The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

9 January 2005

Maybe 3.5 flags, max

When you're talking theme parks, the Six Flags chain occupies a level of awareness right up there beside Disney; it's a huge operation, justly famed.

Which makes it even odder that Six Flags, which is based in Oklahoma City (which is odd in itself), has done so little with its hometown park, says OKCPulse:

Frontier City has a theme that is unique. It takes leaders with a strong vision to take the park far beyond what it is today, but those people obviously are not there. Frontier City will never see itself on the Travel Channel, because the park has nothing significant to leave out-of-state visitors impressed. Many park visitors feel they do not get the quality out of the admission they pay, which is $27.99 for adults as of 2004. The park [has] not done the surrounding area much good. Look at the businesses along the I-35 service road, they are failing alongside a string of dilapidated properties, and that is a bad impression.

Despite fairly-indifferent financial performance [link requires Adobe Reader] last year, Six Flags is going ahead with some improvements to some of its parks, says Chairman Kieran E. Burke:

Our 2005 capital plan encompasses new attractions in 13 of our 18 domestic theme parks, a major new ride in our park in Mexico City and a children's area in our Montreal park. We will be adding both teen and family attractions. Our largest initiatives will be concentrated in our major markets. We will be debuting a new water park at our Chicago park for 2005. At our New Jersey park, we will be creating a dramatic new jungle themed 11 acre entertainment section, anchored by a world-record setting roller coaster, and including a new stadium for unique tiger shows and exhibits and an expansive new children's area. Our San Francisco park will receive a new section including a dolphin cove and other interactive animal attractions. We will also continue to invest against in-park revenue growth; we have seen strong year over year in-park spending growth over the last several seasons. In all, we expect our capital program to entail an expenditure of $130-135 million. We believe that this capital program, when combined with our breakthrough marketing campaign, should yield solid attendance and revenue growth next year and set the stage for significant growth the next several years as we restore park performance to average historic levels.

Emphasis added by me. "Average historic levels," generally, means "before 9/11." I suspect there will be a few more lean years before there are any substantial upgrades to Frontier City.

Still: twenty-eight bucks? Universal Studios Orlando (neither a Disney nor a Six Flags property) will set you back $59.75.

Posted at 9:28 AM to City Scene


Sixty bucks!? For that kind of money admission should include free food and beer, a date with the Universal movie star of your choice, and a three-picture deal with full script approval.

Posted by: McGehee at 12:31 PM on 9 January 2005

Maybe one reason Frontier City isn't on the front burner so much is that the corporate office is here - but really isn't here. OKC's mention as a corporate office is being phased out as the REAL main office is in New York City. When the honchos are sitting in their suites in Manhattan, I'm sure Frontier City isn't as much a priority as if they saw it everyday when the office really WAS here. Read these little mini bios and look at the last line:
http://www.sixflags.com/investor_exe_bios.asp

Posted by: Mike Sw. at 12:44 PM on 9 January 2005

I saw that. (Corporate stationery lists both, though Oklahoma City is on top, perhaps for design reasons; all the press releases seem to come from New York.)

Eventually, perhaps out of cost considerations, they'll likely phase out their OKC corporate presence entirely, which will of course help even less.

Posted by: CGHill at 12:47 PM on 9 January 2005

I haven't been following the price very closely, but I think Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, (also not Disney nor Six Flags) charges in the neighborhood of $55. It's also not even close to the city so people have to drive a fair distance to get there.

Posted by: Interested-Participant at 12:59 AM on 10 January 2005