OT: Baseball Hall of Fame Suffers Losses but Says Finances Improving

[FromVAtoLA]

Some details on Cooperstown’s finances and attendance.
Baseball Hall of Fame Suffers Losses But Says Finances Improving
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/bas...es-1234817157/

[jingram058]

Yeah, sure. Everyone wants to come see the Harold Baines plaque.

[raulus]

Probably can’t help that the voters have stirred up so much controversy, dragging the larger institution down with them.

[bandrus1]

The hall is always an amazing place to visit no matter what the occasion

[D. Bergin]

Reading the article. They seem fine. It's just cyclical.

[Belfast1933]

I’m obviously biased but I wonder if they can better tap into the collector energy, and not just vintage… seems like there may be some potential there to grow as well

[rats60]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Reading the article. They seem fine. It's just cyclical.

This here. People complaining about who is in and my favorite player isn't, that is irrelevant. Undeserving players have been elected since the 1940s, like Tommy McCarthy and Jack Chesbro, and Shoeless Joe Jackson still isn't in the HOF.

The HOF is a non-profit and they lost money last year for the first time in a decade. A non-profit that makes money 9 of 10 years is doing pretty good. The article explains it. Their investment income was down. I guess everyone has forgotten how bad the markets were the first 9 months of last year. They have also hired more people. Why is that? Could it be that they are preparing for Ichiro being inducted and an influx of Asian visitors? Showing a loss so you can grow your market is good for business.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by raulus

Probably can’t help that the voters have stirred up so much controversy, dragging the larger institution down with them.

Impossible for me to agree more.

[sports-cards-forever]

I love that the induction ceremony is still free. Pure baseball americana

[BearBailey]

I would go every 2-3 years but once they instituted the Pete Rose rule and made him ineligible for the Hall of Fame, I would only ever go back when he was inducted and if he was still alive for the induction, since that is no longer possible I will never step foot in the baseball Hall of fame ever again.

As for the comparison with the football Hall of fame, I could spend an entire day in the baseball hall of fame, you can see the entire football hall of fame in 2 hours.

[theshowandme]

The card shops in Cooperstown are classic in the sense of aesthetics, but they are sharks praying on the tourists with singles prices at 10-25x of sanity. The new Dave and Adam’s story was clean and brand new when I was there.

[lumberjack]

The average value of a MLB franchise is 2.4 billion dollars, somebody tell me why those boys can't lend a hand to Cooperstown.

According to the article, covid is responsible for the drop in attendance. Wouldn't this be a one-time thing.

I agree, Cooperstown, one of the places on earth you can't get to from here.
But....

Why couldn't the Hall send out a traveling exhibition. I don't mean a 40 foot trailer filled with stuff, but an arrangement with major museum across the country. Of course this would actually involve some work on the Hall's part. Can't have that....

Then again, maybe the people who go to places like the Hall are just getting old and nobody is filling the gap.

Finally, the stock market is thru the roof, how is it they can't make money on their endowment.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by lumberjack

Then again, maybe the people who go to places like the Hall are just getting old and nobody is filling the gap.

THAT is the answer, I think. For whatever the reason, the NFL seems to be doing a better job of marketing their history.

[jingram058]

About 260,000 visited the baseball HoF last year, but according to them, that's down from 2022.

About 208,000 visited the pro football HoF last year, up 30,000 from 2022. But, over 700,000 visited Canton for the enshrinement ceremonies last year.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by lumberjack

The average value of a MLB franchise is 2.4 billion dollars, somebody tell me why those boys can't lend a hand to Cooperstown.

Billionaires are really struggling right now...haven't you heard? Sometimes they even have to pay for their own stadiums! Maybe we can start a GoFundMe.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

Billionaires are really struggling right now...haven't you heard? Sometimes they even have to pay for their own stadiums! Maybe we can start a GoFundMe.

LOL, when have they done this?

[D. Bergin]

Guys it's fine. Scott Rolen and Fred McGriff were inducted in 2023. It's already up this year. They will be ok.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

LOL, when have they done this?

2000-2001 Gillette stadium. Or then CMGI stadium.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

LOL, when have they done this?

John Fisher will have to contribute some of the money for the Las Vegas ballpark...Nevada taxpayers are only covering around $400 million of it...Poor guy!

The Warriors actually paid for their new arena in San Francisco (which the team brass complained about publicly), but that's definitely an outlier.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

LOL, when have they done this?

SF Giants

[Fred]

Originally Posted by lumberjack

The average value of a MLB franchise is 2.4 billion dollars, somebody tell me why those boys can't lend a hand to Cooperstown.

According to the article, covid is responsible for the drop in attendance. Wouldn't this be a one-time thing.

I agree, Cooperstown, one of the places on earth you can't get to from here.
But....

Why couldn't the Hall send out a traveling exhibition. I don't mean a 40 foot trailer filled with stuff, but an arrangement with major museum across the country. Of course this would actually involve some work on the Hall's part. Can't have that....

Then again, maybe the people who go to places like the Hall are just getting old and nobody is filling the gap.

Finally, the stock market is thru the roof, how is it they can't make money on their endowment.

One would think MLB would be interested in supporting efforts to restore/rehabilitate the BB HOF.

Perhaps someone could explain the reason there's such a disconnect between MLB and the HOF.

MLB just seems so very CHEAP. There should be rules in place that require teams to take better care of the players that are moving up through their farm system. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be occurring on the scale it should be happening.

The next statement will be viewed as sacrilege - If MLB doesn't provide support, then why can't the BB HOF auction some of it's extra memorabilia to create an account that grows and results in an account so that further fund raising would not be necessary. They can't display everything they have now, so why not?

Ultimately, what would be nice is if MLB, the Player's Union or other entities related to baseball would pitch in and provide support.

As mentioned in the quoted post, perhaps interest is waning.

[todeen]

I'm 38yo, and I would love to go. But my wife and my vacation timeline seldom overlaps, and I wouldn't take my kids who would likely complain and ruin my experience. Maybe my son would like it, but my daughter would not! My wife said she would love to do a bus tour that hits ballparks, games, Broadway, and Cooperstown. But that is most likely a retirement plan 30 years from now!

My wife is a county elections supervisor and there is usually an election in July/August that prevents her from traveling while I'm out of high school on summer break.

Sent from my SM-S926U using Tapatalk

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I'm about a 5-6 hour drive away. That's a perfect distance to travel, while keeping it far enough removed that I don't go very often and would ever tire of it.

Induction Day is a must-do at least once in every fan's lifetime. Personally, I only did it once, as a young boy, and am glad that's when it happened. As an adult, the crowds and hullabaloo wouldn't agree with me, but it's magical for a child.

Give me a week in the spring or fall. Cooperstown is at those times the quiet little place it is for most of the year. I can enjoy a breakfast among the locals at the thimble that is the Cooperstown Diner, the Baker Bowl of eateries, before heading to the NBL to do my research.

I'm redundant to mention it a second time, but it's important for me to reiterate that it would be made perfect if only 1-2 more decent restaurants were close by for dinner. The Tunnicliff isn't too bad, and has a wonderfully old fashioned atmosphere.

If I still drank, a couple of decent bars would have been welcomed. Something longstanding and quaintly dingy that specifically did NOT cater to the tourist crowd. That's no longer a need on my agenda, but it would still be wonderful for those who would wish to take advantage of it.

[calvindog]

The place is just not conveniently located, despite the area being beautiful. There's one great hotel there but it's expensive. I also find the HOF hard to really enjoy when it's crowded. But it's something every baseball fan has to see.

[roarfrom34]

We visited the Hall the first weekend in November and while we live about four hours away, we try to get up there every 2-3 years....Not really crowded so we were able to see what we wanted comfortably and most of the shops were still open..

There is a decent Holiday Inn Express hotel near Dreams Park and also noted that a Hampton Inn is in the course of construction closer to downtown...

I agree with the sentiment that every baseball fan should visit at least once