My campground in Mogadore OH was only about 30 minutes from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton OH, a place I have had some interest in visiting for years. Not as much interest as the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY, but interest. So I went yesterday.
And was underwhelmed.
First disappointment: the parking lot is very small. As is the building itself. It is dwarfed by the Hall of Fame stadium behind it – the site of the annual NFL Hall of Fame game. The parking lot was full so I had to seek out the overflow “Lot A” – about a quarter of a mile from the Hall of Fame. There were no directions on how to get to the facility from Lot A so I wandered through a lot of construction and, eventually, the stadium itself before a helpful stadium employee gave me directions. Not exactly a visitor-friendly location.
When I finally reached the Hall of Fame the doors were locked. It turns out the the “obvious” entrance from the Lot A side is actually a secondary entrance. I had to walk a bit further to find my way into the building.
It was a Saturday and the building was full of football fanatics wearing team jerseys, plus a large group of (probably) college football players. The building is designed as a one-way walking tour. It is interesting, but only marginally so. I was planning on spending 4 hours visiting and left after 2.
The two attractions that I found the most interesting were the room containing the busts of all 300+ inductees into the Hall of Fame and the holographic theater with a very lifelike Joe Namath MCing an upbeat talk about the value of football in building character and the tribulations overcome by some notable inductees.
The rest of the place… mediocre.
