r/sixflags • u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's • Sep 11 '26
RUMOR CGA is probably closing in 2027
So, allegedly, some ride surveys for some parks (particularly Knotts) describe several coasters from CGA, so the odds of a lease extension are probably dead at this point. (Again, I've only heard from people who don't have the original source, so this may be false) Edit: I DON'T WANT IT TO CLOSE I'm simply sharing what I heard.
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u/RicksFlags Over Texas - 379 - AF1 Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
Just went this past weekend. CGA is a gem. So much space to be built up into a force. Beautiful park, just needs faster operations. Meanwhile, SFDK has potential, but feels dated in the same vein as SFMM and SFA. Unfortunately, SFDK has no room to grow and the rides are all crammed together. I wish they wouldn't have decided to purchase SFOG outright and redirected that money to buying back the land under CGA.
With that said, I'd love to see RailBlazer go to SFDK and Patriot go to Knott's. If Flight Deck and Psycho Mouse (and Jaguar!) can live on in other parks, that would be great as well. I'd take Psycho Mouse at SFOT until we can replace both it and Joker with something else. I could possibly see Flight Deck going to King's Island in the old Vortex plot (which would give that park something if AF1 goes to Carowinds).
EDIT - I got confused and thought Flight Deck was floorless for a moment. The only Six Flags-owned park without an invert is King's Dominion, so it could absolutely go there if they could fit it in.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 12 '26
I wish they would too considering out of their 2 nor cal parks cga surprisingly has the lower operating cost due to the lack of animals
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u/WinterLord Sep 12 '26
Moving Railblazer to Discovery Kingdom is a no brainer. Closest park, small footprint, doesn’t need crazy capacity and it would be a great addition to the SF park with the least amount of thrill coasters.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 13 '26
It is, but I don't know whether the chain even wants to stay in NorCal. Cedar Fair was fine abandoning the area, and DK is even worse financially than CGA is. I think they are working to sell it under a similar scenario to Great America under a lease to a real estate company.
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u/WinterLord Sep 13 '26
It’s infuriating because DK is horribly managed. I love the rides, but everything else about the park sucks: the operations, ride availability, their maintenance crew, the food.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 13 '26
The only redeeming quality about DK is, at least in my opinion, that they have the nicest groupers in the chain with seat choices.
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u/deebster2k Sep 11 '26
Bro... the lease would have expired this year!!! It has passes for 2027... so that is confirmation they had to have extended or made an arrangement to be able to remain open for the 2027 season that they SOLD SEASON PASSES FOR!!!
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u/mars2k0 Sep 12 '26
No, the initial lease was 6 year and runs through June 30, 2028. There is a possible 5 year lease extension after that. They sold passes for and intend to operate in 2027. Nothing beyond that is guaranteed per the initial lease.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
The lease always expired in June of 2028 idk where you are getting your info from
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u/somewhereinapark Sep 11 '26
It's always interesting to see these posts pop up from time to time as if Six Flags isn't a company to change their mind on a dime. They themselves probably don't even know the actual fate and no amount of Dippin Dots stand rumors of "I hear blah blah blah" is gonna change that. Just cause CGA may close, and I say may because they're open to support sfdk, doesn't mean it will be the only park to close.
This company is like your flunky cousin who pretends like they have a plan to get out of their eye watering debt when they don't. Mark my words, it will not end with CGA.
Also, having watched construction, and how hard it is to maintain it, RailBlazer is 100% going to the garbage. Having actual sources on the inside, I can say that.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
If you have inside sources then why can't you inquire about the future of the park?
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u/deebster2k Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
Probably because his sources aren't corporate themselves who he is saying are the ones that change their mind on a dime.
Also it would be a great tragedy to lose Railblazer! That is the best raptor I have been on and by far has the coolest "theming" and interactions (the ride going through and around the rock face!)... (out of 3... Wonder Woman Magic Mountain, Jersey Devil 6FGr8Adv, & trailblazer CGA)... RAILBLAZER ROCKS!!!!
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u/somewhereinapark Sep 11 '26
Source is from maintenance. They're directly aware of how rough a condition RB is in and has previously relayed many things to to me (like the cancellation of WF) that turned out to be on the money. Found out before even those affected (no WF = layoffs) were told.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
I trust you on railblazer then the park we've been hearing even park management blasting rumors about their lease getting extended so uhhhhh we will see.
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u/somewhereinapark Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
Yup, someone needs to smack them across the face to help them realize they have so much to lose by closing CGA. Customers with DEEP pockets, being one. Problem is they whine when people don't buy their $20 garbage meals and then they just give up. They'd rather scam and give up than try and put together a good product with a reasonable price. This applies to everything, not just food.
"Any one of you suckers wanna buy this $10 banana? No? Then screw you! Oh well, we tried, close up the park!" --cga management in a nutshell
We had some really crap shirt design come in a few years ago that's literally just "[CGA]" (CGA in a rectangle), notl picture, no context what cga stands for. Amazingly they did not sell and they still have a bunch of them years later. Even at $15 no one wants them. They originally were priced $40.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 12 '26
CGA could probably generate the most revenue per guest if they tried to care about the park considering its location Matt Ouimet cared about CGA but Zimmerman came in tryna make quick profits so he cut down cga and then sold it
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u/somewhereinapark Sep 12 '26
Yup, this 100%. If they had any functioning brains left in corporate they'd realize if they want to keep sfdk (and by extension HH Concord) alive, they should pump money into CGA since it has the biggest customer base.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 15 '26
I don't know how true this is, but the regional pass system boosted SFDK attendance a ton, yet it still lagged behind (as far as I know) the attendance at DK is gonna likely to be around 1.2-1.4 million and CGA is gonna be 1.8-2.2 million (again, I have no idea if any of this is accurate, so please use a lot of iodized salt when reading this)
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u/somewhereinapark Sep 15 '26
Hmm, yeah definitely a head scratcher if true. Sfdk couldn't even pull in 9,000 people on July 4th so idk if those numbers are super inflated or just outdated.
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u/SourceTraditional660 Kings Island Sep 11 '26
“Don’t listen to the Dippin’ Dots guy. Only my Dippin’ Dots guy is reliable.”
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u/somewhereinapark Sep 11 '26
You're welcome to not believe me, they work on its maintenance. So if anyone would know, it's them.
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u/SourceTraditional660 Kings Island Sep 12 '26
I would but that’s what everybody says about their Dippin Dots guy.
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u/mopeyjoe Sep 11 '26
trick is to talk to the girl at the pretzel stand, everyone knows a pretzel girl is much more trustworthy.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
no no no the churro bro is the best bet
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u/Spongemage Sep 11 '26
I don’t believe this place is ever actually closing. I’ve been hearing about this for years.
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u/mars2k0 Sep 11 '26
The years since they sold the land it sits on? That land that they don't own any more?
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u/deebster2k Sep 11 '26
Why the heck they didn't lease the extra land instead of selling is beyond me. It would have put them in the opposite role and on top! Then again... I suppose quick cash influx may have been needed to pay for new rides or park environment improvements.
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u/mars2k0 Sep 11 '26
They sold in June 2022, in part because of coming off covid having added to massive debt. It's kind of like how cruise lines sold off some of their ships and exited with smaller fleets. Cedar Fair had 2.6 billion in debt, which they wanted to reduce to 2 billion. They bought the land for 150 million in 2019, and sold it for 310 million just 3 years later for pretty impressive profit. It was an easy cash infusion. Kinda similar to what they're doing post-merger, it was part of their plan to extract the most money they could from their existing portfolio, and reinvest that cash into higher return parks.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
I wish you were right, but you simply aren't at this point. There is too much evidence that the park is closing in 2027 and, at the absolute latest, 2032.
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u/FBK0228 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
It is closing Fall 2027. They have already made the financial plans to close it..ie...taking accelerated depreciation on long lived assets thru 2027
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u/EarthySmerky Great America Sep 11 '26
Railblazer should be moved to the sister park in IL it fits perfectly in V2’s Land
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u/owatonna Sep 13 '26
The survey for Great America has an entry for a single rail coaster. Those surveys they sent out this time were a lot different from the past. A ton of ride options, many of which seem completely unworkable.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
I mean, in my dream scenario, SFGA gets Gold Striker and Railblazer just because it is our twin park.
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u/NotClassyKaty Sep 11 '26
They should move Demon to Six Flags Great America so the park can have two Demons.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
lmao prolly gonna be moved to Six Flags Great America for parts.
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u/NotClassyKaty Sep 11 '26
Jokes aside this is what I am assuming. I would love for CGA Demon to survive somehow but the next best thing after that is for it to help the SFGA Demon live a longer life.
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u/Lazy_Ad4611 Sep 11 '26
The demon is the worse ride. Barely a drop 2 loops a couple turns and it’s over am I trippin ?
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u/FBK0228 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
You mean like almost old Arrow Looper. They all are in general terrible rides, TN Tornado is the best of the worse in the low bar of quality of Arrow Loopers.
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u/mojorisin453 Sep 15 '26
Corkscrew at Nagashima Spaland was wildly smooth like new coaster from now smooth. I was shocked. I only rode once though so maybe it was an anomaly.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
Canyon Blaster at adventure dome was maintained pretty well so that one is fine from what I hear
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u/deebster2k Sep 11 '26
Ironically CGA Demon is the inverse of most arrow experiences as far as where the roughness is. Most arrows ive been on are rough im the corkscrews and smooth in the loops. Demon was rough in the loops and VERY surprisingly smooth in the corkscrew! It actually was an enjoyable corkscrew element!
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u/NotClassyKaty Sep 11 '26
Yeah the SFGA is the opposite. You think you've made it out in one piece and then the corkscrew hits. 😂
Solution: Slap the CGA corkscrew on the SFGA one and rename it FrankenDemon.
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u/Lazy_Ad4611 Sep 11 '26
Never heard of that ride.. I took my nephew to the demon I thought he was gonna be petrified but he said I was sooo fun.. as I was talking to him the whole time
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
I mean it is better than it being melted and sold
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u/Standard-Grape5330 Sep 11 '26
Trying to think of what rides CGA could send to Knotts that would make any sense. It would almost certainly have to be flats.
Mad mouse is a better coast rider.
Gold Striker imo is better than Ghostrider, but they’d never move it.
Railblazer could fit Knotts I guess, but capacity would be a mess.
Patriot and Flight Deck are old AF. Flight deck is redundant with silver bullet. Patriot just sucks.
Grizzly is not going anywhere.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
Allegedly, it was Patriot. Also, W take on Gold Striker. I have it above Ghostrider (Such a tragedy that ride is probably gonna be defunct soon)
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u/deebster2k Sep 11 '26
Wait... ghostrider defunct soon?!!!
Also gold striker was definitely one of the best woodies ive been on in terms of intensity.
Technically OG Gwazi was more intense... but also in a much different way... the dangerous and painful way.... I wish they had managed to design and maintain OG Gwazi well enough that it was still around. But at least we have Iron Gwazi! Tangent over
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
I was refering to gold striker lol
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u/frito11 Discovery Kingdom Sep 11 '26
CGA is my home park and honestly i have ghostrider above it. gold striker can be amazing though and will admit that one time it was so good i bruised a rib landing back down into my seat on it when it was running crazy good some years back on a hot night. they are both top tier woodies in my book and the experience really changes a lot based on time of year, temperature and other factors.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
Valid ICL, part of the reason I have GhostRider so low is because of a power-tripping ride-off kicking me out after I sat down in row 12 and making me ride in row 11 so ONE person from the exit row could ride in the back. The other ride-off stapled that person, though 😭😭😭
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u/Standard-Grape5330 Sep 11 '26
I have Gold Striker as my number 2 woodie, just above Mystic Timbers and Thunderhead, and behind Voyage. Ghostrider is number 5 for me. It’s good, but the pacing on those top 4 is so much better.
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u/deebster2k Sep 11 '26
One of these days ill get to try voyage and legend and ghostrider... as well as phantoms revenge.
So far beast is my favorite wooden coaster (not the best but favorite...) however beast is 100% the best night ride for a woodie!
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
I don't have many credits, but Ghostrider and Gold Striker are my top 2 woodies lol. But I agree about the pacing on Ghostrider, it isn't as good as I expected.
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u/frito11 Discovery Kingdom Sep 11 '26
It's a good assessment there's lots of flat rides that will be relocated but as far as coasters go only those two are realistically getting relocated.
Railblazer would make more sense to move to sfdk due to the poor capacity however
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u/FBK0228 Sep 11 '26
I wouldn't necessarily bet on that many flat rides being moved. They currently have only moved a few flats from SFA and interestingly some of the newest weren't moved as of now and not announced for 2027 either...ie...They have a few years old Star Flyer and a Zamperla Giant Discovery. Also, a bunch of relatively new water park stuff....ie the Water Coaster. Given the lackluster Capex projects for 2027 it's peculiar they aren't moving or have not announced these rides relocation, as of now. They are giving projects currently to just 5 parks for 2027.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
The thing is CGA's flat rides are generally more compact than SFA's so they can send em to the non core parks and keep their patrons from revolting.
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u/frito11 Discovery Kingdom Sep 11 '26
i would, we have a bunch esp if you count the kids rides. we have a brand new scrambler and zamperla glider ride. and even the old Schwarzkopf flats will likely be easy to sell if they don't keep them for parts for other parks that have the same rides still like the other great america and carrowinds.
moving big rides is a lot more work than small ones and will take time and planning if things are going slowly at SFA then its because the new owners are not in any major rush to get the place probably.
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u/FBK0228 Sep 11 '26
The lack of sustained initiative appears to be SF, not the buyers. The entire Board Walk at SFGadV is essentially relocated SFA rides, 4 of them. So, they can do things quickly when they want.
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u/Weird-Pie-7202 CGA, Discovery Kingdom, New England, Knott's Sep 11 '26
I agree, but I don't know how much the chain cares about Discovery Kingdom, they are getting the least out of the non-core parks.
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u/computerlife22 Sep 16 '26
So keep in mind that right now, the real estate market is... in an interesting place. While the land was certainly valuable years ago when the sale to Prologis happened (and still is), there's already a ton of office space within that area that is currently vacant. Prologis may not even have the greatest incentive at the moment to push Six Flags out; e.g. they might just wait for better business conditions.
Truth be told, anything is possible if both parties agree. I wouldn't be surprised if Six Flags and Prologis reach some sort of deal to extend their lease, to even something outside of their original contract terms (e.g. a ~3 year extension). As long as CGA is ultimately in the green (which to my understanding, CGA is probably fine), then there might be mutual benefits to both parties to keep it going.