The number of cars in the parking doesn't say anything about making a profit, or even generating revenue, for that matter. Beyond that, making a profit isn't the problem; making enough profit is the key.

Enough articles out there about Six Flags make it pretty plain that amusement park revenue is a function of capital expenditure, and Premier Parks nee Six Flags had already cut back on that very item virtually across the board a couple of years ago in order to start paying down its acquisition debt. In other words, they had indebted themselves to the point where they couldn't "prime the pump" with the capital expenditure necessary to sustain or increase revenue growth. If neither WW or FC has seen new captial infusion recently, it means they're already behind the eight ball just to sustain revenue levels from previous years.

Shapiro has done *precisely* this (increased per-visitor expenditure) with the parks the new ownership has chosen to retain. My thought is that they assessed the OKC parks as either a) having gone too long without capital infusion, or b) requiring too much expenditure based on potential revenue growth. Either way, that implied a big yellow light on the parks' viability.

That's why I believe the new owners may need to infuse both parks with *significant* amounts of capital to compensate for recent financial neglect if they have any hope of making the parks profitable enough for them to remain open. Maybe they'll get that job done, and get the parks financially rehabilitated. We just don't know at this point, except that one set of owners already has deemed it not worth the effort. We'll just have to see what happens. I don't mean to be a wet blanket on the local parks' futures, but I do believe they face an uphill battle for long-term viability.

-SoonerDave