February 3, 2026, 8:29 PM ·
It’s time again to ask the most popular question in the theme park industry: What is Six Flags thinking?The amusement park chain this week announced that it would allow mid-level season pass holders to use their passes to enter not just their home park, but all the theme parks in their home region. Six Flags divided North America into four regions and assigned each of its parks into one of those four.Starting this month, Six Flags fans with Gold level passes will be able to visit all the parks in their region on their pass, once they open for the season. Top-level Prestige passholders already get access to all of Six Flags’ parks in North America. Six Flags also announced that it will be holding a sale on its lowest-level Silver passes at designated parks later this month that includes a free upgrade to the Gold level and the expanded access. [See Six Flags adds more park access to Gold season passes.]Why is Six Flags doing this? This simple answer appears to be to boost season pass sales. But Six Flags passes are already dirt-cheap – delivering a full year of admission for less than the price of some one-day tickets to a Disney theme park. Adding access to more parks for the same price – or less – seems almost desperate.But the real head-scratching moment comes when you consider that Six Flags seems to be ready to sell off several of its theme parks. [See Trademark applications may point to sale of Six Flags parks.]Why would Six Flags be selling its most loyal fans on access to parks that it might be about to remove from the chain? That seems like a bait and switch, doesn’t it?I think we need to look at this from a different perspective. Consider this proposal: Six Flags is expanding season pass park access not in spite of a plan to sell off parks, but because of it. Again, Six Flags has not confirmed any plans to remove specific parks. Management has committed to a review of the company’s portfolio, and trademark registrations have suggested a change in ownership for some parks that the company might not consider core assets.Six Flags may want to lower long-term expenses and raise short-term cash by selling, but like any company, it would prefer not to lose customers in the process. What happens to Six Flags passholders whose home parks are sold or closed?Well, with Six Flags’ new season pass perks, those customers could keep their passes and use them for the other parks in their region. Again, there is no information out there to suggest that Six Flags would close any parks during the upcoming season. Every Six Flags fan who has bought a pass at any level for the 2026 season should expect that their home park will remain open for that season, at least through the traditional end of summer vacation season around Labor Day. So let’s consider the Gold pass expansion as Six Flags’ sales pitch to fans whose home park closes to consider remaining as Six Flags passholders in 2027 and beyond, to visit the other Six Flags parks in their region. Will it work? Who knows? But by reframing home parks as home regions, Six Flags gives itself an opportunity to hold onto at least a few of the customers that it surely will lose if it closes any more parks. (Six Flags America closed at the end of the 2025 season, and it is widely expected among insiders that 2026 will be the final year for California’s Great America.)And that is what I think that Six Flags is thinking.
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