It has been just over a month since the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled our exciting new plans for the Hall and since Town Council voted to have our detailed proposal reviewed by third parties.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR STRATEGIC MASTER PLAN.
Since then, we have received tremendous positive feedback about our project and the benefits it will provide to the Town. We are very encouraged.
We are also aware that there have been certain specific concerns raised about our plans. For example, some have asked why they should have confidence in our plans when certain past plans did not pan out. Others have questioned our financial or visitor projections. Finally, some have doubted our ability to raise funds from other levels of Government.
We believe that each of these concerns is answered by the quality of our plan, which is based on rigorous analysis and which is third-party verified. It appears that certain critics of our proposal have not actually reviewed our plan, which can be downloaded from the Hall’s website.
As a board, we knew that unsuccessful past efforts would create a level of cynicism about any new plans. The only way to combat this cynicism was to develop a robust, exciting, quality plan. We believe we have done this. We also had no interest in over-promising and under-delivering. For this reason, in our proposal to Town Council, we used the lowest third-party projections (not the mid-point or the high) for visitor/financial numbers. These numbers are based on rigorous analysis and study and are reliable. Finally, with respect to funding from other levels of Government, we are encouraged by our discussions with the Province and the Federal Government. Our plan was prepared with the expectation that it would be scrutinized by all levels of Government and we invite and encourage such scrutiny. We expect we will receive funding. Of course, the Town’s capital commitment will be contingent on funding from other levels of Government. We certainly wouldn’t be asking Town Council for a conditional grant if we didn’t believe the condition would be satisfied.
We believe that our plans will provide significant tangible benefits to the Town in terms of increased tourism and national attention. We believe these benefits will infuse the Town with new vitality, which will benefit all residents. We are excited about taking the next step in making our plans a reality, however, we require a commitment from the Town of St. Marys before we can move onto stage two of our fundraising effort.
Our plans are posted on the Hall’s website CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR STRATEGIC MASTER PLAN. We encourage you to review our plans and to contact us with any comments or questions.
