The Rise And Fall Of McDonald's PlayPlaces

When one hears the phrase "McDonald's playground," it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, especially to which one a generation grew up playing on. To McDonald's it has always hopefully meant happy customers and good business. As one playground manufacturer told Eric Schlosser in his book "Fast Food Nation," "Playlands bring in children, who bring in parents, who bring in money."

The original version of the McDonald's playground employed the colorful characters of McDonaldland, many of which have been discontinued. After way too many injuries and the ensuing lawsuits, things needed a bit of a shake-up. The next iteration was a more user-friendly, and safer environment that went by the name of Ronald's PlayPlace. That proved so popular that the PlayPlace even expanded beyond the environs of McDonald's. Eventually, the PlayPlaces at the chain lost a bit of their luster, with many closing for good. A recent global pandemic didn't help matters, either.

McDonald's PlayPlaces have quite a storied past and present. Many still remain today as a place for kids to run off a bit of that Happy Meal before heading home. Let's hop into the McTime Machine and re-examine the rise and fall of McDonald's PlayPlaces.

The very first McDonald's playground may have been a Birmingham, Alabama one that opened in 1971. However, that wasn't the playground that became the model for the chain. In 1971, spokes-clown Ronald McDonald and his friends were the stars of advertising, and the beautiful McDonaldland sets they frolicked in were designed by Don Ament company Setmakers. McDonald's tapped them to create a playground based on this visual world, which modified standard playground equipment manufactured by Game Time.

This new playground concept debuted at the 1972 Illinois State Fair, from August 11 to 20. During this trial run, kids got their first look and feel of a McDonald's playground, sitting on a layer of artificial turf, which occupied a space of 4,800 square feet. The colorful equipment included Captain Crook's Spiral Slide, Evil Grimace Bounce and Bend, Mayor McCheese Round-A-Bout, and the Big Mac Climber, as well further ornamentation in form of statues, an Apple Pie Tree, a Filet-O-Fish fountain, and a Hamburger Patch.

McDonald's believed that 10 days of this playground's use would equate to a test of three years of wear and tear. Setmakers designer David Haber told Copley News Service afterwards, "Over half a million youngsters went through it in a six-day period without one bump. We thought that was a pretty good record."

After a successful run at the Illinois State Fair, that prototype playground set was sold to a franchisee of Chicago Heights, and the first real one was set up at a McDonald's on 1110 3rd Avenue, Chula Vista, California. This 7,000 square foot playground cost a whopping $200,000, and if it too proved to be a success, more would sprout up at the more affordable sum of $80,000.

This new playground featured much of the same equipment including the Grimace Bounce, Big Mac Climber, and Captain Crook's Spiral Slide. It was surrounded by a brick wall and wooden fence. There was also plenty of space to eat, including a stationary train with seats in each "car." While the playground wouldn't open for a couple of months, this location saw an increase of 40% business by curious customers. By mid-October of 1972, kids were finally invited to play in the newly minted McDonaldland Park. Gregory May of Vintage San Diego reminisced to The Takeout, "It was like Munchkinland... a little bridge you walk over to get in, big scheffleras and rubber trees all around, very shady. A little paradise."

While locals got to play on site, McDonald's Corporation used this playground to film a short film to try and sell it to other franchisees. In the film, the narrator noted, "Remember, if you can't find room for a complete McDonaldland Park at your store, even one ride or figure will stimulate business."

After proving to be a draw for customers, the McDonaldland Parks concept was ready for expansion at nationwide McDonald's. Not only would franchisees be investing in these playgrounds, but some also invested in expanding their stores. Most saw an increase in the amount of seating, and even remodeled their facades so eaters could view the new parks from within the restaurants.

While the equipment was set up for kids to blow off steam, the manufacturers tried to make sure they didn't make them sick, including chaining parts of swing sets to make sure they didn't have wild motions. Former Setmakers staffer Michael Brickler recalled to LA Weekly in 1994, "Obviously, you don't want children to eat a cheeseburger and throw up all over the playground."

While some of the parks had signs stating such warnings as "This park was built for the enjoyment of McDonald's customers only," others were actually open to the public for all to enjoy. By 1975, 20 McDonaldland Parks were in operation, and for a time, even included such rarities as singing waste baskets and a slide featuring the short-lived Mad Professor character. One that opened in St. Paul, Minnesota featured a custom built "people mover" transport that shuttled kids from the restaurant to the play area. By the end of the decade, the playgrounds eventually began to be called Playland. The idea of a McDonaldland Theme Park was literally on the drawing board in the mid-'80s, but sadly hasn't come to be.

In the 1970s, McDonald's also started to revamp its interiors to bring some of that outdoor enjoyment indoors. This included the addition of Ronald McDonald Party Rooms by 1972, where families celebrated birthdays, or it could be used to hold other group functions. Decor was similar to the playgrounds, with statues of Ronald and the Apple Pie tree smiling at guests, and garish art and murals of McDonaldland helped to lighten up the odd Hamburglar's "Paddy Wagon"-jail-like seating area.

Weather doesn't always cooperate for those seeking to have fun on a playground, and at McDonald's franchise number 78 in Villa Park, Illinois changed the game with the introduction of the first McDonaldland Indoor Park in 1977, per the Valley News. This one was spread out over 6,400 square feet of astroturfed fun, and was soon booking 300 birthday parties a month. Some parents were just dropping their kids off there and leaving, to which manager Ellen Icbicki explained to them, "We're a restaurant, not a day care center," (via The Grand Rapids Press). In the following years, cities like Oklahoma City, Tell City, Indiana, and Anchorage, Alaska got their own. Indoor play areas allowed for the introduction of motorized rides, like a three-person carousel.

As a company more geared toward creating backgrounds for Hollywood films than suburban restaurants, Setmakers eventually bowed out as the playground manufacturer for McDonald's. JBI of Long Beach, California, who had designed McDonald's interiors, took over the duties by the 1980s.

By the early 1990s, there were over 3,000 playgrounds at nationwide McDonald's, now known as Playland's. Yet, playtime at McDonald's didn't always turn out to be just fun and games for some guests. Many Gen Xers remember getting stuck inside the equipment, or worse, fell from them, suffering minor injuries, or worse, ones that ranged from concussions, skull fractures, broken teeth, and bones.

Main culprits included the Big Mac Climber, which towered 4 feet off the ground, and the plastic tea-cup like spinner called Tug-N-Turn. The Tug-N-Turn had been known as a troublesome ride since it was first installed in 1982. The piece that held it to the ground often broke, and kids would get their shoelaces caught on exposed replacement bolts. A safety device was created by the manufacturer to cover the bolt, but at least 800 of the Tug-N-Turns didn't have them installed. In general, the lack of upkeep, repair, supervision, or knowledge of the issues with the equipment by the staff added to the Playland's problems. In a five year span alone, from 1986 to 1991, 1,500 injury claims were filed against McDonald's.

As the lawsuits piled up, the Playland equipment was discontinued in 1989 by its manufacturer J.B.I., who soon after got out of the playground business altogether. McDonald's not only had to settle lawsuits with its customers, but with the government, as well. In reaching a deal with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, McDonald's also promised to remove the equipment from its premises.

McDonald's Playland was a crumbling funtopia in crisis, and the company had no choice but to rethink its playground concept. It even finally created a national director position to oversee safety. By 1989, a newer, safer playground took the Playland's place, and it went by the name of Ronald's PlayPlace. This new playground was created by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company Soft Play, whose name alone promised this wouldn't be like the heavy metal painful parks of the past.

Another noticeable difference was that Ronald's McDonaldland buddies like Big Mac and Grimace were not welcome at this new park. Soft Play Vice President and designer Grant Strawcutter told LA Weekly in 1994, "It was so heavily themed, that they had no play value." While Soft Play also wanted to tone down the use of garish colors, ultimately McDonald's pushed for the inclusion of them, leaning on ones like chartreuse, grape and teal.

Soft Play's president Neal Crites told The Charlotte Observer in 1990 what everyone wanted to hear, "It's very colorful; it's very safe; it's very soft." These new parks, which cost $24,000, often rose two stories, were made with polyethylene plastic, and had controlled entry and exit points to help minimize risk. They included semi-transparent climbing tubes, slides, climbing mesh walls, and a ball pit filled with 8,000 plastic balls.

After only two years, Ronald's PlayPlace was proving to be such a great idea that McDonald's was looking to expand it beyond its own stores. In 1991, it introduced this expansion as a new subsidiary company called Leaps & Bounds. McDonald's spokesperson Terri Capatosto told the Associated Press, "Instead of 'Food, Folks and Fun' with the emphasis on food, it'll be 'Fun, Folks, and Food' with the emphasis on the fun part of it."

The initial concept was brought to life by the architectural firm Archiplan LTD, and opened in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. It featured 11,000 square feet of play, as well as a "plenty quiet" room for parents. It also served up food, but very un-McDonald's like concession fare like hot dogs and pizzas. Archiplan worked on two more locations before the larger firm BSW Inc. rolled out the rest nationwide. Brian Kendrick worked on the project for both firms, and in a statement to The Takeout noted, "We had four different freestanding prototypes for the concept, and over the course of two years we rolled out over 60 new locations around the US, which were a combination of freestanding buildings and [building] conversions."

Leaps & Bounds' direct competition was Discovery Zone, and some locations even opened near one. By 1994, Leaps & Bounds soon realized that it couldn't compete and was acquired by Discover zone majority owner Blockbuster Entertainment Corp.

With Leaps & Bounds grounded, McDonald's focused its attention on its own playgrounds. More PlayPlaces continued to sprout up, and by 2013, the total reached 5,500. With a majority of them now exclusively indoors, it left the few outdoor ones in existence.

Some franchisees seized on the popularity of these playgrounds and even tore down their location and rebuilt one in its place with the latest and greatest iteration. The designers continued to evolve and experiment, creating PlayPlaces with a musical themes, and ones featuring interactive screens and video games. Others even invested beyond the equipment, even offering games for kids, story time, safety courses.

The PlayPlaces continued to help drum up business, and so much so that during busy times, a 30-minute time limit of play was in effect. Still, these new PlayPlaces ran into a world of trouble, where kids would come in contact with poop, urine, bacteria, needles, condoms, and even hedgehogs while playing, leaving the staff to have to clean it all up.

In the 2010s, hundreds of PlayPlaces were removed, many during remodels of the restaurant, and didn't return in the new version. Yet nothing proved a more mighty blow to the PlayPlace than the COVID-19 pandemic. When the world promptly shut-down in March 2020, McDonald's had to make a move of its own. On March 16, the company decided to focus on take-out and closed indoor dining, the use of kiosks and beverage bars, and shuttered all PlayPlaces.

That August, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski signaled to Time the end of a PlayPlace staple. Kempczinski said, "I don't know if we've got ball pits in our future. There's probably some good public-health reasons not for us to be doing a lot of ball pits."

When dining rooms started slowly re-opening, the PlayPlaces remained closed out of an abundance of caution. Many wondered if this marked an end to them, and by 2022, a worried customer even set up a Change.org petition begging for their return.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to wind-down, PlayPlaces finally started to reopen, with parents and kids alike cautiously happy for their return. There isn't an official public list of how many PlayPlaces still exist today, but there are also plenty more McDonald's playgrounds that exist around the world. In France, they happily clown around in a space called Ronald Land. The corporation doesn't seem to do much publicity these days for these PlayPlaces, with nary a mention on its social media platforms.

Still, for many the PlayPlace remains a neighborhood staple, and today, they come in all shapes and sizes. Some from the 1990s still remain standing, while more modern ones focus on climbing and even include a human hamster wheel, bringing a new sense of McFun. One of the largest PlayPlaces, measuring at 22 feet high, resides within the mammoth world's largest entertainment McDonald's in Orlando, Florida, which also features an arcade, a Mac Tonight statue, and unheard of menu items like pizza and pasta.

These PlayPlaces, both national and international, are still primarily being designed, constructed, and implemented by the fine folks at Soft Play. On its own website, the company boasts, "We are experts in using play to enhance the customer journey providing a distinctive family dining experience. We achieve this through a turn-key process of full build-out of innovative play areas completely appropriate and approved for the McDonald's brand."

The original McDonaldland Park in Chula Vista, California sadly didn't last forever. A newer PlayPlace took its spot and hung around until at least 2015. Today, no such playground even sits on this location's grounds after a rebuild. The first indoor one in Villa Park, Illinois left us in the early 21st century. With so many PlayPlaces going extinct, the very sight of older one brings back a rush of nostalgia to McFans.

Some fans not only hang onto the past, but want to hang onto the actual playground pieces, too. Chris Cail is the current mayor of Tell City, and he's a former McDonald's employee who has been the caretaker for many of those bygone items from that location's early indoor playground. Others scoop up the treasures on auction sites like eBay, and find new homes in backyards in Michigan, Texas, Louisiana, and even Australia.

Joe Fleig of Louisville, Kentucky has an impressive personal playground he dubbed McDonaldland, with well over 30 pieces of equipment. While his McDonaldland is not open to the public, Fleig does invite scale model car enthusiasts to his backyard once a year for a contest, and lets them have a spin on the rides. However, no one has perhaps amassed a collection bigger and more pristine than RV restorer Ethan Langley of Longview, Texas. Not only does he have 108 pieces in his ownership, which he painstakingly restores, but has helped four others make their collections complete.