Biggest mistake for Six Flags: closing Astroworld and leveling it hoping to get a lot of money from the sale and demolition of the park only getting less than what they expected

I will never forgive Six Flags for demolishing Astroworld and its weird collection of coasters. A Coney Island Cyclone clone, the first working Arrow swinging coaster, the first Intamin standing coaster, the only US Togo Ultratwister, a trio of Schwarzkopf loopers, an indoor coaster… and the park had outdoor AC units to cool down the wait lines.

I feel like Six Flags is a missed opportunity. Instead of embracing their budget park status, they tried to be something they are not. Walmart doesn't try to be Target. You are the discount park, offer discount experiences. Give a better bang for your buck. Make the food reasonably priced. I eat before I go because I am not spending $13 for a slice of pizza. I am cheap, you are cheap, we are a match made in heaven. Sia loves cheap thrills and so do I.

Their best decision in my opinion, is keeping classic (even if aging) coasters around. Viper at SFMM is still my favorite, and I'm always happy to see an old-school coaster still going after all these years.

Reusing coaster names across parks and ride types is a big mistake. GP knows what iconic rides are with unique names, like Top Thrill Dragster or Velocicoaster. Having 20 Goliaths just confuses people and diminishes the value of the original.

Six Flags and Cedar Fairs shared mistake: Geagua Lake.

We gotta get a sequel with cedar fair. The done made there fair share as well.

The six flags, rmc relationship is probably one of the strongest in the industry.It’s awesome these two have and will keep doing business, which is good for all parties.

For Six Flags Great Adventure, The Chiller would have fit in.

I like how you focused on the positives at the end! I just love the fact they gave some of the best manufacturers today their first chance

6:01 Finally! Someone else gets it! They also didn't invest enough in maintaining what was already there.

Personally speaking from a person who went to six flags great adventure as a guest from age 0 to 17 and then working there from age 18 to 29, one thing I’d say about six flags and even most amusement parks need to bring back for a family aspect is shows. Like when I was a kid, SFGAd had amazing shows like the Batman stunt show and the Lethal Weapon Water Stunt Spectacular. As a kid, I didn’t go door the roses, I wanted to go and see the amazing shows. And I feel like that’s something Six Flags has lost as a whole. Like yes, you can ride the newest, craziest ride, but if you’re at a park for a day and you need to eat and can’t go on rides until your food settles, what is there to do? A show can be just as impactful as a ride. That’s why I worked for the entertainment department of Great Adventure while I worked there. Because those shows I saw as a kid made me want to be a part of that and try (if anything) to be a part of bringing that back (which they didn’t).

How do you keep pumping out so many great videos so often

The closure of AstroWorld +neglect of of it that prompted its closure is another. There was also AutoWorld 1984 & Power Plant (no rides at all) both Disney entertainment inspired parks. AutoWorld lasted a bit longer & had planned on adding coasters etc. PP might have lasted If they a few rides (even Gary Goddard Prod. suggested Intamin freefall having track surpass smoke stacks interior to entice guests) Even a carousel. One of the effects made it to AstroWorld. Condor tower was a ride rotation, Adventure Rivers as well. I agree, Selim should NOT put cart b4 horse & raised prices. Paint stuff 1st & improve food + cleanliness of the parks. Don't alienate your older core fans. Improve the "legacy" rides. Speelunker's was great. Nostalgia merch. would have worked for that ride as well. Lots of other touches to older attractions & more family rides would round out experience. Even w/ nearly 50 parks, they were STILL 2nd to Disney.

Fun fact. Great adventure had a chance rides built scrambler esc ride. Another fun fact. Sfno originally bought a slc but that deal fell thru. That ride is now gauntlet at magic springs

Your point is very valid. I actually love six flags. They take major risks. Intamin nuit American eagle , rmc new Texas giant etc so yes there are failures with risks but look without six flags we may have never had an rmc.

Big agree on the international program being a positive. Not only is it a massive reason for the parks being able to operate at all, but as a former Six Flags employee myself it was an amazing experience getting to meet people from all over the world.

Another mistake for Great Adventure was deferring maintenance on Rolling Thunder to the point where they had no choice but to tear it down. It's a big empty hole that still hasn't been filled in yet. Closing Astroworld was also mentioned as a big chain wide mistake, which I agree with.

Demolishing Astroworld was their biggest mistake ever

I didn’t think it would be by park for the first half, I thought it would be for the company the whole way through. Great vid, Airtime. I’m new to this coaster enthusiast thing and it was you who introduced me to this.

This feels like a video that will garner a lot of attention, and I believe there’s a whole lot more that could’ve been covered but the video would’ve taken too long. Six Flags has such an interesting history when it comes to Darien Lake since they acquired it, sold it off and then came back a decade later without adding as much as some of their other properties. It seems like Darien Lake has never been more relevant on a national level than when Six Flags has been involved, but I don’t think it’s ever been capable of reaching another level for reasons that may likely be out of the control of Six Flags. Someone who has followed the park closely for years said that they considered giving Darien Lake the Geauga Lake treatment at a point in time but decided not to and that may have been for the better. At this rate, I don’t know what would happen if Six Flags left a second time but I believe some big investments need to made to the park soon in order to thrive in the future.

Gotta say closing Astroworld was one of their biggest mistakes. To this day that land is still seating there vacant and undeveloped. And Houston is the 4th largest metro in the entire US. The fact that Fiesta Texas and SFOT are close enough to make a multipark season pass even more tempting than it would be to the average consumer also worked against that decision as well.

I think one mistake especially at Magic Mountain was their removal of everything but roller coasters. They went on a tear removing the train, shows, monorail, Sky Ride, and many others. Another one is they didn't make MM a resort, I think that was an opportunity missed. I think the ride rotation program could have worked if they put more thought into it. I think what they should have done is take flat part of the parks involved and poured footers in a predetermined size, like a grid in roller coaster tycoon. Then have manufactures build within those guidelines, so they could have just bolted and unbolted rides. Similar to Schwarzkopf traveling coasters but of course being more semi permanent. You mentioned Goliath, it might just be me but Premier seems to never be able to rehab a coaster. They messed that one up, Texas Tornado, and the NYNY coaster. Premier makes good rides ground up but I wouldn't call them for a rehab.

Great video! And LOL at the start when you say "These are Six Flags biggest mistakes" and zoom in on Six Flags Magic Mountain. As if the entire park is one giant mistake. It was nice to see Colossus mentioned. It's sad how the coaster was reprofiled back in the day. After El Toro, I always wanted Intamin to come in and reprofile it back to something with airtime. The Gravity Group could have done a good job too. Revolution getting over-the-shoulder restraints was a mistake too. But I don't believe it was for the reason given. That's the first time I've ever heard the bit about people standing up. From my understanding, there was a change in California regulation where rides needed a secondary restraint. Either over-the-shoulder restraints or a seatbelt. Six Flags went with over-the-shoulder for Revolution. And Knott's did seatbelts for Montezooma's Revenge. Insurance purposes could have also played a role. Anyway, once the change was made, Six Flags couldn't just simply remove the restraints and give the coaster seatbelts. The workaround was getting new trains built off the spec of the originals. Which takes me to VR... which I wasn't a fan of. However, if it wasn't for VR, I don't think the changes would have come to Revolution. They needed to be able to have a return on investment for the new trains and paint. Being able to market it as a new ride was the answer.

Being the closest Six Flags to us, us being in the Eastern Panhandle of WV, 60 miles away; I feel as though ignoring Six Flags America's potential is a mistake. I've heard stories of people who have had a horrible time there and people who have had a great time there. We are of the latter and had a great time, both times we've been. Granted, it is a smaller park, but it seems it has room to grow. I feel with the competition to the south with Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens, as well as to the North with Hershey and Dorney, this Six Flags location could be a hard hitter if they did a few big investments over the next few years.

One mistake for Six Flags Great Adventure is not building double sided lockers for their coasters that don't allow any loose articles.

How does one fit so many in one episode. We would need like 10 parts to maybe get all of them! Great video, they are fascinating!

Their biggest mistake is hiring this new CEO who seems to hate the current customers. In a year he has ruined magic mountain.

Nice video! You could spend an entire video on the mistakes in NJ. Almost any coaster from the ‘90’s would suffice. Batman and maybe Skull Mountain were the winners of the decade. Chiller was great once the shoulder harnesses were removed, but it didn’t even last a week in its opening season. Six Flags could get props for their relationship with Intamin. They weren’t the only ones, but they worked with them allot in the ‘00’s

The Zac Spin is one of the worst things I have ever seen at a six flags park

I made the mistake of riding Demon with VR. My brother’s headset didn’t work, the dispatches were just as slow as you said, and even though I can say I got the experience and it’s one that not many people do have I still regret it to this day as an hour or 2 wasted. If I knew Raging Bull had it I would have totally done that instead.

Hahahahahaha. You had footage from KISS and the phantom of the park. Classic!

I do agree with the biometric scan. I had never done it at any of the Six Flags parks but I have done it at Disney World in both 2015 and 2022 and every time I had gone to Universal Studios Hollywood since becoming a passholder there since 2012 and 2014 (didn't have one in 2013 but I have been a passholder there for the last 9 years). It is a pain. If the machine has a hard time reading your fingerprint, you will need to take out your ID card (or some other form of identification) to prove that you are the owner of the annual pass. And at the Disney parks, you may also have to reset your fingerprint ID.

This is a great idea! Will you do the same for the other chains? (Cedar Fair, SeaWorld, etc)

Just saying that Raging Bull never got VR for the exact reason you mentioned. It’s too popular and the hyper twister layout was too difficult to make VR for. It ultimately ended up going on Demon as it was easier for VR and was an attraction with low ridership initially.

Hell ya this is what I'm waiting for! Don't hold back on the VR and skyline!

Gotta give huge respect to Six Flags for giving the best coaster company over the last decade and arguably the best for the 2 decades before that their first chance. How many other chains have shown willingness to take those levels of risk repeatedly?

My home park is six flags St. Louis. I remember the vr storm coming through, and they decided to put it on the least popular attraction in the park, Ninja. It was the middle of summer, very hot, and very crowded. The once inexistent line for Ninja was hours long because of constant vr malfunctions from the heat and the sun. It was not fun.

I grew up on Great Escape and still go there. I remember after Six Flags took over, people freaked after a bunch of statues and attractions from the Storytown days were replaced with Looney Toons. Six Flags must have heard it. They made a handful of new characters that fit better, Storytown is getting more attention, and Looney Toons is restricted to gift shops and game prizes. (Speaking of which, they replaced a really cool electronic shooting gallery with generic carnie games that are never open anyway!)

I love this video,. My two Six Flag Beefs is 1) Flash Pass Program - Why can't it be easygoing like Fast Lane? It's stressful and a pain for folk with chubby fingers or bad vision who keep the glasses in the car. Just give us a wristband man, so much easier peesier. 2) Dining - Cedar Fair has the lit choices, Six flags - minus the icees, is kinda mid in the taste department.

The VR headsets added on the crappiest ride in the park was a hoot. NInja at SFmmSL. The ride rotation program would have been brilliant if they had used "big" unique flat rides. Bring a new experience to the local market, give it three years and then move it out of the market, switching it with something from somewhere else. It could have been great.

"Based off my experiences at Magic Mountain the last few months of the year, I honestly have never seen the park that dysfunctional" WOW that is saying A LOT!!!

I still get a yearly check for like $12 from that class action biometrics suit LOL I remember how long those lines were

For once, I'm glad that great america didn't get mentioned much

Chris, how do you do a video that save Six Flags from them selfs? I mean does Geague Lake get 5 Coaster in 2 years? Or Selling Astroworld? or Premier Park buying everything?

To this day I ask myself how things would have been if Premier had been smarter about acquiring every park they could find. Keeping themselves and Six Flags separate might’ve been better in the long run, even if they had the smaller parks. But hey, I’ve always known my home park personally as Six Flags and it’s hard to imagine it any other way, though my parents might say otherwise.

I can think of some for my home park of La Ronde. The main one I can think of is cheaping out on Monstre's new trains in 2013. When it came time to replace the old Morgan trains, Six Flags cheaped out and bought the cheapest trains, which were PTC's. Unfortunately, those trains are too heavy and the structure was not designed to handle their weight. As a result, the trains were shortened from 7 cars to 5 cars, are not allowed to duel on the track, and (I've heard differing reasons for this one though) the coaster went from running two trains per side to one (the other reason I heard for that change was a distracted ride op causing a collision in the station). Even with these changes, the trains are still too heavy. As a result, they accelerated the coaster's wear, contributing to it becoming even more rough and expensive to maintain, while completely annihilating its throughput. but for La Ronde's biggest mistake ever, this one doesn't count for Six Flags as this came before they took over the park, was in regards to their dolphins. La Ronde used to have dolphins. Another detail about La Ronde is that its blue collar workers are unionized (this is still true to this day). One day, Montreal's blue collar union went on strike, and La Ronde's employees went with it. During that span of time, the dolphins were left without their handlers, and they refused to eat from anyone else. As a result, they starved to death. Montreal has since received a lifetime ban on owning dolphins ever again.

7:18 That's an interesting point: Six Flags also bought or invested in several parks here in Europe, e.g. Six Flags Belgium (ex Walibi Wavre, now Walibi Belgium), Six Flags Holland (ex. Walibi Flevo, now Walibi Holland), Warner Bros. Movie World Germany (now Movie Park) and Warner Bros. World Madrid (opened in 2002, now Parque Warner), which is the most Six Flags-like Park in Europe including the continent's only Batman clone. Long story short: There's no Six Flags park in Europe anymore.

I think the most annoying change at Over Texas is when they made Fright Fest change the entire park to a haunted house. I liked it much better when they just had a section of the park that has that stuff for people who like it, with the rest of the park having just a lot of halloween decorations. These days, Halloween is pretty much the only time the park is open a few hours after dark, but it's ruined by all the jump scare crap.

It's really hard to top the Haunted Castle fire. Purchasing bad rides and too many parks is one thing, but those typically don't kill anyone.

As a born Houstonian I agree with most of the Astrosworld remarks. Besides all the miniscule minutiae thats been mentioned such as parking ,corporate strugling etc. The fact of the matter is its the 4th most populated city in the United States with a climate similar to South Florida , yet nothing theme park wise? On a postive note was at Fiesta Texas this weekend and I would add food options to that list. Even though its stil pretty overpriced we had gumbo and etouffee for the mardi gras party both were 9 bux a piece and pretty tasty.

I'm not surprised you forgot about Great Escape, seems like Six Flags has also. LOL. But ill do Great Escape: installing Nightmare and Alpine Bobsled: Nightmare was a mistake because they knew the capacity issues with the coaster and they made it even worse by the brakes being unable to stop 4 guests so it became 2 guests per train and only 1 train on block at a time. It was certainly a nightmare. BOBSLED: GE is plagued by its annoying neighbors behind Comet. To install a loud thunderous coaster directly next to the water park which is directly next to the neighborhoods that seem to complain every chance they get was just unfathomable. There were so many better options than Bobsled. The paths: GE has been in the habit of creating bottlenecks lately. First was installing the Alpine Freefall slides then also Pandemonium/Flying Scooters created such a bottleneck at a very popular spot in the park where you have guests coming/going from Comet/Hurricane Harbor. This leads me to a mistake from even earlier: Why did they make the path for Comet directly in the middle of the water park? They could have used the path where the picnic facilities are or made the water park connected where Black Cobra is. LAST MISTAKE: Why remove the bucket tipping attraction to save the 3 kiddie slides when you completely removed a path to install waterslides next to Comet. If there were issues with the bucket attraction it should have been removed when they wanted to install the new slides. Love this video, only wish you did all the parks, not just the big guys.

Do a video about the top 10 Inhouse coasters

I met Selim Bassoul at SFMM and had a conversation with him and he is an extremely kind & nice person!

This is a very interesting video topic. Well Played Airtime Thrills🎉

I rode Goliath at SFNE when it was smooth and when it was rough. It was a pretty intense ride when it was smooth but when it was rough it was the biggest headbang and headache causing ride, I hated it. I'm glad they tore it down but they need to put a new coaster there now.

I enjoyed VR on their drop tower at Great America. it also made it less scary height wise.

I'm planning on visiting sfmm this year but with their horrendous operations, I'm thinking of holding off

For six flags great adventure removing the great American scream machine was a big mistake

I used to go to Magic Mountain all the time and currently have a season pass and will let it expire. Sick of going there with 5-6 major rides closed on a Saturday.

nice video once again

Eurosat at Europapark has a separate station for the VR train. So once in a while a train passes the normal station full of people with goggles on! It doesn’t slow the normal operations down at all!

How about all the advertisements throughout the parks? It made it feel like those cheap diners that plaster the tables with photos of real estate agents and car salesmen.

As someone who knew Marine World when it was originally Marine World Africa USA - their biggest mistake at that park (other than some of the coasters) is changing the name to Discovery Kingdom. Still possibly the worst park name ever.

Looks like a great video!!

Six Flags Great America was not specifically mentioned, but their biggest mistake was The Edge.

Can't wait to see seaworlds, hershends and cedar fairs biggest mistakes!

I think Six Flag is making a mistake by not buying Darien Lake from EPR properties, that park has so much potential to be a good park and I think EPR is holding Six Flags back from doing what they really want to do.

Thank for you chris for talking about geauga lake amen

I’d like a deeper dive into the financial mistakes and leadership changes!

Green lantern whould have worked if they installed new brakes i believe (probably works better for the small versions such as Kirnu) which is sad since Intamin Zacspins are criminally underrated, i have one at my home park and its my favorite coaster ever

I'm still receiving compensation from Six Flags for that fingerprint lawsuit. 😂

I remember going to discovery kingdom and Harley Quinn crazy coaster was always closed we had session passes and I never saw it open

it kinda sucks sitting in hours of LA traffic to get to Magic Mountain only to find 4-5 major coasters closed

i got 7 bucks from that class action lawsuit lmao

You forgot La Ronde: - Removed Cobra and didn't replaced it - Removed La Pitoune and didn't replaced it - Removed Super Manège and didn't replaced it - Minirail, Spirale and one Caroussel are leaving in 2023 - Added a Haunted Mansion (Maison Rouge) open year round... only for the first year. It's now open only on Halloween - And many, many more... Oh, and sending Green Lantern to La Ronde... Which bring the only good decision: to scrap this plan. They did bring a lot new rides/coaster in the first years, but for the last couple of years, it's been trash.

cant wait for the cedar fair video

Would be a bit similar but what about worst coaster/ride mistake for each park?

While I agree that it's a mistake for SF to go "premium," I also think they need to do more to appeal to families if they want to remain competitive, as the teen/young adult market isn't profitable in the long run. They can stay the "discount" chain while investing in family rides/areas to give families a cheaper alternative to CF. Unfortunately, this would require long-term planning, which doesn't seem to be SF's strong suit.

Good decision: Letting Jeffrey Seibert have full control of Fiesta Texas.

Another huge mistake regarding their acquisition of Walibi in the Netherlands, and seemingly Europe more broadly: they wrongly assumed that their "coasters in a parking lot" approach would appeal to people in Europe as much as it would to those in the US, and massively expanded their coaster line-up without any real attempt at themeing. They couldn't have been more wrong. Turns out that over here, you actually have to compete with the already-existent level of themeing in the other (plentiful) parks, or else you'll end up with a moderately-performing park instead of a cash cow that pays back its acquisition cost...

Another big mistake was in 2013 when Six Flags New England and Six Flags America added Bonzai Pipelines to their Hurricane Harbor waterparks. Why would they go with the SplashTacular DownUnder model when they already had the successful ProSlide models at many of their other locations? I rode the one at Six Flags New England in 2021, and although it wasn't the worst slide I had ridden, it was still quite a back scratcher.

I can say another one is getting rid of the chiller. I know it had issues but I chickened out on it as a kid and I regret it now that I’m very into coasters.

You should do the SeaWorld Parks next!

I don’t regret not going on the rides with the VR

Imagine how much better of an experience Magic Mountain would be if Six Flags poured millions into the park instead of buying parks they didn't need.

Huge mistake was not purchasing the land around SFMM with the park. It was all owned by Newhall Land and Farming Company. They could have gotten it cheap & could of developed it or sold some of it off for a ridiculous prices, land would fetch over 1M per acre in that area.

i used to work for this awful company and the VR thing was more painful then one would expect. i wasn't around for it myself but my co-workers said it was a hassle giving everyone working VR headsets for each of the riders, then when they took them away we would get guests coming up to us saying "where's the VR ride"? they were quite disappointed when we told them it was discontinued

9:30 I ended up being part of the settlement for great America. $41.08 spread over 5 years 😂, the first check I received was for $2.58

Airtime Thrills, I recently watched a KZfaq video that ACN did and looks to be a month ago. It's concerning Demolition of Golden Bear Theatre for a Giga Coaster. I'd Love for a Giga, like a Bigger/TALLER version of RAGING BULL from SFGA to come to Magic Mountain, but if that's a strong possibility, I was hoping Samurai Summit can be spared and that the Coaster could be built along the most SW Border from De ja vus Location stretching to as far as Viper instead. As it stands, Magic Mountain has had a hard enough time as it is running their Biggest Coasters, let Alone wanting to add another. With SIX Flags not seeming to do so well, and especially during COVID the last few years, is a GIGA even Affordable❓️🤔 Would SIX Flags have been better off Investing in buying more property next to Roaring Rapids, several years ago, rather than building X2 which at the Time was X, Goliath, Scream and so forth❓️🤔 I'm not a believer that Samurai Summit needs a GIGA, and I'm curious why SIX FLAGS didn't go after more Real Estate in the Mid 90's when the Economy was booming❓️🤔 As for myself, I Enjoy X2 very much as well as GOLIATH and other rides, but I'm just curious about the Land on the other side of Roaring Rapids, because a GIGA would fit in much better there than Samurai Summit. Your thoughts are Appreciated. I hit the SUBSCRIBE and gave you Likes as well Thanks.

Are you going to do this for Cedar Fair, SeaWorld, Palace, Disney, and Universal? I'm really interested in SeaWorld and Palace.

Was the VR headset optional, or were you forced to wear it?

Frankly, a bigger mistake involving Six Flags WoA was selling the park to Cedar Fair, giving them a de-facto monopoly over that area of Ohio. You're telling me no other buyers could suffice?

Mistake: Only retracking one section of Predator instead of the whole thing. Hopefully they do more soon.

Aquaman at SFOT, clearly 🤦‍♂️ also, was that Larson Loop stuck? That would be terrible

The finger scan makes sense if you can make it work because it's fast and secure, which is why Disney uses it, but when it doesn't work it simply is a disaster. Six Flags doesn't have that type of money to justify it.

I went in the SF Great Adventure Haunted House when I was like 10.

Darien Lake biggest mistake: getting rid of Nightmare at Phantom Cave. I loved that ride. A very close second is to let Predator get as bad as it is today. 20 years ago, it was the best coaster I've ever ridden, now it's the worst. If only if something could be done to fix it. *cough *cough RMC *cough

For six flags to become a family park they need to seriously beef up the non thrill experiences. Shows, parades, dark rides, and better food. You can’t be set up for thrill rides then be surprises when thrill seekers are your primary demographic.

A lot of misshaps? A lot? I would use a well, BIGGER word