Dennis Speigel loves theme parks. As a kid, “ I was a ticket taker at Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not to be confused with New York,” he said.

That was 50 years ago. And he still hasn’t left the industry.

The last time he was upside down on a theme park ride? “Probably about a week ago,” he said, doing some high-adrenaline research for his current job as a consultant with International Theme Park Services.

Speigel said this year was tough for parks; some reasons were out of their control. “We had extreme heat in the Southwest. We had wetness up in the Northeast. We had hurricanes on the East Coast,” he said.

But Speigel said Six Flags has also faced problems of its own making.

“It's really been a ship at sea without a captain for over 10 years. They’ve moved through quite a few CEOs,” he said, which he said has led to a lack of continuity in pricing and marketing.

The amusement park company is getting a new CEO next month. The theme park has struggled with visitor traffic and revenue, and it’s looking to sell off some parks to address $5 billion of debt.

Six Flags’ stock price responded well to the new CEO announcement — new CEO John Reilly is a veteran park operator. But the company could get a boost from another name: Football star and Taylor Swift fiancé Travis Kelce recently announced he’s investing in the company. 

“ I don't know if he can save Six Flags, but he certainly created a lot of buzz and good press,” he said.

Martin Lewison is a professor of business management at Farmingdale State College and a Six Flags investor. He said in an era when so many kids are glued to their phones, theme parks offer a decent value proposition.

“People like to be outdoors. People like to get thrown around on rides,” he said.

And for those who don’t, some parks have had success leaning into live events, said Chris Woronka, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.

“Things like pop-up concerts. These aren't gonna become concert venues per se, but if you bring in different performers, that makes the parks different every week,” he said.

That might draw repeat customers. And as consumers feel the squeeze of higher prices everywhere they look, a local theme park might become preferable to a splurgy weekend trip, said Arpiné Kocharyan, an analyst with UBS.

“They’re less expensive. They’re closer to home,” he said.

Plus, what could possibly beat a plate of cheese fries followed by a series of violent loop-de-loops?