Six Flags is set to merge with Dorney Park’s parent company
The merger with Cedar Point would value the combined companies at $8 billion dollars. They'd then own 51 properties across North America — including the Allentown amusement park.
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Six Flags is preparing to merge with Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., the Ohio-based amusement park conglomerate that owns Allentown’s Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom.
The deal would value the combined businesses at around $8 billion dollars, Bloomberg reported, and create one of the United States’ largest theme park operators. Cedar Fair investors will be the majority shareholders, owning just over 51% of the stock in the joined venture. Six Flags shareholders will own just over 48%.
The new company — which will retain the Six Flags name and have a new headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. — will be helmed by Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman.
The merger is expected to be complete in the first half of 2024, according to Bloomberg, and requires approval from Six Flags shareholders. The companies previously discussed joining forces in 2019, but that plan never came to fruition.
Six Flag’s stock closed up 6.5%. Cedar Fair’s fell 1.4%
When complete, the Six Flags-Cedar Fair entity would include 42 amusement or water parks and nine resorts across North America.
» READ MORE: Dorney Park to get the region’s first dive rollercoaster in 2024
Since the merger won’t be official until sometime in 2024, no changes will be made to Dorney Park until then, said a Cedar Fair spokesperson, and it will retain its name even after the companies combine.
“This merger is about being able to invest more in all of our parks,” the spokesperson said. “Guests can eventually expect new rides, more concession offerings, things like that. It will be more than either company could do on their own.”
Dorney Park is one of Pennsylvania’s oldest amusement parks, second only to Idlewild near Pittsburgh. Just after it was opened in 1884 by Solomon Dorney, the amusement park was owned by the Allentown-Kutztown Traction Co. and then different members of the Plarr family until 1993, when Cedar Fair acquired it.
Dorney Park’s main attractions are the century-old wooden roller coaster Thunderhawk, which became a historic landmark in 2021, and Steel Force, a ride through four tunnels and two hills that runs at a speed of 75 mph.
Changes are coming to Dorney Park, though: It plans to add a new roller coaster in 2024 called the Iron Menace, which will be a 152-foot-tall dive roller coaster with a nearly vertical drop. When built, it will be the first of its kind in the Northeast.