Putt N' Pond Closing?

The little park outside Fostoria Ohio which used to have a coaster called pipeline express appears to be closing. This website shows most of the parks equipment including go carts, both waterslides, bumper boats and the iceberg climb-slide up for sale. http://members.aol.com/puttnpond/ I remember reading somewhere that pipeline express was one of two of that model built.

Reminda me a lot of a park we used to have here on the beach called Jubilee Park. Sad how these little parks are there for what seems like forever and then just disappear.

Competition is so stiff out there, and it's unfortunate, because these little places are have always been so much fun. My childhood was spent at places like this, either at home, or on vacations. But at the same time, the owners can only hold out so long before their business turns into a total money pit to operate.

We've seen it over the years here in Dayton. We at one point had Malibu Grand Prix, Capt. Bogey's, Slick Track, and Putt-Putt. And arcades were literally all over town. Now all we have left is one little place called Magic Castle, and it has no go-karts.

I wish I had some extra cash, and they'd sell separately, that OSU car would be sweet.

Cap'n Bogey's closed?? That's very disappointing. I spend many a Saturday there in high school.

In Columbus, all three of the remaining Putt-Putt courses have closed in the last 10 years, along with Malibu Grand Prix. And that's not to mention at least four small arcades I can think of since I moved here in 1995.

Here is an e-mail reply that I recieved.

"As of right now the park will not be open this year - if anything changes I will keep your name and let you know - thank you for your past business

Jane Sparks"

What about the putt putts at magic mountain in Columbus?

The two Magic Mountains in Columbus are still open, and the north-side one is doing well. I've heard the east-side one will close in the next two years.

When I said Putt-Putt, I was referring to Putt-Putt (R)(TM) brand mini-golf courses, with the orange rails and par-2 holes. Columbus still has a number of Magic Mountain-type mini-golf places left.

I played a round at the Magic Mountain on Brice Rd. (East) last Saturday... It was fairly crowded (always a wait for the party ahead of us, and a party waiting behind us), but not too bad. Of course, it was also the first warm weekend evening of the season.

I've never actually gotten to play at the North (Polaris) location...it's always been too busy when I've tried to play. (One evening last July it was about a 45min. wait for the first hole!)

I've always had the desire to get some financing/investors lined up to open a themed course at Easton...can you imagine what those crowds would be like? :-)

I go to the east-side Magic Mountain almost every Saturday morning, and by around noon it's always packed. But I heard from an insider that it's not living up to projections, so who knows. Like you said, the Polaris location is much busier.

I've often wondered why there's no place like this at Easton - it's the perfect location. Maybe developers thought that the GameWorks and the Chiller were enough.

Personally, I'd like to open a Putt-Putt franchise at Easton, but the franchise fees and rules are insane. It's too bad the Putt-Putt that was a mile down Morse Road from Easton couldn't stay open (yet another car dealership apparently was a better use for the land).

Yeah, I'd forgo the Putt-Putt franchise, and just directly hire one of the companies that design/build courses in Myrtle Beach...the business operational model can't be that complicated :-) *** Edited 4/17/2006 8:36:47 PM UTC by JZarley***