What happened to Astroworld?

Question

Why did it close?

Answer 1

Six Flags shut it down. It was losing a lot of money and also the park w/ the worst customer service in the chain.

They relocated what rides they could and auctioned off the rest. There's not much left now where Astroworld used to be.

Luckily, Kemah Boardwalk's not too far away. So those looking for a coaster fix can go there.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Thanks to the idiots running Six Flags (into the ground), the accumulated massive debt by overbuilding roller coasters and under-staffing the parks, which lead to poor customer service nearly throughout the chain. Eventually the company had a debt that they could no longer handle and decided to close Astroworld so they could profit off the sale of the land.

Not that I liked Astroworld. I thought it one of the lamest parks in the country. However, it was a terrible thing for Six Flags to just drop the bomb like they did and closed it with just a few weeks notice. It was a nostalgic place for millions of people and wiped out in almost a near instant.

Shame on Gary Story and Kiernan Burke, whose arrogance and crappy business policies let to the demise of this park, but thankfully did not kill the rest of the chain. Thank heavens they are out of the picture and hopefully Six Flags and the rest of the amusement industry can recover from the reign of terror.

Answer 3

Six Flags made the decision to permanently close it, citing low park attendance and rising land costs in the area.

In an effort to save his job and satisfy the stockholders because of the threat of Dan Snyder and Co. (which they lost), Kieran Burke, the CEO at the time, figured he could liquidate the property and sell the land it sat on for approximately $145 million, which I suppose he intended to apply to that crushing $1.4 billion debt he helped the company accrue. After losing his job when stockholders voted him and his buddies out, Burke never reaped the benefits of the sale of the land, which actually sold to a private investment firm last year for only $77 million. No plans have yet been made for the site, and it remains a grassy field.

Not helping the situation was a lawsuit over the parking AstroWorld had used since it opened in 1968, as the Houston Sports Authority was trying to push AW out of the fold to use their parking for Houston Texans (NFL) games at Reliant Stadium, directly across the street from the park. Six Flags sued the City of Houston over it, and eventually lost shortly before the closing announcement was made, this after a preliminary "agreement" had been made, according to one of the AW managers. AW never owned that parking lot; it was leased to them by the city.

It closed a little under 2 months after the closing announcement was made public.

The water park, WaterWorld, is NOT still open. In fact, it was demolished while AstroWorld itself continued it's last weeks of operation. However Splashtown, in the North Houston suburb of Spring, remains to operate and is now under new ownership, no longer a member of the Six Flags family of parks.