12. STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

As of September 30, 2017, 92,550,001 shares of common stock were issued on the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet, which excludes 4,449,475 unvested shares of common stock held by certain participants in the Company’s equity compensation plans (see Note 11–Equity-Based Compensation) and includes 6,519,773 shares of treasury stock held by the Company.

Dividends

Prior to September 19, 2016, the Board had a policy to pay, subject to legally available funds, regular quarterly dividends. The payment and timing of cash dividends was within the discretion of the Board and depended on many factors, including, but not limited to, the Company’s results of operations, financial condition, level of indebtedness, capital requirements, contractual restrictions, restrictions in its debt agreements and in any preferred stock, business prospects and other factors that the Board deemed relevant. On September 19, 2016, the Board suspended the Company’s quarterly dividend policy to allow greater flexibility to deploy capital to opportunities that offer the greatest long term returns to shareholders, such as, but not limited to, share repurchases, investments in new attractions or debt repayments.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2016, the Board declared or paid quarterly cash dividends to all common stockholders of record as follows:

Record Date	Payment Date	Cash Dividend per Common Share
January 15, 2016	January 22, 2016	$	0.21
March 14, 2016 ^(a)	April 1, 2016	$	0.21
June 20, 2016 ^(a)	July 1, 2016	$	0.21
September 29, 2016	October 7, 2016	$	0.10

(a)	As the Company had an accumulated deficit at the time these dividends were declared, these dividends were accounted for as a return of capital and recorded as a reduction to additional paid-in capital in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated statement of changes in stockholders’ equity.

As of September 30, 2017, the Company had $505 of cash dividends recorded as dividends payable in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet, which relates to unvested time restricted shares and unvested performance restricted shares with a performance condition considered probable of being achieved as of September 30, 2017. These shares carry dividend rights and therefore the dividends accumulate and will be paid as the shares vest in accordance with the underlying equity compensation grants. These dividend rights will be forfeited if the shares do not vest.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2017, accumulated cash dividends of $1,535 related to previous dividend declarations were paid to certain equity plan participants upon vesting of restricted shares, including approximately $1,300 related to certain 2.75x Performance Restricted shares which vested upon closing of the Sale on May 8, 2017 (see Note 11–Equity-Based Compensation for further details). The Company expects that for tax purposes all of these dividends will be treated as a return of capital to stockholders. Distributions that qualify as a return of capital are not considered “dividends” for tax purposes only.

Share Repurchase Program

In 2014, the Board authorized the repurchase of up to $250,000 of the Company’s common stock (the “Share Repurchase Program”). Under the Share Repurchase Program, the Company is authorized to repurchase shares through open market purchases, privately-negotiated transactions or otherwise in accordance with applicable federal securities laws, including through Rule 10b5-1 trading plans and under Rule 10b-18 of the Exchange Act. The Share Repurchase Program has no time limit and may be suspended or discontinued completely at any time. The number of shares to be purchased and the timing of purchases will be based on the level of the Company’s cash balances, general business and market conditions, and other factors, including legal requirements, debt covenant restrictions and alternative investment opportunities. The Company has remaining authorization for up to $190,000 for future repurchases under the Share Repurchase Program as of September 30, 2017. There were no share repurchases during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016.

Other

On March 24, 2017, the Company announced that an affiliate of ZHG Group entered into an agreement to acquire approximately 21% of the outstanding shares of common stock of the Company from Seller, pursuant to a Stock Purchase Agreement. On May 8, 2017, upon closing of the Sale, ZHG paid Seller $23.00 per share for the Company’s common stock acquired by ZHG in accordance with the terms of the Stock Purchase Agreement. The Company is not a party to the Stock Purchase Agreement, has no obligations thereunder and did not independently verify any arrangements between Seller and ZHG, but is a party to certain other agreements, a Park Exclusivity and Concept Design Agreement and a Center Concept & Preliminary Design Support Agreement, entered into in connection with the Sale (see Note 1–Description of the Business and Basis of Presentation and Note 9–Related-Party Transactions).