James Harhi, CEO of Enchanted Parks, has big plans for the Six Flags St. Louis amusement park in Eureka.
The park, which will be renamed Mid-America by Enchanted Parks next year, is undergoing some subtle changes this season, which began April 25. Next year, Harhi said, parkgoers may notice ride name changes and different operating hours.
Through this transition period, Harhi said his focus is on keeping prices low, hiring and maintaining staff and providing a fabulous experience for guests.
“The way I look at the business is, to get people to come back and become valued, loyal customers, they’ve got to have good experiences,” he said. “You have to really explain to the employees that this isn’t a job selling a hot dog. This is a job selling memories to families and making those experiences for people.”
Kansas City real estate company EPR Properties announced April 6 it had closed a deal with Six Flags Entertainment Corporation for six amusement parks, including Six Flags St. Louis. EPR paid about $342 million for the parks.
One remaining park, Six Flags La Ronde in Montreal, is expected to close by June 30, EPR said in a statement.
In addition to Six Flags St. Louis and La Ronde, the other parks included in the sale are Michigan’s Adventure in Muskegon, Mich., Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Galveston, Texas, Six Flags Great Escape in Queensbury, N.Y., Valleyfair in Minneapolis, Minn., and Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Mo.
Enchanted Parks will operate the six U.S. parks under a long-term lease, EPR said. Enchanted Parks, based in Orlando, is the third-largest privately held regional park operator in the U.S., operating eight locations nationwide, including Diggerland USA in West Berlin, N.J. and Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge, N.Y.
Relationship with Eureka
Harhi said the Eureka park is the largest that Enchanted Parks operates, and it has the highest attendance and best mix of rides.
“The amusement world had a boom in 2021 through 2024; it was actually some of the best years of any amusement park,” he said. “Disney, Universal, even your regional operators, they had amazing increases in attendance. This park did not benefit from that boom. It was unlike anything else I’d seen in the industry.
“One thing we dug into a lot to understand is whether there was a bigger problem here. We looked at those numbers, and we didn’t feel like this was a declining market problem where people are moving out of the area and that’s why our attendance is going down. We looked at this as just being out of touch with the market.”
Harhi said Six Flags is a large contributor to the sales tax Eureka collects, and the park is a big local employer. He said it’s important that the park, and specifically park president Danny Snider, remains an active member of the Eureka community.
Spokeswoman Elizabeth Gotway said the park hires more than 2,000 seasonal employees annually and has about 70 full-time maintenance workers.
The park is accepting applications from those 15 years or older at mid-americaparks.enchantedparks.com/jobs.
Harhi got his start in the amusement park industry 30 years ago at Walt Disney World as a lifeguard. He was a recreation specialist his final six years at that park.
Harhi said he recently had dinner with other former Disney lifeguards.
“We were just there to have fun at that time,” he said. “I hope that the people coming through the park get that experience when they work here, that they’ll be like, ‘Man, I really have that appreciation of my first job ever, first time having responsibility, making lifelong friendships.’ That’s a big piece for us.”
Harhi said one of his goals is to open the water park, called Hurricane Harbor, earlier in the season. However, the park is “a little bit behind the game on staffing,” so the earlier opening date will likely start in 2027, he said.
“If we have low staffing, it’s not for financial reasons, it’s for just a lack of execution or lack of availability of staff,” he said. “We’re going to hire the park up. There are no budget constraints to say, you know, ‘We’re not going to open this or that (attraction).’”
Every summer, Harhi said he encourages his teen daughters to help at an Enchanted Parks location. This summer, they chose Six Flags St. Louis out of all the parks, he said.
“I always do a summer trip with my daughters, and I make them work at the park,” Harhi said. “I’m sure they’ll want to ride a couple of rides during that week, but their primary focus is coming to work and understanding the park.
“I ride every ride that we own, and I’ll bring my bathing suit this summer (to try out Hurricane Harbor. I have to ride everything. I need to see the experience, and I want to see it from that angle.”
Immediate changes
Harhi said Enchanted Parks has adjusted prices at Six Flags this year.
He said food and retail prices have gone down in the park, and parking costs have been reduced.
A day pass to the park is $43 at the gate and includes Hurricane Harbor. The least expensive season pass option is $66 and includes unlimited visits for the 2026 season at all Enchanted Parks locations, free general parking, 10 percent food and retail discount and other perks.
“Our front gate price may have gone up a little bit,” Harhi said. “This isn’t a $35 park, in my opinion. I’d rather get the right rate, even if that means we bring in 10 percent fewer people, because that means the people who show up are going to have a good time, because we’re not trying to just fill it up.
“I’m not a big believer in selling a cheap ticket because they’re going to buy a hot dog. That’s a completely different operating strategy. We want to have a good experience for a good price.”
Harhi said many attractions received a facelift in the offseason, including the tube slides in Hurricane Harbor, which were repainted.
The Tommy G. Robertson railroad also was reworked to make the train a better riding experience, he said, and a pre-ride, funhouse experience at the Joker: Carnival of Chaos attraction is expected to be completed by Memorial Day.
Near future
In the fall, Harhi and other Enchanted Parks officials will conduct an audit of the park, flagging any signs and rides for trademarked logos or wordage.
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation holds a long-term licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery and exclusive theme park rights to DC Comics and Looney Tunes characters, according to Licensing International, leading to ride names like The Batman, Justice League: Battle for Metropolis and Bugs Bunny National Park.
Harhi said Enchanted Parks will begin working on either internal replacements or third-party replacements for the trademarked names.
Hurricane Harbor also will go by another name next year, which is still in the works, Harhi said. This year, Michigan’s Adventure’s water park, WildWater Adventure, was renamed to Superior Shores, paying homage to nearby Lake Superior. Mid-America’s waterpark will likely adopt a similar localized name, Harhi said.
“We’ll be working on our rebrand for 2027, getting that going,” Harhi said. “We joke about having Six Flags Road that we live on, and somebody was like, ‘Everybody is still going to call (the park) Six Flags.’ Coming from Disney, well, I still call it Downtown Disney. I don’t call it Disney Springs. I’ll always call it Downtown Disney, so that’s OK if people call us Six Flags St. Louis next year. I’ve got bigger problems than that.”
The Eureka park’s name in 2027 will harken back to the park’s original name, Six Flags Over Mid-America. The park opened in 1971.
“We’re very focused on how we respect the past of the parks, and those memories that are in all of our guests’ minds as they come to the park,” Harhi said. “It just didn’t make sense to call it ‘Enchanted Parks St. Louis.’ That didn’t resonate with me. ‘Mid-America’ ties to the history of the park and pays respect to its history.”