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This park was originally the sister park of Great America in Gurnee, Illinois (now owned by Six Flags), both originally built in the 1970s by Marriott (the hote

This park was originally the sister park of Great America in Gurnee, Illinois (now owned by Six Flags), both originally built in the 1970s by Marriott (the hotel company). Up until the mid 1980s when the parks were sold, they were almost clones of each other (the way Orlando's Magic Kingdom is of Calfornia's Disneyland). You can still see some common features of the parks but they've been diverging for the past 30+ years.

joezydeco 4y ago
Been going to the Gurnee park since it opened. Curious, why did Six Flags buy the Illinois park and not the California one?
- dehrmann 4y ago
  Found these https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1984/04/27/marriott-sells-theme-park-to-bally-manufacturing/73cfb5ec-8d73-4f48-9ac4-fb57b200da97/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1984/04/27/m... https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/09/04/The-citys-ambitious-101-million-purchase-of-Marriotts-Great/4017463118400/ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/09/04/The-citys-ambitious-... https://culture.fandom.com/wiki/California%27s_Great_America#Marriott_&_KECO_Era_(1976%E2%80%931992) https://culture.fandom.com/wiki/California%27s_Great_America... None of them really say. It's not clear what order negotiations happened in, so it's possible Bally Manufacturing (Six Flags) had no interest in the Santa Clara location (smaller market? too much debt?), or that Mariott's got a better offer from a real estate developer. It's safe to assume the park was offered to Bally since they're already in that industry, so it's a turn-key purchase. The Gurnee park sold for $114.5M, and the Santa Clara one for $101M, but I think Gurnee effectively had more land. Interestingly, Santa Clara bought it for $101M in 1984. That includes buildings and rides, but they sold the land to Cedar Fair for $150M in 2019. One of those numbers seems off. Santa Clara also bought it in ~1984 to save it from being developed into an industrial park.

joezydeco 4y ago

Been going to the Gurnee park since it opened. Curious, why did Six Flags buy the Illinois park and not the California one?

dehrmann 4y ago
Found these https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1984/04/27/marriott-sells-theme-park-to-bally-manufacturing/73cfb5ec-8d73-4f48-9ac4-fb57b200da97/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1984/04/27/m... https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/09/04/The-citys-ambitious-101-million-purchase-of-Marriotts-Great/4017463118400/ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/09/04/The-citys-ambitious-... https://culture.fandom.com/wiki/California%27s_Great_America#Marriott_&_KECO_Era_(1976%E2%80%931992) https://culture.fandom.com/wiki/California%27s_Great_America... None of them really say. It's not clear what order negotiations happened in, so it's possible Bally Manufacturing (Six Flags) had no interest in the Santa Clara location (smaller market? too much debt?), or that Mariott's got a better offer from a real estate developer. It's safe to assume the park was offered to Bally since they're already in that industry, so it's a turn-key purchase. The Gurnee park sold for $114.5M, and the Santa Clara one for $101M, but I think Gurnee effectively had more land. Interestingly, Santa Clara bought it for $101M in 1984. That includes buildings and rides, but they sold the land to Cedar Fair for $150M in 2019. One of those numbers seems off. Santa Clara also bought it in ~1984 to save it from being developed into an industrial park.