Antonovich and City of Santa Clarita Compete for Six Flags "Deal"

First representatives from the City of Santa Clarita announced that they had been attempting to set up a meeting with Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro, and now Supervisor Michael Antonovich has requested an appointment as well.

At issue is Shapiro's proposed sale of the Six Flags Magic Mountain property in an effort to reduce the overall debt of the Six Flags empire. They are expecting to receive about $1 million per acre, or $250 to $300 million total for the property.

The City of Santa Clarita and Supervisor Antonovich are hoping to keep Magic Mountain operating as a theme park, since it is one of the area's largest employers and it brings a lot of tourist dollars into the area.

The City of Santa Clarita is proposing that Magic Mountain be annexed into the City in order to increase the theme park's bottom line since Santa Clarita does not charge the 5% utility tax or admissions taxes like Los Angeles County does.

Neither the City of Santa Clarita nor Los Angeles County representatives will comment on whether they intend to offer any further financial incentives to Six Flags in order to keep Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor operational.

Hopefully Supervisor Antonovich and the City of Santa Clarita will work in harmony to encourage Six Flags to keep the Magic Mountain theme park open.