Dan Snyder sleazes his way to the bottom

I've written before about Redskins owner Dan Snyder's failing businesses outside of the NFL and I return again to that subject as we see that Snyder has finally been forced out of management at Six Flags after completely running the theme park company into the ground.

After four years under Snyder Six Flags went into bankruptcy in June of last year. It is customary in chapter 11 reorganizations for part or all of the company's management to be replaced, but in the case of Six Flags, most of the management is staying put. Snyder, however, is being shown the door.

As Snyder took over Six Flags the stock was trading at almost $12 per share and Snyder himself had about $130 million invested in company stock. He led a stockholder coup against the former management, promising everyone he would make everyone very, very rich. Today, Six Flags stock sells at 1.7 cents per share and looks to fall even further to zilch.

Snyder mismanaged the company from the start, beginning by jacking up parking fees at theme lots and then trying to force local businesses to stop allowing people to park in their lots by arguing it was "unsafe" for pedestrians to walk to the theme parks from nearby parking lots. [Sound familiar, Redskins fans?]

Things get worse. Snyder has been credibly accused of shuffling money between the businesses he owned [Six Flags, Johnny Rockets, Red Zone, Dick Clark Productions] so that he personally did well even if the companies failed.

is about to sell the New Orleans Hornets], but even in that motley crew, Snyder stands out as a particularly unlikeable character.

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