I want to thank the President of Qiddiya City, Brian Machamer for joining me for a chat all about this very exciting project coming to Saudi Arabia in 2025.
How did the job come about for you to be part of such a groundbreaking project in Six Flags Qiddiya City?
I was working in the Middle East in Dubai with Dubai Parks and Resorts and was working with Six Flags on the intended Six Flags park that we were going to build in as part of the Dubai Parks from Resorts complex and I got to know a lot of the senior team at Six Flags as we were working on that design and they’d always said to me you know maybe one day we could work together.
I think they were probably thinking mainly International since I’ve been I went overseas back in 2009 (originally with Universal Studios Dubai) and have been pretty much International from that point forward.
I got introduced to a lot of the senior team at Six Flags at that time under Jim Anderson, the CEO at the time and we stayed in touch and then I was actually working in Malaysia with Genting Malaysia on their parks and then was contacted to come to Saudi Arabia and originally not for Six Flags but it was for the Neom project so I was headhunted to come over and basically run the entertainment sector for Neom and that’s what got me to the Kingdom in May 2019.
In the same office, a lot of these Giga projects are based in the same building and the Six Flags and Qiddiya team were working one floor above me and I rode in the elevator and I would see these guys all the time and they were showing me designs of the park and talking to me about it and low and behold the opportunity came up where Six Flags approached me and asked if I would consider the park president role and when I started to see the renderings and what we going to be building, it was really an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, I had to do some internal transfer and that’s how I moved from Neom over to Six Flags Entertainment and the rest is history.
How did that conversation go from your previous employees to your new employers?
I told the CEO of Neom, as you know Neom’s obviously a much longer development timeline and I said you know I could probably come to the Qiddiya project, build those Parks get them up and running and then who knows maybe in the future when Neom’s more established you might need my services.
With my background, I’m involved in operational design and things like that but primarily operations and I think they were looking for more creative, master planners and things like that to look at the longer-term Vision so I think they you know we’re all here to support Vision 2030 in the kingdom and I think it’s just finding the seat on the bus so to speak and which bus is more suited for me and for me, that was Qiddiya and Six Flags.
You have 35 years of experience in the theme park industry but where did it all begin?
My first job was at Walt Disney and the Magic Kingdom when I turned 16 and I got my driver’s license and I had some friends from high school that were working in Pecos Bill Cafe in Frontierland and I went down and applied and you could basically work custodial or food and beverage at 16 at that time and because I had friends in food and beverage I basically applied to work at Pecos Bill Cafe and so I worked at Disney for a little bit.
Going to school I went to high school right across the street from what was going to be Universal Studios and so when I was at Disney in 1988 and we started seeing all these Universal Studios promotional brochures showing up in the break room at Disney in the tunnel system at the Magic Kingdom and somehow these marketing brochures were making their way into the inner workings of the kingdom.
Going to High School across the road we could see them clearing land to build the Universal Park and at that time the thought was that we were going to work with movie stars and this was the Hollywood of the East and they were going to make Orlando this movie Capital outside of Los Angeles.
There was this great attraction there for a 17-year-old to work for Universal Studios and again I had friends that worked in parking and entry operations/admissions so I went to Universal in 1990.
They opened in June and I started in November working as a parking attendant. Back then there were no parking lots, it was just an old surface lot standing out in the sun and rain, all the elements and it was one of the best jobs I ever had!
There are still people that I worked with back in Orlando that are still there to this day 34 years later so that’s kind of where I got thinking about this as a career.
I can remember when Universal Islands of Adventure was announced I was working in Admissions and they were showing these renderings of these canals literally right outside the main gate.
We would be standing in the parking lot thinking there were going to be boats travelling through right where I was standing and the CityWalk complex and parking garages so it just sounded like this could be a great company or a great opportunity for those of us that were there in those early years to make it more of a long-term career
Is it strange to look back on your days at Disney up until this day and marvel at how far you’ve come?
I visited Walt Disney World in 1980 as a child and I was eight years old and then 8 years later I was working there.
I grew up outside of Cleveland Ohio so Cedar Point and Kings Island were the big parks for me particularly Cedar Point which now looking to where I’m at now with Six Flags and the merging.
The first question I always get is from my mom who asks if that means I can come back to the United States and work in one of the parks closer to home.
I grew up loving roller coasters I remember Demon Drop when it opened and the long queue lines. I remember waiting in line at The Beast when it first opened at Kings Island.
I really had an affinity for amusement parks and everyone remembers their first visit to Walt Disney World and it just all seems crazy that I got to work there 8 years after visiting. I never thought it would take me to Singapore, Malaysia, UAE and Saudi Arabia. All these different countries around the world from something that started out as a part-time job.
You have to pinch yourself sometimes that you’ve been able to do this for so many years.
How will your job evolve from not to when the park is fully operational?
I’ve been on the project for five years now, these big parks will take 5-6 years to finish from concept to construction and then opening.
Yes, I worked at City Walk in Orlando and when Islands of Adventure was coming but I would say Universal Studios Dubai was the first park that was literally myself and one or two other people. We took the whole park, divided it in half and said okay, you take this half and I take this half and we did everything from attractions to restaurants and retail.
They gave me schematic drawings and the architects were like okay review all these drawings and provide a comment tracker on what you don’t like, where you want this and I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to read the drawing let alone go and tell an architect why the door should be moved 10 feet left or what have you.
I learned alongside Jeff Polk who’s Executive Vice President with Universal leading the Epic Universe project Dan Cuffe who’s the general manager for the Universal Kids Resort in Frisco so there were three of us from a primary operations perspective and I got to learn the ins and outs of doing the design and that’s what allowed me to go to other parks like in Singapore or Dubai Parks.
When I went to Dubai it was just flat dirt, just nothing and you have to do it all from scratch and it’s a pretty daunting task if you’ve never done it or had the experience. You might not have the confidence in yourself that you can do it but to be able to design a park from scratch now, you don’t get that many opportunities to do that.
There aren’t many major parks opening every couple of years, they’re few and far between so when I joined this project the most important park of my job being employee number one was that I needed to build a team around you that aren’t just good operators but they have pre-opening experience, they can read schematic drawing or make comments and design queue lines.
You have an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and things you could have done differently in the past and all these things. You get the right people around you whether that’s food and beverage operations, detail, technical services and you have a mould there to build into a park that’s not just great from a guest experience but also from a management side of things. You need the right team and the tools to make it successful.
The project is a lot to comprehend even on paper. How has the development been so far and were there any obstacles you had to overcome along the way?
Every time I work on a big project and we get to the finish line I always say I’m not going to do it again.
The first couple of years you’re just trying to get the design in the can you can then pivot your mindset to setting up operations and planning towards launch.
I started on Six Flags Qiddiya City in November 2019 and then we had covid. We were able to pivot designs and concepts remotely from various locations around the world and still move the project forward at that time. If we were in construction at that time then things would have been more challenging.
Universal Beijing felt much more challenging because of the phase of design and construction Vs our project. Nowadays with the technology we can do workshops and meetings, review drawings and keep the design process moving.
Saudi Arabia is an amazing country, it’s changed a lot over the last several years and makes recruitment and bringing people into the kingdom much easier. We just have to plan ahead and you’re always recruiting five or six months ahead to meet timelines.
Right now we have 350 employees and we’ll ramp up to 2200 or 2300 when both parks are open. We’ve really set up the operations, sales and marketing, HR and finance functions to adapt as Qiddiya grows bigger.
This Six Flags Park seems very different to other Six Flags projects that are out there. What is it about Six Flags Qiddiya City that will make it stand out from the crowd?
It’s the first Six Flags park designed from the ground up outside of North America and what really attracted me, especially with my background in theme parks versus an iron ride kind of amusement park is to be able to build a Thrill / Theme park with the theming side of it being truly a ‘theme park’.
Six Flags has themed zones and themed attractions with various IPs but this is truly a theme park from the moment you enter from the floor to the ceiling theming. The rides, the queue lines, the restaurants, the employee uniforms, everything is themed.
That’s totally unique at this scale that you’re going to see and when people come to the park they’re going to be blown away by the level of theming and the quality.
I’ve seen a lot of amazing parks in my life but whether it’s the water park or the Six Flags park it’s all the highest level of theming and quality combining the right architects and the right construction companies.
The plan of Vision 2030 is to change the landscape where they’re not dependent on oil revenue. You need to build something that is spectacular and it was His Highness the Crown Prince that really pushed everyone from a design point of view and creativity.
Falcon’s Flight will be the world’s longest, fastest, and tallest roller coaster. No one ride has held all of those records before and you talk to designers or cost consultants and ask if it’s feasible and whilst there were many challenges with that, we overcome them.
When the ride was announced there were a lot of naysayers mentioning that the ride wouldn’t get built and then we announced Intamin as our partner, we started breaking ground and now the ride is complete with trains doing initial commission testing, it’s no joke. We’ve taken it step by step to make sure we can deliver on this.
The big thing you’re going to see is the variety of rides, the theming, the world-record attractions all in one location and then next door is an unbelievable water park and it’ll just keep going from there.
It’s an amazing project to play a small part in.
As you mentioned earlier, back in July Six Flags merged with Cedar Fair to create the largest amusement park operator in the United States. Has that merger in any way affected Six Flags Qiddiya at all?
Honestly, it’s all been for the positive.
We now have the resources of a much bigger organisation whether it’s engineers or food and beverage, finances, sales and marketing that I now all have at my fingertips to help us finish this design, soft opening and pre-opening of our activities.
In fact we’re looking at sending 15-20 of our maintenance technicians to Magic Mountain and they’re going to go and work on very like attractions and get their hands dirty so to speak before we start that kind of phase on our project.
It’s only going to get better with much bigger resources post-merger.
With you working with Intamin on such a groundbreaking thrill side such as Falcon’s Flight the park also has a more accommodating range of rides for all the family. How important was this in the decision-making process especially when Saudi Arabia is known for its younger popular?
it’s a young Market but I have to say uh I was in the US over July 4th week visiting family and I was in Northern Ohio and I visited Cedar Point, Kings Island and went to Canada’s Wonderland and the one thing that I was amazed by was the family demographic at all three parks.
Granted those parks are much older parks with 50 or 60 rides with a lot of thrill rides but the family and children rides and I have kids from very young to college age and we could do all of those parks as a family and it catered to all of us.
When we open our majority of visitors will be from Saudi but when we looked at the ride mix for Qiddiya we wanted to make sure we appealed to a more international audience also and make sure that you’re going to have a ride offering that’s suitable for all ages.
It’s not just the theme park you’re overseeing Brian, it’s the waterpark also. Is it safe to say you like a challenge?
Yeah! The water park was one of those opportunities where Qiddiya was looking at the operations of the water park but it just made sense initially to synergy the park with the water park.
Being able to operate both parks via ticket and operating hours needs to complement one another as opposed to competing with each other.
From a customer perspective, there has to be a consistent feeling of everything being aligned. It made sense for all parties.
With the theme park and water park being in the desert, what measures are in place to combat the heat in these wide open spaces?
In the winter months, the water park will not be open at night as the temperatures do drop but all of the pools are heated.
The Six Flags park will primarily operate at night at 4pm or 5pm and run into the evening and even in the summer months when the sun goes down there’s a dry heat but we have taken provisions.
The Citadel in the centre of the park has cool air that we built into all the facades, similar to what we did at the Universal Park in Singapore on the Hollywood Boulevard it blow it would blow chilled air out into the street so we can turn that on or off as we need.
All of the attractions within the park have a similar design throughout the queue lines where cold air can blow over the area to bring down the ambient temperature and at night the Saudi’s come out and sit at coffee shops and enjoy themselves in the evening hours but at this moment in time you just wouldn’t open in the day until you get more hotel guests and foreign visitors into the park and then we can expand our hours based on different demographics and things like that.
For those out watching and reading out there, what would you say to them to get them to visit?
The one thing I read about is how people think Saudi Arabia is hard to or impossible to get to but it’s actually probably one of the easiest things.
The country has now introduced a tourist visa where you can print one at home or even fill one out at the airport and off you go. You can even do a tourist visa on arrival so it’s very simple to get to the Kingdom.
Saudi hospitality is by far the best of any country I’ve lived in and people might not realise that. It’s a super friendly and very welcoming culture. Everyone is really embracing the Vision 2030.
Currently, we have 55% Saudis working in the park with the goal of hitting 100% as you go year after year when we open.
These projects are here to build career opportunities and jobs for Saudis and that’s a priority for myself and my team as this experience progresses.
It’s easy to get here, new hotels, airports, F1 and the World Cup in the future. It’s not a question of if you’re coming to Saudi, it’s a question of when. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world comes to see what we’re doing here.
Also, Sean, I know you’re scared of heights so I know you’re going to absolutely love it here, especially looking down that drop at Falcon’s Flight, it’s 200 metres up, it’s quite something!
For all videos related to Qiddiya City please make sure to SUBSCRIBE to Lift Hills and Thrills on YouTube.
