Trophy News from Bloomberg, New York, NY
May 5 (Bloomberg) — Dressed in business garb on a steamy summer afternoon in the Hamptons, Philip Schwalb and Sameer Ahuja pitched their concept of a sports museum for the financial district in New York City to swimsuit-clad investors at the Surf Club of Quogue.
“We had absolutely no idea that we would be out at the beach and certainly were not dressed at all appropriately for it,” said Ahuja of that day in 2003 on New York’s Long Island. “It was a surreal experience.”
The $7 million in seed capital the pair raised from their beachfront pitch grew to $100 million in three years and gave birth to the 45,000-square-foot Sports Museum of America opening May 7 in John D. Rockefeller’s former Standard Oil Building, steps from the Charging Bull statue in Bowling Green Park near Wall Street.
In addition to individual investors’ cash, the museum is backed by $52 million in Liberty Bonds, the tax-exempt financing program created to foster economic development after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack that destroyed the World Trade Center.
The museum, which will charge $27 for admission, is designed as a tourist attraction in a neighborhood still on the mend.
“People come down here and can see something tangible that we’ve created for lower Manhattan,” said Ahuja, 33, the for- profit museum’s chief financial officer. He predicted the site will attract 1 million visitors annually. “We stand as one of the significant tourism improvements and that’s really important.”
Brandi’s Bra
The Sports Museum’s 19 galleries display the American flag that was draped around Olympic hockey goaltender Jim Craig after the U.S. won the gold medal in 1980 and the sports bra that California soccer player Brandi Chastain bared after her penalty kick led the U.S. to victory over China in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final.
College football’s Heisman Trophy and its annual award ceremony will now be based at the museum. It is also the home of the Billie Jean King International Women’s Sports Center, the only Hall of Fame dedicated to females.
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