Six Flags

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Template:About Image:SixFlags Logo.jpg Image:SixFlags Mascot.jpg Six Flags (Template:Nyse) is a chain of amusement parks and theme parks headquartered in New York City. Their former spokesperson, Mr. Six, was featured in many advertisements in 2004 and 2005. There are 40 parks run by Six Flags, 24 of which carry the Six Flags name. The first Six Flags amusement park, Six Flags Over Texas, was built halfway between the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas in Arlington (Tarrant County), Texas, United States. The park took its name from the six flags that have flown over the state of Texas during its history (Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America).

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History

The Six Flags chain began in 1961 with the creation of Six Flags Over Texas by Angus G. Wynne at Arlington in Tarrant County, which featured (in the beginning) a Native American village, a gondola ride, a railroad, some Wild West shows, a stagecoach ride, and "Skull Island", a pirate-themed adventure attraction. There was also an excursion aboard "French" boats through a wilderness full of moving puppets. (Over time, all of those attractions, except for the railroad, would be replaced by other attractions, such as roller coasters, swing rides, log flumes, and shoot-the-chute rides, as well as an observation tower.)

The chain grew with the acquisition of other parks, such as the Great Adventure Park and Safari in Jackson, New Jersey, and Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, which had been founded by the Marriott hotel chain. The chain of parks changed hands several times, being sold to the Penn Central railroad, then to Bally Construction Corporation, and later on to the Time Warner company, among other owners. The chain is well-known in recent times for large and fast roller coasters, although the queue areas are often in the open air without much shading and without as many props as are typical for some queue areas in Walt Disney World.

Six Flags Theme Parks Inc. was purchased in whole on April 1, 1998 from Time Warner by Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks. Premier then began to apply the Six Flags name to a number of smaller parks that had been expanded, including Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, and Adventure World. In 2000, Premier Parks changed its name to Six Flags, Inc. Headquartered in New York City, Six Flags is now the largest amusement park operator in the U.S. Six Flags owes about $2.3 Billion in debt, and they have lost money every year since 2001. Bill Gates owns about 11% of Six Flags and rumors were flying around about Bill Gates' Cascade Investments and Red Zone LLC (which owns 12% of Six Flags) may take it over. Indeed, on August 17, 2005, Red Zone, headed by Dan Snyder, began a proxy battle to gain control of Six Flags' board of directors. On November 22, 2005, Red Zone announced victory in this attempt. After gaining control of the board, CEO Kieran Burke was ousted on December 14, 2005 and replaced by Mark Shapiro, former EVP of Programming at ESPN. Additionally, Six Flags named former Representative Jack Kemp, entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein, and the former president, Michael Kassan, of the Interpublic Group of Companies Incorporated, a global marketing and advertising agency, to their newly revamped board of directors.

Until 2004, Six Flags parks would do separate commericals for each park, sometimes with special themes (like Great America's 25th anniversery in 2001). In 2004, Six Flags began a series of commericals linking all parks. The commericals were notable for a new mascot, "Mr. Six." Each would start off with an old man in a tuxedo and red bow tie slowly getting off a bus only to start wildly dancing. The commercials were an immediate hit and Mr. Six became an official mascot for the parks, although he was retired after the 2005 season.

On September 12, 2005, Six Flags announced that it was closing its legendary Six Flags Astroworld theme park in Houston, Texas, at the end of the 2005 season, citing issues such as the park's performance, and parking issues involving the Houston Texans football team, Reliant Stadium, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo leveraged with the value of the property the park sits on.

On January 27, 2006, Six Flags announced it would be selling it's Frontier City theme park and White Water Bay water park, both located in Oklahoma City, at the conclusion of the 2006 operating season. Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro said he expects the parks to continue operation after the sale, unlike Six Flags Astroworld. Six Flags also announced that it would be moving all of its corporate operations to New York City.

On March 30, 2006, Six Flags announced that it will sell only pizza from Papa John's International at its parks. In turn, Six Flags will receive an annual sponsorship and promotional opportunities from Papa John's, though financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

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