Six Flags adds park presidents
- Six Flags reinstated park presidents at ten key parks to create single, accountable local leaders. - Each named president is explicitly responsible for overseeing park performance and guest experience at their site. - The decentralised model makes park-by-park benchmarking and local accountability easier for labour KPIs like overtime and fill rates (ocregister.com)
Six Flags has put park presidents back in charge at 10 of its biggest properties, reversing a post-merger move toward more centralized oversight. (sixflags.com) The company announced the change on April 22 and said each president will be the single local leader responsible for park performance, operations and the guest experience. Chief executive John Reilly said the setup is meant to speed decisions at the park level. (sixflags.com) The 10 parks are Carowinds, Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Great America, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Over Texas. The named presidents include Bridgette Bywater at Carowinds, Colleen Brady at Cedar Point, Rafael “Raffi” Kaprelyan at Knott’s Berry Farm and Brian Oerding at Magic Mountain. (sixflags.com) (ocregister.com) The change follows the July 1, 2024 merger that combined Cedar Fair and Six Flags into one company operating under the Six Flags name and trading under the ticker FUN. The merged operator said at closing that it would be the largest regional amusement park company in North America. (businesswire.com) After that merger, Six Flags cut park-president roles and shifted more authority to regional leadership, a move the company is now undoing at marquee parks. The Orange County Register reported the new structure makes it easier to compare parks one by one and assign responsibility for labor measures such as overtime and fill rates. (ocregister.com) The timing comes as the company is still working through uneven post-merger results. Six Flags reported 2025 full-year revenue of $3.10 billion, attendance of 47.4 million guests and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $792 million, while recording a $1.60 billion net loss driven largely by a $1.5 billion non-cash impairment charge. (businesswire.com) For guests, the practical effect is simpler: the company is betting that one on-site boss with authority over rides, staffing and daily operations can respond faster when a park is underperforming. For Six Flags, it is also a return to a model that gives headquarters a clearer read on which parks are meeting targets and which local leaders are not. (sixflags.com) (ocregister.com)
