By Ian Jett and Tamara Benbow
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
The Sports Legends Museum in Baltimore is looking for a new location and hopes to reopen to the public sometime next year, the museum’s owner said in an interview.
“We will be making an announcement in the next couple weeks,” said Michael Gibbons, the museum’s owner and executive director. “We are turning a page to a new chapter.”
Gibbons said the organization was forced to find a different building after it could not reach a rental agreement with the landlord of its current facility on 301 W. Camden St.
The museum moved from the Babe Ruth Museum to its current location in 2005 after sharing space at the Babe Ruth Museum from its inception in 1983.
Gibbons said the museum is looking somewhere in the city of Baltimore for a new location and hopes to reopen in late 2016. The museum had been paying $10,000 a month in rent, Gibbons said. He said the museum was trying to get a similar rent from its landlord, the Maryland Stadium Authority, but that the board insisted on a higher price.
Gibbons said he and the Sports Legends Museum owes $444,000 total to the the stadium authority, which acts as the landlord for the building that held the museum.
“In 2007 the rent was $30,000 and we reduced it to $10,000,” said Mike Frenz, the executive director of the stadium authority. He added that the “$445,000 in past due rent was also waived with the reduction.”
Frenz said they signed a new lease in 2012 and tried to work with the Sports Legends Museum to keep them in their previous location.
“I’m good friends with Micheal Gibbons and we loved having them there,” Frenz said. “But their sales just didn’t cover operating costs.”
According to Frenz, the Sports Legends Museum was severely delinquent in paying the rent, which ultimately led to the closing of the museum.
Gibbons said he would have never thought of the Orioles losing for 14 straight seasons, until 2012, would have been so important to the museum.
“That drastically impacted attendance at the museum,” he said. “When we originally were approved to house the museum in Camden station we predicted that the Orioles’ great attendance number at the time would help us.”
However, the Orioles attendance record had been increasing in the past few years but not fast enough to help the museum pay its bills, Gibbons said.
“It wasn’t a level playing field for us,” Gibbons said. “Last year, we had to pay $10,000 in rent plus $7,000 in utilities and parking.”
“It was a unique situation,” said Leslie Cox, the communications specialist of the Maryland Office of Tourism. “It would be different if the museum was closing because of poor attendance but they were getting business.”
Gibbons said the Sports Legends Museum was perhaps the only nonprofit tourism attraction that pays more than $1 of rent a year. He said that most nonprofit tourist attractions, including the Babe Ruth Museum, which Gibbons also owns, pay $1 per year. The museum had spent millions of dollars to renovate the building and make sure the collections would be in the best possible condition, Gibbons said.
The Sports Legends Museum had to pay so much more money than other museums because the building was historical, Gibbons said.
“The building was a perfect fit,” he said. “It is with great sadness that we couldn’t work out a deal because we spent a lot of time developing the building.”
As far as the impact the closing will have on tourism, Cox says it will not be that bad.
“It’ll impact it to some degree,” Cox said. “We hope it redirects traffic from one museum to another.”
Cox said the city’s Office of Tourism’s hope is that the traffic from the Sports Legends Museum will go directly to the Babe Ruth Museum and hopes that this will bring people to support the Babe Ruth Birthplace.
“It will be a good opportunity for people who have never gone to the Babe Ruth Birthplace,” Cox said. “Now they have a chance to go and experience it.”
Gibbons said the Babe Ruth Birthplace will use what little space it has to display some collections from the Sports Legends Museum. The Babe Ruth Birthplace House was recently renovated to accommodate more guests.
“We will be putting treasures on display in season,” Gibbons said. “When it is basketball season we will put some of the items from the Maryland basketball collection on display.”
Gibbons said the possibility of the community getting involved to help the museum is up to them.
“I hope the community understands the injustice,” he said.
“It is very disappointing,” said Kelly Quinlan, the community relations coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. “Being as though it is surrounded in the area of the stadium it may put a hurt on the museum if it is relocated.”
The temporary closing of the museum not only affects the employees of the museum and sports fans but drew an unhappy reaction from the Baltimore community.
“The coolest thing about Baltimore is their two home team sports,” said Rese Cassard, 22, an Orioles Park intern. “The Orioles are an historic team. When you see things like a museum that’s associated with the Orioles go away it’s really a shame.” “I didn’t even know it was closing,” said Hilary Duncan, a server and bar tender of three years at Dempsey’s Restaurant. “The great thing about it being right here by the stadium is that people can go there before or after the game and experience a cool blast from the past.”
Duncan said her favorite part of the museum was how it was so interactive and easy to navigate. “It actually takes you through the timeline of the Orioles, which is awesome,” she said.
Gibbons hopes to find a new permanent location for the museum in the immediate future.