This is my first real post on this forum, I am normally satisfied watching from the sideline.  Anyways, once a year in Canton we spend 1 week eating fair food and peeing our pants when we here "Canton" used during a national broadcast (usually ESPN).  It is our small claim to fame, the reason that Canton receives any attention at all, so to us it is Huge.  Does this register on any level regionally??  Has anyone from outside of Canton attended Hall of Fame festivities?  Is Football big enough to draw attention?  How, if at all does all the hoopla register to someone outside of the city?

 

I don't mean to tread on Canton by asking this, I do love the city, I am very curious to know the outsider angle.

While I have never been to Canton, I have always heard that Canton is an ok small city that just so happens to have the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  While I have also not been to the baseball HOF, I have heard that Cooperstown really embraced baseball and the HOF, and has turned the town into a real destination centered around baseball.  I have always wished that Canton could similarly turn its focus to the HOF and make the town a little more tourist friendly.

I think the HOF was built in 1963 and the connection to the rest of the community is pathetic.  This has actually come up in our local paper recently enough.  The HOF really isn't that large, a tour may take 4 hours or so, Canton really needs to include other football based activities to keep people around and spending.  Restaurants, bars, football merchandise stores, sculpture gardens, parks, anything.  Cooperstown has a very small population, but that town is all about baseball, it's an experience for anyone who loves baseball.  Of course the Baseball HOF is older than it's Football counterpart.

Let's talk about location and design. The football Hall of Fame has that distinctive modern design that was striking 40 years ago, but increasingly looks kinda silly. On one hand, the location next to Fawcett Stadium is cool -- a football Hall of Fame linked to a football field -- and it's very visible from I-77.

 

On the other hand, it's too bad it is next to a football stadium way out by the highway. Even though it's in Canton (I think -- the municipal boundaries zigzag across 77 in that area), its location is a suburban-style highway interchange.

 

Imagine if the founders had decided to locate the Hall downtown. It's possible that would have prevented decades of decline in downtown Canton -- a decline civic leaders seem to be working hard to turn around. People visiting the Hall would be able to stay in downtown hotels and, after a tour, would be able to walk to local downtown restaurants and sports-memorabilia shops. That's the way the baseball hall of fame is in Cooperstown: right in the heart of a small,vibrant (though tourist-oriented) downtown. You can't walk anywhere from the football hall of fame. No hotels nearby. No restaurants. No shops. Visitors have to drive everywhere. You can visit the hall of fame and never really visit Canton at all.

The last paragraph says it all.

What I think...see post No. 31

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,14244.0/msg,224072.html

I live in Cleveland and have never been to the Football Hall of Fame nor do i have any intention on ever going. But honestly im not even a fan of the sport anyway. I think its great to have in the state of ohio, but for me personally it means nothing. The closest I have ever been to the hall is when my high school, benedictine, won the state championship at the stadium next door during my senior year. The only hall of fame in North America that i would go to would be the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

My parents went up to Canton for the HOF when they were first married. It was the first of many short weekends in Canton, none of which ever included the HOF after that first trip that turned them onto the city.

 

I have had very similar thoughts to UrbanSurfin about the HOF's location; a downtown site could have done wonders for Canton. Belden Village/Plain Township probably recieves the bulk of the economic benefits.

I don't really care at all about the HOF Game.  Even when I was a bigger sports fan (watched ESPN everyday religiously) I didn't really care about the game.  I always knew the game was in Canton, OH...but didn't really think anything about the city in which the game existed.  I just knew that I didn't really care about the game itself (kind of like the ProBowl Game).

 

With that said, I have heard good things about Canton but will probably never make a special trip there.  I definitely want to visit, but it will be a combo deal with some other places in the NE Ohio area.

As a football fan, I've actually visited the HOF a few times, including attending the 2005 induction ceremony. I like it, it could be a little more interactive, and it just touches the surface on a lot of things, but I think it's one of Ohio's top museums. And, at least Canton  has a connection to football, the NFL was actually born there. In Cooperstown, all that was born was a fairy tale. And I wouldn't call Cooperstown vibrant. the town pretty much shuts down at 5 p.m. except for the restaurants. But that is part of its charm, something Canton doesn't have too much of, itself. I'm not sure of the significance of the sight where the HOF actually stands. Could they have put a football field directly downtown?

 

Most of the brochures I see about NW Ohio list suggested itineraries thatt includes the HOF with other Canton-area stuff like Harry London, the McKinley Museum and the First Ladies National Historic Site. There's stuff to do, but it's in an extended area.

 

 

I went there a couple of years ago and was surprised, though the building is quite hideous, the neighborhood around it wasn't...the best...and it seemed "out of the way," even if it was just off I-77.  I agree it should've been built downtown.

I think they could have included a football field downtown, Akron will have Canal Park and a new field for the Akron Zips soon.  That was another mistake when Canton built Thurman Munson Stadium in a secluded area far from downtown.  Munson Stadium is hideous though, so maybe I should be glad.  I guess the suburban setting makes sense for the placement since in 1963 the suburbs were the place to be.  Not to mention, as unattractive as that neighborhood is, the one by the Mckinley Monument is way way worse.  UrbanSurfin was also right about the city boundaries, they drive way entrance to the HOF is actually Plain Township.  As was mentioned, Belden Village really does get the bulk of benefit look how many hotels are there compared to 1 in downtown. What would be the best way to tie the HOF to downtown, a second separate wing, a tram, stores?  It is also true that Canton is not charming, Canton is sort of Akron's ugly sister, as much as I'd like to convince myself otherwise.

There is a very large abandoned factory that is be redeveloped downtown, maybe they can use some of the square footage for a HOF tie in.

 

Here is a link to the Hercules development downtown if anyone is interested.

 

http://cormonydevelopment.com/projects-hercules.html