Six Flags in Arlington Will Stay Open, Says Owner

The operating company was carrying an “unsustainable amount of debt,” and the losers in its bankruptcy will be its unsecured creditors. But the bankruptcy won’t have any impact on the original Six Flags in Arlington, according not only to the operating company but also to Dallas investor Jack Knox, the general partner of the group that actually owns the park and who says he’s being “nibbled to death” with questions.  To answer them, he happily sent along this memo to his limited partners. 

As you have probably heard by now, this past weekend Six Flags, Inc., the publicly traded parent company, and many of its affiliated companies filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. This filing was not unexpected.

It did not include Texas Flags, Ltd., the operating partnership for Six Flags Over Texas amusement park, nor its general partner, Six Flags Over Texas, Inc. The filing did include two of our partnership’s earlier guarantors, Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. and Six Flags Operations, Inc. You can be assured that we will monitor this bankruptcy case closely to identify any action that might be proposed that would disadvantage our partnership or its ownership of Six Flags Over Texas.

Our preliminary review of the limited number of documents that have been filed in the case leads us to believe, at this point, that this case should be fairly routine in which much of the large debt load of Six Flags, Inc. and its affiliated companies will be exchanged for stock ownership in the business. This exchange should not adversely affect our partnership, but to the contrary, if all goes as planned it should permit Six Flags, Inc. and its affiliated companies to emerge well-capitalized and more capable of discharging their obligations to us.

This filing does not affect any of the guarantees of performance previously made to our partnership by Time Warner (now known as Historic TW, Inc.) and Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. We do not currently anticipate that the filing will interrupt the operations of the Arlington amusement park or our relationships with Six Flags, Inc or our ownership of the park. We will keep you informed.

Best regards,

Jack Knox LLC
General Partner