A little more than two years since its opening, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches is evolving as a target tourism destination—but is largely going unnoticed by many, The Shreveport Times reports.
Doug Ireland, the executive director of the Hall of Fame Foundation who has been a key player in making the $23 million museum a reality, acknowledges the Hall’s positive reception since it opened, but he sees the opportunity for more visitors to enjoy it.
“We’ve got more than we ever dreamed we might have,” he says, “yet we still have a lot of ground to cover. Two-thirds of our exhibition plan is installed. As for the rest, that’s a budget issue. What we have is wonderful; what we could have is magnificent.”
The museum is, for the most part, a showcase of Louisiana’s rich sports history, spanning more than 150 years. It is one of nine state museums and the only one north of I-10. If it seems the hype the newest museum received leading to its opening has fallen short, consider what’s missing.
“Mitch Landrieu talked 10 years ago (when he was the lieutenant governor) about how (at the then future museum) you would be able to run on the football field with Billy Cannon or dribble down court with Pete Maravich,” Ireland says of a projected virtual reality experience room that hasn’t materialized.
“The technology is out there to do those things,” says Ireland, noting the Hall of Fame Foundation has been “tapping on doors” seeking roughly $3 million in private donations largely for technology-based exhibits as a way to “maximize our opportunities to tell the story of Louisiana sports.”
This fundraising goal is roughly the amount that has gone unfunded from the $6.7-million plan the state initially agreed to—before Hurricane Katrina—to pay for exhibits at the museum.
Ireland says more potential visitors, especially from out of town and out of state, need to be made aware of the museum.
