Wisdom & perspective: Maturation of the National Railroad Hall of
Fame concept
by Mike Kroll
Not unlike
many life challenges embarrassing stumbles, false starts and minor failures
have plagued the organizers of the National Railroad Hall of Fame. What began
as a simple if reasonably ambitious concept in the mind of Bob Bondi to honor
significant leaders in the development of the railroad in this country
unfortunately took on the persona of a spectacular tourism triumph that would
save the Galesburg economy if only the committee could raise $60 million plus
and build an 85,000 square foot palace on the shoulder of I-74.
Too many
people unquestioningly accepted this improbable Utopian vision and as reality
settled on the committee organizing the Hall of Fame they recognized that
success would require a ratcheting down of expectations but without totally
disappointing their unflinching supporters in the Galesburg community. On
Friday, February 29th the executive director of the NRRHoF, Julie King,
unveiled a Òrefined project and fund raising planÓ for the project that scaled
back both the cost and building size by about half while still promising to
attract160,000+ visitors annually to Galesburg. Just as importantly King
acknowledged that the east side Interstate location would be dropped in favor
of a downtown Galesburg location in proximity to the BNSF tracks.
At a press
conference in a conference room of Galesburg's City Hall King explained, ÒThe
Hall of Fame concept has been refined during the last six months by analyzing
pros and cons of a variety of experiences to ensure a deliverable visitor
experience that is sustainable, able to expand over the years, and has mass
appeal.Ó In a single sentence she defused most of the explosive myths that had
been driving the unrealistic vision of just what this Hall of Fame would be and
would do for Galesburg. A recognition that raising $60 million was impossible
and that the huge project described earlier was impractical and financially
unsustainable.
Make no
mistake, the revised plan remains very ambitious. Robert Alpaugh of Campbell
& Company out of Chicago emphasized this point during a telephone
interview. ÒIt is the National Railroad Hall of Fame,Ó he said
emphatically. ÒI has a grand vision that will fit well into Galesburg's community
development plans for downtown. The vision is much broader than just serving
the people of Galesburg, this will be a nationally recognized attraction and
major tourism draw.Ó
Alpaugh and
his colleague Joanne Ray will serve in dual roles as both Òfund raising
counselÓ and organizational consultant Òassessing the project's philanthropic
potential and the feasibility of raising at least $30 million to built the
facilityÓ plus Òreview and analyze the necessary support system that will be
required of the operational facility,Ó explained King. ÒWe need to not only
plan to get this project started but also to insure that it can be successfully
continued.Ó
Feasibility
of the NRRHoF is not just an issue of raising the upfront cash but also of
being realistic in potential visitor counts and the annual operation,
maintenance and content development costs over the life of the project. King
emphasized that her board has done their due diligence in devising the
scaled-down project. They have hired BRC Imagination Arts to develop and refine
the museum's high-tech and interactive experience; one that reflects the
success of another big BRC project, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in
Springfield. Additionally Economics Research Associates was hired to conduct a
market analysis and projections of the return on investment in both dollars and
visitors.
King takes
special pride in pointing out that these projections show that done properly a
project of half the original size and scope will still deliver 80-85 percent of
the visitors of the originally estimated 200,000. She says it is also expected
that over 400 construction related jobs will be created while the facility is
built with a total estimated payroll of about $16 million. Once operational
King says the Hall of Fame should drive an additional $5.5 million in new
expenditures within the Galesburg area economy annually. King also believes
that it will take a staff of 60-70 people to operate the Hall of Fame but she
is not clear on the mix of paid versus volunteer staff. ÒIt is likely that we
will depend on a significant contribution from volunteers just as most
comparable museums do but at this point it is just too early to put a number on
that.Ó
Something
else that becomes clear after talking with King and Alpaugh is that they are
moving much slower in determining specifics of the project this go around.
While some beautiful artwork was unveiled at the press conference it was
emphasized that these are just conceptual ideas at this point. Even the scale
and scope of the project remains in flux as the NRRHoF committee and their
consultants further research the financial realities. It is possible, perhaps
even likely, that the size of the project will be reduced further in an attempt
to insure success. One of the advantages of the high-tech BRC approach as
opposed to the more traditional display of memorabilia is that much more can be
done in a smaller space. A smaller space translates into lower operational
costs, staffing and maintenance.
Very few if
any museums are financially self-supporting and King acknowledged that her
board does not expect to recover all operational and sustaining costs through
operational revenues alone. What this means is that fund raising is more than
just a matter of collecting sufficient funds to build the museum, they must
also raise additional monies to supplement operational costs and support
ongoing development and maintenance. ÒIt does us no good to build a project
that is not sustainable,Ó noted King. ÒJust how much additional money this involves
and how we go about raising it are key issues yet to be fully determined.Ó
ÒI think
Julie was really clear that we are in an exploratory phase,Ó said Alpaugh. His
firm had just been hired the week before the announcement and he had only met
the NRRHoF board and King for the first time in person earlier that day. He
explained that his firm is national in scope and that the Chicago office is one
of many, all of which focus on fund raising and consulting for non-profits. ÒIf
you want a project like this to succeed you must be practical and pragmatic
without losing sight of the dream that drives the project. Often times that
dream needs to be altered subtly or massaged to make the project work. Our
company specializes in doing the back office work in bringing projects like
this to fruition. BRC has been so brilliant in conceptualizing this project and
that will be the story we tell.Ó
Alpaugh
illustrated his pragmatic approach by noting that in all likelihood the Hall of
Fame will draw principally from a regional basis of 300-500 miles surrounding
Galesburg. He sees it as a family destination that will need to appeal to a
broad array of different interests to be successful. From a fund raising
standpoint Alpaugh anticipates 10-15 large donors of $500K or more with the
remaining half to two-thirds of the money coming from a wide array of much
smaller donors most of which will be outside of the immediate Galesburg area.
It must be
acknowledged that while local excitement over the NRRHoF has been pretty widespread
the project also has a small cadre of critics. Outside of the impractical size
and scope of the original project most of the earlier objections to the Hall of
Fame concerned the level of taxpayer support. By moving it downtown to be
located within the proposed new TIF district organizers of the NRRHoF expect to
be eligible for some of the TIF money, potentially as much as $2 million. There
is also the issue of the level of ongoing taxpayer support that may be expected
to sustain the entity if, as King expects, operational revenues fall short. And
finally there is the issue of just how realistic the projected community
financial impact this project will have. How realistic will their projections
of local economic impact be and will the true impact exceed the anticipated
on-going tax payer support?
King is
forever the pragmatic optimist. She is making every attempt to be more open
with the public on the status of the Hall of Fame and seeking public input. She
also is seeking to maintain community excitement over the project while
tempering unrealistic expectations and fostering political good will. King is
juggling an improbable number of sharp knives with limited hospitalization
coverage. In short, she is a breath of fresh air for a project that until recently
appeared to be floating on hype alone.
ÒWe think
that this is going to be a magnificent facility but at this point we still have
a lot of steps ahead of us. While we are guided by a vision and a dream we seek
to have our decision-making driven by a practical, common-sense and realistic
view of what we are doing. In all honesty I cannot offer any guarantees but I
can assure you that my board and I will be guilty of trying.Ó
3/13/08