What About the Hall? - Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum - Brief Article

Bowling Digest, Oct, 2001 by John J. Archibald

NEWS HAS BROKEN that the Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum is not included in plans for the Ballpark Village--a complex of stores and apartments--that would be part of a new baseball stadium in downtown St. Louis. The museum stands across the street from Busch Stadium, current home of the St. Louis Cardinals, which would be razed if the Missouri legislature approves funding for a new baseball stadium.

The Cardinals say Busch, built in 1966, does not have enough luxury boxes to enable the team to stay competitive and have threatened to move to the suburbs or across the Mississippi River to Illinois. An agreement between the club and local authorities to build a new ballpark was reached in June, but state approval is not yet secure.

"The triangle of land on which the museum stands was part of the deal that caused St. Louis to be chosen [as the Hall of fame site] in 1980," says Hall of Fame executive director Gerald Baltz. "The land is owned by the museum and is part of an $8 million investment." The three-story Hall opened in 1984.

"Friendly discussions have taken place in recent months between the Cardinals' Bill DeWitt III and myself," Baltz says. "The ballclub doesn't want to be seen as a gorilla stomping on a popular attraction, so I think we will find some compromise. If not, and we insist on staying, we could be looking at rubble until at least 2009." Construction of the Ballpark Village wouldn't begin for another eight years at a minimum.