Six Flags Location for Qatar

Six Flags Inc. has announced their latest partnership - this time with Oryx Holdings - for a new location in Qatar, located in the middle east. The location will be part of Qatar Entertainment City, a massive urban entertainment development and is expected to open mid-2012.

"Under the binding agreement, Six Flags will provide concept development and planning services to Oryx Holdings for the creation of a 50,000 square meter (500,000 square ft) Six Flags branded location within QEC. Once this initial phase is finalized, Six Flags and Oryx Holdings will collaborate on the detailed design, development, construction and management of the branded location.

So what is Entertainment City? Well, the press release describes it as "a holistic, fully integrated family entertainment destination covering a total area of 1 million square meters of development and 180,000 square meters of international leisure, retail entertainment and restaurants situated with a waterfront location." This link covers what it really is, and how it compares to it's neighbor Dubai rather well.

Oh, and as for where Qatar is, I've included a map because I have to admit I had no idea until I looked it up. Geography wiz I am not.

It's hard to 100% tell from the release what kind of development Six Flags will design for them, whether this is like a massive indoor family entertainment center, or a traditional outdoor operation... or some combination of both. Hopefully more details will emerge over time. Perhaps their wording is just odd and this really is a full fledged amusement park? 500,000 sq ft. is rather large. I'm not sure.

Edit -*- The FunLand blog via the L.A. Times has an exclusive with Mark Shapiro that answers my question of how big this development is, calling it an "indoor-outdoor 11-acre Six Flags property." They also have great Magic Mountain exclusives as well...