CLEVELAND, Ohio – Chris Connor is putting his money where his mouth is, and all of Northeast Ohio is going to benefit.
Connor, who is chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s board of trustees, and his wife Sara have donated $9 million to the museum that quite frankly may be the biggest everyday draw Cleveland has.
Yes, the Cavaliers have an NBA world title, and that has put us on the basketball map. But try getting tickets to any of the 41 regular-season games, and don’t even think about post-season tix unless your bank account has more zeroes than Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
Yes, the Indians made it to Game 7 of the World Series last year, and are primed to make a repeat run this year. But like the Cavs, the season is finite, and lasts only from April (maybe, given our weather) to November.
Now all we need is a pro football team in town. But this isn’t about sports; it’s about the Rock Hall and what it means to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame board chairman and wife donate $9 million to museum.
People come to the Rock Hall all year round. And they spend big bucks. The museum’s press office says that in the 20 years it’s been around – 21, come September – museum visitors have poured $2 billion into Cleveland’s economy. That number may seem astronomical, but it is demonstrably true.
If we want to keep those visitors and their dollars rolling in – and keep in mind, that’s money that doesn’t JUST go to the Rock Hall, it goes to the workers who operate restaurants, hotels and the like, and their income taxes add to the sales and hotel tax kitties – we have to maintain the allure of the Rock Hall.
I’m a huge fan of HGTV’s “Property Brothers” and my fellow Texans Chip and Joanna Gaines’ “Fixer Upper.” Spend $10,000 updating a kitchen, and you add $15,000 to the value of the home, provided you have the right location, which we do for right now. Pretty simple, right?
Then there’s the thing that NASA learned in the 1960s (and the Democratic and Republican leaderships since then have subsequently forgotten, as the space agency’s budget continues to shrink): Research & Development ALWAYS pays off in the long run.
Give the Rock Hall credit for doing the research that shows what will pull visitors – local and otherwise – into the museum, and now taking the steps for developing that research into reality.
The specifics of what’s being covered in the $13.3 million “Museum 2.0” upgrade show that the gift from the just-retired executive chairman of Sherwin-Williams Co. and his wife is being well spent.
According to Plain Dealer art and architecture critic Steven Litt, here’s what’s coming in the reboot:
* The Connor Theater, named for the Connors, on the third floor of the museum.
* The new All Access Cafe in the west corner of the museum’s lobby, featuring menu items designed by Cleveland chefs Michael Symon, Jonathon Sawyer, Rocco Whalen and Fabio Salerno.
* Revisions to the Rock Hall’s seasonal outdoor stage, with a new outdoor beer garden, and enhanced sound and lighting.
* New parking for motorcycles and tour buses along Erieside Avenue that will include an electrical hook-up that can be used by a visiting band’s tour bus.
* A new on-site catering kitchen, a first for the museum.
* A new mobile ticketing system on the museum’s lower level with mobile kiosks to expedite the visitor entrance experience.
Litt’s story has a lot of information on what exactly is involved in the reboot, and in the coming months, I know he will have many, many more details.
But the short version is that all of these things are going to make the museum-going experience better. And that translates into more visitors, which in turn translates into more money for Cleveland and Clevelanders. It’s a potential win-win of epic proportions.
Now, about that pro football team . . .
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
