An iconic theme park chain announced another closure | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

I was lucky to grow up in Northern California, where I had an enviable choice of theme parks for weekend and summer fun. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was 12 miles down the road. Marriott’s Great America (now called California’s Great America) was over the hill in Santa Clara, 45 minutes away. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo was a little over an hour north.

Once I had kids of my own, one of the things I loved the most when they were little was taking them on all of my favorite rides at each park: the iconic Big Dipper at the boardwalk, Flight Deck at Great America, Space Mountain at Disneyland…

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But lately, while Disney and Universal theme parks are doing just fine, others are struggling.

Between 2020 and 2023, the list of theme park closures included Funplex Myrtle Beach (South Carolina), Splashes Oceanfront Waterpark (South Carolina), Styx River Water World (Alabama), Big Surf (Arizona), Wild River Country (Arkansas), Hydro Adventures (Missouri), Coney Island Cincinnati (Ohio), Joyland (Texas), Splashtown San Antonio (Texas), and Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi (Texas), as reported in Blooloop.

One problem plaguing some of these parks and making profitability difficult is what’s called a “leaseback.”

Some parks made these deals because of the pandemic, forcing them to sell the property where the attractions were sitting and then lease the land back from the new owner. It allowed the parks to stay open, but with the added expense of lease payments, it made it more difficult to stay profitable.

That seems to be the problem for California’s Great America.

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is consolidating operations.

Image source&colon; Sullivan/Getty Images

Six Flags says it will close another park

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (FUN) announced plans to shut down the Santa Clara park just a few months after announcing it would close Six Flags America, its Bowie, Maryland, location, after Halloween this year.

California’s Great America is now slated to close at the end of the 2027 season.

“Unless we decide to extend, and exercise one of our options to extend that lease, that park’s last year without that extension would be after the ’27 season,” Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Chief Financial Officer Brian Witherow said during the company’s Six Flags Investor Day 2025. Six Flags America Entertainment Corporation is the parent company of both parks.

“Those are two parks that are very low on the ranking of margins,” Witherow said.

In 2022, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation sold 112 acres of land underneath California’s Great America to Prologis, a real estate logistics company, as part of a $310 million deal.

It makes sense that theme park operators need to consolidate resources and focus on high-revenue, flagship destinations over smaller regional parks, but it’s disappointing for locals who will have to travel farther for weekend thrills.

The Six Flags closure announcements come amid the company’s ongoing strategic realignment following its July 2024 merger with Cedar Fair. That $8 billion deal, which brought 27 amusement parks and water parks under one corporate umbrella, is already reshaping how and where the newly merged company invests.

Theme parks leaving regional markets

The theme park industry has evolved from seasonal amusement to year-round entertainment. That means parks compete with each other for consumers’ dollars and with streaming platforms, gaming, and destination travel.

The shift seems to favor large-scale destinations like Disney and Universal parks over regional outposts because they’re better able to bundle lodging, dining, and multi-day entertainment.

Plus, Disney and Universal have IP-driven lands like “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” and “Super Nintendo World” that have proven to be a big draw.

Six Flags and Cedar Fair don’t have access to similar intellectual property, so they have been focusing on upgrades like high-tech roller coasters, interactive attractions, and dynamic seasonal events.

For local fans of Six Flags America and California’s Great America, the news is disappointing. The parks have operated since the 1970s and served generations of families in the D.C.-Baltimore and Silicon Valley corridors.

Families like mine, that once could take a short drive for summer entertainment, may now need to travel hours or even fly to visit theme parks, which will put roller-coaster fun out of reach for some.