Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Common Stock New

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Desiree and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Six Flags Entertainment Corporation 2026 First Quarter Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press the star one. I would now like to turn the call over to Six Flags Management for opening remarks. Go ahead, please.

Good morning, and welcome to Six Flags Entertainment Corporation's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I'm Michael Russell, Six Flags head of IR. On the call with me today are John Riley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Witherow, and Dave Hoffman, Chief Accounting Officer and Interim Finance Lead. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this call may be forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described. Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings for a discussion of those risks. Today's call will begin with prepared remarks from John, followed by Dave, after which John will return for closing remarks. We will then open the call for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to John. John?

Thank you, Michael, and good morning. Before discussing the quarter, I want to address the leadership changes we announced this morning. We have made targeted adjustments across key areas of our senior leadership team, including finance, administration, and marketing, to better align our organization with our strategic priorities going forward. We thank Brian for his many years of service and contributions to this company. Dave Hoffman, our chief accounting officer, will step in on a temporary basis to lead the finance organization. I am confident Dave will help make this a smooth transition. Since stepping into the role of CEO, I've worked with the team to take deliberative actions to strengthen the company's strategic and financial positioning. including the sale of non-core assets, monetization of excess land, and refinancing of our balance sheet. These actions, together with the leadership actions we are implementing, position us to execute against our core operating objectives. Turning to the quarter, we delivered meaningful year-over-year improvement driven by higher attendance, increased guest spending, and disciplined cost management. While the first quarter is seasonally limited, With only a subset of parks open, including our parks in California, Mexico, and Texas, the strong first quarter results demonstrate the resilience of our operating model and progress against our priorities. Before getting into the drivers of the quarter, I do want to acknowledge that results benefited from the earlier timing of Easter and spring break, as well as more normalized operating conditions in California relative to the disruption that we experienced in the prior year. While these factors helped, first quarter performance also reflects the cumulative impact of the foundational work we have put in place over the past year. This includes the integration of our ticketing platforms, enhancements to our digital and commercial capabilities, and operational improvements across our parks. Together, these efforts are driving measurable gains in consumer engagement and demand. A key component of that progress has been our decision to allocate additional resources to our revenue management efforts, supported by enhancements to our consumer-facing digital platforms. As part of this initiative, we have embedded pricing and revenue management expertise into the organization and redesigned our platforms to better guide guests toward the best value for their needs. In the first quarter, we saw the benefits in higher conversion rates, improved capture, and increased migration toward higher value season pass products. New for 2026, we've introduced regional access benefits across select pass tiers, allowing guests to visit multiple parks within a defined region. This new regional pass offering is gaining traction as guests are demonstrating a clear preference for greater flexibility and broader access, driving product upgrades and increased cross-park visitation. We are encouraged by the early response, including improved past sales trends, a more favorable product mix, and strong guest interest in visiting more than one park. The regional pass has also enabled us to enter the core of the season with a larger and more engaged pass and membership base, which we expect will support visitation and spending through the peak operating period. Once guests arrive at our parks, we saw strong in-park spending trends during the quarter. reflecting the earlier timing of the Knott's Boysenberry Festival, a hypercap event, as well as improved food and beverage offerings and higher park utilization, driving incremental ancillary spend. To restore localized decision-making, we have reintroduced park presidents at our largest parks. We've done this to improve accountability, accelerate decision-making, and drive greater consistency across the portfolio. We remain disciplined in our capital allocation. Our priority is to invest in parks that offer the highest returns, particularly at our larger properties, with a focus on enhancing the guest experience through targeted investments in rides, food and beverage, and the overall environment. Residual free cash flow will be directed toward operations and toward debt reduction. As an extension of this strategy, we have completed the sale of select parks and progressed on the sale of non-core land assets. These actions are expected to enhance margins, sharpen focus, and improve returns to shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dave. Dave?