Six Flags Fired 3 Top GM's

[marc]

Bit of a shock as from what we heard they were turning the parks round.

(From Screamscape)
Six Flags - (8/25/10) In a very shocking piece of news, Screamscape has learned from a source that the Six Flags corporate office fired three of their top GMs this week. The list is said to include Eric Gibert from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, longtime respected GM Mark Kane at Six Flags Great Adventure and the loved Jay Thomas at Six Flags Magic Mountain who has been praised for really turning that park around in the last few years.

No reason or even confirmation has come from the Six Flags corporate office yet, so this is quite shocking to a good number of people, as these were some of the top GMs in the entire chain. Valued members of the company, so it’s hard to imagine how or why the new Six Flags board would dismiss them. In the case of SFMM and SFGAdv, I’m told that Thomas and Kane brought up the guest satisfaction scores at both those parks to all time record high levels never seen before. Unlike the dismissal of the former SF New England GM earlier this summer who had close personal ties to Shapiro, these guys were longtime company men, around long before the Shapiro era.

From what I was told Dale Kaetzel (a former GM of Canada’s Wonderland and also involved with Hard Rock Park) will take over SF Discovery Kingdom, a returning Marketing Director named Bonnie Rabjohn will slide into Thomas’ seat at The Mountain and John Fitzgerald (formerly of Freestyle Music Park) will take the hot seat in the New Jersey park. You can also read a bit more about Kaetzel and Fitzgerald at Catchment, a themed entertainment / attraction management service the two were partners in.

http://www.screamscape.com/html/industr ... m#SixFlags

 

[Mike]

So they've fired three of the best GMs from three of the best Six Flags parks, and replaced them with people who were in charge of a park that barely lasted a year?

Yes, congratulations Six Flags on this marvelous decision making! :roll:
*Facepalm*

 

[jjjjustin]

So they've fired three of the best GMs from three of the best Six Flags parks, and replaced them with people who were in charge of a park that barely lasted a year?

Yes, congratulations Six Flags on this marvelous decision making! :roll:
*Facepalm*

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if great adventure goes down i will hunt him down and punch him in the FACE!!!!!!John Fitzgerald better be careful!!!

 

[tomahawk]

Sounds like penny pinching to me. Complete garbage from my point of view, if true. Obviously there is something else going on, there is always another side to the story.

 

[Almost]

Big mistake. Kane brough quite a bit of change for the better at Great Adventure.


Le sigh Six Flags, le sigh.

 

[CMonster]

It seems there is another twist to this twisted story, from Screamscape.

There seems to be a bit of conflicting information regarding the fate of Jay Thomas, President of Six Flags Magic Mountain. Previously our sources had sent in a e-mail notice from Al Weber sent out to all Six Flags staff that announced the three new Presidents taking over SFDK, SFGAdv and SFMM, which at the end thanked the three parting gentlemen for their years of service and and wished them well in the future endeavors. Sounds like a firing to you? Me too... and everyone else.
However today it has come to light in the official press release from Six Flags Magic Mountain about the appointment of Bonnie Rabjohn to the President job, it now says that “She succeeds Jay Thomas who is joining the Six Flags corporate team in Dallas.” This has led many to wonder if Six Flags did a bit of back peddling after an outcry of support came out for Thomas. While this could be true, we’ve also heard the possibility that Jay may actually have been replacing someone at the office who was being let go, but had not yet been notified. Still... that’s a long way to go about it... as they could have easily fired the one person first, appointed Jay to the spot and avoided the whole Weber e-mail to the entire company about wishing him well in his future endeavors.
Especially since this means Jay Thomas would be working in the same office as Al Weber. 2 and 2 are just not adding up to 4 at this point and it smells like something fishy is going on. Six Flags’s new corporate team is starting to act like a crazy octopus with each arm off doing something on it’s own that the others are unaware of. Is a power struggle brewing in the new Dallas office perhaps?

Hmm, interesting.

 

[CreditCrazy]

Jay Thomas is awesome... It's devastating that he won't be at SFMM anymore.