I'm not much of a museum guy. I'll chaperone my daughter's field trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum, but I typically don't actively seek out such places. So reading earlier this week about the National High School Coaches Association's plans to build a $10 million Sports Museum of America opened in May 2008 with more than 45,000 square feet, 21 original films, 30 interactive exhibits, 1,100 photographs and hundreds of artifacts in 19 galleries - along with great expectations of one million visitors per year. It's now closed and bankrupt after failing to come anywhere near that number.
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Sure, the high school hall of fame, to be funded by the City of Easton and donations, sounds like a very cool facility, with an athletic testing center, training facilities and talking holograms expected to be part of the mix when it opens in late 2011. And I wish the NHSCA well with this endeavor, I really do. After all, I was a high school athlete (barely), I suspect both of my children will be high school athletes, and I cover the business of high school sports for AB. As Ferraro said during a recent press conference in which he unveiled plans for the hall of fame, "High school sports deserve notoriety, and now [they] will get it." I just hope that the notoriety - perhaps Ferraro meant to use "distinction" or some other more-positive term - doesn't stem from a failed venture.
