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If they keep the Six Flags pricing to be able to visit other parks, SDC will be competing with a combined SFSL and WOF with a Frontierland thrown in as a bonus

Six Flags and Cedar Fair have entered into an agreement to merge into a unified company under the "Six Flags" brand, comprised of 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and 9 resort properties across 17 states, Canada and Mexico. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024, following receipt of Six Flags shareholder approval, regulatory approvals, and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2023/11-02-2023-100020810

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Cedar Fair (NYSE: FUN) and Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX) today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine in a merger of equals transaction. The combined company, with a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $8 billion based on both companies' debt and equity values as of October 31, 2023, will be a leading amusement park operator in the highly competitive leisure space with an expanded and diversified footprint, a more robust operating model and a strong revenue and cash flow generation profile.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, Cedar Fair unitholders will receive one share of common stock in the new combined company for each unit owned, and Six Flags shareholders will receive 0.5800 (the "Six Flags Exchange Ratio") shares of common stock in the new combined company for each share owned. Following the close of the transaction, Cedar Fair unitholders will own approximately 51.2%, and Six Flags shareholders will own approximately 48.8%, of the combined company's fully diluted share capital on a pro forma basis. One business day prior to the close of the transaction, Six Flags will declare a special cash dividend composed of: (i) a fixed amount of $1.00 per outstanding Six Flags share, totaling approximately $85 million in the aggregate, plus, (ii) an amount per outstanding Six Flags share equal to (a) the aggregate per unit distributions declared or paid by Cedar Fair to unitholders with a record date following today's date and prior to the close of the transaction, multiplied by (b) the Six Flags Exchange Ratio, which special dividend will be payable to Six Flags shareholders of record as of one business day prior to the close of the transaction, contingent on the closing of the transaction.

"Our merger with Six Flags will bring together two of North America's iconic amusement park companies to establish a highly diversified footprint and a more robust operating model to enhance park offerings and performance," said Richard Zimmerman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cedar Fair. "Together, we will have an expanded and complementary portfolio of attractive assets and intellectual property to deliver engaging entertainment experiences for guests. The combination also creates an enhanced financial profile with strong cash flow generation to accelerate investments in our parks to delight our guests, driving increased levels of demand and in-park value and spending. I have great respect for the Six Flags team and look forward to joining forces as we embark on this next chapter together."

"The combination of Six Flags and Cedar Fair will redefine our guests' amusement park experience as we combine the best of both companies," added Selim Bassoul, President and Chief Executive Officer of Six Flags. "Six Flags and Cedar Fair share a strong cultural alignment, operating philosophy, and steadfast commitment to providing consumers with thrilling experiences. By combining our operational models and technology platforms, we expect to accelerate our transformation activities and unlock new potential for our parks. We are excited to unite the Cedar Fair and Six Flags teams to capitalize on the tremendous growth opportunities and operational efficiencies of our combined platform for the benefit of our guests, shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders."

Compelling Strategic and Financial Benefits

A Successful Amusement Park Operator with Complementary Portfolio of Attractive Assets: The combined company will operate a portfolio of 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and 9 resort properties across 17 states in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The company's complementary portfolio will include some of the most iconic parks in North America with significant brand equity and loyal, recurring guest bases within the highly competitive leisure space. The combined company will also have entertainment partnerships and a portfolio of beloved IP such as Looney Tunes, DC Comics and PEANUTS to develop engaging new attractions enabled by compelling characters, environments, and storytelling.
Diversified Footprint and Guest Experiences: Cedar Fair and Six Flags have minimal market overlap of park operations, and the combined company's complementary geographic footprint is expected to mitigate the impact of seasonality and reduce earnings volatility through a more balanced presence in year-round operating climates. The portfolio will include diversified experiences for guests including safaris and animal experiences, campgrounds, sports facilities and luxury lounges, enabling the combined company to better meet rising consumer demand for varied and engaging entertainment options.
Enhanced Operating Platform to Improve Guest Experiences: By uniting Cedar Fair and Six Flags' complementary operating capabilities, the combined company will benefit from a more robust operating platform for improved park offerings and more efficient systemwide performance. The companies expect to leverage Cedar Fair's recent park investment experience to accelerate the transformation underway across Six Flags' portfolio. Cedar Fair and Six Flags will seek to create a more engaging and immersive guest experience. The combined company will also offer expanded park access to season pass holders along with an enhanced, combined loyalty program featuring additional perks.
Experienced and Proven Leadership Team: The senior leadership teams of Six Flags and Cedar Fair bring different and complementary skillsets and experience to the combined company, including decades of park operating experience as well as significant expertise integrating businesses and achieving synergy targets.
Significant Cost Savings and Revenue Uplift Opportunity: Following the close of the transaction, Cedar Fair and Six Flags expect the combined company will benefit from the significant value created by total anticipated annual synergies of $200 million. Approximately $120 million of these synergies are expected to be related to identified administrative and operational cost savings, which the companies anticipate realizing within two years following transaction close. The companies also expect to leverage their complementary operating capabilities to deliver additional revenue uplift, generating approximately $80 million of incremental EBITDA that the companies anticipate realizing within three years of transaction close.
Strong Financial Profile: Over the last 12 months, through the third quarter of fiscal 2023, Six Flags and Cedar Fair collectively entertained 48 million guests, and, as a combined company, would generate pro forma $3.4 billion1 in revenue, $1.2 billion1 in Adjusted EBITDA2, and $826 million1,3 of free cash flow4, reflecting run rate cost savings of $120 million and revenue uplift resulting in $80 million of incremental EBITDA. The transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings per share for Cedar Fair unitholders and Six Flags shareholders within the first 12 months following transaction close. The combined company is also expected to have a pro forma leverage ratio of approximately 3.7x net debt to Adjusted EBITDA, inclusive of synergies, with a path to reduce the leverage ratio to approximately 3.0x within two years of transaction close.
Significant Free Cash Flow Generation and Enhanced Financial Flexibility: The combined company's increased free cash flow will provide it with greater flexibility to invest in new rides and attractions, broader food and beverage selections, additional in-park offerings, and cross-park initiatives, such as consumer technology and enhanced guest services. The combined company's resources are expected to be strategically deployed to grow attendance, increase per capita spending, and improve profitability, all while enhancing guests' value and experience across the park portfolio. The combined company is committed to allocating capital to maximize shareholder returns once the company achieves its targeted net leverage ratio.
Leadership, Corporate Governance and Headquarters

The combined company will be led by a proven management team that reflects the strengths and capabilities of both organizations. Upon closing of the transaction, Richard Zimmerman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cedar Fair, will serve as President and Chief Executive Officer of the combined company and Selim Bassoul, President and Chief Executive Officer of Six Flags, will serve as Executive Chairman of the combined company's Board of Directors. Brian Witherow, Chief Financial Officer of Cedar Fair, will serve as Chief Financial Officer of the combined company and Gary Mick, CFO of Six Flags, will serve as Chief Integration Officer of the combined company.

Following closing of the transaction, the newly formed Board of Directors of the combined company will consist of 12 directors, six from the Cedar Fair Board and six from the Six Flags Board.

Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will operate under the name Six Flags and trade under the ticker symbol FUN on the NYSE and will be structured as a C Corporation. The combined company will be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will maintain significant finance and administrative operations in Sandusky, Ohio.

Approvals and Closing

The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2024, following receipt of Six Flags shareholder approval, regulatory approvals, and satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Approval by Cedar Fair unitholders is not required. Six Flags' largest shareholder, which owns approximately 13.6% of Six Flags' shares outstanding, has signed a voting and support agreement to vote in favor of the transaction. The transaction is not expected to trigger any change of control provision under Cedar Fair's and Six Flags' respective outstanding Notes. The companies expect to refinance their respective revolving credit facilities, and Six Flags expects to refinance the Six Flags Term Loan, ahead of transaction close.

Cedar Fair and Six Flags Third Quarter 2023 Results

In separate press releases today, Cedar Fair and Six Flags reported results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. The Cedar Fair release is available at https://ir.cedarfair.com and the Six Flags release can be found at https://investors.sixflags.com.

Advisors

Perella Weinberg Partners is serving as exclusive financial advisor and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP are serving as legal counsel to Cedar Fair. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal counsel to Six Flags.

Conference Call and Additional Materials

Cedar Fair, L.P. (NYSE: FUN) and Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX) will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET today to discuss the pending merger and review both companies' third quarter 2023 results. Participants on the call will include Six Flags President and CEO Selim Bassoul, Cedar Fair President and CEO Richard Zimmerman, Cedar Fair Executive Vice President and CFO Brian Witherow, and Six Flags CFO Gary Mick.

Investors and all other interested parties can access a live, listen-only audio webcast of the call on the Cedar Fair and Six Flags websites. Those unable to listen to the live webcast can access a recorded version of the call on either company's investor website Past Events, shortly after the live call's conclusion.

A replay of the call will also be available by phone starting at approximately noon ET on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, until noon ET, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. To access the phone replay, please dial (866) 813-9403 or (929) 458-6194, followed by the Conference ID: 830378.

About Cedar Fair

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN), one of the largest regional amusement-resort operators in the world, is a publicly traded partnership headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio. Focused on its mission to make people happy by providing fun, immersive, and memorable experiences, the Company owns and operates 13 properties, consisting of 11 amusement parks, four separately gated outdoor water parks, and resort accommodations totaling more than 2,300 rooms and more than 600 luxury RV sites. Cedar Fair's parks are located in Ohio, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Texas and Toronto, Ontario.

He is something


https://armoneyandpolitics.com/silver-dollar-city-superfan/?fbclid=IwAR3Ai5p9H6wI3QcldP8lMRfhV-FqwNpW-JAICbPxakfCg6ssynAxgtDtLh8

Frontier is pulling out....again.

Sun Countey is coming back with twice weekly to Minnysotah

Last year I somehow managed to not hit a single park with a coaster. It was for trying, things never lined up.

I did see Crater Lake in the Snow, tidal pools, whales, reqlly big tree, Kodiak beara, orcas in the wild, a huge school of humpbacks, seals and eagles on ice bergs, glaciers galore, mountain goats on 9k ridges and yellow aspens galore in Colorado. It was a good year if travel as the wife and I transition to traveling without kids in tow.

This year will be different. I'm hitting some parks that I need to check off over the summer. I'm only working 4 days a week and 5 weeks of vacation as I hit my 50th year giving me very long weekends and time to take off and I got a ton of points.

Whats for sure is a 10 day New England foilage drive the last week of Sept/first week of Oct. Got the flight and rooms booked for that already.

Oof.
https://attractionsmagazine.com/seaworld-entertainment-to-buy-cedar-fair-parks-for-3-4-billion/

Is this thing still alive?

https://attractionsmagazine.com/imagine-resorts-opening-family-waterpark-resort-near-branson-in-2023/

Frontier to expand service to Dallas and Chicago
https://flybranson.com/frontier-airlines-announces-new-non-stop-flights-branson-airport-dallas-fort-worth-international-airport-chicago-ohare-international-airport-fares-low-29/

In case you haven't heard, the place(any of them) keeps getting more expensive while they continue to cut what made it special. Case in point

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/the-unexpected-reason-disneyland-is-getting-rid-of-chairs-and-benches/ar-BBNJHfg?ocid=ientp

Good Grief

I wonder if Mr. Bass Pro gets in on this since theState finally got off their duff and approved the tax kickback the ASKED FOR IN 2016?

This is a good start. I still maintain that the northern end should be developed in to Tivoli type park with similar rides to round out the whole thing and a Soarin' style ride down the Mississippi be part of the  Museum overhaul or aquarium. This comes along with Lowes announcing a retrofit of a 00 North Main in to a new 600 room hotel and two new adjoining office towers as part of the project to go with the 300 million dollar renovation of the convention center and 200 million plus revamp of Memphis International.

2021 and 2022 will have bitg changes in store for Memphis.

Memphis was recently named #1 of the Top 5 places in the World to visit in May by USA Today.

He couldn't right the ship after stepping into a mishandled situation with the backlash from a biased, overly slanted hit piece that CNN had a financial stake in promoting.

Service to Denver, I'm sure it'll be 3x to 4x weekly.

Let's hope this leads to Austin, Cincy, and Orlando as they build up connecting at those airports.

Haven't been on SDC's site in a while but noticed they are showing links to FlyBranson's air service.

79 bucks each way from Dallas.

Is that something new? Not the air service but SDC actively promoting air service from a particular service.

Would tie in well with packaged trips at a HFE owned resort, just saying.

[SDC Attractions Pre 1986:]

So, over on the Dollywood sub board a small debate broke out on whether Dollywood gets a lot more love than SDC. I contest that there might be a very small difference but as big as it is assumed to be.  A lot of we need to get a list of attractions and theater/showbuildings at the end of 1985.

SDC Attractions Pre 1986:
American Plunge Log Flume (circa 1981, replaced Jim Owens Ozark Float Trip)
Flooded Mine (circa 1968)
Grandfather's Mansion (circa 1968, formerly Sam's Mining Shack)
Frisco Silver Dollar Line Train
Huck Finn's Hideaway(formerly Herman the Hermit's Tree House)
Lost River of the Oazrks (under construction or opened in 1985, replaced Rube Dugan's Diving Bell)
Marvel Cave Tour with funicular back up to top
Fire in the Hole
Tom Sawyer's Landing (circa 1984, Consisting of Becky's Carousel and rope towers and nets)
Runaway Ore Cart
Petting Zoo

SDC Theaters, Stages, Showbuildings Pre 1986:

Echo Hollow Amphitheater (cap. 4,000, circa  1983)

Silver Dollar Saloon (circa 1973)

The Boatworks Theater

Riverfront Playhouse (cap. 600, circa 1979, former names Courthouse Theater, Gaslight Theater)

Gazebo

Dockside Theater

McHaffie's Homestead Front Porch

Dollywood Attractions Pre 1986

Blazing Fury

Flooded Mine

Country Fair Mills Log FLume

Inventor's Mansion

Butter Churn Trabant flat ride

Red Baron Flying Squadron spinner

Grand Ballroom (ball and germ pit)

Malfuntion Junction Bumber Cars

Mountain Swinger

Cloud Grabber

Carousel

Petting Zoo

Dollywood Theaters, Stages, Showbuildings Pre 1986:

Silver Dollar Saloon

Magic Show


Help Fill in the Gaps!!!!!

Slated to hit this park before our Disney Cruise for Spring Break 2018.

And filling a void left by Disney getting rid of the shark swim at Typhoon Lagoon (boo...hiss) Seaworld is offering up shark swims at Discovery Cove now. They will get more of my money come March.

Premise of the thread is simple, see something interesting that related to fun but doesn't really need it's own thread.

I'll start it. For the steam punk fans, a mall in Quebec City is calling out for you.

https://blooloop.com/news/mega-parc-quebec-relaunch/

Six Flags America was our first theme park of the summer trip. After 5 days of museums and tours in Washington, I hopped the metro and went to DCA to pick up our ride for the next two weeks (or so I thought). Budget, true to form didn't have what we rented (7 seat SUV, Explorer or Similar). It was cheaper than the regular mid sized SUVS when I booked. So, they put us into a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. Which was more than acceptable considering there are 4 of us.

Now, back to the park. It's a smaller park, it is very well maintained and cleaned. Landscaping was nice, no weeds, ect, ect, ect. But... this park lacks shade trees and just plain shade. I had read that thus was the case but it truly is. Being a Tuesday afternoon, the park was mostly empty as many schools in the area were still in session. The plan of attack was getting all the coasters done, and spend some time at the water park section and hit up more rides between the water park closing and dry park closing. It was the busiest area as the metro DC area soared into the mid 90s from the perfect breezy low 80s we had starting off. We headed to the Cajun themed area first. We did it all, the drop, the flying scooters, the spinning wild mouse and Wild One woodie. It was nothing special aND after a front row and back row ride a distant memory.

Next up was Apocalypse, a B&M Stand Up. This was my first ride on this type. There's a bit of a trick to the restraint system. You want to bend/squat a little while getting locked in to give the boys a little clearance. There was nothing special about standing up, and head banging associated with Vekoma if you don't know how to position your head going into different elements. One front row ride was more than enough for the credit.

Next up was Joker's Jinx, this is a repeat as we have rode SFFT. It was alright, we got three rides in and moved on to Superman, Ride of Steel. It's alright, a front and back and we we on our way. Roar was next and did the front and back combo and there was nothing special about it. We did the rift ride and once was enough. Last and least was the Vekoma flying dutchman, Batwing. It is what it is and it's not a B&M flyer. The Wonder Woman themed Star Flyer was testing but not open.

Overall, the park is clean, well kept but needs lots more shade. There was some street entertainment like  Carnival dancing in the Mardi Gras section. It needs another something. There isn't one stand out in the park.

Next up Morey's Pier.

Been to a couple of their biblical based productions and wish they would start up another theater with a similar concept based on American History.

Anyone notice SDC was 21st in the World Amusement Park rankings this time around. Not US, but the World.

Has finally announced a grand opening of Sept. 17th.