Premier Parks Boosted by Six Flags Chain
Besides Walt Disney Co., who’s the biggest theme park operator? That would be Premier Parks Inc. since the Oklahoma City company bought Magic Mountain in Valencia last year along with the rest of the Six Flags chain. It is currently re-branding its other parks with that well-known name.
And what’s in the name? Plenty for parks like Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, Calif., where attendance rose 66% last year to 1.8 million with the new banner and multiple improvements.
Plenty, also, if you’re Premier Chairman Kieran Burke and two other top executives. Each of the three got a special $2-million bonus last year to reward them for completing the Six Flags deal, according to a proxy filed with federal regulators.
Burke’s salary, bonus and stock compensation nearly doubled from $6.4 million in 1997 to almost $12.7 million in 1998. Premier President Gary Story’s 1998 pay package was $11.3 million in salary, bonus and stock. The year before, he got $5.6 million. Finance chief James Dannhauser earned more than $10 million in salary, bonus and stock, up from $4.8 million a year earlier. The totals don’t include stock options potentially worth many millions more.
Disney isn’t required to disclose the earnings of theme park executives, since they work for a division and aren’t top corporate officers. Disney Chairman Michael Eisner had his bonus cut 49% to $5 million in Disney’s last year, an off one for the company. But the head cheese also cashed in stock options piled up over the years for a whopping $569.8 million, bringing total Eisner compensation to $576 million. Hardly Mickey Mouse pay.
