Nathaniel Rakich published a thought-provoking article on Wednesday at The Hardball Times. The thrust: The Baseball Hall of Fame is struggling to attract visitors because of its remote location in Cooperstown, N.Y., and should consider moving four hours south to New York City.Rakich wrote:The Big Apple needs no introduction. It is home to 8.5 million people, and over 50 million more visit each year.
Addison Russell Jersey Thats a huge potential market for a Hall of Fame that has struggled to attract tourists in recent years. In 2013, the Hall received only about 260,000 visitors its lowest attendance since the 1980s. By contrast, in New York City, even secondary museums like the Brooklyn Museum top 500,000. A Gotham-based Hall of Fame would become a must-see addition to the typical tourist circuit for the legions of baseball fans who already visit the city regardle s.MORE: Baseball Hall of Famers on the cover of Sporting NewsIts an interesting
Cubs Youth Cool Base Royal Jersey idea, though the Hall of Fame would be foolish to act on it.Baseball established its Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in the 1930s because of the idea that Abner Doubleday founded the game there in 1839. The ideas long since been debunked as the most outrageously false myth in a sport that sometimes seems to depend on them.But out of baseballs most egregious lie emerged something wonderful. Baseball has the greatest Hall of Fame of any American sport, by a long shot, and Cooperstown is a core part of this. When baseball fans think Hall of Fame, they think Cooperstown. The terms are in fact interchangeable.That the baseball Hall of Fame commands (and supports) an entire town and that Cooperstown requires a pilgrimage to reach is part of its mystique. In New York City, the Hall of Fame might draw more casual visitors but itd also be just another museum.Hall Cla s of 2014: Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas and Greg Maddux (Getty Images)There are other factors to consider.Hall of Fame attendance is tied to the annual induction weekend in July, where scores of notable players and tens of thousands of fans descend on Cooperstown. (In 2013, attendance bottomed out because no modern players were inducted. Two years ago, when Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas got in, induction weekend attendance approached record levels.)Hall of Fame Weekend
Kyle Hendricks Jersey works ideally in a town that can singularly focus on it one weekend per year and has a strong vested interest because of the financial implications.Cooperstowns just a small town of 1,800, and its a tourist community, Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson told Sporting News in January. A big induction weekend matters to this community at large. Its very important to our entire year, and its certainly something thats the highlight on the calendar for the entire season and the entire year for us.In New York City, Hall of Fame Weekend would be just another convention and probably have to be held at a convention center, stadium, or large public area. It wouldnt have the intimacy or charm of a small town, to say nothing
Cubs Womens Cool Base White Jersey of the security concerns for hosting the event in a major city.MORE: The 25 best players not in the Baseball Hall of FameThe Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball would probably go out of their way to make Hall of Fame Weekend safe in New York City, but legions of security guards shouldnt be needed for an event like this.Itd be great to see MLB offer more no-strings-attached financial support to the Hall of Fame, which operates autonomously, to make the museum more acce sible to fans. With revenues north of $9 billion annually, MLB is in position to undertake any number of large-scale, philanthropic efforts.All the same, the Hall of Fame might not need the help. In his January interview, Idelson dismi sed the spate of alarmist articles in the past five years that have said his museums in trouble.The Chicken Little approach is something you cant react to too closely unle s you think its real and the museum is doing incredibly well, Idelson said. Two years ago, 2014, was our 75th anniversary. We had a banner year, and that continued into 2015. With the health of baseball, with its continual quest to become more international
Yu Darvish Jersey , and the game being as healthy as it is, that reflects positively on Cooperstown.
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