But while theme park stalwart Disney has bolstered its bottom line by focusing on wealthier households, with add-ons like skip-the-line passes, private guides and perks for staying at Disney properties, Six Flags has struggled to pivot.
In 2022, Six Flags’ then-CEO Selim Bassoul acknowledged that its middle-class customers were struggling and told investors that the company was trying to shift away from “what I call the Kmart, Walmart to maybe the Target customers.” On the same call, Bassoul lamented that the park, with its relatively affordable season passes, had become “a cheap day care center for teenagers during breaks and the summers.”
But the complex pricing system that the company put in place instead cost it millions of visitors, Speigel said.
“That may work for Disney, but that’s not what you want in a regional theme park. You want everybody,” he said. “You just need to get a whole lot of people in the door. You can’t just have 10% of the population coming in.”
Six Flags declined to comment. In a statement announcing the closure of Six Flags America in Maryland, the company said the park was “not a strategic fit with the company’s long-term growth plan.”
While Six Flags reported falling attendance across all its theme parks earlier in the year, the company said last month it had seen an encouraging uptick over the summer. Still, Six Flags reported a drop in revenue nationally, which it attributed to promotions and lower spending by visitors at the park.
Paying the price for the company’s decisions are the 70 full-time park employees and hundreds of seasonal workers, along with the hundreds of thousands of annual guests who will have one less form of affordable entertainment.
Nikolas Hubbard has been one of the park’s stunt actors since 2023.Courtesy Nikolas Hubbard
Nikolas Hubbard got his first job at the park in 2015 as a teenager in the games department and went on to become one of its entertainers. He currently works as a stunt performer on weekends — working full time outside of the park during the week in information technology.
“It is really bittersweet,” Hubbard said of the park’s closing. “I am going to miss meeting new people, meeting families, inspiring the kids, and just seeing the smiles.”
He plans to keep working as an actor, writer and producer, and credits the park with inspiring him to pursue a career in entertainment.
“When I make it big, I want to be able to say Six Flags America is what got me started,” he said.
Christopher Reed has studied the park’s history and briefly worked there in 2020.Susana Raab for NBC News
When Christopher Reed read the press release that the park was closing, he cried — comparing it to getting a terminal diagnosis for a loved one. He has been a season pass holder for 10 years, since he was 18. He goes to the park several times a month, sometimes driving the 35 minutes from his home just to decompress after a day of work, walking around smelling the fresh popcorn and turkey legs.