Six Flags Entertainment, North America's largest regional amusement park operator, is mulling the future of its real estate after visitor demand weakened in September as budget-minded consumers curbed park visits amid extended summer heat.
The less-than-stellar attendance led to Six Flags' net revenue being down 2% to $1.32 billion for its third quarter that ended Sept. 28 compared to the prior year.
Six Flags has a so-called roadmap for its underperforming parks to put them on par with their best properties or sell them if it makes "strategic and financial sense," Chief Financial Officer Brian Witherow told investors during the company's third-quarter earnings call Friday. "We’re approaching this process with objectivity and discipline," Witherow said.
Six Flags closed a 50-year-old amusement park outside of Washington, D.C., about a week ago and is seeking to sell the 500-acre site. The Six Flags America and Hurricane Harbor in Bowie, Maryland, is being marketed by CBRE as a potential data center site with an electrical transmission line along the western portion of the property, according to marketing materials.
Its real estate considerations come after Six Flags had an uptick in attendance by park-goers in July and August, but that cooled in September. Attendance for the quarter totaled 21.1 million guests, up 1% or roughly 138,000 visits compared to the prior year. The withering demand continued in October with Six Flags reporting preliminary results for the five weeks that ended Nov. 2 of 5.8 million guests, down 11% compared to the same period last year.
The softening demand by park-goers pushed the amusement park giant to revise its earnings expectations for the year downward to between $780 million and $805 million from its projections at the beginning of the year of between $1.08 billion and $1.12 billion.
Volatile year
This year has been "defined by volatility" for the company, said Six Flags President and CEO Richard Zimmerman, on the call.
To grapple with that volatility, Six Flags appears to be getting an assist from three-time Super Bowl champion and NFL player Travis Kelce, who has teamed up with activist investor Jana Partners as one of the amusement park giant's largest shareholders. Kelce, who grew up going to parks in Six Flags' portfolio, has called himself a lifelong fan of Six Flags.
Zimmerman told investors that Six Flags is engaging in "extremely constructive dialogues" with Kelce and Jana Partners as they work "to make sure we optimize that opportunity."
Six Flags isn't new to activist investors, but the group with Kelce has garnered an outsized consumer response, Zimmerman said.
"This reaction reinforces our confidence that Six Flags is as exciting and relevant as ever," Zimmerman added. "We intend to build on that momentum and capitalize on the interest in the company for the 2026 season."
New focus
Six Flags closed on its $2 billion merger last year with rival Cedar Fair, leading the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company to look at its real estate in a different lens. Parks that were once "mini cash cows" before the merger aren't likely to contribute a great deal to the combined companies' growth, said Zimmerman, who plans to step down from his leadership role by the end of the year.
"In a bigger company where we’re trying to narrow our focus and shrink our capital needs as well as our risk or our liability exposures, getting the portfolio smaller and more nimble is a priority," Zimmerman added. "We’re going to look at the parks where our returns are the greatest, where the opportunities for growth are the highest, and we’re going to focus on those parks. The other parks we’ll look to monetize and use those proceeds to reduce debt."
The largest and most established parks in Six Flags' portfolio, now totaling 41 amusement and water parks in North America, have performed well during a challenging year, Zimmerman said. Six Flags declined to disclose the names of its best-performing parks. The parks with the highest returns accounted for about 70% of park-level earnings through the first nine months of 2025, Zimmerman added.
These parks "benefitted from consistent investment in rides, attractions and upgraded park facilities in recent years, all of which drive customer satisfaction and higher visitation," Zimmerman added. "This year, several" of the best-performing parks "are on pace to deliver record or near-record results."
Six Flags' underperforming parks posted attendance dips of 5% for the third quarter, executives said. Six Flags declined to name its underperforming parks.
Real estate deals
Six Flags is selling some real estate to help pay off its more than $5 billion in debt.
In addition to the land outside Washington, D.C., Six Flags is also marketing hundreds of acres of excess land near Kings Dominion, an amusement park near Richmond, Virginia. Before its merger with Six Flags, Cedar Fair sold the real estate underneath California's Great America park in Santa Clara, California, to Prologis in a deal totaling $310 million. Operations at Great America could cease if a lease agreement isn't renewed, executives said.
Six Flags' future is dependent on the naming of a new CEO to help the company navigate the opportunities from the Six Flags and Cedar Fair merger and deal with the current state of what is a 70-year-old industry, said Dennis Speigel, founder and CEO of International Theme Park Services, a consultant group for the leisure-amusement park industry.
"Their focus needs to be on how to solve the debt issue and repair the brand's image," Speigel told CoStar News. "They need to get a CEO on board as soon as possible."
Without any major debt payments coming due until 2027, Speigel said, next year is expected to be a pivotal year for Six Flags.
CoStar News' reporter Jonathan Lehrfeld contributed to this article.