I think we all saw this coming.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/13/six-flags...ter-eleven.html

Also, Chapter 11 does not affect any park's operations.

Shapiro was wasting too much money on new roller coasters, wiggles world, tony hawk, TDK, X2, and Bizarro. So, Six Flags went into Chapter 11. He also wasted new stands like Cold Stone Creamery and Johnny Rockets. If you look back at the Premier era, they wasted their money to build huge coasters like Raging Bull, Superman: Ride of Steel (SFNE), Kingda Ka, El Toro, Nitro, Goliath, and Medusa. Premier also had a ton parks around North America and Europe. So they had the most parks for a company like Six Flags and Cedar Fair. I believe that SF should sell some parks while they are in Bankrupt protection.

Yeah, it was all Shapiro's fault. He was only in power for 2 years and he managed to rack up $2 billion in debt himself. [/sarcasm] He was trying to give the parks a new angle as he felt old management had alienated families (the bigger spenders) and wanted to bring them back. Seriously, I as I'm sure most of you have a season pass, so we don't pay admission when we go. When I go, I might spend $20 if they are lucky on a souvenir. Otherwise I will likely only buy a bottle of water or something in the park. I eat lunch outside of the park, so they don't get a lot of money from me or the rest of us. Families on the other hand make one visit to the park a year (although a lot of them will), spend the $55 for admission on somewhere between 3-5 people on average, probably around $50 or more on souvenirs, and around $75 or more on food in the park. In one visit, a family will spend way more than any of us will in an entire year at the park. This is why Shapiro wanted to bring them back with tamer rides. What failed with his plan though was that was all he added to most of the parks. SFMM got a new coaster each year, but the rest were left with major overhauls or kiddie areas year after year. If he had spread the thrill rides around a bit more, then it might have been a different outcome.

Secondly, I don't think he exactly wasted money on new brand name food stands in the parks. There was likely some deal that allowed the park and vendors to share profits on what was sold, meaning that there was no cost to having brand name food stalls in the park.