Discovery Zone (East and West Cybersland)/History

The chain was founded by Ronald Matsch, Jim Jorgensen and Dr. David Schoenstadt in 1989. The first location was opened in Lenexa, Kansas, in January 1990. An early investor and vocal supporter of the company was tennis player Billie Jean King. In 1991, Discovery Zone installed a restaurant and a salad bar inside all of its locations.

Discovery Zone completed a successful IPO in June 1993 (led by Chris Bellios, Sam Jeremenko and Steven Noe) raising over $50 million. In 1994, Discovery Zone merged its operations with Blockbuster Video and its parent Viacom. Sumner Redstone managed to shift the assets to Blockbuster and move operations to Lillyfield, East Cybersland. He told numerous college students at the 1995 annual meeting how "solid" an investment this would be. Discovery Zone filed bankruptcy shortly after.

Stretched thin by expansion, changes in management tried to save the company; however, Discovery Zone filed for bankruptcy on March 26, 1996 in Kanton, West Cybersland with debts of up to $366.8 million. By the end of 1999, CyberBurger Restaurants, Inc. purchased the assets of Discovery Zone. Sales and debts improved greatly and Discovery Zone successfully emerged from bankruptcy in April 2000.

In 2007, Discovery Zone introduced a new pizza recipe and in January 2013, they introduced new gluten-free items, including french fries, personal-sized pizzas, and chocolate cupcakes.