Baseball Museums Struggle

[RickD]

OK sports museums nationwide are struggling and this is culled from a larger article on that subject:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/story...nch/51031494/1

The baseball highlights:

The Negro Leagues:

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., has a new administration tasked with turning around heavy losses or closing. "It's about stopping the bleeding, and … renewing people's confidence in this organization," said Bob Kendrick, of the Negro leagues museum, which recently brought him back as president after he was passed over for the job three years ago when he was marketing director. Former Negro leagues star Buck O'Neil was one of the driving forces behind the museum in the historic Jazz District of Kansas City. O'Neil's death in 2006 and questionable strategies by new management two years later combined with the recession to send the operation into a tailspin. Its revenues dropped nearly 60% — almost $2 million — from 2007 to '08 and now hover between $1.2 million to $1.4 million. "It wasn't one of those doom-and-gloom type scenarios where the museum was about to close its doors today, tomorrow," said President Bob Kendrick, noting attendance is stable at about 55,000 a year. "But what we all are very aware of is the fact that we have got to figure out ways to generate revenue." Events around the 100th anniversary of O'Neil's birth this month and the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Kansas City could help it break even next year, Kendrick said.

The Baseball Hall of Fame:

The National Baseball Hall of Fame last year began a comprehensive digitization project to make its vast collection of artifacts, documents, photos and videos accessible via computer, President Jeff Idelson said. Its museum in Cooperstown, while continuing to collect players' artifacts from every major milestone in the game, has added much video and spruced up the displays. The video of Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games-played record is shown in a monitor inside Gehrig's old Yankee Stadium locker. While the baseball hall's IRS return reported losses in 2008 and '09, Idelson said that is an example of the accrual accounting methods. The Hall reported a $7.8 million profit in 2007, with contributions nearly $10 million more than other years. "We don't get into the specifics of donations, but … we had a few pledges that hit the books that year that are then paid out slowly," he said. But the economy has taken a little bite out of the Cooperstown hall's attendance, on track for about 275,000 for this year. This will be the third consecutive year it's below 300,000, a benchmark it had cleared for 12 years in a row.

Babe Ruth Birthplace:

Gibbons, executive director of the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Sports Legends Museum in Baltimore, said despite sports museums' recent struggles, they've carved out a "niche along the cultural landscape. And I think it's going to broaden." "There's a lot of work to be done. I'm sure there will be many successes and some failures in the industry as time goes on. But I think we're here to stay."

What do you all think?

[TTMCentral]

Its the economy....No one is buying memberships when we could lose our "memberships" with jobs here in the USA

[Old Sweater]

Must be a lot of slackers back East like me. I've been meaning to go to the Cowboy HOF, in Colorado Springs for years now. The odds of me hitting the baseball HOF is the same as the lotto for me.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

Are museums in the US funded by the state?
Overhere they are, although economic times makes the government lower the funds.

[RickD]

Some are but sports museums usually go by private donation!