Sports Museum of America

The Sports Museum of America (SmA) was the United States' first national sports museum dedicated to the history and cultural significance of sports in America. It opened in May 2008 and closed less than nine months later, in February 2009. The Sports Museum of America was the nation's first major museum incorporating most major sports. In addition to becoming the official home of the Heisman Trophy and its annual presentation, the museum also housed the first-ever Women's Sports Hall of Fame. Among its board of directors were Mario Andretti, Martina Navratilova, Joe Frazier, Bob Cousy, Billie Jean King, Paul Hornung, and fifty other Hall of Fame athletes. The museum was located in Lower Manhattan at the end of the Canyon of Heroes, at 26 Broadway, across from Bowling Green, close to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry, the Whitehall Terminal of the Staten Island Ferry, Wall Street, and the World Trade Center.

1. Overview and collection

The Museum became the official home of the Heisman Trophy and the Women's Sports Foundation International Women's Sports Hall of Fame within the Billie Jean King International Women's Sports Center. Other sports halls of fame and museums, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame, loaned numerous artifacts. Additional artifacts were secured via private collectors. The Sports Museum featured more than 20 original sports films, numerous interactive exhibits, with its 25,000-square-foot exhibition space housing more than 1,100 photographs and 800 artifacts. Individual objects included Michael Phelps' goggles, Dara Torres' swim cap, Sandy Koufax's 1963 Cy Young Award; the ball from Ty Cobb's 3,000th hit, Lou Gehrig's jersey, and the flag Jim Craig wrapped himself in after the U.S. Miracle on Ice during the 1980 Winter Olympics. The event space on the second floor of the museum featured a mural tribute to sports by famed sports artist LeRoy Neiman. Tickets to the Sports Museum of America costs $27 for adults and $20 for children.

1. History


1. = Concept and development =

Founder Philip Schwalb developed the concept in September 2001 following a visit to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The museum's plan was to celebrate all sports, and the Canyon of Heroes where New York City's famed ticker-tape parades originated was chosen as the location. The decision was made to be a commercial organization, rather than a non-profit as many museums are, due to a desire to participate in New York's post-9/11 Liberty bond financing program (available only to for-profit businesses). Ultimately the museum received support from the requisite government officials, most importantly in the form of Liberty bonds issued by the City and the State to support projects aiding in the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. Schwalb and co-founder Sameer Ahuja raised $93 million over a three-year period to finance the museum, which included the aforementioned $57 million in Liberty bonds, as well as $36 million in private funds. To ensure the museum was collaborative, Schwalb and Ahuja struck agreements with sixty non-profit partners, including every major sports hall of fame in North America and every notable national sport governing body (e.g. USTA, USGA, U.S. Soccer, USA Hockey). They also secured over 200 private investors, primarily Wall Street executives, to finance the museum––getting them to agree to donate 2% of revenues to charity.

1. = Opening ceremonies =

Nearly 100 hall of fame athletes attended the May 7, 2008, opening, with speakers including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Billie Jean King (speaking on behalf of the Women's Sports Foundation), Tony Dorsett (speaking on behalf of the Heisman Trophy), and New York Giants Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Eli Manning.

1. = Challenges =

Although it received some recognition, including Nickelodeon's Parents' Pick Award for best museum in New York City for children, the museum failed to meet its projected attendance. Pre-opening projections were that one million people would visit during the first year; fewer than 125,000 actually attended. Surveys indicated that 95% of New Yorkers were unaware of its existence. The museum's low-traffic location, coupled with a lack of exterior signage on the nondescript entrance in the Standard Oil Building, added to the museum's relative anonymity.

1. = Closure =

On February 20, 2009 – open less than a year – the museum closed its doors, citing low attendance and $6 million in cost overruns. Management blamed the Great Recession and the related atmosphere in the Lower Manhattan/Wall Street area. The final tally in overall monies devoted to the effort was $93 million. In March 2009, Schwab offered to sell the museum's collection for $5 million. HP Newquist, founder of the National Guitar Museum — which has no permanent location — specifically cited the Sports Museum's poor showing in his decision not to locate the National Guitar Museum in New York.

1. Partners

In an effort to be truly national and collaborative in its representation of all sports, the Museum partnered with more than 60 sporting organizations throughout the United States, and the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto (with 30 of those signed up to participate during the concept phase). Exclusive partners included:

1. References

Nearby Places View Menu

Bowling Green (New York City)

Bowling Green is a small historic public park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City, at the southern end of Broadway. Built in the 18th century next to the site of the original Dutch fort of New Amsterdam, it served as a public gathering place and under the British was designated as a park in 1733. It is the oldest public park in New York City and is surrounded by its original 18th-century cast iron fence. The park included an actual bowling green and a monumental equestrian statue of King George III prior to the American Revolutionary War. Pulled down in 1776, the 4000-pound statue is said to have been melted for ammunition to fight the British. Bowling Green is adjacent to another historic park, the Battery, located to the southwest. It is surrounded by several buildings, including the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House (with the NYC office of the National Archives), the International Mercantile Marine Company Building, Bowling Green Offices Building, Cunard Building, 26 Broadway, and 2 Broadway. The Charging Bull sculpture is located on the northern end of the park. The park is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places under the name Bowling Green Fence and Park. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district created in 2007.

Historic Site Landmark

26 Broadway

26 Broadway, also known as the Standard Oil Building or Socony–Vacuum Building, is an office building adjacent to Bowling Green in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The 31-story, 520-foot-tall (160 m) structure was designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Thomas Hastings of Carrère and Hastings, in conjunction with Shreve, Lamb & Blake. It was built in 1884–1885 as the headquarters of Standard Oil, at the time one of the largest oil companies in the United States, and expanded to its current size in 1921–1928. 26 Broadway is on a pentagonal site bounded by Broadway to the northwest, Bowling Green to the west, Beaver Street to the south, New Street to the east/southeast, and the axis of Morris Street to the north. The first sixteen stories occupy much of the lot, with several setbacks, a curved facade along Broadway, and two light courts. Above it is a twelve-story tower topped by a stepped pyramid. The ground story has a 40-foot-tall (12 m) lobby leading to three banks of elevators. The Standard Oil executive offices on the top stories included a board room on the 21st floor. The original structure was built for Standard Oil on the former site of U.S. treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's house. The Standard Oil Building was expanded in 1895 and again after World War I, when Walter C. Teagle bought four neighboring buildings to create a continuous lot. The building was greatly expanded in a multi-phase construction project during the 1920s. 26 Broadway was sold to another owner in 1956 but remained a prominent structure on Bowling Green. In 1995, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 26 Broadway as an official city landmark. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places district created in 2007.

Historic Site Landmark

New York Produce Exchange

The New York Produce Exchange was a commodities exchange headquartered in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It served a network of produce and commodities dealers across the United States. Founded in 1861 as the New York Commercial Association, it was originally headquartered at Whitehall Street in a building owned by the New York Produce Exchange Company. The Association was renamed the New York Produce Exchange in 1868 and took over the original building in 1872. Between 1881 and 1884, the Produce Exchange built a new headquarters on 2 Broadway, facing Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. The structure, designed by George B. Post, was the first in the world to combine wrought iron and masonry in its structural construction. The main feature of the structure was an exchange floor that measured approximately 220 by 144 feet (67 by 44 m). The Produce Exchange was profitable following the building's completion. By the 1880s, it had the largest membership of any exchange in the United States, with a maximum of three thousand members. By 1900, the exchange was doing $15 million a day in business. In the early 20th century, activity on the Produce Exchange started to decline due to competition from other cities. The Produce Exchange sold off its building for development in the 1950s; the headquarters was demolished to make way for a skyscraper called 2 Broadway. The exchange had its trading floor in the skyscraper from 1959 until 1973, when it was restructured as the Produce Exchange Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust.

Historic Site Landmark

Charging Bull

Charging Bull (sometimes referred to as the Bull of Wall Street or the Bowling Green Bull) is a bronze sculpture that stands on Broadway just north of Bowling Green in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The 7,100-pound (3,200 kg) bronze sculpture, standing 11 feet (3.4 m) tall and measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) long, depicts a bull, the symbol of financial optimism and prosperity. Charging Bull is a popular tourist destination that draws thousands of people a day, symbolizing Wall Street and the Financial District. The sculpture was created by Italian artist Arturo Di Modica in the wake of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash. Late in the evening of Thursday, December 14, 1989, Di Modica arrived on Wall Street with Charging Bull on the back of a truck and illegally dropped the sculpture outside of the New York Stock Exchange Building. After being removed by the New York City Police Department later that day, Charging Bull was installed at Bowling Green on December 20, 1989. Despite initially having only a temporary permit to be located at Bowling Green, Charging Bull became a popular tourist attraction. Di Modica may have been influenced by a pair of huge metallic sculptures, a charging bull and a bear, placed in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 1985 as part of the 400th anniversary celebration of the exchange. Following the success of the original sculpture, Di Modica created a number of variations of the Charging Bull which have been sold to private collectors. Charging Bull has been a subject of criticism from an anti-capitalist perspective, such as in the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, and has also been compared to the biblical golden calf worshiped by the Israelites shortly after their exodus from Egypt.

Art Landmark