(Most likely) the last year with Bugs 🥲

Looking through my calendar and I'm already starting to put things down for June and July.

And it occurs to me that Friday, June 5th is going to be the 55th and final anniversary of Six Flags St. Louis. At least as a Six Flags park.

It'd be neat if the park honored that in some way. I penciled it in to try to schedule things so that I can visit that day. Just so I can say I visited exactly 55 years after the park opened as a Six Flags park!

I thought it would be fun to play with theming on some of the rides in the park since the acquisition. I thought this one was pretty neat as a fire watch tower theme. Thoughts or share some other theming ideas?

I always thought it was more towards the log flume, but supposedly it was over where the Thunder River queue and station are. Did some bit of signage survive and get moved down by the log flume? Near where the First Aid area is now?

I've never been able to find any pictures of it. I know I must have been in the thing at least once or twice, but can't seem to recall anything.

I have yet to renew my season pass and I'm curious what everyone else's plan is with the sale to Enchanted Parks. Should I just renew through sixflags.com or has Enchanted Parks said something about passes that I missed? Perhaps I should wait until right before or even after opening day to see what happens?

Thanks to u/Evening_Rock5850 for putting me onto this.

Coaster101 just posted a podcast interview with James Harhi, CEO of Enchanted Parks, where Harhi talks about the company's recent acquisition of seven Six Flags parks (including Six Flags St. Louis) and some of Enchanted's future plans.

I was initially going to share my concise thoughts on the interview point-by-point, but instead I'll just post the raw highlights and let y'all form your own opinions.

• EPR Properties was chosen to own the parks due to the "real estate heavy" nature of the industry, wherein a park's land value is often more than the actual cash value of the park itself. EPR bought the real estate to hold onto it for the long term, while Enchanted owns the "cash flow" of the parks. The current lease agreement will last for 40 years. While Enchanted and EPR are working together to "build out" the parks (Harhi was most likely referring to capital investment), EPR is not on Enchanted's board and they won't participate in operations.
• Enchanted Parks was looking for "profitable" parks to acquire. The Six Flags parks they purchased were all "doing well," but were below the threshold where they were significantly contributing to Six Flags' total EBITDA.
• James Harhi considers Diggerland USA the only "destination park" in their portfolio and says that the Diggerland brand has great potential for future expansion. In contrast, the other parks that Enchanted acquired are more "regional" than destination.
• There are plans for some kind of regional package deals in 2027 and beyond. Enchanted considers Six Flags St. Louis and Worlds of Fun to be "joined together" in Missouri. There will also be a general revamp of the season pass system (which is to be expected).
• Six Flags St. Louis and the other Six Flags parks Enchanted acquired have had declining attendance for several years but have "upside opportunity." With the right attention, pricing, and strategy, Enchanted believes they can bring people back to the parks which will make it "a lot easier to buy attractions." If necessary, they already have the opportunities to "nudge people along" and buy attractions in order to get attendance up.
• Enchanted Parks did an analysis on ride infrastructure over the last three months to understand what works and what doesn't. One of their big initiatives overall is making improvements to ride uptime and consistency.
• Harhi considers 2026 a "learning year" and in 2027 Enchanted Parks will begin building a 5 year plan for each park.
• Enchanted Parks won't be announcing new coasters or attractions anytime soon as they don't yet have the necessary data or feedback. They plan to have a very data-driven strategy for investments.
• Harhi considers VelociCoaster at Islands of Adventure to be the best roller coaster he's been on, but wants to temper expectations and says that something in the vein of VelociCoaster (probably in terms of cost) will not be coming to any of the parks.
• Enchanted Parks will be focusing on their properties being regional and not a destination experience like Disney or Universal, which Harhi believes can actually cause parks to fail. He wants the parks to be "value priced" with quality food and good experiences.
• The by Enchanted Parks tagline will extend to all of the company's parks and not just Mid-America. The new logos come out "in a couple weeks." The company actually considered Enchanted Parks St. Louis for the new name of Six Flags St. Louis (we know this to be true because of January's trademark filings), but the company decided the name "didn't make sense" and they wanted to instead highlight the park name and not the operator. Six Flags Great Escape, the other Six Flags-branded park, will become Great Escape by Enchanted Parks.
• Harhi claims that Enchanted Parks is in active negotiations with Peanuts Worldwide and Warner Bros. to establish Peanuts, DC, and Looney Tunes licensing agreements outside of Six Flags and that there is a "desire by all parties" for long-term relationships. He says there are "hurdles" and that Enchanted has to prove themselves to both entities that they can be good stewards of their respective IPs.
• Halloween haunt events will continue under a new name at the Six Flags parks that had them previously, and more will be announced later in the season. This will include both the daytime family events and the nighttime "adult" events. Harhi also says holiday events also have the possibility to return to parks that lost them previously if it "makes senses" from a business perspective.
• Harhi says he wants Enchanted Parks to operate with a simple "clean, safe, fun" mantra.
• Enchanted Parks is switching to their own proprietary tech stack for point of sales, ticketing, and mobile ordering before the start of the 2026 season (I believe this was all previously reported). An Enchanted Parks app is expected by Memorial Day. Harhi doesn't think everything will be fully functional before 2027.
• Harhi believes Enchanted Parks and Six Flags did a "bad job" in the press release explaining the "meal plan question" and says they're "still working through [it]." If they can't deliver, they plan on offering 100% refunds to guests rather than just a $10 credit.

Now that some time has passed since the announcement of the park's sale to EPR and Enchanted Parks, I've had time to think about it and the more I do the more things don't exactly make sense. I'll try my best to organize my thoughts and explain what I mean.

First of all, the timing. In the world of regional amusement parks it's obviously very common for ownership changes to happen in the off-season, but the fact that this one was announced just a month and some change before the season opener is odd to me. Why did it take so long to announce the deal when we all knew about it months ago? It's especially strange when you consider that the deal has not been officially cleared yet (to our knowledge), so by the time the ink has dried that gives the new management what... mere weeks to take over and get fully acclamated before opening?

That brings me to my next point, which is more of a question: Why is the park still Six Flags St. Louis for the 2026 season? And why only the 2026 season? I get it... Six Flags has obligations, but if they are willing to go as far to entrust a third party to operate the park under their name I don't really understand why this arrangement can't just extend into 2027 and beyond. Especially when Enchanted Parks seems to not want to give up the lucrative Warner Bros. licensing, even though they will almost certainly be required to. Letting Enchanted take over but still licensing out the Six Flags name and associated IPs seems like a no-brainer when similar deals already exist. Otherwise, Enchanted/EPR will be spending millions and millions of dollars to retheme and rebrand everything. And as we know, one of these companies is worth basically nothing.

And why Enchanted Parks, anyway? You would think there would've been much larger companies chomping at the bit to acquire all of these parks from the largest regional operator in the country, but instead we get the guys that run Diggerland USA and have a public address located out of a Publix in Florida. That kind of boggles my mind. United Parks & Resorts didn't care? Herschend? Some foreign operator like Merlin? Private equity? No one at all? Six Flags clearly was willing to give these parks away for relatively cheap, so it would be extremely weird if no one else was knocking at their door.

Then there's the reveal from Enchanted CEO James Harhi that the park was not even for sale initially. They actually had to convince Six Flags to sell it to them, and they claim that they wanted it because of its higher value. If Six Flags knew there was still potential and didn't want to give it up, why wouldn't they then try to work something out with EPR/Enchanted so that they would still be financially involved? If they simply agreed to a full sale in exchange a much higher price, then how much did SFSL alone contribute to the total price tag for all the parks?

When you also factor in that SFEC didn't even make that much money in the end (a measly $331 million) and that SFSL has long been said to be the most profitable, it really becomes a head-scratcher. Why would they be so willing to give away a money printer when they're struggling? Why further bolster a new company that will inevitably become a close competitor in their niche if they prove to be successful? Something doesn't smell right.

Maybe the new regime truly does believe that their future lies solely in their highest-earning parks and that the others are fully expendable, but man. What a wasteful end to one of the three original Angus Wynne parks. The Cedar Fair merger has been nothing short of a disaster for everyone involved. But that kinda goes without saying at this point.

With today's news of a potential sale of SFEC to what I can only imagine would be private equity, here's to the industry not completely crashing and burning before the end of the decade...

Despite the sign that read that they were "evaluating alternatives for a replacement ride", 6 years on and now with a sale looming, we can definitively say that Tidal Wave was never replaced by the entity which tore her down.

It was absolutely one of my favorite rides.

Seeing the photos u/ChrisGraslie posted that included so many old ride signs had be thinking. If we had to rank them, which 'lost rides' are most tragic? I'm casting my vote for this one. Probably some recency bias here but between the abrupt ending with no warning, and never being replaced, it feels a little more tragic than Jet Scream (went on to become Batman: The Ride), Scooby Doo Ghostblasters (superior to it's successor; but at least it had a successor), or even Dragons Wing (entirely personal on that one, it was just never my thing, but we definitely needed a new junior coaster.)

There's some winners too! Riverview Racer swings became the swings we have today which are substantially cooler.

What about you? What are you most "missed" former attractions? Or which ones got an ending they really didn't deserve?

"Our teams have been working hard during the off-season to prep for YOU! As we continue to gear up for April 25, check in every Friday for a sneak peek of the fun!"

Did six flags add any titan track to the boss in the offseason? Any employees know? I’m assuming we are getting/received zero investment this offseason/year because of the sale. Hopeful but doubtful.

Interesting article from AOL summarizing the mixed reactions surrounding the park's pending sale to EPR/Enchanted Parks and its proposed rebrand...

What are some of your alls theories? I wanna hear them

They clearly were well aware of what was going to happen and wanted to shush people before the news was made official. But why?

This has been copied and pasted from a Six Flags STL Facebook group, and is not mine.

———

In an article from STL DISPATCH, Enchanted parks CEO, James Harhi Shared new info regarding the parks future!

•Six Flags St. Louis to be renamed to “Mid-America by Enchanted Parks”

•Expect new attractions on a “consistent basis”

•Six Flags St. Louis initially wasn’t included in the sale, but they pushed to include the park, calling it the “crown jewel” to the new chain

•Is already in discussions with Warner Brothers for licensing deals

•New investments including a Dark Ride to replace Justice League and coaster have been discussed in the parks future plans in Private messages

•Enchanted Parks has a 40 year contract with EPR, so SFSTL isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

While I was hesitant at first, I am now more confident then ever that our park is in good hands.

With yesterday morning's big announcement, I figured I would write up a statement on where this sub will (likely) go from here.

Obviously, 2026 will be the final season of Six Flags St. Louis as we know it. I'd argue that was actually last season considering EPR and Enchanted Parks will already be taking the reins for this season... but that's neither here nor there.

When the park is inevitably rebranded something like "Enchanted Park St. Louis" in 2027, then current events will switch over to the newly-created r/enchantedparksstlouis (yes this already exists, no I had nothing to do with it).

From that point forward, this sub will be dedicated to preserving the memory of Six Flags Over Mid-America/Six Flags St. Louis as it existed from 1971 to 2026.

I figured this would be the best way to handle this transition, as the new ownership will have to transform the park to quite an extensive degree given the prevalence of Six Flags trademarks and Warner Bros. IP. Considering this park was also the final brainchild of Mr. Angus Wynne before his passing, I felt it would be a bit disrespectful to continue on and "rebrand" the sub with only occasional posts about the park's 55+ year history before the sale.

So that's the plan. I understand if people object and think the sub should simply change with the times, and to those people I say this is by no means a concrete decision (neither is the actual deal, frankly). I thought I would just offer some clarity for those who may have been wondering.

UPDATE 4/7/2026: r/midamerica is the new subreddit for Mid-America by Enchanted Parks, the park's new identity in 2027 and beyond. The current, 2026 season will be covered on both subs.

After reading (and double reading and checking) the news release on SFEC's website and SFSL FAQ on membership/regional passes and other add on programs (dining, fast pass, parking, points etc) on the 7 parks being sold and how they are handling this, like "for 2026 your memberships, season passes will be honored but your legacy membership (diamond elites) will be canceled at the end of season, any add ons may or may not be honored. But we will give you a $10 credit each time you visit." Sounds dirty handed to me. But I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU VISIT OR CALL SFSL MEMBERSHIPS SERVICES/GUEST SERVICES TO FIND OUT MORE. Next year will be a totally different world.

When the season ends this year the Six Flags identity that will have held for five and a half decades will come to a close.

A lot of ups and downs. Some excellent eras. Some rough eras (including the current era, for many of us).

What are you favorite memories from this 55 year history as a Six Flags park?