George Van Horn, an amusement park analyst with IBIS World in Los Angeles. “This summer will be one of those big, problematic periods where nothing is going to get better. Surviving this year will certainly be a challenge.”

Six Flags Over Georgia faces an additional financial threat – the perception that crime and rowdy kids run rampant inside and outside the 197-acre park. Hela Sheth, spokeswoman for the local Six Flags, said safety fears are not statistically borne out.

She added that a discounted season-pass price, and the longest season in park history, will translate into a successful summer for Six Flags.

“We are affordable, close to home and offer something for everyone,” Sheth said. “People are looking for fun things to do. You can’t not do anything. It will be a great year. We’re doing everything we can to succeed.”

Tough times

Sheth spoke last week as workmen fixed security sensors at the main gate, painted railings at the bumper car ride and stapled flooring at the carousel in preparation of the park’s 42nd season.

It’s also the 25th season for the company’s water park in Marietta, which opens May 23. Without divulging revenue and attendance figures, Michael Antinoro, the company’s executive vice president for marketing and entertainment in New York, said both parks did well last year. But the company’s decision not to invest heavily in any of its parks this past year troubles Robert Ulrich.

“They’re definitely going on the cheap chain-wide this year and that’s probably, business-wise, a smart decision,” said Ulrich, the southeastern representative for the non-profit American Coaster Enthusiasts. “But they can’t do that every year. Then you’ll have people saying, ‘Why go back to Six Flags if it’s the same old stuff?’ “

When Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder gained control of Six Flags in late 2005, the stock rose to nearly $12. In 2007, the company lost $253 million.

Van Horn, the industry analyst, forecasted a 2.2 percent decline in revenue for the amusement park industry last year. He projects another 3.6 percent drop this year.

U.S. News and World Report predicted earlier this month Six Flags would go bankrupt this year. A spokesman for the New York Stock Exchange said Thursday that Six Flags “is definitely on our watch list” as shares continue to trade well below the $1 minimum necessary to remain on the Big Board.

“That’s just a commentary on our debt load,” Antinoro said, declining to address how the company would pay down its debt. “We don’t have a cash problem; we pay our bills. We are growing each year and looking for this summer to be a great summer.”

Last year’s third quarter results bolster, somewhat, Antinoro’s optimism. Revenue increased $236 million over the third quarter of 2007.

Six Flags’ new ownership has embarked upon an aggressive cost-cutting, revenue-boosting, appeal-broadening strategy. The company sold a half-dozen parks in 2007 to raise cash and pay down debt. Annual capital costs, including money to upgrade rides, were slashed in half from $200 million.

An image makeover

Six Flag Over Georgia will stay open an additional 49 hours this year. Prices for annual passes were again lowered. Television and radio advertisements for Chrysler, Papa Johns and Ben & Jerry’s will confront patrons waiting to ride Goliath and other roller coasters.

Six Flags positions itself as more than a roller-coaster emporium. Families get equal billing. Last year, the park opened a $2.5 million Thomas the Tank Engine play area. Monster Mansion, formerly Monster Plantation, is touted as a not-so-spooky for all ages. Code-of-conduct signs lay down the rules..

The family focus is more than a marketing ploy. Six Flags Over Georgia has been hit in recent years by a slew of bad press.

A free-admission radio promotion went awry in April 2007 when thousands of schoolchildren on spring break deluged the park and traffic backed up on I-20. That summer a 19-year-old Marietta man spent several days in intensive care after he was stomped, punched and kicked by youths outside the park. Three of the suspects were seasonal park employees.

Last year, a 17-year-old South Carolina boy jumped two fences and was decapitated by Batman the Ride. Cobb County Police recorded 106 crimes, mostly theft and car break-ins, in 2007 on Six Flags property. Last year they reported only 38.

“Safety is our top priority and something we take very seriously here and at all our parks,” Sheth said.

Ulrich, the roller-coaster fan, doesn’t feel threatened at the park.

“The questions people ask me about Six Flags are never about it not being safe out there,” he said. “They are always about how much money does it cost.”