The Pro Football Hall of Fame Expansion Project Hits the Skids

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DB135

Well-known member
The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, is supposed to become a Disney-esque, multiple-day destination with a four-star hotel, a state-of-the-art stadium, a water park, a youth sports complex, a retail promenade, a convention space, a 143-bed assisted living facility for retired Hall of Famers and a small hospital.

At the moment, however, it is a project with a skyrocketing budget, stalled progress, a developer with a checkered performance history in the region who has been accused of misusing $25 million in funds from a federal program, and contractors who recently went months without being paid. Financing problems have necessitated an emergency bank loan, and elected officials in Stark County have discussed a special ballot measure for a sales tax increase to subsidize the project known as Hall of Fame Village.
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https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/sports/pro-football-hall-of-fame-canton-ohio.html
 
 
Appreciate you editing the title and adding a quote from the story, Yappi. I thought this thread was about hof, the deranged poster of yesteryear.

In regards to the topic: Who the hell thought something in Canton, Ohio would be "a Disney-esque, multiple-day destination?" It's in Canton, Ohio. Winters are terrible, it's gray for about 40% of the year, and there's nothing else to do that doesn't require an hour drive to Cleveland or Columbus. Is this Kevin Draper trying to romanticize the HOF or is that what the NFL actually expected? Has anyone that's involved with the HOF renovations actually been to Ohio?
 
Canton doesn't have wildly different weather from Sandusky or Aurora, and it's a bigger city. It has a lot of issues but nothing that precludes it from being home to what is basically a football theme park.
 
That's fine and dandy, but no one is going to want to spend multiple days there unless they don't mind driving to and from Cleveland during their stay.
 
Canton's about like Hamilton but full of NEO hillbillys.
HOF, Rock and Roll HOF, Corvette Museum, etc. - all the same. Stop by if you're in the area but don't make a special trip.
 
People don't stay multiple days on premise at the Columbus Zoo either. It's a day trip, or something you see while passing by/in town. Which is probably what the HOF should be going for rather than a "Disney-esque, multiple-day destination with a four-star hotel."
 
I imagine quite a few do a day at the waterpark and a day at the zoo itself or two days at the zoo and aquarium.

The Disney-esque thing is a bit of sensationalist journalism. No one at the HOF has ever said anything like that.
 
Crusaders said:
The Disney-esque thing is a bit of sensationalist journalism. No one at the HOF has ever said anything like that.
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http://www.wkyc.com/article/sports/cantons-pro-football-hall-of-fame-the-disney-of-ohio/433814756

“I think they can expect football heaven or a ‘Disneyland’ for football," said David Baker, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
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https://www.ohio.com/akron/top-stor...d-vision-grows-of-disney-esque-impact-on-area

People behind the scenes enthusiastically use the word “Disney” in describing not just the on-site sports and other entertainment but also in the impact the 100-plus acre development just off Interstate 77 could have in transforming Canton and Northeast Ohio.
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Ray Hexamer, president of the nonprofit Stark Development Board, thinks the village can have the same kind of impact here as Disney World had on Florida.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/g00/s...-hall-of-fame-development-20170806-story.html

"If Disney (properties) are the 'Happiest Place on Earth,' " Baker says, "we want to be the 'Most Inspiring Place on Earth.'
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When the project was introduced, it was compared to Cedar Point, Hershey Park, and Graceland. I think these are far more apt, and along the lines of their use of 'Disney' than a literal Disney World.

I have not read anything from the HOF where they think it will be a week-long destination vacation spot like Disney World. If they do then they're high.
 
Crusaders said:
When the project was introduced, it was compared to Cedar Point, Hershey Park, and Graceland. I think these are far more apt, and along the lines of their use of 'Disney' than a literal Disney World.

I have not read anything from the HOF where they think it will be a week-long destination vacation spot like Disney World. If they do then they're high.
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That's absolutely what they think and it's been my complaint from the beginning. They set the bar increasingly high and drove expectations to an unreasonable level. The projections for attendance and revenue were pie in the sky nonsense. The HOF will continue to draw people who enjoy football, period. Slapping a couple rides and a hotel down isn't going to change that.
 
Even their most optimistic projections were made in comparison to Cedar Point. It's ridiculous to think they mean Disney in a literal sense and doing so comes off as just a lazy attempt to pooh-pooh the project.
 
Crusaders said:
Even their most optimistic projections were made in comparison to Cedar Point. It's ridiculous to think they mean Disney in a literal sense and doing so comes off as just a lazy attempt to pooh-pooh the project.
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It's ridiculous to think they mean Disney in a literal sense, except the fact they actually compared it to Disney and not Cedar Point.
 
They compared their projected attendance with Cedar Point. How does it make sense to believe they think they're building a literal Disney World of football, week long destination vacation spot? What about the project even gives that impression? If you actually used your brain you'd realize how stupid this sounds.
 
You claimed no one associated with the HOF has ever compared the project to Disney. It took about 10 seconds to prove you were incorrect/lying. Doubling down isn't helping you look less foolish here.
 
Crusaders said:
They compared their projected attendance with Cedar Point. How does it make sense to believe they think they're building a literal Disney World of football, week long destination vacation spot? What about the project even gives that impression? If you actually used your brain you'd realize how stupid this sounds.
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I'm just going off what has been actually said by people involved with the HOF project per the OP and Neo's posts. Both mentioned Disney, neither mentioned Cedar point. There has yet to be a single mention of Cedar Point, other than your posts which reference absolutely nothing.
 
Neopolitan said:
You claimed no one associated with the HOF has ever compared the project to Disney. It took about 10 seconds to prove you were incorrect/lying. Doubling down isn't helping you look less foolish here.
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Your inability to read below surface level is your problem, not mine.
 
Taco MacArthur said:
I'm just going off what has been actually said by people involved with the HOF project per the OP and Neo's posts. Both mentioned Disney, neither mentioned Cedar point. There has yet to be a single mention of Cedar Point, other than your posts which reference absolutely nothing.
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If you completely divorce their comments from any context, then you'd have a point. However, the project is clearly not designed to be like Disney. It's "Disney" in that it's a big theme park project that will increase HOF attendance. Some people may be getting a little excited about it but that doesn't change the facts. If their actual intent is building something that would attract 55k people per day, they'd be building a lot more hotels and attractions.
 
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