Six Flags Just Sold Seven Beloved American Theme Parks to Pay Off a Debt Bomb

Six Flags went bankrupt in 2009 drowning in $2.7 billion in debt – and Wall Street swore it would never happen again.

Now the parks your family drove to every summer are being sold off to a real estate investment firm.

And the man who built the debt bomb that made this happen already collected his paycheck and walked out the door.

Six Flags Park Sale: The Executive Who Built the Debt and Left

Selim Bassoul took over as Six Flags CEO in November 2021 and immediately started making deals.

He pushed the merger with Cedar Fair – combining two debt-laden companies into one massive debt-laden company – and sold Wall Street on $120 million in annual cost savings that never materialized.

The merger closed July 1, 2024, saddling the combined company with nearly $5 billion in debt.

Attendance dropped by 1.4 million visitors in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the year prior.

Moody's downgraded the company's credit rating three notches in November 2025, citing integration failures and falling attendance.

The company posted a $1.6 billion net loss for fiscal 2025.

In January 2026, Six Flags borrowed another $1 billion in junk bonds – the riskiest tier of debt – just to stay afloat, at interest rates high enough to add $36 million to the company's annual payments.

Bassoul stepped down in October 2025 and was gone by January 1, 2026.

Someone else got stuck cleaning up the mess.

Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun and Five More Parks Sold for $331 Million

Last Thursday, new CEO John Reilly announced Six Flags would sell seven parks to EPR Properties, a real estate investment trust, for $331 million.

The parks: Valleyfair in Minnesota – where families have been riding coasters since 1976 – Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Michigan's Adventure in Grand Rapids, Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston, Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Great Escape in New York, and La Ronde in Montreal.

Together those seven parks drew 4.5 million visitors and generated $260 million in revenue last year.

Six Flags is selling all of it for $331 million – so the company can pay down the debt Bassoul left behind.

Reilly called it concentrating capital on "stronger-performing properties."

Your kids' favorite summer memory is what got cut.

EPR will partner with a company called Enchanted Parks to run the six American properties.

Your 2026 season pass will still work – for now.

After this season, a real estate investment trust decides what happens next.

This Is a Pattern, Not a Problem

This isn't Six Flags having a bad year.

The company spent the late 1990s buying parks it couldn't afford, ran up $2.7 billion in debt, and filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Shareholders were wiped out completely.

The company handed 92% of itself to lenders in exchange for canceling over $1 billion in debt.

Then Wall Street did it again.

Bassoul arrived, engineered a merger that nearly doubled the debt, collected his executive salary, and left before the bill came due.

The parks your grandkids have been riding for decades – places with 50 years of family memories – are now being handed to a real estate firm so new management can service a debt they didn't create.

Bassoul is already gone.

Your park isn't.

Sources:

• Louis Casiano, "Six Flags to sell 7 amusement parks in deal worth more than $330M," Fox Business, March 5, 2026.
• "Six Flags Entertainment Corporation faces $5.5bn debt challenge after merging with Cedar Fair," WFMZ, September 4, 2025.
• "Cedar Point parent Six Flags taps market for $1B in junk debt," Crain's Cleveland Business, January 6, 2026.
• "Six Flags selling Valleyfair, but says it will remain open this summer," Fox 9 Minneapolis, March 5, 2026.
• "Six Flags Entertainment Corp. Divests Seven Regional Parks in $331 Million Strategic Pivot," Financial Content/Market Minute, March 5, 2026.