These things usually fall under two things, Corporate Greed or Local Laziness.
The greed is related to what is now must a memory of my childhood, Six Flags Astroworld. In the fall of 2005, the park closed for the last time, shutdown to to irresponsible corporate management, and simple greed. Six Flag’s then CEO decided he could make the company over $150 million by demolishing the park and saleing the property. In the end, the company paid over 22 million for demolition, and after the sale, barely made 50 million. $50 million may seem like alot, but remember, within the next two years, Six flags spent over $60 million designing and building three rides….THREE DAMN RIDES. Instead of trying to improve the park, find a way to increase business, Astroworld was scrapped for less money than it cost to create three rides. So now when you drive down 610 near Reliant Stadium and Astrodome, you don’t have a view of rollarcoasters and towering rides, you have an overgrown empty lot (that gets used as an occasional parking lot.
I had only been a few times, but have some good memories of going in the summer, and one year for Holiday In The Park (Christmas). Any vacation’s we took were a big deal because my Dad at the time was a rice farmer, and the summer months are the busiest time.
The holiday in the park trip I remember fondly because it was 1989, I was in class, and got called over the intercom, and was told that I was leaving early. I had no idea what was going on, went outside and my Mom, Dad, and brother were loaded up in their Dodge Ram Charger. I literally didn’t find out what was going on until we got into Houston.
One of the things I had always looked forward to when I had kids was suprising them in the same way. Taking them to Astroworld, not telling them so that when I pulled them out of school, it would be a total shock, and they would have that 2 and a 1/2 hour drive to let it sink in and really get excited. Well, now that isn’t going to happen, unless we drive to San Antonio or Austin to one of the other Six Flags locations (even if Six Flags New Orleans were open, I would never take them there, I dislike that city and especially the area where that park is located) and make them have to stew through a 5 hour or longer drive.
So in closing, congrats to Six Flags for closing a park that didn’t need to be closed, and proving yourselves ignorant to how business is done by selling a park for less than the cost for a couple of new rides
