Family-Owned Amusement Park Closes for Good After 36 Years

Fun Spot America Atlanta shut its gates for the last time on August 2, closing out a 36-year run in Fayetteville, Georgia. It's the kind of closure that hits differently than a corporate chain going dark — this was a family-run park, and by every account, the family running it fought hard to keep the lights on. 

A Local Fixture Since 1990 

The park didn't start as Fun Spot at all. It opened in 1990 as Dixieland Fun Park, went through a rebrand as Fun Junction USA, and eventually became Fun Spot America in 2017 when the Orlando-based company bought it.

Through all those name changes, it stayed the same 15-acre spot north of Fayetteville that generations of local families used for go-kart races, birthday parties, and lazy summer afternoons — the kind of place locals describe as having a laid-back feel, nothing like the crowds and lines you'd get 25 miles away at Six Flags.

CEO John Arie Jr. was upfront that this wasn't a business he set out to turn into a mega-park. He said he never tried to compete with the bigger chains — this was always meant to be something smaller and simpler.

The Coaster That Was Supposed to Change Everything

In 2023, the park made a massive bet: ArieForce One, an $18 million steel roller coaster built by Rocky Mountain Construction. It wasn't a small swing — it's the single largest investment the company has ever made in a single ride. The numbers back up the hype: a 154-foot structure with a 146-foot first drop at an 83-degree angle, top speeds of 64 mph, four inversions, and a claim to being the largest zero-G stall coaster in the country. It even landed a nomination in USA Today's Ten Best Readers' Choice Travel Awards in 2025.

For a while, it worked exactly as intended. Coaster enthusiasts started making the trip specifically for ArieForce One, and the ride developed something of a cult following among people who chase rankings and record-breaking layouts.

But the Crowds Never Came Consistently

Here's the part that's hard to square: even with a nationally ranked coaster on-site, the park just couldn't pull in steady, year-round attendance. Arie was blunt about it when he spoke with local reporters back in June, saying they'd given it everything they had and it simply didn't pan out. The closure announcement came June 25, with attendance cited as the reason, and Arie called it the hardest decision he's ever made.

What made it harder, he said, was thinking about the roughly 200 employees losing their jobs — many of them teenagers and college students working summer shifts. He got visibly emotional talking about the impact on his team, saying they're the ones who are going to feel this the most, and that the company plans to help them however it can, including resumes, references, and potential openings at Fun Spot's Florida locations. 

One Last Ride

Sunday night drew crowds who wanted a proper goodbye. Among them was James Fordham, a coaster enthusiast who has reportedly ridden ArieForce One more than 28,000 times and made sure to get one final lap in before the gates closed for good.

The park's own Instagram post leaned into that same sentiment, thanking fans for the memories, the screams, and the years of support, and inviting people to come make one last one before it was over.

What Happens to ArieForce One Now?

This is the part still up in the air. The coaster is too large to relocate to either of Fun Spot's remaining parks in Orlando or Kissimmee, so the company says it's now looking for a buyer. Online speculation has run wild — everything from demolition to the ride being shipped off to a new park elsewhere — but Arie has pushed back on all of it directly, saying none of the rumors floating around are accurate and that no decisions have actually been made yet.

The Bigger Picture

Fun Spot's Florida parks in Orlando and Kissimmee aren't going anywhere, and the company says Georgia season passes and gift cards will still be honored there. But for Fayetteville, this is the end of a nearly four-decade chapter — a reminder that even a genuinely great, record-setting attraction isn't always enough to keep a regional park afloat against the economics of modern amusement parks.

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