Six Flags’ New CEO Outlines Strategy
Six Flags Inc. Chief Executive Mark Shapiro plans to increase corporate sponsorships, improve customer service and make the company’s amusement parks more appealing to families as part of his turnaround plan.
“Six Flags has to be a business focused on bringing more people to the turnstiles and to get them to spend more time at a park,” Shapiro said after he was named CEO by Chairman Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins.
Snyder, the company’s largest investor, ousted CEO Kieran Burke on Tuesday. Synder also named film executive Harvey Weinstein, former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp and advertising executive Michael Kassan to the board, giving him a majority of directors.
Under Burke, attendance and revenue at Six Flags have fallen for two consecutive years. Investors praised the appointment of Shapiro, a former ESPN programmer who said he planned to step up marketing of the parks.
“With Dan Snyder and Mark Shapiro, they came and had a plan for the business,” said Diane Jaffe, a money manager at Trust Co. of the West in New York, which owns Six Flag shares.
“That gave a lot of investors conviction that these guys at least had a road map.”
Shapiro said the company had abandoned plans for a sale because none of the bids “were high enough.” Six Flags never disclosed any purchase offers.
Six Flags is the world’s second-largest theme park operator. It owns and operates about 30 parks in North America, including Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor in Valencia.
Snyder won a proxy fight Nov. 22 to oust Burke as a director and overhaul the board.
The appointment of Shapiro brings to the helm of Six Flags a former top television executive known for innovative programming at ESPN, the sports TV network owned by Walt Disney Co. Shapiro joined Snyder’s Red Zone on Oct. 1 when he quit ESPN. Red Zone holds the Six Flags stake.
“We have a captive audience: 35 million people who spend nine hours a day” at a Six Flags park, Shapiro said. The company may be able to boost attendance and revenue by adding corporate sponsors.
Six Flags is in talks with Papa John’s International Inc. about being the national pizza provider for all the company’s amusement parks, Shapiro said.
Six Flags shares rose 5 cents to $7.20.
