Magic Mountain to Remain Park

By ALLEN P. ROBERTS Jr. - 12/13/2006
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff
Magic Mountain in Valencia will remain an amusement park and will not be converted into a housing development or retail complex under a new strategy outlined by owner Six Flags Inc.

Earlier this summer, the New York-based amusement park operator floated the idea of selling some of its 30 amusement parks to developers in order to curtail its spiraling $2.2 billion debt.

"Magic Mountain is open for business and will stay open for business," said Six Flags Inc. Chief Executive Mark Shapiro during a Tuesday conference call with analysts.

Shapiro also said that the company was pushing forward with several initiatives to reverse the ongoing trend of declining attendance and decreasing revenue.

He said that the company will focus on drawing more families to the park and increasing revenue by going after character licensing deals with Thomas the Tank Engine and Australian children's entertainers the Wiggles, adding steep discounts on season passes and forming corporate alliances with retail outlets such as Cold Stone Creamery.

Shapiro said that momentum from these initiatives is already being felt with about 110,000 season passes being sold so far this year, compared only 52,000 during the same period last year.