Topics

1. gary b says:

   April 5, 2013 at 11:59 pm

   Rochester takes way too many passes. The Olympics would be just the thing to get our people fired up about something. Anything! But the Soccer Hall of Fame isn’t too shabby either. We absolutely need to press for this. I’m not even a soccer fan (or a football fan, as the rest of the world might say). But this is a no-brainer.

2. Irene says:

   April 6, 2013 at 9:04 am

   The fact that the site in Oneonta couldn’t draw enough visitors should be a big red flag. Oneonta is close to Cooperstown and other tourist attractions, closer to major population centers, and still enough people didn’t visit. The soccer stadium is already losing money, we don’t need another money pit. How about focusing on more of what has succeeded, like the Jazz festival and the museum of play, or things that also make Rochester a better place to live, like the river trails

3. gary b says:

   April 6, 2013 at 10:33 am

   I don’t agree. I think that Oneonta’s location was the major factor in limiting visitors. It isn’t close enough to any population centers. It’s too far from Cooperstown for that to be a factor. Baseball fans are not necessarily soccer fans. An urban location such as Rochester would provide a critical mass necessary for it to work. Soccer isn’t a classic American sport and is only growing slowly, so it’s not a shoe-in like baseball. A Hall of Fame would require nurture. But as soccer slowly becomes more mainstream, growth is inevitable for the community fortunate enough to be in on the ground floor – if it’s the right place. The fact is that we’re already focusing on those other projects, to our great benefit. They don’t preclude this. Defining every visionary project as a “money pit” and acting on that guarantees their failure and their transformation into a money pit.

4. Matthew McDermott says:

   April 6, 2013 at 10:35 am

   The devil is always in the details and I wouldn’t be a fan of pouring a lot of public dollars into this but the fact remains that there has been considerable support for soccer in our area. Successful local players like Abby Wambach has helped foster and sustain interest in the sport.

   Although Oneonta is geographically closer to NYC (major population center referenced by another poster?) the fact remains that we’re a larger metro than Oneonta with easier transportation options in and out and there would be some synergy with investments already made in the soccer stadium. We have considerable local tourism resources to promote it, local non-profit expertise to help run it and I like the idea if it can be accomplished in a cost effective manner (let’s walk before we run).

   Cooperstown is known worldwide for baseball, but I’m not inclined to think that baseball fans going to the Baseball Hall of Fame would necessarily cross over to soccer — they are definitely two different fan bases.

   Something that energizes local fans and draws people here could be a great thing. I’m not much of a soccer buff, but imagine inducting a high-wattage figure like David Beckham in Rochester? It seems like we’d get some bang for the buck with something like that. Just my two cents.

5. gary b says:

   April 6, 2013 at 10:53 am

   Yes, cost-effective is key. One reason we have these money pits is they’re done for political or reactive reasons, with big commitments coming before due diligence. Our most successful projects have grown from the grass roots – East End vs High Falls.

   Does anyone know Abby Wambach? She could be a very visible advocate if she were on board. I agree Rochester already has much of the infrastructure needed to get something like this off the ground. Even if such an institution didn’t draw from New York or Chicago, it could well draw from Berlin or Rio (as long as the visitors understand what “soccer” is, a factor which may have helped doom Oneonta).

6. chase tyler says:

   April 7, 2013 at 9:24 am

   Don’t forget that Rochester is easily accessible from Buffalo and Syracuse. That adds more fans in the area.

   Rochester needs more tourism. Our transit system sucks, but we have decent traffic, lots of local business, and cheap houses. We just need something huge to draw in visitors-and revenue.

7. Wendy says:

   April 7, 2013 at 10:24 am

   Yes, definitely go for it. Soccer is the biggest international sport in the world. And assuming the HOF celebrates worldwide soccer and not just Americans, then it’d be a major draw to the area for people all over the world who would otherwise not consider Rochester for one minute.

8. Patrick Chefalo says:

   April 7, 2013 at 10:37 pm

   A major player against Rochester might be St. Louis. But I think Rochester should try whatever to attract tourists. Since the great unwashed is against Erie Canal investment, and instead is trying to attract the anti-history Morgan Group to town to destroy the Eastman House and Court Street areas, maybe a sports theme will appeal to the populace.

9. jimmy says:

   April 9, 2013 at 5:53 pm

   build it on Oak st. right next to our soccer stadium and nearby frontier field.

10. Andrew says:

    April 9, 2013 at 11:26 pm

    Couple points:

    1) As a baseball fan, I would never seek out the soccer hall of fame as part of a trip to Cooperstown. I honestly had no idea it existed.

    2) This could have a significant amount of business from international travelers who are visiting NYC or Toronto. While it might not make people visit Rochester as an entire vacation, visitors in those two cities might decide to make a day trip or stay a night.

11. Matt V says:

    April 10, 2013 at 10:49 am

    Remember that the Strong is looking to start a sports museum associated with the new Bills Stadium, which seems to be a pipe dream to me. Maybe they can build their museum here as part of the Soccer Hall of Fame. Anybody who knows people at the Strong should demand this because I think this would make it a great project.

12. Chris Brandt says:

    April 21, 2013 at 9:54 pm

    Put it either in the field directly west of the Sahlens Stadium, or right downtown on Main Street (Ren. Square Site comes to mind).

13. Kevin Yost says:

    August 3, 2015 at 7:08 pm

    or Midtown Parcel No. 5, should the theater happen, could be the home for re-formed National Soccer Museum and Hall of Fame by U.S. Soccer and International Women’s Sports Center and Hall of Fame by the Women’s Sports Foundation side-by-side. Other possible sites could be the current Beebee Station site in High Falls and the Medley Center in Irondequoit, either of which could be knocked down, as well as part of the Sibley Building and the northwest corner of Hylan Drive and Calkins Road in Henrietta. As well, the remainder Manhattan’s former Sports Museum of America’s contents that the women’s sports museum was part of could be in The Strong Museum’s proposed North American Museum of Sport and Culture in Buffalo, minus a new Bills stadium. (Most of the renovations for our baseball stadium, arena, and convention center are also mostly unnecessary as well).

    Midtown Parcel #5 if the two HOF’s go downtown, the Medley Center site, if they go there, could also have a new Sahlen’s Stadium for rectangular sports, while the current, poor quality one could be renovated into a softball stadium for a new, local franchise of the National Pro Fastpitch, but without any taxpayer money. Alternatively, Dwyer Stadium in Batavia or Webster Yankee Stadium could be retrofitted for these should either the Batavia Muckdogs or Webster Yankees, respectively, fold.

    We have been called “Soccertown USA,” outgoing county executive Maggie Brooks called our area a “prime market for women’s sports” in 2004, and Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach both scored their 100th goals while playing for U.S. Soccer in our city. We are also an arts city as well. As well, most sports halls of fames are within driving distance from her in and just outside Upstate New York.

    Sports Halls of Fame in or Just Outside Upstate New York

    -along Interstate 90 corridor

    Boxing- Canistota, NY

    Distance Running- Utica, NY

    Wrestling- Schenectady, NY

    Basketball (men’s)- Springfield, MA

    Volleyball- Holyoke, MA

    -along Interstate 87 corridor (intersects with I-90 in Albany, NY)

    Thoroughbred Horse Racing- Saratoga, NY

    Harness Racing- Goshen, NY (downstate)

    -along U.S. Route 15 and Interstate 83 corridors
    (U.S. 15 intersects with I-90 in Henrietta/Rochester, NY
    and intersects with I-83 in Harrisburg, PA

    Little League baseball and softball- Williamsport, PA

    Weightlifting- York, PA

    Lacrosse- Baltimore, MD

    -others just off the I-90 corridor

    Baseball- Cooperstown, NY

    Football- Canton, Ohio

    Ice Hockey- Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    The HOF’s that are located outside NYS and in driving distance from such and the HOF’s in this state should be included in such a trail as well.

    Moreover, the Center at High Falls should continue, hopefully, but not necessarily in that particualar location, in that district, and be the art and local history and innovation museum that it once was, but not as a city enterprise anymore, but totally private as a joint enterprise of the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery and the Rochester Museum and Science Center.

    Onenota was just too far off the beaten track, the NY Route 7/I-88 corridor just not well traveled and not many people from the baseball hall ventured down to the soccer hall, many of them just traveling between there and the Thruway, Route 5, and Route 20 corridors along Otsego Lake.

14. Kevin Yost says:

    August 5, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    The first part of my comment should have read “Whichever of the two downtown sites that the new performing arts center does not use, either Main and Clinton or Midtown Parcel No. 5…” The other sports halls of fame mentioned are within driving distance from HERE, not “her.”

15. Kevin Yost says:

    December 22, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    It was decided in September, 2015 that the Nat’l Soccer HOF will reform at Toyota Stadium, in Frisco, Texas, home of the MLS FC Dallas and U.S. Youth Soccer. We have plenty of sports HOF’s in and just outside Upstate NY anyhow. It will be near the also re-formed Nat’l Bowling HOF in Arlington, TX, where the Cowboys and Rangers play, after previously failing in St. Louis, and the Boy Scouts’ HQ and museum is in between in Irving.

Post a Comment...