Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Speaking of Six Flags and this is what does your park think of the fact that Six Flags is up for sale and going to auction? What does that do for your park?

Premier Parks went on a shopping spree in the late 1990s that would be the envy of any fun-lover. Among the items: Elitch Gardens Amusement Park in Denver, Waterworld USA water parks in California and Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom in New York.

By the time the company gobbled up the Walibi Family Parks, with locations in France, Belgium and Holland, it was pretty clear to some analysts that things were getting out of hand.

Then in 1998, the Oklahoma City-based company acquired the Six Flags chain of parks for $1.9 billion and later took on the Six Flags name. Now it finds itself saddled with more than $2 billion in debt and the company is up for sale in the middle of a proxy battle.

Following the close of AstroWorld in Houston, Six Flags may have to liquidate some parks to recover from the $2 billion debt that has been steadily growing since the purchase. Some smaller parks in the country could face the chopping blocks and follow suit like AstroWorld in Houston.

Six Flags owns parks around the country including Colorado, Washington, Oklahoma and New York.

It's the place where Houston children got their summer thrills, teenagers got their first jobs and college students saw their favorite bands.

Now after 37 years, the landmark Six Flags AstroWorld theme park will close at the end of this season, the victim of rising land values that overshadow its worth as an entertainment venue.

"While attendance has gone down, the value of the land has gone up substantially," said Jim Dannhauser, chief financial officer of Oklahoma City-based Six Flags.

Six Flags closed AstroWorld this year.